Hans Standteiner - Squaw Valley coach

Hans Standteiner, 89, longtime coach at Squaw Valley, died March 29 after a long battle with cancer. 

Born near Bad Gastein, Austria and apprenticed as a blacksmith, but his passion was ski racing. After teaching skiing in Iran and Turkey, he joined the ski school at Sugarbush, Vermont, where he met and married Alice Gray. Standteiner landed a job coaching the Argentine ski team, and after a season at Bariloche the couple accompanied the team to Squaw Valley for the 1960 Olympics. 

Standteiner spent seven winters coaching in the Upper Midwest, then moved to Sugar Bowl, California in 1968 and on to Squaw Valley the following year. With Stan Tomlinson, he took over management of the ski school, while helping his friend Ernst Hager coach the ski club team. Three of the five Standteiner kids, Hansi, Toni and Heidi, made it to the U.S. Ski Team, along with their neighbor Tamara McKinney -- and he coached dozens of other local kids. Meanwhile, Hans Senior set up a successful blacksmithing business, Mountain Forge.

In later years, Standteiner served as Squaw's Director of Skiing. 

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