2024-02-23 15:49:17
Roger Staub at the award ceremony, the Olympic flame behind him.Image: www.imago-images.de
This weekend the Ski World Cup will be in Palisades Tahoe, USA. In 1960, when the place was still called Squaw Valley, a Graubünden man with a colorful biography became an Olympic champion: Roger Staub, who died far too early.
23.02.2024, 16:4923.02.2024, 17:35
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Palisades Tahoe. Not a name with a particularly big ring. But the place in California has only been called that since 2021. And his old name is well known in the winter sports world. Finally, Squaw Valley hosted the 1960 Olympics.
Marco Odermatt is trying to win the seventh giant slalom of the winter there on Saturday (7 p.m. and 10 p.m.). The Olympic champion and world champion has even won the last nine World Cup races in this discipline across seasons. The last defeat? Last winter in Palisades Tahoe, when the Austrian Marco Schwarz was three hundredths faster.
The all-rounder from Arosa
Odermatt, who will win the overall World Cup for the third time in a row this season, still has a score to settle with the ski station, which is three and a half hours’ drive from San Francisco. Should he win, he would not be the first Swiss winner there: Roger Staub became the giant slalom Olympic champion in Squaw Valley in 1960.
Roger Staub with the cap named after him. You could roll down the edge so that only a viewing slit remained.Image: PHOTOPRESS ARCHIVE
The Graubünden man was a man with a very impressive CV. On the one hand, there was the fact that the son of a painter was multi-talented. Staub initially also played ice hockey, he became Swiss champion twice with the EHC Arosa and only decided to focus on skiing at the age of 19.
The following winter, Staub narrowly missed the podium in the downhill in fourth place at the 1956 Olympic Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo, but he struck at the 1958 World Championships in Bad Gastein: silver in the downhill, bronze in the giant slalom and in the combination.
The Sonnyboy alongside Frieda Dähner, who won a complete set of medals at the 1958 World Cup.Image: PHOTOPRESS ARCHIVE
Gold thanks to courage and willingness to take risks
Two years later, his greatest hour on skis came in distant America. On February 21, 1960, Roger Staub, who had already been given the label of “eternal runner-up,” became Olympic champion.
“He wasn’t just content with a demonstration of his extraordinary class, but also fought doggedly,” the NZZ praised him for the ride on the slope called KT-22. The giant slalom was held in a single round; behind Staub, silver and bronze went to the Austrians Pepi Stiegler, the father of Resi Stiegler, and Ernst Hinterseer, the father of Hansi Hinterseer.
Roger Staub at the Swiss Championships 1959 in Engelberg.Image: PHOTOPRESS ARCHIVE
The newspaper reporter described how both Staub, in his bright red sweater, and everyone else at the finish initially believed that he had only come second to Stiegler again. “The times announced over the loudspeaker were corrected according to the starting differences, so that the best time was ultimately achieved for Staub.”
He won gold thanks to his technical skills, but also thanks to the necessary courage and risk. Unlike today, it was rather unusual to attack the goalposts. Staub, on the other hand, chose a narrow line and accepted the risk of being hit on the shoulder by the aluminum bars when cutting into the goals.
A pioneer of the skies
Without knowing it, metal pipes would later play a role in his life, in this case a tragic one. But before that, Staub popularized a piece of clothing that he had copied from the Norwegian military. The Roger Staub cap, which he and brother Hans first bought at the sports store, protected the face from the cold, leaving only the eyes free. It was therefore not only in demand by winter sports enthusiasts, but also by bank robbers.
Ski shop owner Staub (right) poses in Arosa in 1962 with models wearing clothing designed by him.Image: PHOTOPRESS ARCHIVE
After retiring as a skier in 1961, the jack-of-all-trades became Swiss champion again on two skis – in water skiing. And he was a pioneer of the skies. Roger Staub discovered a new sport in the USA, where he set up a ski school in the then small ski resort of Vail (Colorado): delta sailing. He acquired the Swiss general license with the aim of making the pleasure popular at home.
One day before his 38th birthday, on a Sunday morning in the summer of 1974, he paid for his experimental spirit with his life. In Verbier, Roger Staub suffered material damage. He fell from a height of 150 meters and died on the spot.
TV announcer as wife
«A tragic death – but at least a death in the mountains. “In the mountains from which you came, where you lived and conquered,” wrote the “Schweizer Illustrierte” in farewell. Staub left behind his wife – he had married the popular television announcer Lilo Haussener during a holiday in Acapulco, Mexico – and a small son.
Wife Lilo Haussener was an announcer on Swiss television. Image: SRF
Roger Staub’s gold medal in Squaw Valley was Switzerland’s 50th at the Olympic Games, the first in the men’s giant slalom. He was followed by Heini Hemmi in 1976, Max Julen in 1984, Carlo Janka in 2010 and Marco Odermatt in 2022.
Staub was one of the first trick skiers – the Andri Ragettli of the Sixties, so to speak. Video: SRF
Staub leaves Switzerland to run a ski school in Vail (Colorado).Video: SRF
The Ski World Cup took place in these Swiss locations
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The Ski World Cup took place in these Swiss locations
Wengen, Adelboden and St.Moritz are the best known, but a total of 25 Swiss winter sports resorts have held Alpine World Cup races since 1967. There are some exotic ones among them…
Source: EPA/Keystone / Gian Ehrenzeller
Viral videos show desperate snow sports enthusiasts on a valley descent in the Zillertal
Video: watson
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