Daughter of ‘skiing savant’ speaks to coach’s legacy as Lindsey Vonn makes comeback
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The Alpine Skiing World Championships are underway in Austria this week, and three Minnesota natives are on the top-tier U.S. team: Prior Lake-born Paula Moltzan, Wayzata’s Isaiah Nelson and Burnsville-raised Lindsey Vonn. The 40-year-old is making a comeback after five years in retirement.
All three learned to ski at Buck Hill in Burnsville and were coached by Austrian-born Erich Sailer. His daughter, Martina Sailer, followed in his footsteps and has been a ski coach for about 20 years, mostly at Buck Hill (she recently moved to Afton Alps and coaches Team Afton).
At the age of 99, Erich Sailer is still out at the slopes, cheering on his progeny and granddaughters, Lulu and Greta, who are now training under one of Vonn’s former coaches. Martina Sailer said her dad always has a crowd of kids looking for feedback at the bottom of the hill.
“He’s really good at encouraging people,” Martina Sailer said.
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Her dad kept skiing until suffering an injury recently.
“He would still be skiing if he could. He really thought he’d make it to 100 skiing,” she said. “Maybe he’ll still get it back.”
Vonn, in her return to the world stage, has gotten criticism about her age.
“She is extremely resilient, very tough. And I’ve heard people talk about the concern over injuries,” Martina Sailer said. “She knows the risks more than anybody else.”
Martina Sailer’s daughters were so excited when they found out about Vonn’s comeback that they went outside and screamed at the top of their lungs, she said.
“If you see it, you can be it,” she said. “And so they’ve met Lindsey a number of times, and I think that’s a really cool connection to have and to be able to see that they can achieve things from the small hill.”
Buck Hill, while small, has churned out more than a dozen elite skiers — 14 of which were coached by Erich Sailer. While a tow rope makes repetitive training runs possible, Martina Sailer said it’s more about the person than the place.
“He also is the magic that kind of set that foundation of getting a lot of runs in,” she said. “He treated it as though they were on the U.S. Ski Team from when they were little and provided world-class training to the extent you could at a small hill.”
The Alpine World Ski Championships run through Feb. 16, and the whole Sailer family will be cheering on the competitors from Minnesota.
Listen to Martina Sailer’s full conversation with Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer by clicking the player button.
MPR News Editor Andrew Krueger contributed to this story.