Phil Mahre en route to the Olympic victory in the second run in Sarajevo.
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The two overall World Cup winners of the 1980/81 season: Marie-Theres Nadig and Phil Mahre.
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The mix-ups after their great triumph in the Olympic Slalom in Sarajevo in 1984: Silver medalist Steve (left) and Olympic champion Phil Mahre.
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The complete podium of the Olympic Slalom in Sarajevo: Steve Mahre, Phil Mahre and the Frenchman Didier Bouvet.
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In the Olympic Slalom in 1980 in Lake Placid, Phil Mahre narrowly failed due to Ingemar Stenmark. The driver with the number 5, a Freiburg driver, won bronze: Jacques Lüthy
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If Steve won, Phil won too
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Phil Mahre en route to the Olympic victory in the second run in Sarajevo.
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The two overall World Cup winners of the 1980/81 season: Marie-Theres Nadig and Phil Mahre.
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The mix-ups after their great triumph in the Olympic Slalom in Sarajevo in 1984: Silver medalist Steve (left) and Olympic champion Phil Mahre.
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The complete podium of the Olympic Slalom in Sarajevo: Steve Mahre, Phil Mahre and the Frenchman Didier Bouvet.
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In the Olympic Slalom in 1980 in Lake Placid, Phil Mahre narrowly failed due to Ingemar Stenmark. The driver with the number 5, a Freiburg driver, won bronze: Jacques Lüthy
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They are born 63 years ago today, on May 10, 1967, and will be the most successful pair of twins in ski racing: the unforgettable Phil and Steve Mahre from the US state of Washington.
Phil and Steve Mahre were distinctive in their success and distinctive in appearance. Although they are not identical twins, they are like one egg to another. In the photos from the early eighties they are difficult to tell apart even if you see them side by side. Steve Mahre’s hair is a bit thinner and his face a bit edgier.
The similarity cost the Mahres a World Cup victory. The US slalom coach Tom Kelly was not always sure of his case and often gave the throws with the start numbers to only one of the two. So it was before the slalom in Parpan on January 16, 1984. Steve Mahre, in turn, mixed up the numbers and kept the wrong one to himself. The jury noticed the mistake after the first run. The twins were allowed to run the second run before the jury disqualified them with a heavy heart. Steve Mahre would have won. The victory came from Marc Girardelli, who did not like it. He later said that he would have preferred to finish second.
Picture: Keystone
Even without the missed victory, the twins’ palmarès is fabulous. Steve won nine World Cup races, six of them in slalom. In 1982 he became world champion in the combination. There was also Olympic silver in the 1984 slalom. Phil was one of the dominant figures of that time. From 1981, 27 race victories led him to three successive triumphs in the overall World Cup. After the Olympic slaloms in 1980 he was silver (only Ingemar Stenmark was faster) and gold in 1984, was world champion in 1980 in combination and had seven small crystal balls handed over to him.
After the mishap the great triumph
A month and three days after the mishap from Lenzerheide, Phil and Steve Mahre experienced their greatest triumph: gold and silver in the Olympic Slalom in Sarajevo. The fact that the first two were so similar in an Olympic winter sports discipline was only seen in Turin in 2006. But Philipp and Simon Schoch were snowboarders and not twins.
In the competition in Sarajevo, in which Pirmin Zurbriggen, Joël Gaspoz and giant slalom Olympic champion Max Julen retired early, Steve Mahre was ahead of the first run. Phil was only third, seven tenths behind. However, he managed the second run excellently, while the Swede Jonas Nilsson carved and fell from 2nd to 4th place. Steve made mistakes in the lower part and finally lost 21 hundredths on his brother. Phil had become a father for the second time an hour before the race started. The good news from home was only brought to him when he was determined as Olympic champion.
