TODAY IS THE DAY!
Please, take a moment and give back just a bit to the sport that is so deeply woven into your fabric. Amount doesn’t matter. Just get your name on the list. Join your friends. Let us know you’re out there and still dreaming of flight. If you name a coach or mentor who helped get you there, I’ll add them with your name. Just put it in the comments section.
Let’s do this.
Best,
Jeff
Curator USANS Story Project
CYNTHIA GUILD KLING
Retired FIS Jump Judge and ski coach for the Gunstock Nordic
guildkling@gmail.com
In preparing a power point program about my career in ski jumping, I came across a newspaper clipping in the Laconia Evening Citizen about an All-Girl Ski Jump in February 1977.
It was initiated by Jack Dudley, Nordic coach for Oyster River High School and co-sponsored by me. It was held on the 14 meter hill at Gunstock Ski Area preceded by a Clinic that I directed.
Twenty three girls, ages nine to eighteen, representing Woodsville, Laconia, Oyster River, Gilford, Newport, Winnacunnett, Belmont, and Gorham schools participated.
Top winners were judged by me, the USA’s only female jumping judge, were 1. Tina Cushing, 2. Laura Hurlburt, and 3. Sue Scarinza. The longest jumps were 33 feet by both Hurlbert and Scarinza.
Equipment for the young women was lent by the young men competitors from the various schools. And these young men were also the cheering section.
With this start, I hoped that it wouldn’t take long for women to soon participate in the primarily make sport. Unfortunately, it did take a lot longer than anyone could have hoped. But it did happen and the young women are absolutely like birds flying elegantly down the most challenging jump hills.
CURATOR’S NOTE:
What I said in 2015 when Cynthia wrote a previous story, still seems pertinent:
FROM STORY PROJECT DEC 20, 2015- I try to avoid being preachy, especially this time of year, but I can’t read this story without being struck by the fact that we all stand on the shoulders of those who preceded us, many times with no recognition of the fact, at all. Cynthia got her start on the shoulders of Gary Allen and I have to think that in some small (big?) way the success of the US women ski jumpers can be traced back to Cynthia’s shoulders. For the record, Gary Allen was inducted into the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 1992.He died at age 90 in 2007. CLICK HERE to see obit.
