See 2010-11 News Items

CONTENTS Super Sunday!  Sarah, Lindsey, Billy on Podium Iraschko Edges Hendrickson (finally) Good Trip to Midwest for Team East Frenette Qualifies for Sapporo World Cup Three Eastern Jumpers in Bischofshofen COC Frenette Leads USA in Germany and Japan Hendrickson & Irachko Dual in Zakopane COC Sarah Hendrickson - Three WC Wins in a Row J. Vernon Lamb, Lake Placid (1925-2012) Fairall Sweeps Lake Placid New Years Events Phil Dunham, Brattleboro Jumper (1923-2011) Hendrickson Wins Inaugural Women's World Cup Brattleboro Steps up to a New Level See Ski Jumping from a new point of view Flaming Leaves jumping in Lake Placid Anderson, Brown, Berend to Youth Olympics David McCahill heads to Austria Norge National Championships The 24 Hour Challenge Carolyn Decker (1947-2011) Larry Stone Releases His Third Album Jerome and Frenette are Big Hill Champs David Edlund Dies Suddenly in St. Paul Lloyd "Snoball" Severud (1916-2011) Dr Martin Erlandson of Westby, dead at 55 McCahill, Short, Delaney in Mt. Bike Race Report on the 2011 USSA Convention Five USSA Awards to East Renew USSA Memberships On-line

Super Sunday!  Sarah, Lindsey, Billy on Podium   A resurgent Daniela Iraschko outscored Sarah Hendrickson for the second day in a row in Hintzenbach AUT, this time by 5 points. Lindsey Van took third. See results.  Sarah leads Daniela in World Cup points 589 to 473 -- Lindsey is third with 302.   In Val di Fiemme ITA Bill Demong finished a season-best third in a 10 km Gundersen Nordic Combined event.  See results.  Nick Alexander finished 16th in the Kranj (SLO) FIS Cup field of 69 jumpers.  See results.  Iraschko Edges Hendrickson (finally)   Daniela Iraschko (GER) finally defeated Sarah Hendrickson in a World Cup jumping competition -- the score: 123.3 to 122.6.  See results.  Sarah, who had recorded three victories in a row, frequently seals her victories with her second jump so the Saturday competition in Hintzenbach AUT might have come out differently had the jumping not been stopped after the first round. At the half-way point in the womens season, Sarah leads Daniela in World Cup points 509 to 373. Good Trip to Midwest for Team East   Six young skiers traveled to the midwest with coach Evan Bliss to compete in Minneapolis on Wednesday evening, Jan 25, and at the Norge Ski Club complex outside of Chicago on the following Saturday and Sunday. Bliss reports that Matt Doyle, Sam Shapiro, Chris Rydel, Annie Frenette, Miles Lussi, and Luke Daniels had 3 excellent competitions despite the lack of snow, and all put up great results. Coach Bliss wrote: "Landing in Minneapolis Sunday night it did not look good for having a ski jumping competition, as the rain fell from the sky. However with a lot of help and some luck Minneapolis ski club got the hill together and we were able to train Tuesday and compete Wednesday evening. A good sized crowd was on hand to watch local and international skiers take to the air Wednesday night and Team East had one of the better team result I have seen in some time. The highlight in Minneapolis, if you asked the kids, would not have been having 3 boys in the top 7, it would be the trip to the Mall of America. "Thursday we took to the road for a six hour road trip to Chicago and not a flake of snow was on the ground the whole drive. Luckily Scott Smith and the Norge Ski Club have snow making and put the hill together in time for the Saturday and Sunday competitions. The temperatures stayed cold enough for us to have two great competitions and yes, the wind was blowing near the windy city, but that didn't stop us. Luke landing on the podium both days and Miles just missing the podium on Sunday was a great way to end the trip. Thanks to everyone who came on the trip. I feel lucky to have such a well behaved and fun group to work with and it definitely makes my life easier!"  See results for  Minneapolis  or Norge  Saturday  or  Sunday  meets, or go to  Ski Jumping Central   for their report and more Norge results. Frenette Qualifies for Sapporo World Cup   Peter Frenette placed 32nd on Friday on the big hill in Sapporo to qualify for this weekend's two World Cup competitions. Anders Johnson placed 41st, one place away from qualifying. On Saturday, Peter moved up a few spots but didn't survive the final round cut to 30 jumpers. Frenette finished in 40th position with a single jump of 106 meters.   See Saturday results In Sunday qualifying, Peter finished 37th and Anders placed 41st, again the first one not to make the show, less than a point behind the last qualifying skier. In the competition, Frenette had the misfortune of recording the shortest ride (90 m), missing the cut and finishing 50th. Daiki Ito, enjoying home cooking, won for the second day in a row, while Kazuyoshi Funaki, World and Olympic champion from the late 1990's, finished in 44th place. See Sunday results Nick, Nick & Chris Jump in Bischofshofen COC   Nick Alexander led teammates Chris Lamb and Nick Fairall in Jan 27 training for Continental Cup competition on the big hill in Bischofshofen Austria. Just the three Eastern skiers came to Bischofshofen. On Saturday, Chris placed 58th (114 m), Nick Fairall 60th (111m) and Nick Alexander 65th (107.5). Seventy skiers jumped in the first round (compare to a limit of 50 in World Cup) but only the top 30 made the final round, so the three Eastern boys watched.   See Saturday results  On Sunday, Lamb finished 51st (118.5 m), Fairall 54th (117 m), and Alexander 67th (111 m).   See Sunday results  Frenette Leads USA in Germany and Japan   After a difficult weekend in Neustadt GER where Peter Frenette and Nick Fairall posted the top U.S. results, the USA-SJ team took the long trip to Sapporo where they fared better. In a three day COC meet, Frenette posted top USA results (26, 26, 25) ahead of Anders Johnson, Nick Alexander and Nick Fairall. Peter and Anders will stay in Sapporo for the upcoming World Cup. Thirty six year old Kazuyoshi Funaki placed 3rd & 12th respectively on Saturday and Sunday. Funaki won Olympic gold (LH) and silver (NH) in the 1998 Nagano Games and became NH World Champion the following year in Ramsau, AUT. It was always said that Funaki would be the last one off the hill, and he obviously hasn't found a reason to retire from ski jumping. See results from Neustadt  Saturday  or  Sunday  or from Sapporo  Friday,  Saturday  or  Sunday   Sarah Hendrickson Wins Again   With no World Cup on the ladies schedule, most of the world's top female ski jumpers gathered on Jan 20 in Zakopane, POL for a Continental Cup event. Some of the top skiers sat out, including Lindsey Van, but Austrian Daniela Iraschko was skiing, as was Sarah Hendrickson of the USA. These two were the cream of the crop -- Iraschko laid down jumps of 88 & 85 meters on the 90 meter hill but Hendrickson answered with 89 &89.5 to win by 5.5 points. [ See Results.] Bad Day for Daniela and Sarah   Daniela Iraschko (AUT) finally broke Sarah Hendrickson's streak, winning the second Zakopane Continental Cup by just half a point. Iraschko flew 91 meters on her first jump, but she fell, leaving the door open for Sarah, who shanked her ride, landing at 79.5 and trailing by 5.5 points. In the final round, Sarah flew 86.5 meters and Iraschko answered with 83.5, good enough to win by a slender half-point. It is a sign of the dominance of these two athletes that they both had a bad day but they still placed first and second, sixteen points ahead of third. [ See Results.]

 

Sarah Does It Again!   Sarah Hendrickson won the third competition of the first season of women's World Cup ski jumping, having already won the very first competition back in December. Her thumping thirty point victory over Takanashi of Japan put Sarah in a comfortable lead in World Cup points. [ See Results.] . . . and Again!   Sarah Hendrickson won the Saturday World Cup competition in Val di Fiemme, wresting the lead from Daniela Irashko with a final round jump of 107.5, the longest jump of the day. The final margin was just 1.7 points. [ See Results.] Sarah has now won three of the four Women's World Cup events and enjoys a good lead (329 to 193) over Iraschko. Lindsey Van is tied for third (166 points) with previous second place holder, Coline Mattel. Sara Takanashi plummeted from fourth to seventh as she left the World Cup tour for a week to win the jumping competition in the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck. . . . and One More Time!!   Sarah did it again on Sunday, establishing a 12 point lead over Iraschko in round one. Then when Iraschko challenged her with a 105.5 meter jump, the only ride in the second round over 100 meters, Sarah responded with 108, breaking her own women's hill record, set the day before, and cementing her fourth World Cup victory in five events. Sarah how leads Iraschko 429 to 273 in World cup points. Lindsey Van finished sixth and Jessica Jerome eighth, stretching the U.S. ladies lead over Germany in Nations Cup standings to 868-589.

 

Vern Lamb of Lake Placid (1925-2012) We have received the sad news of the death on Jan 1, 2012, of enthusiastic ski jumping supporter J. Vernon Lamb, Jr. at age 86. Vern was an FIS Jumping Judge and was one of a handful of people who brought the Olympic Games to Lake Placid in 1980. He helped to attract and organize many other events in Lake Placid including the World University Games. His son Joe had taken up the torch. Read obituary notice

 

Fairall Sweeps Lake Placid New Years Events   Nick Fairall won the annual Lake Placid New Years Jump on Friday, Dec 30. Class winners were Emilee Anderson and Andre Denney. [See results] Nick also won the Friday night Masters jump and took the Devlin Cup [See results]

Phil Dunham (1923-2011) We have received the sad news of the death on Nov 10, 2011, of long time jumper and honored Brattleboro VT resident, Phil Dunham. Born July 5, 1923, Phil did his best jumping in the Veterans Class (age 32 and up), winning the Eastern Vets crown 9 times and becoming National Champion in 1961. Phil competed until age 60 and continued to take a few jumps on the small hill in Memorial Park well after that. He was inducted into the Masters Ski Jumpers Hall of Fame in 1990. Phil was a public spirited citizen, serving several terms as president of the Brattleboro Outing Club. In addition, he involved himself in many other community service activites. Read Phil's Obituary or read a longer memorial article, both in the Brattleboro Reformer.

 

Hendrickson Wins Inaugural Women's World Cup Event   On a great weekend for the U.S. Ski Team Sarah Hendrickson dominated both training and competition at Lillehammer in the first ever women's world cup competition, winning by almost 30 points. Read more on the   FIS web site  or the   USST page. Brattleboro Steps up to a New Level   In 2012, Harris Hill will host the only FIS sanctioned special jumping competition in the U.S. The Feb 18-19 event will include the finals of U.S. College Ski Jumping and of the United States American Ski Jumping (USASJ) Series, but the main event will be the two day FIS Cup competition, which will attract jumpers from all over Europe. It will be an expensive weekend for the Brattleboro hosts, who ask for your help in paying the bills.   Read more Read more about helping (345 kb .pdf, with details and phone contacts). Two Iron Mt. Jumpers Give You a New Look at Jumping   Dan Englund has started a company that uses a radio controlled model helicopter and a remote controlled video camera to give us new views of the world. To demonstrate the service, Dan has posted on YouTube a video not quite five minutes long of the jumping at the Norge National Championships. Dan flies the helicopter while jumper and friend Zak Hammill controls the camera.   See the Video  or go to  Dan's Web Site .   On Sunday it's Anders Johnson & Jessica Jerome Another beautiful day greeted the skiers in Lake Placid for the NYSEF Sunday competition. Anders repeated, as did Emilee Anderson, Jessica moved up to the top step of the podium and Colton Kissel topped the juniors, In Nordic combined, Bryan Fletcher took the open class while Ben Berend won the junior class. See the entire weekend's results, with six photos, all on a single page. Anders Johnson & Abby Hughes Tops at Flaming Leaves On a beautiful warm day, Anders Johnson and Abby Hughes won the mens and womens open classes in the annual Flaming Leaves ski jumping competition in Lake Placid. Junior winners were Emilee Anderson and AJ Brown. See complete results with six photos, plus results of NC jumping. Anderson, Brown, Berend to Youth Olympics Saturday's jump and Sunday's NC event were the selection events for three skiers to go to the inaugural Youth Olympic Games to be held Jan. 13-22 in Innsbruck, Austria. By winning the Junior Classes in Saturday's jump, AJ Brown and Emilee Anderson qualified, while Ben Berend got the nod with a victory Sunday morning in the Junior NC. Gary Crawford will be the coach. Read more at the USSA Web Site. David McCahill leaves NYSEF for Austria Having been honored as Ski Jumping/Nordic Combined Domestic Coach of the year in the spring of 2011, David McCahill has left his position at NYSEF in Lake Placid to go to Austria. David writes "I've been offered a teaching position in Austria for this year, teaching English to students at a technical school in Rankweil (in the westernmost province of Voralberg, about 1.5 hours west of Innsbruck)." We wish David the best in his new undertaking, but we'll sure miss his enthusiasm here at home. We are told that Larry Stone will come out of retirement to fill in for David at NYSEF. Hendrickson, Johnson, Demong are National Champs Sarah Hendrickson and Anders Johnson were crowned U.S. National Normal Hill Ski Jumping Champions and Bill Demong took his fifth National Nordic Combined crown on Saturday, Oct. 1 at the Norge Ski Club complex in Fox River Grove, IL. Second in the jumping was Nick Fairall, followed by Demong. Large hill champion Peter Frenette finished in 6th place. See complete results of Ski Jumping or the Nordic Combined National Championships. (The Saturday competition schedule included a full range of hill sizes and classes, but it appears that only those competitors in Class A (Mens or Womens) were competing for National titles.) 24 HOURS of FLIGHT WORLD DISTANCE CHALLENGE Jeff Hastings, Executive Director of USA Ski Jumping reports that the 24 Hours Challenge was a great success. He writes " 96 different jumpers made a total of 464 jumps by around midnight when we called it a day. Together we (yes, we- I took 5 jumps) jumped almost 20 kilometers! Overall distance leader was Matthew Soukup from CAN at 602 meters. . . . Oh, and we raised over $22K to help ski jumping in the US." Congratulations to all of the athletes and organizers!

 

Carolyn Decker (1947-2011) Carolyn Decker died on the morning of September 5, 2011 after a battle with a rare cancer. Carolyn was the mother of ski jumper Chris Decker and when Chris committed to ski jumping, the family moved from New Jersey to the North Country, where Carolyn quietly did many things in support of the sport. In anticipation of the 2002 Olympics, the Deckers established a home in Park City where for several years after the games, they generously welcomed Eastern jumpers training or competing at the Olympic facility. Larry Stone, Eastern Coach during the Decker years, emphasizes how generous Carolyn and husband Bill were to our ski jumping program and how Carolyn, like Marianne Fairall, imbued all of us with her positive and cheerful attitude towards life and sport. She carried this amazing spirit right through to the end and kept smiling right through the struggle with her illness. Their generousity gave the Eastern teams of those years a base of operations in Park City which was a great advantage for us and allowed parents and ski jumpers a little leeway in a sport which costs a great deal to pursue on a national level. Condolences can be sent to The William Decker family, 24 Nordic Way, Saranac Lake , NY 12983. Friends wishing to remember Carolyn may make memorial contributions to Ocular Melanoma Foundation in care of the Fortune-Keough Funeral Home. 20 Church Street, Saranac Lake, NY, 12983. There will be a celebration of her life Saturday afternoon from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10 at the Lake Placid Lodge. All are welcome. [ Read a lovely obituary notice prepared by the family.]

 

Larry Stone Releases His Third Album Larry Stone may have retired from coaching but he isn't just relaxing. In addition to raising livestock on his farm in the Au Sable Valley, Larry is writing songs, then performing and recording them. He has recently released his third album "Thistles and Salt" on CD, on which most of the songs are Larry's own work. Read more on the Plattsburgh Press Republican Web site or order the album at Larry's web site.   Jerome and Frenette are Big Hill Champs The first round of the U.S. National Championships, the Large Hill Special Jumping, was held on Saturday, July 30, on the Park City Olympic 120 meter ski jump. Peter Frenette of Saranac Lake NY defended his national crown, and Jessica Jerome unseated Lindsey Van, last year's champion, who finished third. Chris Lamb and Sarah Hendrickson took silver medals. Nina Lussi finished fifth, Nick Fairall seventh, Bill Demong nineth, Willy Graves 17th, and Spencer Knickerbocker 32nd. [ See complete results.] Small Hill championships and the Nordic Combined event will be hosted on the Norge ski Club's 70 meter jump in October. Earlier in the week, Nick Alexander, Peter Frenette and Chris Lamb gave the East a sweep in a 90 meter competition.    [ See July 27 results or July 28 results or July 30 results.]

 
Three Deaths in the Central Division

David Edlund Dies Suddenly in St Paul We have received the shocking news of the sudden, unexpected death on July 18, 2011 of Dave Edlund, jumper, father of three jumpers, coach and supporter of the sport. Born July 6, 1960, Dave continued his jumping well into Masters age, competing in two International Masters Championships (IMC) and several National Masters Age Group Championships. He finally quit his own jumping to support his son Davey who developed into a fine ski jumper. Two more talented sons followed in the sport. See a brief memorial on the St. Paul Ski Club web site, or read a short obituary notice.

 

Lloyd "Snoball" Severud (1916-2011) With the death of Lloyd "Snoball" Severud, the U.S. ski jumping community has lost one of its great icons. Snoball, who died on June 27, 2011 at age 95, had served two separate terms as coach of the U.S. ski jumping team. He continued his jumping even as he began his coaching career, winning the Veterans Class title at five national championships on all of the big hills: Steamboat Springs, Westby, Berlin, Iron Mountain and Leavenworth. Snoball was small in stature and slender, the perfect build for today's ski jumper, and he seemed to have endless energy. He brought a number of innovations to U.S. ski jumping. Between rounds in a competition, he might be seen wearing his competitor's number and raking the landing hill. For this he popularized the use of crampons to aid in getting around on the hill, and he brought the now universal wide aluminum rakes from his day job on a golf course. A humble and popular man, Severud was an honored member of the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame and the Masters Ski Jumpers Hall of Fame, and was a charter member of the American Ski Jumping Hall of Fame. [ See Obituary ]

 

Dr Martin Erlandson of Westby  (1956-2011) Art Tokle has relayed a sad message:  Dr Martin Erlandson passed away yesterday. He was past president of the Snowflake Ski Club and father to Ben. Also was Chiropractor in Westby. He will be greatly missed!  Tokle commented "Marty was a friend to all of us and many of the Eastern crew knew him well."  [ Brief death notice ]

 

David McCahill, Ryan Short, Brian Delaney in Mt. Bike Race (June 19) David McCahill placed sixth overall in the Wilmington/Whiteface 100 km Mt. Bike Race, finishing in 3 hours 53 minutes and 42 seconds, only about 20 minutes behind the winner, pro mt. biker Jeremiah Bishop. Ex-jumper Ryan Short finished the demanding event in 4:36:50, good enough for 53rd place. Brian Delaney, father of Matt and Colin and proprieter of High Peaks bike and ski shop, finished 114th in 5:28:49. The race was one of a handful of qualifying events for the annual 100 mile mt. bike race in Leadville, Colorado. We don't know if any of our friends hope to go to Leadville -- many of the local racers took part in Sunday's race just because it was there. Dan Warner's Report on the 2011 USSA Convention Eastern Jumping Committee Chairman Dan Warner attended the Annual USSA Convention and has shared his notes on subjects including awards (listed below), competition series, national championships, FIS rules, the women's team and SJ-USA. [ See Dan's Report ] East Garners Honors at USSA Convention The Annual USSA Convention is a time for awards and recognition, and Eastern Division brought home plenty of awards this year. Salisbury received the Ski Jump/NC Club of the Year Award. [ See Letter.] Peter Frenette was named the Ski Jumping Athlete of the Year. Joe Lamb received the highest USSA recognition, the Julius Blegen Award, given for a lifetime of service. David McCahill was named the SJ/NC Domestic Coach of the year, Ken Tokle received the Mittelstadt Officials Award.