A Road Back

"Ski jumping is a funny sport," said Tom Reaper. "Many times it's very frustrating. A good or bad jump is determined in that tenth of a second during the takeoff. On a big hill, it becomes a hundredth of a second. There are so many things that can upset it. You can be tired. Maybe you just had a fight with your girlfriend. The timing and concentration have to be perfect."

His timing wasn't perfect about a year ago when Reaper, now completing his senior year, was competing with the Canadian national team in a ski-flying event at Ironwood, Michigan. It was less than a week before he was scheduled to jump in the world championships in Sweden. The difference between ski-jumping and skiflying is about the same as diving from a one-meter board and a 90-foot cliff. The Vale de Tempe, where the Dartmouth Winter Carnival jump is held, is a 40-meter hill. Ironwood is 120 meters. The speed is far greater and the soar can be as far as 500 feet. The conditions for skiflying must be ideal. They were marginal when Reaper took off a year ago.

"At Ironwood, I sat around until mid-afternoon because there was a lot of wind," said Reaper. "When you sit that long, under that much psychological pressure, you get tired. It's easy to make a mistake. I had a good jump. I guess it was too good. The next thing I remember was waking up in a hospital a week and a half later."

Reaper suffered a severe concussion and amnesia in the near-fatal jump. Though conscious, he was unaware of what had happened. His body didn't fully recover for almost six months and his confidence is yet to recover completely. "After something like that happens, you realize what can happen when you jump," he said. "You sort of think twice."

Reaper trained and competed with the Canadian national team for three years, but he decided to stay at Dartmouth this winter and try Nordic Combined competition (cross-country and jumping). "I didn't feel ready for the pressure of international competition," he said. "I think I made a good decision because I'm enjoying myself more than if I'd gone back with the Canadian team. The Nordic training at Dartmouth is as good as what the national team does. We had several members of the U.S. national team train with us last fall. Also, the caliber of college competition is very high now."

In both the Vermont and Dartmouth winter carnivals in early February, Reaper placed eighth in the jumping competition. Those jumps represented the first steps on a difficult road back for the Dartmouth senior. Like most jumpers, he began at an early age . . . "before you have a fear of what you're doing."

He's had a lot of help during his comeback from Coach Jim Page and his jumping teammates, Norwegians" Chris Berggrav and Arne Nielsen. "Coach Page has been especially good," he said. "If I don't feel I'm ready to jump, he'll tell me to take a couple of days off or go to a smaller hill to build my confidence."

Why is he trying to overcome the fear and jump again? "When you have a good jump, you get an incredible feeling," he said. "It's fantastic to go floating, floating down in control of everything. When it all clicks together, it's really a satisfying feeling."

There are other collegiate jumpers this winter who are turning in better performances than Reaper. But he's still made the toughest jump of all just by competing.

To the firmament soars Tom Reaper duringthis year's Winter Carnival competition.