Ski jumpers own Sunday as winds settle
Huber, Granerud win competitions after winds cancel most of weekend
Granerud, of Norway, rode the brisk wind for 134 meters (439 feet) on his second jump to win the second competition of the Bellin Health Pine Mountain Continental Cup.
Granerud soared 131.5 meters on the first jump and collected 243.4 points.
The wind, having already canceled jumping Friday and Saturday, picked up with about 10 jumpers to go in the final round.
“It was a little bit windy as always. The first competition, I did really badly for me,” Granerud said. “Then I thought a little bit and realized it’s a lot of headwind. In the second competition I was a lot more aggressive and it worked really well.”
Granerud placed 21st in the first competition.
Austrian jumper Stefan Huber won the morning competition with 259.5 points. His jumps were 132.5 and 136.5 meters. He placed third in the second competition with 228.6 points and jumps of 126 and 134.5 meters.
“It was really nice for me today,” Huber said. “First competition I got first. Second competition, third place, so really great.”
Lukas Wagner crashed on his second jump. Wagner hit the crest of the hill, tumbled a couple times and slid to the bottom, bringing a quiet hush through the crowd. He stood up as an emergency crew approached him and walked away for treatment. Officials said he had a lacerated lip, abrasions on his arm and a possible concussion.
A coach said afterward that the binding on one of Wagner’s skis was broken and was advised not to jump. Granerud said he noticed Wagner having trouble with his bindings at the top of the tower but didn’t see the crash as he scaled the tower.
“I was going up, but I knew the crash was bad,” Granerud said. “I went all the way up and went in a quiet space to just clear out. It’s never fun to see another competitor fall like that. Hopefully it’s OK.”
Mariucci on hand for jumps
Iron Mountain native Steve Mariucci, a former NFL coach and an analyst at NFL Network attended the ski jump festivities Saturday and Sunday.
He recounted his few years in ski jumping as a kid.
“You couldn’t believe how many kids were involved in ski jumping. When we were younger at the Myron Ski Bowl with three jumps over there — they don’t exist anymore — the mini mite, the mighty mite and the Myron,” Mariucci said. “You’d go there at night after dinner with the lights on and lot of dads would be there coaching up their kids. There might be 50 kids jumping. It was spectacular. Then of course, they had intermediate and then built things over here and it’s no longer in existence. It was a sport back then, in the 60s, 70s and 80s. It’s a shame we haven’t been able to keep them up. It takes a lot of money to keep up these hills. It was fun, it was a great park growing up here, being part of the ski program.”
Although he was into ski jumping, he was a better cross-country skier, taking second place in North America as a junior olympian when he was 13. Mariucci said he had joined his friends as a ski jumper when he was around 10 years old.
“I had some friends, Jimmy Altobelli — his sister Theresa Altobelli was the first female off Pine Mountain — so he was one of my best friends and he was a ski jumper. Stevie Santini, Brett Lindstrom and some of those guys, you just start doing what your friends do. I stopped when we went to high school. Gordy LeDuc, our basketball coach, wouldn’t let us ski. Couldn’t ski at Pine Mountain downhill, couldn’t jump. He said make a choice. I thank him every day of my life that he made me quit ski jumping, because I realized I was afraid of heights.”
This was Mariucci’s first time back at ski jumps after missing the past four years. Watching the ski jumps brought a flood of memories back to him.
“I get to see friends and family. That’s the best part. Seeing this is cool,” Mariucci said, pointing to a ski jumper mid-air. “I was one of these little kids that would slide down the landing right after the last jump was over, you’d slide down the landing on your butt. Then you’d have the Leon Waitrovich’s of the world would be yelling at you, ‘Stay off the landing.’ But that’s what you did. A lot of memories of growing up around here. Running those steps right there with Izzo, many, many, many times. It was kind of nice to be a part of that fundraising effort to fix them. Seeing all of the classmates, all of these things. I know somebody in each one of these booths, it’s kind of fun.”