Twenty-four years ago, Brian Stemmle’s bad fortune made him a household name around the globe.
Racing Austria's famed Kitzbuhel, where speeds reach up to 140 kilometres, the Canadian Olympian crashed horrifically, catching his skis in the netting lining the course, ripping his pelvis almost in half.
Then just 22, he spent five days in a coma and three months in the hospital recovering from life-threatening injuries.
Lucky to be alive, one of Stemmle’s first thoughts was how soon he could get back to racing.
It's the mentality most athletes carry. Life doesn't always co-operate.
But the Aurora, Ont. native was bound and determined to fight back, to not let the mountain get the better of him.
By 1990 he returned to the competitive slopes at the Pan Am Games in Argentina, and in a fairy-tale ending, took home the gold.
He returned to Canada’s national team for nine more seasons, representing his country in three more Olympics, eventually retiring and entering the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame in 2002.
A quarter-of-a-century later new conversations with Stemmle inevitably turn to 1989 and his date with disaster on the treacherous, icy slopes of Kitzbuhel.
While many might like to forget and not let tragedy define their career, Stemmle, the guest speaker Saturday night at the annual Alpine Rendezvous in Thunder Bay, said he doesn't mind reliving it over and over again.
"I don't really get sick of people talking about my crash, because it's something that they remember. And that's OK for me. It's a life-changing moment for me and I tell them how it made me better," Stemmle said.
"It helped me not take life for granted and live life to its fullest. It was a great lesson for me, so I like share that with other people because it was a pretty significant point in my life, in my career."
Stemmle says it's hard to believe the crash occurred so long ago. Looking back, he says it almost seems like it happened to someone else.
"When I watch it on TV it doesn't seem like me because I'm a different person now. I don't know how I had enough courage to be able do that at the beginning and then get through it and go ski racing again," he said.
"I'm amazed at what I've accomplished, but it totally seems like someone else."
Stemmle, who DQed at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, finished 23rd in the 1992 Olympic downhill.
Two years later he finished 26th in the Olympic giant slalom.
In 1998, in Nagano, Japan, with Wayne Gretzky watching on the slopes, Stemmle was leading the race when he caught a rut on a turn and missed a gate, ending his run at what appeared to be a sure medal and a fairy-tale ending to his skiing career.
"I'd worked so hard for that, comeback from near death to be at that point, sitting on the side of the hill saying, 'Man, you messed up again,'" Stemmle said.
It was yet another lesson learned.
"I got back up to finish 12th in the Super G, which was the best Canadian result until that time. I was proud of that. And I was proud of the way I handled myself ."
In retirement Stemmle turned to television, where today he's an analyst for Rogers Sportsnet, covering skiing and most recently, the Red Bull Crashed Ice event.
