Wallace "Buddy" Werner (February 26, 1936 - April 12, 1964) was an American ski racer in the 1950s and early 1960s. Born and raised in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Werner and his siblings were accomplished skiers, and competed in both alpine and Nordic events on Howelsen Hill. Werner raced for the University of Colorado in the mid 1950s, making the Olympic team in his sophomore year, joining his elder sister Skeeter Werner Walker.
Buddy Werner wa...
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Wallace "Buddy" Werner (February 26, 1936 - April 12, 1964) was an American ski racer in the 1950s and early 1960s. Born and raised in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Werner and his siblings were accomplished skiers, and competed in both alpine and Nordic events on Howelsen Hill. Werner raced for the University of Colorado in the mid 1950s, making the Olympic team in his sophomore year, joining his elder sister Skeeter Werner Walker.
Buddy Werner was selected for the U.S. Olympic Team three times: 1956, 1960, & 1964. His best chance to medal was in 1960 at Squaw Valley, but Werner broke his leg two months before the games while training in Aspen.
A year earlier, he was the first non-European to win the famed Hahnenkamm downhill race in Kitzbühel, Austria, in 1959, at age 22. (The only American to win since was Daron Rahlves in 2003, on a fog-shortened course.)
Werner finished in fourth in the slalom at the 1958 World Championships and took fifth in the giant slalom; he also finished...
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