#SnowStories: Forty years later, Doug Lewis meets the Streif again

Forty years ago, Doug Lewis (USA) stood near the top of the Streif in a speed suit, on 225-centimeter downhill skis, about to throw himself down one of the most feared courses in ski racing. This August, at age 62, he stood at the bottom of that same mountain again, this time in trail-running shoes, more than 88 km into a 160 km ultramarathon, looking up.

“This is completely ridiculous,” he remembers thinking. “And I absolutely loved it.”

Down the Streif, 1986

Lewis raced downhill for the U.S. Ski Team throughout the 1980s, at a time when Kitzbühel's Streif already carried its reputation as the toughest and most dangerous downhill on the calendar. Dropping 850 vertical meters in a little over three kilometers, with pitches touching 85 percent grade, it was a course that punished hesitation.

“Kitzbühel was less about perfect arcs and textbook aerodynamics and more about commitment, guts, and attack,” Lewis said.

On January 17, 1986, one day before his 22nd birthday, it paid off: fifth place. Only three Americans - Buddy Werner, Bill Kidd, and Bob Cochran - had stood on the Streif podium before him, so the result put Lewis among a very small group of U.S. skiers who had proven they could compete on the world's toughest downhill. It remained one of the defining results of his career.

Up the Streif, 2026

The man who built that career on speed later became, in his own words, someone who "hated running." Retirement changed that. A two-mile fitness test he used to dread turned into a curiosity about how far he could push himself, and that curiosity eventually led him into ultrarunning, which resulted in long days and nights on mountain trails, often alone.

This summer, that path brought him back to Kitzbühel - this time on foot - for a 100 mile mountain race that climbs seven summits, including, partway through, the Hahnenkamm itself.

The parallels to 1986 struck him almost immediately. A thunderstorm broke over the start line, similar to how fog, wind and snow had clouded his downhill four decades earlier. “Bring it on,” he thought. “This is where I thrive.”

Same mountain, same mindset

The physical demands of the two disciplines have almost nothing in common. But in speed skiing, as in ultrarunning, results are built on the same mental foundations: knowing the course before racing it, trusting months of preparation rather than searching for fitness on the day, and managing the moment the mind wants to quit before the body does.

“In an ultra, you fight that battle over and over again,” he said. “I chose this. I trained for this. I want this. Keep moving.”

Twenty-nine hours and seven minutes after starting, Lewis crossed the finish line but the result mattered less than the return itself.

With #SnowStories, FIS sheds a light on the thousands of characters, across all levels and around the whole world, that are the true beating heart of snow sports.