Skiers mourn the Minnesota coach who helped make Lindsey Vonn a champion

Erich Sailer, a legend of Minnesota downhill ski racing who made little Buck Hill in Burnsville a launchpad for Olympians and thousands of others in the sport, has died.

Sailer, 99, taught more than 25,000 skiers in his career and was honored in the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. He was credited with having a hand in coaching the entire U.S. women’s Olympic slalom team in 2002. Locally, he helped make Buck Hill, with just a 310-foot vertical drop, a “slalom factory.”

Lindsey Vonn, his most celebrated student, quickly honored her old coach upon the news of his Tuesday passing.

“There is no doubt that I would not be the person or skier I am today without him. The entire ski racing community would not be the same without him,” the three-time Olympic medalist wrote on social media. “He single-handedly did more for skiing than any other coach in America and perhaps the world.”

Vonn, who won the downhill gold medal in 2010 in Vancouver, said Sailer put the “small but mighty” Buck Hill on the map as a premier racing program. Sailer coached both Vonn and her father, the latter of whom knew him for 62 years, according to Vonn.

On the slopes, Sailer was called the “Yoda of Ski Racing” and the ”Wizard of Buck," according to a 2015 Star Tribune story.

Sailer was born in the small Austrian town of Telfs and immigrated to Canada in the mid-1950s. Later he moved to Oregon, where he founded the first ski summer training camp in the United States at Mount Hood. He launched the biggest ski racing camp in the country, attracting 700 skiers in a 40-day session in Montana.

“I knew I needed flatlanders who would have to travel to the mountains to train, so I figured it would be good for business,” he said. “I wasn’t planning on staying, but then I got to know the people here and we started winning races, so I ended up settling here.”

He moved to Minnesota in 1969.

Tony Olin, race team director at Afton Alps, was just 11 years old when he felt Sailer’s enthusiastic energy after tagging along with friends to Buck Hill for a dryland training session.

“The commotion was engrossing and pulled me in,” he said.

Olin worked with Sailer through the sport for the next 24 years, first racing for Sailer and advancing to Junior Olympics. He later managed Buck Hill team operations and went on to direct his own racing teams.

“His drive pushed everybody to find their own drive and push up,” he added. “I think the Midwest scene of ski racing owes a lot to him, bringing his recipe of tenacity and possibility of doing something from a small hill.”

Sailer officially retired from teaching when he was 96 years old, but enjoyed giving advice to his granddaughters, according to his daughter Martina Sailer.

His health deteriorated in recent weeks after he suffered a brain bleed, but he still watched ski videos of granddaughters Lulu and Greta the day before he passed.

In the off season, her father would teach at summer ski camps out west and in Austria.

“For years, even when he wasn’t active in coaching, at Buck Hill there’s a ramp there with a hut at the top and he’d be inside there talking to the kids,” Martina Sailer said. “He’d take their times with a hand timer, writing down notes. He always brought a lot of energy to the hill.”

Erich Sailer knew how to push athletes do to their best, said longtime friend and former student Alan Kildow. Kildow, who is Vonn’s father, went to Sailer’s summer ski camp in Oregon when Kildow was 10 years old.

“He was like a psychologist, like most great coaches are,” Kildow said. “They’re psychologists and know how to motivate the athlete to do something better than they otherwise would’ve been able to do.”

Despite his age, Sailer would be on the hill coaching students with a walking stick in his hand, said Dave Solner, owner and CEO of Buck Hill.

“We don’t have the long runs for the extreme downhill skiing that you see at other mountain resorts, but that repetitive training is what he instilled in many athletes,” he said. “He will be missed as an icon in the industry.”

Vonn said Sailer was part of her life since she was born.

Kristina (Koznick) Landa also excelled under Sailer’s guidance at Buck Hill.

The Burnsville native went on to compete in three Winter Olympics, beginning with the 1998 Nagano Games in Japan, and also nailed World Cup victories.

In a post on Instagram, Landa said her heart was broken, “yet I have never felt more grateful. You were my coach. You were my mentor. You poured your heart and soul into me. I was so blessed to know and love you Erich.”