At the Winter Games
In 1937, the best ski racer in the United States, Dick Durrance '39, wrote an article expressing his dissatisfaction over the "maniacal mountain diving" that was gaining popularity in America and throughout the world. He was writing about the new breed of downhill skier, a breed that preferred hurtling straight down the mountain instead of negotiating a slalom course. Durrance's charge against crazy ski flyers could be aptly applied to a current-day descendant of his, Nordiccombined specialist Walter Malmquist '7B.
Malmquist is a maniacal mountain diver for certain, and his mania gained him some measure of renown during the Lake Placid Olympics. He is a first-rate ski jumper who also chooses to "run"-that is, scamper about, a cross-country course. His dual affections led him to enter the Nordiccombined competition rather than the special jumping. In the combined, one day's ski jumping contest is followed by the next day's race, and points are totalled to determine a winner.
As is widely known, Malmquist really uncorked one on the 70-meter hill at Lake Placid. Having registered a good first jump of 79 meters, he then soared 84 meters, the day's longest effort to that point, and took over first place. The defending champion and eventual gold medalist, East Ger- many's Ulrich Wehling, immediately jumped at Malmquist's challenge and beat him by a meter. Still, the Big Greener from Post Mills, Vermont, who will return to the College shortly to complete his studies by June, was in second place on the eve of the cross-country race.
That night, Malmquist and Olympic coach Jim Page '63, twice captain of the Dartmouth ski team and its coach from 1972 to 1978, were honest in their expectations. The chances for a medal were negligible, they said; if Malmquist could stay among the top ten they would be very happy. At Dartmouth, they both knew, Malmquist had been a very good jumper and an aficionado of cross-country. He was world-class in one discipline, merely expert in the other. His jumping is so superb he recently beat the entire U.S. special jumping team in a Lake Placid meet. At that time, in January, reporters asked why he wasn't trying out for the jumping squad. "I love to run," he said, and off he ran to the snow-covered fields of Canada to work on his cross-country.
The work reaped few Olympic benefits. On a warm day and a slow track, Malmquist finished 27th out of 30 in the skiing competition and dropped to 12th overall. His 14-year-old brother Ward, himself a combined specialist, offered a chilly appraisal: "Not bad for you, but not good enough."
Walter's jumping, however, was good enough to get him invited to Saturday afternoon's 90-meter special jump. Leaping fourth in a field of 50, he soared a creditable 97 meters to take an early lead. After the two jumps-his second was 95.5 meters-he stood 27th, the second- ranking American behind jumping specialist Jim Denney.
Malmquist wasn't the only former star of Hanover's winter playgrounds to compete at Lake Placid. Tim Caldwell '76 the son of cross-country legend, coach, and author John Caldwell '50 and, like Malmquist, a veteran of two Olympics finished 25th in the 15-kilometer race, an improvement of 12 places over his Innsbruck showing. His relay team, however finished a poor eighth in a field of ten.
Caldwell, who won the Finlandia Trophy as the country's best cross-country skier in 1973, 1975, and 1977, is a member of the Putney, Vermont, ski fraternity that doubles as the heart of the U.S. Nordic team. Although Caldwell had glory days at Dartmouth, there was no mistaking the disappointment over the 1980 team showing that was shared by America's crosscountry establishment. A sport that had gained national attention through Bill Koch's stunning silver-medal performance at Innsbruck four years ago returned to its former stature as one of limited American competence. Even Koch could not muster a top-ten finish.
Yet another Dartmouth skier was part of that 1976 Nordic team, Doug Peterson '75. Peterson, who now lives in Hanover, had an excellent '78-'79 season, winning two races and taking four second-places on a tour that featured top-flight competition. At his second Olympics, the results were less good. He placed 45th of 57 in the 30-kilometer and did not finish the 50-kilometer race. Doug is a rural sportsman for all seasons, having been a member of the 1975 United States Whitewater kayak team.
Another versatile competitor was Dartmouth's fourth Olympian athlete. The story goes that Don Nielsen '74 simply did not feel he could compete on a world-class level in cross-country, even though he had been a non-racing member of the '76 U.S. Olympic team, missing events because of illness. It seemed unlikely his search for a
new sport would end with the biathlon, a ski-and-shoot discipline involving targets mere centimeters wide. After all, New Hampshireman Nielsen had not done a great deal of hunting and, by his own admission, he was no marksman.
Nevertheless, a little over a year ago he sought out William DeVaux, Dartmouth's skeet and trap-shooting coach. The results are more encouraging at every turn in the course. Consider this: A well-placed shot can save a competitor penalty laps and precious seconds on the clock. It would be expected that a cross-country veteran such as Nielsen would have to depend on his speed afoot to compensate for his novice aim. Now consider this: Nielsen actually gained some time for his country's relay team when at one juncture he shot his five targets clean. The team finished eighth, a respectable showing for an American biathlon quartet. Nielsen is quickly becoming the nation's best at his newly chosen sport.
The Records(final winter season results) BASKETBALL Men (6-20) Women (16-9) HOCKEY Men (18-10-1) Women (11-10) SWIMMING Men (8-2) Women (3-7) INDOOR TRACK Men (5-6) Women (5-4) GYMNASTICS Men (4-4) Women (5-6) SQUASH Men (6-5) Women (7-3) SKIING Men: fifth in nationals Women: sixth in nationals
