How it unfolded
The 20-year-old Austrian Toni Sailer swept downhill, giant slalom and slalom at the Cortina Olympics. In the giant slalom he won by more than six seconds, an extraordinarily wide margin in a sport usually decided in hundredths. Sailer added three more golds at the 1958 world championships before retiring at 23. Alpine skiing at the time was dominated by the state-supported Austrian and French national teams, and Sailer's performance cemented Austria as the sport's undisputed superpower. He later became an actor, appearing in several ski films and remaining a popular public figure in Austria after his retirement.
Why it still matters
This meet produced the first Olympic triple gold in alpine skiing history, a feat repeated only by Jean-Claude Killy in 1968. Sailer's margin of victory is still cited as a benchmark for how far ahead of contemporaries a single racer can be, and the result is regarded as the defining moment that cemented Austria's identity as the sport's top nation.