Freestyle Skiing - Part E - by Anne Shier (a.k.a. "Annie")

(Based on the book, “Winter Olympics:  An Insider’s Guide to the Legends, the Lore, and the Games”, Vancouver Edition, copyright 2008 by Ron C. Judd)

Making a Visible Splash:

Moguls skier extraordinaire Canadian Jean-Luc Brassard, a native of Valleyfield, Quebec, put the “hot dog” in “hot dogging”.  Never a very fast skier, Brassard was known as a showman and a stickler for perfect form in his jumps and his tricks off the ramps.  He also claimed fame as the first skier to popularize the wearing of flaming-bright-coloured knee pads, which made it look, at least, as though his legs were moving faster over those bumps.

Not everyone was enchanted with his show-boat style.  Brassard’s chief nemesis during his hey-day was Edgar Grospiron of France, who won the first-ever moguls gold medal at Albertville and famously referred to Brassard’s jumping style as “crap”.

The Canadian got his revenge in Lillehammer, winning the gold medal while Grospiron settled for the bronze.  Brassard continued to be a strong World Cup performer up to the 1998 Nagano Games.  There he served as his nation’s flag bearer in the opening ceremony, but ultimately was bumped off the moguls medal stand by American Jonny Moseley’s memorable gold medal performance.  He left the sport for a time after a knee injury in 2000, but returned to place 21^st in moguls at the Salt Lake Olympics.

Threw Another Injury on the Barbie:

As one might imagine, gold medals in the Winter Olympics don’t come bouncing along every day for Australians.  But Planet Oz – still on an Olympic high after its wildly successful hosting of the 2000 Sydney Summer Games – had its hopes up for the 2002 Salt Lake Games for a very good reason:  Jacqui Cooper.

In the three-year run-up to the 2002 Games, Cooper had dominated her sport, aerials, on the World Cup circuit.  But luck wasn’t with her in Utah.  A week before the games, she blew out an anterior ligament in her knee during training.

The only competitor left in the event for the Aussies was Alisa Camplin, 19, of Melbourne, an ex-gymnast and talented sailor, but a relative newbie to freestyle skiing.  Camplin, in fact, was best known for being something of a klutz on skis.

She had good excuses.  She had never even seen snow until she was in high school, and she practiced in a jumping pond in Wandin that she described as perilously scummy.  Even so, she proved uncommonly reckless on the slopes, suffering a string of injuries that included a broken collarbone, a separated shoulder, a broken hand, a torn Achilles tendon, various knee injuries, and an alarming nine concussions.

She arrived in Salt Lake a little banged up….okay, make that a lot.  In a training crash the week before, she had injured both legs – suffering what she thought were just bruises.  In Utah, doctors discovered that she actually had two broken ankles.

Given all that, Aussie fans could be forgiven for hoping only that Camplin, who insisted on competing, would survive the event at Deer Valley.  She did that, and plenty more.  Camplin completed a pair of triple-twist, double back flip jumps to win the gold medal.  She credited speed skater Steven Bradbury’s earlier gold medal for taking some of the pressure off.

She became, not surprisingly, a heroine in Australia and had her smiling face, grasping her gold medal, emblazoned on a 45-cent postage stamp.  Four years later, in Turin, she rose to the occasion once more, overcoming a complete knee reconstruction shortly before the Olympics to win a bronze medal.  She served as her nation’s flag bearer at the Games’ opening ceremony.  She retired in 2006 and now runs ski tours in Colorado.

copyright 2014, Anne Shier.  All rights reserved.