The Day America Arrived In Alpine Skiing

BOULDER — On Feb. 7, 1964, the skiing world called it the “biggest upset in Olympic skiing history.”

More than 60 years later, it remains one of the most significant moments in both Colorado and American skiing history.

The Colorado Sports Hall of Fame recently ranked the achievement No. 38 on its countdown of the Top 150 Moments in Colorado Sports History. During a Hall of Fame podcast discussing the milestone, former Olympic skier, Colorado ski coach and athletic director Bill Marolt reflected on the day Billy Kidd and Jimmie Heuga became the first Americans to win Olympic medals in alpine skiing.

At the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, Kidd won the silver medal and Heuga captured bronze in the men’s slalom, marking the first Olympic alpine medals ever won by American skiers.

To many around the world, the result came as a surprise.

To those inside the program, it was the realization of a vision years in the making.

In 1960, Bob Beattie had been named the founding head coach of the U.S. Ski Team while continuing to lead the Colorado Buffaloes Ski Team. Rather than assembling athletes only for major competitions, Beattie brought America’s top young skiers together in Boulder to train, live and compete as a team.

“You know what was amazing is that group really started in the fall of 1961 when Bob became the head coach of the U.S. team and he invited everybody to come to Boulder to train,” Marolt said on the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame podcast. “So it was really the beginning of the U.S. team as we think of teams, where you live together, you work together, you train together.”

The group included Heuga, Buddy Werner, Bill Marolt and Ni Orsi from Colorado along with Kidd, who trained with the team and later enrolled at CU, though he did not compete collegiately.

“It was a close-knit group,” Marolt said. “What Beattie always said is, ‘We win together, we lose together as a team.'”

By the time the team arrived in Innsbruck, Beattie had already set an ambitious goal.

“One of his goals was, ‘We will win medals in Innsbruck,'” Marolt recalled.

The opportunity nearly slipped away.

The men’s slalom was the final alpine event of the Games and America’s last chance to reach the podium. But the Americans believed they had one of the strongest slalom teams in the field.

After the first run, Austria’s Josef Stiegler led the standings. Heuga sat third, Kidd fifth and Werner ninth.

The conditions were unforgiving.

“The hill there was steep, very icy because they didn’t have much snow that year and they watered it,” Marolt said. “It was literally a vertical ice skating rink.”

By the time Heuga made his second run with bib No. 24, dozens of skiers had already carved ruts into the course.

Marolt still remembers what happened next.

“Jimmy just powered his way down that thing,” he said.

When the race was complete, Stiegler held on for gold while Kidd earned silver and Heuga bronze. Two Americans stood on the Olympic podium together for the first time in alpine skiing history.

The achievement represented far more than a single race result.

Beattie’s Boulder-based national team had produced the first Olympic alpine medals in U.S. history. The breakthrough helped establish the United States as an emerging force in international ski racing and validated the foundation Beattie had spent years building.

That 1964 Olympic team featured deep Colorado ties. Along with Kidd and Heuga, Werner finished eighth in the slalom and Marolt placed 12th in giant slalom. All four became influential figures in the growth of American skiing, while Beattie would go on to help found the World Cup circuit and remain one of the sport’s most important innovators.

Looking back more than six decades later, Marolt believes the significance of the accomplishment has only grown.

“When we had the success in Innsbruck, it was huge,” he said. “Everybody enjoyed it, appreciated it, and as the years have gone by, it has become even more of a positive experience in our memories.”

For Colorado skiing, the medals were a defining moment.

For American skiing, they were the beginning of something much bigger.