USASJ Story Project- Nov 12 MALMQUIST

STORY No. 21

WALTER MALMQUIST

Age 56
Bradford, Vermont
Ford Sayre (1966-1969), Lebanon Outing Club (1970-1971), Holderness School (1972-1974), Dartmouth Outing Club (1977), United States Ski Team (1974-1981), US Olympic Winter Teams (1976 & 1980)

Walter still looks this good when he straps them on- even on a 30m!

Hard to pick one... many successes/victories, many defeats/agonies, many friends made, many lessons learned, and many good times... all spurred by a passion for ski jumping.

Following the 1980 Olympics, I decided that I'd give special jumping a go. The first leg of the trip was to Vikersund with Jim Maki as a comrade and Mike Deveka as coach. This was my first and only ski flying adventure. The training day before the tournament was beautiful and hill conditions were perfect. Hundreds, if not thousands, of spectators were on hand around the outrun and on the side of the hill eating bratwursts, congratulating and encouraging jumpers to fly further. I thought to myself, "This is definitely the life!"

The next day was the first day of competition. The stadium was packed with tens of thousands of spectators. Temperatures had increased from the mid-twenties to just about freezing. This change in temperature turned out to be much better for the spectators than the jumpers. The in-run track had been raked out following practice the prior evening. With an early number I was at the top of the hill when the forerunners took the first rides of the day... the track was glazed and very slippery... It was obvious that all five of the forejumpers were clearly fighting to keep their skis headed toward the take-off. Two of the forejumpers went off the take-off sideways, fought vigorously but unsuccessfully while flying over the knoll to straighten themselves out before going out of sight, and reappeared sliding upon the outrun. The crowd "OOHED!" and "AWDED!" during the jumps and as the jumpers collected themselves at the bottom of the hill. Take-off speeds were close to, if not exceeding, 60 mph. All the competitors at the top of the hill looked from the outrun to each other in wonder as if to ask each other without verbalizing the question, "What the HECK are we doing here?!!" At least that was what I was thinking. With the flagman still on the take-off poised to drop the flag for the first competitor, we quickly dropped our eyes and prepared to make our first jump of the day. My thoughts focused on, "Keep forward... knees forward, butt up, arms up, move through the take-off, keep the chest down... go with the speed." I didn't watch any other competitors jump for the rest of the day.

Things turned out alright. There were some great jumps and some short rides; but I don't remember anyone else falling even though I'm rather certain no one felt comfortable in the track that day. Nevertheless, that experience... close to the end of my competitive career... epitomized to me the physical and intellectual skills jumpers develop and employ from beginner to elite levels to deal with obstacles and anxieties.

Editor's note-  Just prior to Walter's experimentation with special jumping he and Greg Windsperger  made history during the Nordic Combined event at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid.  Windsperger had a large orange traffic cone (requisitioned from where?  how?) that he used as a bullhorn to get the crowd whipped into a frenzy chanting U S A, U S A, especially for Walter's outstanding leaps which put him in 2nd place after the jumping portion of the NC!  Walter went on to finish 12th overall.  Windsperger's USA chant went on to help the US hockey team win gold.  The rest of the story.

Walter these days