Mahre, Phil

Phil Mahre is an American former alpine ski racer, ski coach, author, and auto racer. He and his twin brother Steve competed on the World Cup circuit from 1976 to 1984. Phil was born in Yakima, WA alongside his fraternal twin brother, Steve (who is four minutes younger). Phil, Steve, and their seven siblings (four older, three younger) grew up at a ski area; in 1964, their father Dave "Spike" Mahre became the mountain manager for the White Pass ski area, 50 miles (80 km) west of Yakima on US-12, where they moved into a home near the base of the lifts. By the age of 12, the Mahre twins' future was so promising that ski manufacturers were sending them free skis; the next year, Rossignol tried to sign them to a career-long contract, which their father declined. Eventually, they would use skis made by an American company K2 throughout their career. The Mahre twins worked extensively with the company throughout their careers, developing custom race skis ideally suited to their needs. Phil graduated from Naches High School and also played football as a blocking back and linebacker for the Rangers. He earned a spot on the US Ski Team in early 1973 at age 15. He was selected to the "A" team following the 1975 season and made his World Cup debut in December 1975 at Val d'Isère, France. Two months later, he competed at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, taking fifth in the giant slalom at age 18. He made his first podium in March with a second in a giant slalom at Copper Mountain, CO and finished the 1976 World Cup season in 14th place in the overall standings. He won his first World Cup race the following season, a giant slalom at Val d'Isère in December 1976, and followed it up with a slalom win in March at Sun Valley, defeating the man who became his primary rival, the legendary Swede Ingemar Stenmark, with his twin brother Steve taking third. Mahre finished ninth in the overall standings for 1977. In 1978, he placed second in the overall standings, followed by third in 1979, despite breaking his lower left tibia in early March at the pre-Olympic giant slalom at Whiteface near Lake Placid. At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, he took the silver in the slalom behind Stenmark, along with a combined title (not an Olympic event in 1980, but official as a concurrent World Championship title). He again finished third in the overall World Cup standings for 1980, and won the first of four consecutive discipline titles in the combined. Phil narrowly edged out Ingemar Stenmark, who had previously won three consecutive overall titles from 1976 to 1978, by 6 points to win his first World Cup in 1981. Mahre won primarily due to his results in the downhill and combined events, as Stenmark was uncomfortable in the downhill event. In 1982, Phil took the event titles in the giant slalom, slalom, and combined races as well as the overall title. He had eight wins and 20 podium finishes, and his 309 points were well ahead of Stenmark's 211. In 1983, Mahre again beat Stenmark by a large margin for the overall title along with a second straight GS title. At the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo,Phil again medaled in the slalom, taking the gold while Steve won the silver for a Mahre twin 1–2 sweep. Meanwhile, unknown to the racers, Phil's wife, Holly, had given birth to their second child, a son, in Arizona an hour before the race started. Phil did not find out about it until a TV interview after the race. The Mahres won two of the five alpine skiing medals taken by Americans, all from the Northwest. The Mahre twins raced a limited World Cup schedule during the 1984 season, and retired from the circuit in early March at age 26. Phil ended his career with 27 World Cup race victories, at the time second only to Stenmark's 79 wins among men's racers (who ended his career in 1989 with 86 wins), while Steve finished with 9 wins. In 1985, Phil and his brother released their book, No Hill Too Fast, which chronicles their childhood and World Cup careers and includes a series of instructional sections titled "How to Ski the Mahre Way". That same year, the twins established the Mahre Training Center in Keystone, CO, and continue to run it to this day in Deer Valley, Utah. In 1988, Phil jumped to the World Pro Ski Tour, winning the slalom title in 1989. Both he and his brother Steve raced on the World Pro Ski Tour under the Coors Light banner. The twins attended the Bob Bondurant School of Driving in the fall of 1988 and began competing in auto racing. They subsequently participated in the Grand American Road Racing Association Koni Challenge series in the Grand Sport class. In 2006, at the age of 49, Phil Mahre came out of retirement and made another run at qualifying for the US Nationals in skiing by the age of 50. After nearly qualifying for the US National Championships in 2008, Phil Mahre's 2008/2009 season was cut short by a knee injury. On February 9, 2010, Phil was the US torch bearer to carry the 2010 Vancouver torch across the border at the Blaine-Surrey Peace Arch.

A longtime racer on K2 skis during his World Cup career, Mahre attempted to make his comeback using Volant, then Head skis.

Yakima, WA
Keystone, CO
Deer Valley, UT

Alpine ski racer
Ski coach
Author
Auto racer

RAD, July 2008 version. Canadian Council of Archives.

Catalogued March 2019.
Revised June 2023.

1) Archival material
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Mahre
3) https://usopm.org/phil-mahre/
4) https://www.britannica.com/biography/Phil-Mahre
5) https://www.teamusa.org/Hall-of-Fame/Hall-of-Fame-Members/Phil-Mahre
6) https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/athlete-biography.html?sectorcode=al&competitorid=36981&type=result
7) https://www.fis-ski.com/en/alpine-skiing/alpine-news-multimedia/news-multimedia/athletes/article=phil-mahre