News
ENLARGE
Olympic fans can keep the cross country skis in the garage for now and instead get out the hiking boots.
A lack of snowpack threatened to cancel biathlon and cross country events at Lake Tahoe's West Shore at the 1960 Olympic Games. But a major snowstorm a week before the competitions saved the day.
Olympic Heritage Celebration Week organizers were hoping for similar fortuitousness but finally on Jan. 2 adjusted the itinerary for the third annual event which is spread across two weekends. Ten of the 11 events will go on as scheduled, albeit the activities for skiing will now be for hiking.
“That comes with being mountain people,” said Heidi Doyle, a state parks spokeswoman. “You just go with it and learn to adapt. Maybe it will draw some people who have an aversion to snow. Everybody can hike it now.”
David C. Antonucci, who was instrumental in gathering the artifacts that line the course and for restoring about 10 kilometers of trails, will preside over two of the events, and 1960 United States team cross country skier Joe Pete Wilson will appear at a trail-restoration fundraiser at the West Shore Café in Homewood.
The only event that was canceled was Citizens Against the Clock, in which participants recreate a biathlon experience by skiing the course and shooting an electronic rifle, receiving a score.
The event annually begins the second weekend of January, a time of the winter when Tahoe normally plenty of snow to groom the old course. This year a company in Reno planned to prepare the course for free. During Olympic years, extra activities will be planned. The next Winter Olympics will be in 2014, when the host city is Sochi, Russia.
A Tahoma resident, Antonucci discovered the historic area in the late 1980s while skiing behind his house.
“I noticed corridors cut through the forest and they weren't Forest Service roads or logging skid trails,” he said. “I knew about the 1960 Olympics, but like everybody else thought all of the events were up at Squaw Valley.”
Over the next couple of decades, Antonucci met Olympic officials and athletes, learned the history and acquired memorabilia.
Nearly all of the Olympic structures at Tahoma were torn down soon after the games. However, a chapel “the size of an outhouse” and a timing/aide shack were discovered.
Timing shacks were located 5 kilometers apart on the courses during the races, adorned with telephone lines connected to McKinney Stadium, between McKinney and General creeks.
Antonucci will discuss the 12-year cross country rivalry between Finn Veikko Hakulinen and Swede Sixten Jernberg, who won the most medals at Tahoe. He described his events, which will be Sunday, Jan. 8 and Sunday, Jan. 15.
“We will make this an easy hike of about 3.5 miles round trip,” he said. “They will learn what innovations were invented here that still find widespread use in the ski industry today. We'll walk along routes that were hotly contested by Olympic skiers and where the Scandinavian countries and the former Soviet Union dominated.
“Hikers will learn about the birthplace of Olympic biathlon right here at Lake Tahoe and what bad advice was given to a Soviet biathlete that cost him the gold medal. Hikers will actually stand on the firing line of the 250 meter shooting range to see how far contestants had to shoot after skiing a heart-pounding 10 kilometers.”
Wilson will give personal accounts of the 1960 Games, after which he became coach of the U.S. team. He also started the nation's first cross county ski area.
A lack of snowpack threatened to cancel biathlon and cross country events at Lake Tahoe's West Shore at the 1960 Olympic Games. But a major snowstorm a week before the competitions saved the day.
Olympic Heritage Celebration Week organizers were hoping for similar fortuitousness but finally on Jan. 2 adjusted the itinerary for the third annual event which is spread across two weekends. Ten of the 11 events will go on as scheduled, albeit the activities for skiing will now be for hiking.
“That comes with being mountain people,” said Heidi Doyle, a state parks spokeswoman. “You just go with it and learn to adapt. Maybe it will draw some people who have an aversion to snow. Everybody can hike it now.”
David C. Antonucci, who was instrumental in gathering the artifacts that line the course and for restoring about 10 kilometers of trails, will preside over two of the events, and 1960 United States team cross country skier Joe Pete Wilson will appear at a trail-restoration fundraiser at the West Shore Café in Homewood.
The only event that was canceled was Citizens Against the Clock, in which participants recreate a biathlon experience by skiing the course and shooting an electronic rifle, receiving a score.
The event annually begins the second weekend of January, a time of the winter when Tahoe normally plenty of snow to groom the old course. This year a company in Reno planned to prepare the course for free. During Olympic years, extra activities will be planned. The next Winter Olympics will be in 2014, when the host city is Sochi, Russia.
A Tahoma resident, Antonucci discovered the historic area in the late 1980s while skiing behind his house.
“I noticed corridors cut through the forest and they weren't Forest Service roads or logging skid trails,” he said. “I knew about the 1960 Olympics, but like everybody else thought all of the events were up at Squaw Valley.”
Over the next couple of decades, Antonucci met Olympic officials and athletes, learned the history and acquired memorabilia.
Nearly all of the Olympic structures at Tahoma were torn down soon after the games. However, a chapel “the size of an outhouse” and a timing/aide shack were discovered.
Timing shacks were located 5 kilometers apart on the courses during the races, adorned with telephone lines connected to McKinney Stadium, between McKinney and General creeks.
Antonucci will discuss the 12-year cross country rivalry between Finn Veikko Hakulinen and Swede Sixten Jernberg, who won the most medals at Tahoe. He described his events, which will be Sunday, Jan. 8 and Sunday, Jan. 15.
“We will make this an easy hike of about 3.5 miles round trip,” he said. “They will learn what innovations were invented here that still find widespread use in the ski industry today. We'll walk along routes that were hotly contested by Olympic skiers and where the Scandinavian countries and the former Soviet Union dominated.
“Hikers will learn about the birthplace of Olympic biathlon right here at Lake Tahoe and what bad advice was given to a Soviet biathlete that cost him the gold medal. Hikers will actually stand on the firing line of the 250 meter shooting range to see how far contestants had to shoot after skiing a heart-pounding 10 kilometers.”
Wilson will give personal accounts of the 1960 Games, after which he became coach of the U.S. team. He also started the nation's first cross county ski area.
