 Stoney's Corner
Flaming Leaves saw some Eastern Juniors with improved results: Jamie Tuttle,6th; Morgan Goodwin, 8th; and Brian Welch, 12th. It was also great to see the International Women's field at Flaming Leaves. The Swedish girl , Helena Olssen, went 100 meters with 86 K's of speed several times during training that week and people started looking a bit more closely when the women skied. Hopefully this event will become a regular fixture for the Women and we'll see more U.S. girls get exposed to this level of skiing. This Winter promises to be full of activity with the debut of the Winter Goodwill Games in Lake Placid in February as well as another World Cup "B" Nordic Combined event in January. This latter meet should be a great chance for our Eastern Nordic Combined Skiers to participate in a high level competition on the International level for a second year in a row. The next generation of "Combiners" looking to follow in the footsteps of Demong, Hinkley and Van Loan will get their chance to try out for the next "Son of Blob" development team in this event. Thanks go to Joe Lamb for his work in bringing this event to the East and for his work in setting up what evolved into the new U.S. Nordic Combined Development program. Joe is slated to be the Nordic Combined Technical Delegate at the 2001 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. Congratulations to him. The Goodwill Games should bring some high level skiers here for Combined and Special Jumping and volunteers are needed – call the Lake Placid Olympic Jumps, 518-523-2202, for information on how to work these games and get a front row seat. Speaking of this winter, two perennial "Big Trophies" are on the line this season. There should be some extra drama around the Salisbury meet since Taylor Hoffman has two legs on the Satre Trophy and in Brattleboro where Vladimir Glyhka, the popular Ukrainian from Chicago who often trains in Placid, has two legs on the Winged Trophy. I know both these skiers are motivated to retire their particular Trophy so we should see some interesting competition as the Winter progresses. It is sad to note the death of Jay Rand Sr.. He was a legend in the sport and a good friend to many of us. He was especially interesting because he was ahead of his time in developing the extreme forward lean from the ankles which is now the standard in ski jumping. Jay loved to tinker with things and worked with binding tension and binding placement on the ski before many people thought of it. He was also a War hero from WWII who served his country above and beyond the call of duty. We send our condolences to the Rand family, especially Eileen, his wife of 54 years. It's time to move on into another season so let's remember the past traditions of the sport and learn from it while we get ready to move into the 21st century and find ways to make our sport grow and expand. Let's hope for cold weather and snow and I'll see you on the hill! Here is a link to Larry's updated Eastern Competition Schedule.
Skiers travel to Coleraine, MN
Between the Colors...
Trying to put on events with rain and warm temperatures tested every site's ability to the limit. Anybody who has had to have jumps in shape for a weekend meet will know what I am talking about. Making sure everything is perfect for the skiers is a huge task. It involves dozens of people. Most of us do it because someone did it for us. It sure is nice to see a smile on the skier's face after they put one between the colors. To all the people that made snow, raked snow, packed snow: Thanks A Lot! Last winter's Eastern Series was a great success. Ski Jumping is a big puzzle. We all make it work somehow. Every person is a piece of that puzzle, even if you're a marker or starter or a statistician. You all have a hand in making our programs run. Skiers, make it a point to thank all of these people that help run these events for you. A thank you goes a long way. And most of all, don't forget someone did it for you. Editor's note: Mouse wrote this for the last issue of New Heights and there wasn't room to include it. As we look forward to the coming Winter, I think it is worth reading and keeping in mind. Thanks, Mouse. If anyone doesn't know, Dan Warner who hails from Rumford will be employed again this Winter at the Lake Placid Jumps to be the man who keeps the hills prepared and ready along with the rest of the ORDA crew.
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