The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association praised the late Marc Hodler Wednesday for more than a half-century of vision and leadership in making the International Ski Federation "one of the strongest and most diverse" in the Olympic movement.
    Hodler, who was president of FIS from 1952-1998 and honorary president since then, also was an International Olympic Committee member since 1963. He died earlier Wednesday in Bern, Switzerland, following a stroke three days ago. He would have turned 88 on Oct. 26.

THE U.S. SKI AND SNOWBOARD ASSOCIATION praised the late Marc Hodler Wednesday for more than a half-century of vision and leadership in making the International Ski Federation "one of the strongest and most diverse" in the Olympic movement.
    Hodler, who was president of FIS from 1952-1998 and honorary president since then, also was an International Olympic Committee member since 1963. He died earlier Wednesday in Bern, Switzerland, following a stroke three days ago. He would have turned 88 on Oct. 26.
    Bill Marolt, USSA president and CEO — and member of the FIS Council — cited Hodler for establishing the various World Cup structures in skiing and snowboarding and bringing freestyle and snowboarding into the Olympics. Although he retired from the presidency in '98, Hodler remained an active counselor on FIS issues.
    "Marc will be remembered in sport as a great leader who personally engineered the growth of the FIS to become one of the strongest and most diverse of any Olympic sports federation. He had the leadership skills to continually move our sport into the future and to grow it at every level," Marolt said.
    "When we look at our sport today, we see a sport with strong grass-roots programs worldwide plus annual elite-level global sport series with our FIS World Cups in every sport. No other Olympic sport has this level of depth and diversity, and it's a tribute to what Marc Hodler [achieved] through his passionate leadership for a half-century."
    Hank Tauber, who preceded Marolt on the FIS Council, said, "It's a great loss. I'm saddened personally and because our sport has lost a giant."
    Tauber, a former U.S. Olympic coach and alpine technical delegate at the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, added, "Marc had a huge influence on the IOC movement. He had various battles with people, and he stood up strong for his sport. He made sure winter sport — not just skiing — got its due within the Olympic community. … Marc was there a long time and his points of view were to be well-respected."
    Born in Bern, Hodler was a lawyer before being named head of the FIS in 1951. During his reign, the alpine World Cup was created in 1966 by the late Serge Lang, U.S. coach Bob Beattie and French coach Honore Bonnet; Lang later saluted Hodler — "who had the courage to shoulder the heavy responsibility" of approving FIS sanctioning the annual series.
    Since then, the World Cup has become the format for the three nordic sports — cross-country, jumping and nordic combined — plus freestyle and snowboarding. Hodler helped guide freestyle onto the Olympic schedule in 1992 and snowboarding in 1998.
    Among his many IOC duties, Hodler also was an IOC vice president (1993-97), executive board member for four terms and chairman of the IOC Finance Commission (1988-2002). He was elected to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in Ishpeming, Michigan, in 1981.
    Hodler is survived by his widow and two grown children. Funeral services were pending.

— USSA