CONTENTS Summary of Olympic Nordic Combined competition. Olympic Large Hill, training, qualifying & finals. Memories from the Harris Hill meets. SuperTour 2010 Final Standings ! Silver for Jonny, USA 2, 4, 6 in NC ! Ammann is back, takes the gold. Frenette leads three U.S. to qualify in K-90. Summary of World Juniors with links to results. Casey Colby's Report on Day 2 of World Juniors. Frenette Scores Silver Medal in Lauscha. Alexander & Frenette Headed to Vancouver. The NYSEF Web Page is Back, and Better. East Sends Jumpers to Junior Worlds. East Does Well at New Years Jumps. Some Sad News at New Years. Nordic Combined Continental Cup in Dec. See TV Jumping Online Nick Alexander, National Champion Good News from Gunstock Countdown to Vancouver Renew USSA memberships online now

 

Gold for Demong, Silver for Spillane!! In the final Nordic Combined event in the Vancouver Olympics, the Gundersen sprint event on the 125 meter jump, Johnny Spillane jumped himself into the second start position with a ride of 129 meters. Bill Demong jumped into sixth position with 127 meters, but Todd Lodwick's 122.5 meter jump left him with too much work to do to reach the podium. Favorites Magnus Moen, Eric Frenzel and Jason Lamy Chappuis put in very disappointing jumps and were out of contention. In the ten kilometer cross country race, Spillane and Demong both caught the first starter, Bernhard Gruber in less than two laps of the four lap race and the three skied together, slowly drawing away from a large group of chasers. In the last lap, it was just those three for gold, silver and bronze. The two Americans worked together to tire the Austrian and in the end it was Billy pulling away to capture the gold, and Johnny passing Gruber on the final hill to take his third silver of the Games. See   USST article   or   complete results on FIS web page. Silver for USA in Team NC Camerota, Lodwick, Spillane, Demong make History Austria Gold ..... USA Silver ..... Germany Bronze Eric Camerota did what he needed to do in the leadoff leg of the cross country relay for the Nordic Combined team event, pulling into first place ahead of Finnish skier Janne Ryynaenen who started first with a two second lead. However, Austria's lead-off skier, Bernhard Gruber had joined a small group that made up most of the 36 second gap to the leaders, so Todd Lodwick took over with only a three second advantage over Austria's David Kreiner. Todd skied well but couldn't get away from Kreiner and the two tagged their teammates in a virtual tie. In the third leg of the relay, Johnny Spillane recorded the second-fastest time, but was passed and gapped by super-racer Felix Gottwald. Gottwald had taken a page out of Lodwick's book, coming out of retirement to return to the Austrian team to take a shot at another Olympics. Snow fell throughout the relay, making the track slower and slower. Teams tend to assign their fastest skiers to the anchor leg of a relay but on this day all 12 anchor skiers recorded their teams' slowest times. Gottwald tagged off to Austria's anchor racer, Mario Stecher, who left the start line with 14 second lead over Bill Demong. Billy made up the deficit and on the last uphill, he tried to gap Stecher, but the Austrian tucked in behind Demong as the two crested the hill and would not be dropped. In the end, Stecher's skis seemed a bit faster and he pulled away from Demong in the last 200 meters to defend Austria's Olympic title from Torino. Bjorn Kircheisen (GER) made a brave run to catch the two leaders but had to settle for third place. So Johnny Spillane's first ever Olympic medal for U.S. Nordic Combined skiers, Silver in the K-90 Sprint, is followed by the first ever Team medal, another silver. See   USST article   or   complete results on FIS web page. USA-NC in Position to make History The jumping portion of the Nordic Combined Team Sprint event is finished at Whistler Olympic Park and the U.S. foursome is in a perfect position to post their best finish ever in the Olympic team event. The guys had a chance for a medal in Salt Lake, but faded from third to fourth late in the cross country race. This year it could be different. All four U.S. skiers jumped well, putting the team in second place after the single-round jumping contest, starting just two seconds behind the first place Finns. The next four teams will start over half a minute back: AUT at 36 sec., FRA 43, GER 45 and NOR 51. These four will probably form a pack, as in bicycle racing, to try to reel in the two leaders. We know that Todd Lodwick, Johnny Spillane and Bill Demong are three of the fastest cross country skiers in the field, so it comes down to Brett Camerota, who put down an excellent jump of 133.5 meters, third longest in his group, to get the boys off on the right foot. If Brett can hold his own in the five kilometer sprint and leave his successor Todd Lodwick in touch, then Todd, Johnny and anchor man Demong should be able to bring home a historic first team medal.     Is it too much to wish for a gold? Ammann Does it Again! Record Fourth Individual Gold Medal. For years, the Olympics and World Championships were looked down upon as a one-day roll of the dice. "Anybody can win!" That's why season-long World Cup series were estiblished in all Olympic events. It has been especially sweet this year to see the World Cup leaders winning the gold medals. The list is headed by Simon Ammann, who has now won both individual gold medals in ski jumping. Others include Jason Lamy Chappuis and Lindsey Vonn. It's nice when the cream rises to the top. The K-125 podium looked identical to the K-95: Ammann, Malycz, Schlierenzauer, but U.S. jumpers, who felt that they were better on the Large Hill than the Normal Hill, did move up in the standings. Peter Frenette finished in 32nd position with a jump of 114.5 meters, while Nick Alexander placed 40th. All three U.S. skiers had qualified on the normal hill (90 m.) but Anders Johnson missed qualifying on the 125 m. A tie for 30th place made Frenette the top jumper to miss the final round of jumping, just five points short.   See Results on FIS web page. Peter Frenette and Nick Alexander qualify on LH In the Large Hill qualifying competition, Nick Alexander jumped 127.5 meters to qualify 28th. (Inserting the 10 prequalified jumpers at the head of the list puts Nick 38th out of 50.) Peter Frenette flew 126 meters to finish just two places behind Nick. In the single-round qualifying, Anders Johnson jumped 117 meter to finish 42nd, just two places away from making the Olympic Large Hill finals. Noriaki Kasai recorded the longest jump, 142.5 meters with Simon Ammann the only other competitor to reach the 140 meter mark. It appears that the pre-qualified skiers may have chosen to use a lower start.   See Results on FIS web page. U.S. Jumpers look good in first day training on LH In the first of three days of official training for the Olympic K-120 meter competition, Peter Frenette, Nick Alexander and Anders Johnson all jumped well enough to qualify on Friday for Saturday's event, and each one had a jump or two in the top 30, good enough to make the final round.   See Training Results (517 kb .pdf) Day two of training on Large Hill Our boys jumped almost as well as on day-1, but the field stepped it up a notch so Peter and Anders didn't rank quite as high. Nick Alexander skied wll enough to qualify.   See day two Training Results (big .pdf) Pete & Anders Stay Close, Nick watches In the final day of Large Hill training before Friday's qualifying competition, Peter Frenette and Anders Johnson were hovering right near the qualifying line. Nick Alexander was one of ten or so who didn't jump. Nick was in good company -- the top five on World Cup also declined to ski: Loitzl, Kofler, Morgenstern, Schlierenzauer and Ammann. We can find no explanation, but suspect strange conditions.   See day 3 Training Results (big .pdf) Austria, Germany, Norway, Medalists in Team Jumping The Austrians looked unbeatable in the team competition, and they were, but behind them came a few surprises as national teams fought for medals. Nordic Combined skier Taylor Fletcher joined USA jumpers Anders Johnson, Peter Frenette and Nick Alexander for the four-man team event. The youthful U.S. team (average age, less than 20) showed no respect as they outscored the host Canadian team.   See results on FIS web page. Another great weekend at Harris Hill in Brattleboro, VT Jody Graves generously shared her impressions, which are edited here. Sunny weather graced the day Saturday for the field of 24 jumpers, and the clouds that came in on Sunday afternoon didn't dampen the spirits as the jumping got even better. The usual throngs of locals and tourists (estimated at 4400) crouded around the outrun and clambered up the sides of the landing to get a good view. The cool weather froze up the surface of the parking area where tailgate parties abounded, with barbeques and propane heaters, truck beds full of toddlers. The beer tent, requiring ID, offered locally brewed beer and maple liqueur. Visitors found food vendors who offered snacks ranging from the mundane to the exotic, such as Thai food. Chilly fans could warm themselves by bonfires. The sound of music was in the air, with Elizabeth Von Trapp rendering the National anthem on Saturday and Jody Graves doing the honors the next day. Also the sound of George Steinmeyer, a German native who has lived in Brattleboro much of his adult life, who every year translates the distances into German over the PA system for our foreign competitors. He says of the jump "It is just like Garmisch...I feel at home". The PA announcing was delivered by the tag-team of Jon Farnham and local radio announcer "Fish", An unusually large and spirited Senior class was led by slender Chris Lamb, who stated that he intended to win, and then went out and did just that, both days. Recently retired jumpers Willy Graves, Evan Bliss, and Davey Edland joined full time skiers Lamb, Nick Fairall and five invited skiers from Slovenia and Austria to put on a great show. A great bunch of younger jumpers traveled from the Central division, led by Christian Friberg of St. Paul who won the Junior Class both days and recorded a 100 meter jump on Sunday. Vladimir Glyvka, who formerly lived and trained in Lake Placid and skied on the Ukrainian Team at the Nagano Olympics came back to Brattleboro with by his brother Oleg who is coaching in Ishpeming. Vladamir had been a regular at Harris Hill in the 1990's until he finally notched his third victory and retired the Harris Hill Winged Ski Trophy. The Ukrainian star, who now lives in Chicago, became very popular in Brattleboro! He brought along his skis this year and fore-jumped on Sunday, jumping 80 meters and looking awesome! Harris Hill jumping is always a reunion of former ski jumpers, officials and their families. with jumpers of all eras coming to say hello and watch the show. The usual Harris Hill alumnae -- Dana Zelanakis, Dave Harris, Steve Squires, Bernie Wells -- were either working the event or were down in the crowd, which was great! Teen-age Tara Geraghty-Moats came to watch and we hope to see her back on the hill soon. Former Olympian Joe Galanes came out to cheer on his nephew Spencer Knickerbocker. A highlight of the Saturday night banquet was the recognition given by the Nordic Officials Association to Galen Sayward, recently retired from officiating. The Officials Assn. gave Sayward, of Farmington Maine, a special award for his many years of service to ski jumping and skiing in general. Finally, we give a big shout out to Karin Friberg who broke her arm in training on Friday. That was a tough break for her plans for the season, and we hope that her recovery is quick and complete. [ See Harris Hill results ] rank Athlete Name Total LP ST HH -------------------------------------------- 1 Nick Fairall 50 25 0 25 2 Chris Lamb 36 0 6 30 3 Will Schott 34 13 0 21 4 Hakon Helgesen 30 0 30 4 Peter Frenette 30 30 0 6 Andrew Bliss 25 25 0 6 Mika Kulmala 25 0 25 8 Borge Gellein Bliken 21 0 21 8 Trevor Wert 21 16 5 10 Nick Johnson 20 11 9 11 Mike Glasder 18 18 0 11 Petr Chaadaev 18 0 18 11 Rozle Zagar 18 0 0 18 14 Cooper Dodds 16 14 2 14 Jere Kykkanen 16 0 16 14 Willy Graves 16 0 0 16 17 Cliff Field 15 15 0 17 Wojciech Kotelnic 15 0 15 17 Evan Bliss 15 0 0 15 17 Sebastian Sperl 15 0 0 15 21 Brian Wallace 14 10 4 21 Eivind Hugaas 14 0 14 23 Skrobot Kacper 13 0 13 23 Jaka Russ 13 0 0 13 25 Michael Ward 12 12 0 25 Sebastian Klinga 12 0 12 25 Zak Hammill 12 9 3 25 Gaj Trcek 12 0 0 12 29 Sebastian Toczek 11 0 11 29 Stefan Klade 11 0 11 31 Alexi Gerasimov 10 0 10 31 Davey Edlund 10 0 10 33 Anton Gerasimov 8 0 8 33 Erik Lynch 8 8 0 35 Kris Kowalczyk 7 0 7 35 Tyler Smith 7 7 0 37 Will Rhoads 6 6 0 38 Colin Delaney 5 5 0 39 Kevin Bickner 4 4 0 40 Adam Loomis 3 3 0 41 Connor Jacobson 2 2 0 42 AJ Brown 1 1 0 SuperTour 2010 Final Standings The Ski Jumping SuperTour lives -- but just barely! Casey Colby, who has been keeping the season standings, tells us that points were awarded for only three events: The New Years Jump, Dec 30 in Lake Placid The Over-all in Central 5-Hills Tournee (Jan 22 to Feb 6) The Pepsi Challenge, Feb 13 in Brattleboro Modest cash award were given down through sixth place in each of these three events, but no special award or purse came with the season crown. This year the Central Division ran a 5-Hills Tournee over a 17 day period, starting in Eau Claire and running through Ishpeming, Norge, Minneapolis and Westby. SuperTour purse and points were awardes only for the combined scores for the Tournee but not for the individual event. The table at the right shows all the jumpers who earned SuperTour points in the 2009-2010 season. The first numerical column gives the skiers' totals and the three columns to the right give points earned in Lake Placid, Central Tournee, and Pepsi Challenge, respectively. The SuperTour was established by USSA/USST when the Ski Team pulled the plug on the U.S. Ski Jumping Team, but support lasted only one season, after which meet organizers were responsible to put up SuperTour purse money. At present, the size of the purse varies, depending on the size of the field and the pockets of sponsoring ski club. Johnny 2nd, Todd 4th, Billy 6th, WOW! Jason Lamy Chappuis outsprinted Johnny Spillane for the gold but the USA boys took places 2, 4 & 6 in the Normal Hill Gundersen Sprint at Whistler Olympic Park. Todd Lodwick started second, 34 seconds behind the top jumper, Janne Ryynaenen of Finland, but Johnny Spillane started fourth, just ten seconds behind Todd, and pulled a big pack of skiers up to Lodwick. The bunch then swept past the leader, who finished well back. Lodwick pulled the pack through the middle kilometers of the race. Billy Demong put in the race of the day, starting back in 24th place but storming up through the field to join the lead pack. Chappuis ran a very smart race, sitting in the pack and conserving his energy for the finish. Half way through the fourth and final lap, Kobayashi of Japan sprinted off the front of the pack, trying to steal the race but Spillane had enough legs left to go after him. Spillane passed the pretender and established good lead, but he was not the only one who had saved a little something. Chappuis, who holds a big lead in the World Cup standings, reeled him in and went past for the gold, but Spillane held on for the silver, the first ever medal for U.S. Nordic Combined. Alessandro Pittin of Italy won over Lodwick in the sprint for the bronze medal. [ See results ] Ammann does it again, then Malycz, Schlierenzauer Simon Ammann is back, leading the World Cup and now with his third Olympic Gold. The Swiss jumper led after the first round of the K-95 competition in Vancouver, then put down a huge final jump to remove all doubt!   [ See Complete results ] Frenette leads US as all three qualify Seventeen year old Peter Frenette of Saranac Lake NY may be the youngest man entered in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, and his team directors may have chosen him so he could get Olympic experience, but Peter grabbed his moment on the big stage to make a statement as he sailed 97 meters in his qualifying jump, placing him in 30th in the qualifying competition, just nine meters behind the longest jump of the day. Both other U.S. jumpers qualified, Nick Alexander 35th and Anders Johnson on the bubble at 40th. The ten top jumpers in World Cup standings are pre-qualified, and the Saturday final will include those ten plus the qualifiers down through 40th place in Fridays jumping. With Johnson tied for 40th, there should be 51 starters on Saturday. Jim Alexander, Nick's proud dad, sent along three web links: - pictures from the U.S. boys' press conference - the ski jumping page on the Vancouver Olympic web site - the ski jumping page on the NBC Olympic page Lebanon Plans Send-Off for their Olympian ... Nick Alexander to be Fêted at Storrs Hill on Feb. 2 Nick's Dad, Jim Alexander writes: The Lebanon Outing Club and the City of Lebanon are having a big send-off bash for Nick next Tuesday Feb 2nd at Storrs Hill at 6pm. It is turning into a great city-wide send-off. All are welcome. Nick will be home for about one full day and we managed to set this up. If you can't be there watch WCAX Channel 3 that night. They will be broadcasting live from the event during thier evening newscast. We hope for a good turn-out to send him off, so let folks know!   download poster (pdf) World Junior Championships in Hinterzarten, GER Headlines, Brief Summaries, and Links to Results Jan 31 - Team USA Finishes WJC with 10th place in NC Team Relay Fourth fastest cross country time pushes the American boys ahead of powers France, Russia and Finland.   See Results  on FIS web site. Jan 30 - Sarah Hendrickson takes Bronze in weather-delayed event Nina Lussi 27th, Nita Englund 33rd.   See Results  on FIS web site. Jan 30 - Dodds & Frenette both DSQ in Team Event   See Results. Casey reports, very briefly, that Peter was disqualified for his body mass index after putting down a 100 meter jump, while for Cooper, it was a procedural problem "took off his straps before being tested -- automatic DQ!" Jan 29 - Taylor Fletcher 11th, Nick Hendrickson 15th in NC 10 km   See Results Jan 28 - Peter Frenette 12th in Special Jump   See Results We knew that Peter Frenette was hot, but we didn't know how hot. Now we do, as Peter turned in a 12th place performance in the first jumping event of the World Junior Nordic Ski Championships in Hinterzarten, Germany. Peter placed ahead of last year's World Junior Champion Lukas Müller (16th) and world cup skier Pascal Bodmer (20th). Michael Hayböck of Austria is the new World Junior Ski Jumping Champion.     Coach Casey Colby Describes the Conditions Hinterzarten GER, Jan 28 "Today was the individual competition at Junior World Championships in Hinterzarten. For the US boys we had 4 guys in the event; Brian Wallace, Will Schott, Andrew Bliss, Pete Frenette. The first day of training was very very hard. Cold and very windy all night long; 2 training rounds took almost 4 hours. The second night of training was near perfect and took only 2 hours for all 96 guys to jump twice. "Today was a warmer day than the rest, and it snowed on and off all day long. The first competition jump was delayed a little while because as it was about to start the snow started coming down very heavy and the forejumpers were suddenly 4kms slower than the trial jump. After a short delay, the snow almost completely stopped and allowed the crew to clean the track out and get things started. The changing weather did play some games with the wind. It was never blowing very hard, but it would change directions about 20-30 skiers which was a bit of a bummer. Unfortunately 2 of our guys were on the losing end of this cycle, as were a lot of big names that were in the top 3-5 all week long, and they all suffered a bit. Brian and Will, both at their first WJC event had jumps of 76 & 82.5 meters in the first round and they finished 64th and 56th respectively, out of 83 total competitors. "About three skiers before Andrew jumped, the wind decided to turn around and blow down the hill ever so slightly. This trend lasted for about 15 skiers and a lot of guys that had good jumps fell victim to the conditions. Andrew's jump was 93 meters, just 1.0 point from the cut in 32nd place. Peter was also in this group of skiers and he managed 96 meters in the lackluster conditions which put him in 24th after the 1st round. Many guys that were on top of the training results this week were also in this gorup. Guys with top World Cup and COC results this season like Karelin (RUS), Larinto (FIN), Bodmer (GER), Mueller (AUT), Innauer (AUT), Ito (JPN)... most of these guys made up the top 5 in all the training jumps but it just wasn't possible today. "The 2nd round was a little more fair as the weather cooled off and with only 30 guys it's easier to get similar coniditions. Some guys tried too hard, others just let it flow and had better jumps. Peter had a better jump and landed at 100.5 meters, moving him up many places. He finished a very respectable 12th place overall. Some of the big names that suffered alongside Pete and Andrew also had far jumps...Innauer 102, Karelin 103, Larinto 104. "The top 3 overall today were definitely top contendors all week and were very consistant today. The winner was Michael Hayboeck (AUT) with jumps of 106.5 & 110.5. 2nd place was Peter Prevc (SLO) with 104.5 & 107. 3rd was Diego Dellasega (ITA) with 104 & 105." Jan 27 - Ward leads U.S. in Nordic Combined 5 km sprint,    See Results   Frenette Scores Silver Medal in Lauscha From Casey Colby, Jan 23 "Today was a good start to the competition week for the junior boys here in Germany; Peter Frenette, Andrew Bliss, Will Schott, Zak Hammill and Brian Wallace. We had our first FIS cup event in Lauscha and the weather was perfect and fair for all. Official Training went pretty well as everyone had better jumps than they did in training in AUT the previous couple of days. First round was pretty tough, as a lot of other guys suddenly bring their A-game when the scores count. Zak and Brian struggled a bit after trying too hard and they lost a few meters from training and missed the top-30 cut. Will had a decent jump just short of the K-point and qualified for the 2nd round for the first time ever. Andrew was a little late on the take off but still had a decent jump that put him in striking distance of the top-15. Peter's jumps got better all day and his jump of 100.5 meters put him in 2nd after the first round. So we 3 guys in the points today. After having relaxed jumps all day, Will tried a bit too hard in the final round, learning another important lesson we hope. He ended up 30th overall. Andrew had a better final jump that moved him up to 14th place and Peter had another good jump that allowed him to hold onto 2nd place overall -- a personal best FIS cup result for him. And he also broke up the German uber-sweep...without Peter they would have had the top-6 today."  [ See Results ]  Casey explained that Cooper Dodds will join the team on Jan 25 in time for the World Junior Championships. In the meantime, Zak Hammill has stepped in to keep Cooper's seat warm. Best of luck to all six. Day two here in Lauscha was much tougher than yesterday. Colder temps and tailwind made long jumps very hard for everyone. Only two U.S. guys made the 2nd round this time. Peter again sat in 2nd place after the first jump while Andrew had a poor jump that landed him in 23rd. Will finished in 36th, just a few points from the cut. In the 2nd round Andrew had a much better jump. Over the entire weekend he had 4 out 6 jumps in the top-8 or 10, too bad he couldn't trade in and use his trial jumps. Peter was late on his final jump but managed to hang onto 4th place overall. Tomorrow we head to World Jr Champs in Hinterzarten after we pick up Cooper at the airport.  CC Alexander & Frenette Headed to Vancouver .. National Champion Nick Alexander (left, 21) of Lebanon, NH, and 19 year old Peter Frenette (right) of Saranac Lake, NY, are joined by Anders Johnson of Park City, UT, to make up the U.S. Olympic Ski Jumping Team headed to Vancouver for the upcoming Games. The U.S. was given three spots at Vancouver, based on points earned in World Cup and Continental Cup competitions. Johnson (20) is a veteran of the Torino games. See USSA Article or broader AP Article. .. and so are Todd, Billy and Johnny These three World Champions were "no-brainer" picks for the U.S. Olympic Nordic Combined Team, but who will be the fourth man? Brett Camerota and Taylor Fletcher will both go to Vancouver/Whistler and who gets to ski will be a day-to-day decision.   [ See USST Article.] NYSEF Revives their Jumping Web Page, adds Schedule and Blog NYSEF coaches David McCahill and Evan Bliss have posted a hot new NYSEF Ski Jumping web page where they hope to maintain an up-to-date schedule for jumping at the ORDA Intervale Jumping Complex in Lake Placid. The listing will include scheduled training sessions as well as competitions. As an added dividend, Evan and David will post periodic articles on a Blog at the bottom of the page. We will maintain a permanent link to this NYSEF page at the lower left of this Whats-New page, just above the Jump-Cam link. Scroll down now, find the link and click it to take a look. Eastern Jumpers Take Half of the Spots at World Juniors Nina Lussi Peter Frenette Andrew Bliss Cooper Dodds The U.S. Ski Team named eight ski jumpers to compete in the World Junior Nordic Skiing Championships later in January in Hinterzarten, GER, and four of those named are Eastern Athletes. Nina Lussi will join two other U.S. women in Hinterzarten, while Peter Frenette, Andrew Bliss and Cooper Dodds lead a team of five men to be coached by Casey Colby. See the USST Report with complete jumping and NC teams and schedule of events. Eastern Jumpers Dominate New Year & Nor-Am Jumps Nina Lussi Peter Frenette Andrew Bliss Nick Fairall Lake Placid -- Eastern Athletes kept most of the awards, the cash and the bling right here in the East, as they copped every ski jumping gold medal, and sixty percent of the podium spots in the recent New Years week of ski jumping. Nina Lussi led the charge with four gold medals, while Peter Frenette took home three golds and a nice SuperTour check, and put his name on the big silver Masters trophy. Andrew Bliss won the premier event, the North American Championships 120 meter jump, and Nick Fairall took the Art Devlin Cup based on the three blue-ribbon events in Lake Placid: the Independence Day, Columbus Day and New Years Day ski jumps. (Scroll down an inch or two to find links to complete results and podium picture for all six events.) Sad News -- Now Five Deaths on the Fringes of our Community We hadn't been together long in Lake Placid for the New Years jumping when we heard about the deaths of three people related to our Eastern jumping community. These were Mark Levasseur's mother, Ann, Janet Bliss's father, Bill Hurley, and "Bam" Whitbeck, long time SWSA supporter. We also learned that Mark's father, Gene Levasseur had suffered a heart attack just after the death of his wife. Now a few weeks later, we hear that he too has died. Here is just a little about each of these four people. Ann (Galvin) Levasseur, 76, of Worcester died on Wednesday, December 2 in St. Vincent Hospital after a brief illness. Complicating the situation was that Gene Levasseur, her husband of 51 years, suffered a serious heart attack shortly after Ann died. The Levasseurs have been regulars for decades at ski jumping events in the east. Ann's obituary seems no longer to be posted, but you can contact Mark Levasseur, 1066 Pleasant St., Worcester, Ma. 01602, (617) 388-0203, markcl17@yahoo.com Gene LeVasseur [Jan 14, from Corky Colby] Gene died yesterday at home with his family. There will not be any calling hours and Mark has asked that in lieu of flowers, any one who wants to remember Gene should make a donation to: Eastern Ski Jumping & Nordic Combined         52 Ski Jump Lane Lake Placid, NY 12946   Read Gene Levasseur's Obituary Gene Wins Overall in Gunstock, 1949 Picture: Levasseur with 1954 US Team William C. "Bill" Hurley, age 85, passed away at his home in Lake Placid on Dec. 21, 2009. Read Bill Hurley's Obituary, or contact Janet Bliss, (Box 221), Partridge Pl, Lake Placid, NY 12946, 518-523-2341 Nelson "Bam" Whitbeck, 81, of 78 Weatogue Road, died Dec. 19, 2009 at Sharon CT Hospital. He was the husband of Audrey (Murphy) Whitbeck, past president of Salisbury Winter Sports Association. Read Bam Whitbeck's Obituary or contact Audrey Whitbeck, 78 Weatogue Rd., Salisbury, CT, 06068-1421, (860) 824-7794 Luke Soler 1922-2009. Long time St. Paul ski jumper Luke Soler died on Wednesday evening, January 20, in League City, Texas. Luke was 87 years old. Luke jumped for more than 70 years. Read Luke Soler's Obituary Finally Some Good News In October, at the National Championships and Flaming Leaves jumping festival, many of us heard that Martina Lussi had rushed her husband Art Lussi to the hospital with scary symptoms. Most of us left Lake Placid never learning the outcome. Things were difficult for several days, but Art, father of ski jumpers Danielle, Nina and Miles, is doing much better. He was at the ski jumps during the week of New Years jumping and seemed to be doing just fine. Praise be ... ! Lake Placid Nordic Combined Continental Cup Taylor Fletcher Scores 3rd & 4th   SATURDAY       1. Tomaz Druml (AUT)   2. Andreas Guenter (GER)   3. Taylor Fletcher (USA)   4. Fabian Riessle (GER) 10. Nick Hendrickson (USA)       12. Alex Miller (USA) 25. Eric Camerota (USA) 27. Carl VanLoan (USA) 33. Alex Glueck (USA) 37. Willy Graves (USA) 42. Brett Denney (USA)   SUNDAY       1. Tomaz Druml (AUT)   2. Andreas Guenter (GER)   3. Fabian Riessle (GER)   4. Taylor Fletcher (USA) 10. Alex Miller (USA) 13. Carl VanLoan (USA) 22. Willy Graves (USA) 32. Alex Glueck (USA) 33. Nick Hendrickson (USA) 36. Brett Denney (USA) 44. Eric Camerota (USA) Andreas Guenter,     Tomaz Druml,     Taylor Fletcher Follow the entire weekend results Watch World Cup Ski Jumping on line The season starts in Kuusamo, Finland on our Thanksgiving day and Jim Alexander, father of our National Champion, sent us the link where anyone with high speed internet can watch Nick and the rest of the boys in action. He says "Go onto: http://us.zaptiger.com/ski-jumping/   then click on World Cup Kuusamo." Go there now Gunstock NH Jumps Recognized The ski jumps at Gunstock Ski Area outside of Laconia NH were placed on the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance's "Seven to Save" list for 2009. Created three years ago, the list recognizes endangered historic landmarks in need of attention and resources. Officials of Gunstock Ski Area, the Gunstock Nordic Association, and Belnap County, which owns the facility, hope that the designation will make it easier to raise funds to repair the jumps, which constitute the best set of development hills in the east. See web article from the Concord Monitor newspaper. Congratulations to Nick Alexander (right) of Lebanon, NH 2009/2010 National Champion Countdown to Vancouver Less than 100 days to the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver and the torch relay is under way. Olympic Fever is growing and NBC has posted a huge web site with photos, articles, videos, schedules, sports, history, teams, athletes and trivia, enough for the unsuspecting reader to OD on pre-Olympic coverage. The ski jumping and Nordic combined pages have links to U.S. teams and athletes as well as coverage of all the favorites. The interview with Nick Fairall includes a discussion of Project-X and the fact that US Ski Team has dropped jumping, and the ski jumping news page has several articles discussing the exclusion of women from ski jumping in Vancouver. When the games start on Feb. 12, we'll see whether NBC has again paid a zillion dollars for the right to withhold coverage of the events. The fortunate fans are the ones living far enough north to get the broad Canadian coverage which should be even better than usual with the 2010 games being hosted in Canada.