THE HOPEFUL

Dartmouth's prospects for the Winter Olympics

ALTHOUGH DARTMOUTH no longer dominates collegiate winter sports in America, it continues to produce a disproportionate number of world-class athletes. Who will make the U.S. Olympic team this year? As we went to press in early January, only biathlete Willie Carow '80 had been officially chosen among Dartmouth competitors. Some, such as Tiger Shaw '85 (pictured here), were as close to a sure thing as one can be. And there were some dark horse candidates.

Selections for the Nordic and jumping teams were based on the athletes' performances at Olympic trials in January. The competition for the 18 alpine slots was based on World Cup points that skiers began to earn last November. The selection process isn't entirely mathematical; one fourth of the team was picked by the coaches.

In any one alpine event, the United States can enter four racers. Competitions include downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super G (a cross between downhill and giant slalom), and alpine combined (special slalom and downhill races).

When the choices are all made, Big Green fans will likely have their share of athletes to follow. This is nothing new, of course. For a Dartmouth alumnus, the mental leap from Winter Carnival to the Winter Games is not difficult. Since John Carleton '22 skied at the first Winter Olympics in 1924, 54 Dartmouth men have been named to the various winter Olympic teams. Three of this group won four medals.

(Just for the record, Dartmouth's most successful winter Olympian was not a skier but a speed skater. Jack Shea '34 won two gold medals at Lake Placid. The other Dartmouth medal winners were Peter Kirby '54, who won a gold in 1964 in bobsledding, and Chiharu Igaya '57, a skier who took a silver medal in the '56 Games.)

The College's biggest chance at winter glory, however, never materialized. In 1940, when Dartmouth skiing was at an apex, nine Green skiers, Warren Chivers '38, Howard Chivers '39, Richard Durrance '39, Sel Hannah '35, John Litchfield '39, Edward Wells '39, and Harry Hillman '40, and one hockey player, Paul Guibord '36, made the Olympic team. But the Olympics were canceled that year.

The scope of the Games has changed drastically since then. For one thing, they are bigger, with more athletes and more competitions. Five medal events make an Olympic debut this year. Another big difference from the old days is the amount of interest in the Games. This month, from the thirteenth through the twenty-eighth, ABC will broadcast about 100 hours of Olympic coverage.

The network will include telecasts of the exhibition races by disabled alpine and nordic skiers. Although these races don't figure into a nation's medal count, they should have particular interest for the Dartmouth family: as several of the following profiles show, some of the world's top exhibition racers are alumni.

Willie Carow '80 Biathlete

At the urging of Dartmouth Coach John Morton, Carow took up the sport in the winter of 1980-81. "The first couple of years were hard," he recalls. "I missed a lot of targets and skied a lot of penalty laps." The payoff for his hard work was a spot on the 1984 Olympic team. He eventually finished twentieth in the 10K event.

More recently, thanks to the U.S. Biathlon Association's $1.3 million share of the summer Olympic surplus, the Dartmouth graduate was put under the tutelage of Sigvart Bjontegaard, a three-time Norwegian national champion. In addition, a training grant enables Carow to practice without having to worry about earning a living. The Olympic biathlon trials were held at West Yellowstone Montana in mid-December. Carow's fourth-place finish secured him a spot on the team.

Tiger Shaw '85 Alpine Skier

When Shaw competed in the 1984 Olympics, he was considered a contender (albeit something of a long-shot) for a medal. He already had three North American giant slalom titles under his belt. But the Games did not go well for the Stowe, Vermont, native. "I fell in both slalom and giant slalom," he recalls.

Since then, Shaw has continued to redeem himself. In the United States, he is ranked second in giant slalom, third in super giant slalom, and fourth in slalom. One ski magazine, stopping short of pegging Shaw as a medalist (he is ranked just forty-fifth in the world in the giant slalom), named him as a likely candidate for an ABC "Up Close and Personal" profile.

Joe Szekely '90 Nordic Skier

About fifteen minutes before a race begins, Szekely and a small group of Canada's up and coming skiers will ski the course, thus insuring that the race leaders ski on a surface about the same as those who follow. Being a forerunner, as these skiers are called, is an honor bestowed by the host country on its most promising young skiers. Szekely was also selected by the Canadian ski team to race at the World Junior Cross-Country Championships.

Tom Foote '88 Alpine Skier

Foote's accomplishments to date include taking first in the giant slalom at the NCAA championships in 1985. In 1986 he finished third in the giant slalom in the U.S. national championships; last season, he placed fourth. Dartmouth men's alpine ski coach Mark Ford considers Foote tenth best nationally in the giant slalom.

Bill Hudson '88 Alpine Skier

"America hasn't done well in the past, and the Swiss have dominated everything except the slalom," observes Hudson. "I hope to start beating them soon." This might seem downright cocky for a skier who came in twentysecond at the pre-Olympics held last season at Calgary, but since Hudson is ranked third nationally in downhill, he may get the opportunity to prove himself.

Sverre Caldwell '77 Nordic Coach

As the U.S. ski team's eastern coach, Caldwell spent September working with American cross-country skiers on Austria's Dachstein Glacier. According to fellow Olympic coach Tammy Valentine Pitmon, "Sverre is very accessible and one of the best coaches in the country." He certainly has good contacts: he is the son of Olympian John Caldwell '50 and brother of four-time Olympian Timothy Caldwell '76.

Martin Kryska '86 Nordic Skier

Kryska came to Dartmouth as an alpine skier and later switched to nordic. It was in the nordic events that Kryska came into his own. Last year Kryska finished first in his age group at the Great American Ski Chase, a series of eight ski marathons held across the nation. This feat caught the eye of the United States Ski Team. Dartmouth ski coach John Morton notes Kryska is especially strong in the 30K and 50K races. Morton pegs Kryska as an Olympic dark horse but reminds reporters that "anything can happen at the tryouts."

Diana Golden '84 Disabled Alpine Skier

Golden, who took four gold medals at the 1986 Winter World Games for the Disabled, is the world's top-ranked disabled skier. She says she has a personal quest to "build the credibility of one-legged skiing as an athletic event. A pet peeve of mine," Golden adds, "is that the public refuses to view what we do as athletic. We're competitive. I like to win."

Competitive she is: Golden frequently races against women with no disabilities on the U.S. Ski Association circuit. At Calgary, just as she has done the past few years, Golden will ski with regular equipment rather than outriggers (poles with ski tips) in order to increase her speed. Her efforts have not gone unnoticed. Last year Golden joined ranks with Jean Claude Killy, Cindy Nelson and Tamara McKinely in receiving the Competitive Skier of the Year award from the U.S. Ski Writers Association.

Jon Underwood '86 Nordic skier

"I've been training really hard/' says Underwood, who now skis fulltime without a coach. The closest coach to Underwood's Alaskan home is 365 miles away. Underwood, who was ranked eighth last year after the U.S. ski team trials, is optimistic about making the Olympics. "Since they are taking six," he observes, "my chances are very good."

Liz Mclntyre '87 Freestyle Skier

At the U.S. Nationals in 1986 and 1987, McIntyre placed second in her specialty, the mogul competition. Last season she finished seventh in the World Cup Grand Prix mogul rankings. If McIntyre maintains her position, she will make the trip to Calgary. McIntyre isn't a medal contender, however, because freestyle skiing is a demonstration event at Calgary.

Martha Hill '82 Disabled Alpine Skier

When the 1986 ski season came to a close, Hill was America's number-one female "three-tracker" (the term for a racer who uses outriggers). This feat drew the attention of the skiing world because Hill was a relative newcomer, having raced for only four years before that. Today Hill is ranked second in the world behind Golden.

Leslie Thompson '86 Nordic Skier

Thompson failed to make the 1984 Olympic team. She has improved since then, according to her coach, Torbjorn Karlsen. "She's a little stronger in classic technique," says Karlsen. "Leslie has a great chance to make the team." In 1986 Thompson finished second in the 10K at the NCAAs. At the 1987 World University Games she finished twentysixth in the 5K and eleventh in the 10K.

Doug Peterson '75 Nordic Coach

Peterson, himself a two-time Olympian (1976, 1980), was the director of the combined program (nordic and jumping). He was removed from the 1988 Olympic team delegation and his directorship after Kerry Lynch, a silver medal winnter at last season's Nordic World Championships said that Peterson and Jim Page '63, who was Nordic director at the time participated in a blood packing scheme last season. Blood packing is an illegal and controversial practice where previously drawn blood is put back into an athlete's system prior to a race.

Dennis McGrane '84 Jumper

McGrane jumped for the United States at Sarajevo in 1984 and came in thirty-third. At the end of the 1985 season he left the circuit, but he didn't stop jumping. Last February, for instance, he was a stunt man in one of Michael Jackson's Pepsi commercials.

This summer McGrane took a leave of absence from his job with the Bechtel Corporation and prepared for Calgary. Along the way he won the summer national championships. "Watch for Dennis," writes a longtime watcher of the Dartmouth ski scene. "He's one of those guys who seem to rise to the occasion at the eleventh hour."

Gregg Brockway '88 Alpine Skier

Brockway built his reputation in the downhill, but his greatest recent successes have been in the slalom, the giant slalom, and the super G. His fourth-place finish in the slalom at last year's national championships testifies to this change. Brockway sees himself as a dark horse for a slot on the alpine team.

James W. Page '63 U.S. Olympics Official

The former Dartmouth ski coach says wryly, "I have finally graduated to wearing a coat and tie." As assistant director of international games, Preparations Division, Page will spend six weeks in Calgary making sure the U.S. team members fill out their forms and are outfitted properly. Page, who was director of the U.S. Ski Association's nordic program until last March, was implicated by skier Kerry Lynch in the blood packing scheme. The Olympic committee was notified of Page's part in the violation.

Peter J. Dorsen '66 is a medical doctor in Minneapolis. His laststory for this magazine, "The Loss of Jacob," appeared in winter.