Mark Breen returning as a master and showing the H style on the K64 in Salibury CT.
MARK BREEN
45 yrs old
Salisbury Winter Sports Club
Rhinebeck, NY
mbreen12@gmail.com
My exposure to ski jumping started back during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. My mother had landed a job with the Lake Placid Olympic Committee marketing department and as such she was able to give my brother and me experiences the average attendee to the games did not share in. Beyond the behind the scenes action, and VIP exposure, she told my brother and I we could pick 2 events of our choice to view. I chose the four man bobsled and the 90m ski jump event. The bobsled was fun but the ski jumping really captured my imagination, even after watching Janne Horndlund of Sweden flip over and crash on his side in spectacular fashion while the massive crowed let out a gasp of horror in such unison and of such a decibel that it felt like a thump in your chest. I told my mother then that I wanted to try ski jumping and within a few months I was enrolled in Lake Placid’s junior program.
My competitive ski jumping spanned just shy of a decade and was a great experience but in terms of competitive achievement was only moderately successful at best. I was fortunate enough to be a somewhat competitive junior jumper on the national level, to have traveled to Europe one time to represent the U.S. in competition, and to have been named an alternate on the World Jr. Championship team in 1986 (for which I did not compete), but for me the greatest thing I took from jumping, the thing that sets jumping head and shoulders above all other sports, was a building of esteem, character, and confidence, that is unique to this sport. Think of it this way…stand in front of Olympic sized hills and ask yourself how many scared, shy, unsure of themselves youngsters do you think remain that way after successfully throwing themselves off of such structures. Ski Jumping above all else shows an individual just how much more human beings are capable of when they apply themselves and demonstrate a modicum of faith. By my estimation ski jumping stands as an example of the best in sports. The monstrous physique does not excel, performance enhancing drugs do not play a part, corrupting influences are few, and character cannot but help be built coming out at the other end. Ski jumping sells itself.
The real story of ski jumping I want to tell starts many years after my competitive jumping days. In 2006 I was watching Olympic Jumping from Torino Italy. As I sat on the couch beer in hand, 25 pounds heavier than I am now, I asked myself if I was capable of jumping once again. I made a commitment just then to give it a go. I reached out for an old friend by the name of Don West. He helped me tie into the current personalities behind ski jumping and provided me with some equipment. He introduced me to Matt Cook, who was coaching in Lake Placid, and imparted on him that I was not just a dilettante and subsequently assuage him of his fears for my personal well-being. My first go back at the sport consisted of a trip to lake Placid in June of 2006 to try my hand at the K48. I met two women that day that left an indelible impression in my mind. I can still see their faces to this day. Marianne Fairall, who when I introduced myself, and my reason for being, shook my hand and looked at me sweetly while at the same time struggled to express verbally her sincere wish of good luck and appreciation at my presence. I was glad I got to meet her for her difficulty to express herself hinted at an illness that would soon take her life and remove a huge presence in Eastern Ski Jumping. The second face was that of Martina Lussi who upon introducing myself, looked at me quite skeptically and with a hint of a dagger in her eyes. I understood both expressions and have come to appreciate both ladies tremendously. My foray back into the sport has produced results far greater than I expected. I rediscovered the exhilaration associated with physically jumping. I have tried my best to learn the new technique associated with the “V” style, although by my photos it appears that I have only been able to master the wide “H” style. I have clearly come to understand better the mechanics of good ski jumping, and with the help of some talented coaches in the form of Matt Cook, Casey Colby, and Jon Farnham, I was able to step on a couple of podiums at the Masters National Championships at Norge Ski Club in Chicago.
More importantly however I was able to establish myself with the Salisbury Winter Sports Association, first as a volunteer to help build their new steel tower Jump structure, and then as a junior coach and official in training. The trust I was able to gain with the president and the board of the club eventually translated into them providing me the honor of being the first person to jump the newly reconstructed Satre Hill Tower on February 11, 2011. Since then I have spent countless Sunday mornings in Salisbury maintaining the jumps, landscaping, weed whacking, painting, cleaning, setting up, and tearing down, tents for fundraisers, and getting my grease monkey on while working on snow cats that are older than I am. It is my sincere hope that I can continue to stay connected to the sport in some capacity. Whether that connection is volunteering, coaching, officiating, jumping, or all four, I do not know, but I will endeavor as best I can. I feel at this point that my well-being depends on it.
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