USASJ Story Project- Nov 14 WINDSPERGER

STORY No. 23

GREG WINDSPERGER

Age 59

Shoreview, MN
Minneapolis Ski Club

Greg in Innsbruck '76.  His right-foot forward landing was never fully
appreciated by international judges.  Or Ed Brisson.

This will be my first story and it comes from my book that I wrote called – “How I Learned to Coach, Treating all the team athletes with the Same Respect.”  (Not really, I didn’t write a book but maybe I should.)

In January of 1972, the second of three Olympic tryout events was being held in Westby, Wisconsin on the 90 meter.  It was a very cold, extremely windy day and the inrun was simply, solid ice with no track at all.  The officials needed to get a couple of forerunners off to see if it was possible to have the tournament and of course, the forerunners were no where to be found.  So, I said to my buddy Jerry Martin, “let’s go up and set the track . . . . come on.”  Jerry politely obliged and we started walking up to the inrun with our skis.  As we began our climb up the scaffold, National Coach Ed Brisson came running over to us from the end of the take-off shouting something to us.  When he got to both Jerry and I, he looked directly to Jerry (disregarding that I was even there) and said in his gruff voice, “Martin, let Windsperger go first, we can afford to lose him!!!” 

Needless to say, I went first, had a very scary ride, being blown off the inrun on to the steps, somehow got off the end landed, and rode out the landing hill.  By the time I stopped on the bottom, with the intention to not let Jerry ski down, I looked back up to see that Jerry was all ready walking down from the top.  No tournament that day . . . . went to Doc Bland’s and played pool. 


Greg with better-half, Mary, who would have sent
Martin down first.