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Boomer past his prime? Just schuss
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Phil Mahre in New York Times photo/story
Occasionally in this space, I examine Baby Boomers who are re-engineering themselves, re-defining what it means to age.
We examined Sigrid Olsen, the former New York fashion designer who lost her job and is now an artist in Gloucester, Mass. We examined Ann Curry, the NBC news anchorwoman who with little preparation climbed most of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa as part of a series on climate chance for the "Today" show.
Today we examine Phil Mahre, the 1984 Winter Olympic gold medalist who at 51 is making tracks as he makes his way back among the top American ski racers.
The hard-charging Baby Boomer is trying to qualify for a spot in the U.S. National Championships, competing against skiers half his age ... even competing against skiers who weren't born yet when he won the gold medal in the slalom in the '84 winter games in Sarajevo.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Maher amassed a lot of hardware -- trophies and medals -- from winning all kinds of World Cup races and being the 1984 Olympics gold medalist in slalom and the World Cup overall champion in 1981, '82 and '83.
He left ski racing in 1989 and has busied himself with running a ski camp in Deer Valley, Utah, with his twin brother Steve, and racing cars, and skiing in charity events, which he did in a recently televised American Ski Classic at Vail with other skiing legends.
But he has not kept his competitive urge confined to charity events. He just missed qualifying for the national championships last year.
"I'm still trying to make it to the U.S. National Championships," he said in an e-mail. But that's as far as he'd like to climb. "(I) have no desire of competing at the World Cup level or at the Olympics."
Too bad, the Winter Games are just up the road in Vancouver in 2010.
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