Legacy Part I:
The Austrian Influence on American Skiing

Created for Producer Ian Scully, the production details the rise of Alpine Skiing in Austria, featuring the life of Hannes Schneider, the father of modern Skiing, and his home town of St. Anton.

As in any rural community there was a round of annual festivities as well as the conviviality of the country inns in St. Anton. From the beginning the Austrian mountain culture blended with skiing. It was this sort of small town peasant mountain conviviality, "gemutlicheit," that was carried on into the St. Anton ski school, where the instructors were to make the pupils feel at home on or off the slope. It became world famous teaching thousands the Arlberg Technique and certifying Austrian instructors to teach it. When Austrian Ski Instructors came to America in the mid thirties, they brought with them their mountain culture which helped them to become popular and popularize their sport in America. There was fun but nobody flouted their disciplined approach to learning how to ski. It was the duality of open welcome and the sense of hierarchy that was carried thence into the American theater of skiing by Austrian disciples of the sport that stewarded the rise of ski towns, tows, resorts and millions of skiers.

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Legacy: The Austrian Role in American Skiing