You can look back over the last 70 years at some of the area athletes and personalities who made headlines in area sports. Flashback will revive memories of great local athletes and outstanding team successes.
SARANAC LAKE — Fresh from an astounding Olympic performance in Vancouver, members of the U.S. Ski Team will be skiing with kids here today.
The fun is for funding a new lift at Mt. Pisgah.
ATHLETES ENTHUSIASTIC
The idea germinated months ago when Natalie Leduc, longtime ski racer, instructor and chairwoman of Lift Mt. Pisgah, contacted Ski Team President Bill Marolt to see if the Alpine team would visit before national championships at Whiteface.
She got spontaneous support.
"He said great, OK," Ski Team spokesman Doug Haney said.
"The athletes said, 'Hey, we want to go skiing with the kids and see what this local ski area is all about.'
"I just started working with our athletes and Pisgah Manager Matt Cook; now here we are."
ROOTS
Leduc said the event, planned for 4 to 6 p.m. at Mt. Pisgah, is a kind of homecoming.
"The United States Eastern Amateur Ski Association was founded by a group of skiers in Saranac Lake in 1922. It was the guiding light for skiers up until the 1960s, and then it converted to the United States Ski Association. And that's who's coming to town Friday."
Lift Mt. Pisgah fundraising — like a barn raising on skis — brings an hour and a half of skiing with two-time giant-slalom winner and 2006 gold medalist Ted Ligety (Park City, Utah) and Jimmy Cochran of Keene, N.H.
Alpine bronze medal Olympic winner Andrew Weibrecht, who is from Lake Placid, will be here for autographs but forgo the skiing.
"He had a crash in Norway three weeks ago and dislocated his right shoulder," Haney said, "and he's recuperating."
Members of the women's U.S. team coming to Pisgah include Sarah Schleper of Vail, Colo.; Stacy Cook of Mammoth, Calif.; and Alice McKennis of Glenwood Springs, Colo.
"Small local areas like Mt. Pisgah play an important role introducing young boys and girls to our sports," Marolt, who is U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association president, said in an announcement about the event.
"Each of the 17 athletes who won 21 medals in Vancouver had their start at a local area. Their dreams were fulfilled through the ability to participate in sport at areas like Mt. Pisgah."
ALL FUNDS TO LIFT
Lift tickets will cost $15 today, even for season pass holders, and the funds raised go 100 percent toward the new lift at Mt. Pisgah.
The group is aiming to replace the antiquated T-bar at the village-owned ski center.
Leduc said the Dobblemayr T-Bar is going to cost around $500,000, including installation. Lift Mt. Pisgah has raised about $61,000 so far.
Friends of Mount Pisgah has raised community support in decades past to build and keep the popular ski center humming. In 1989, it raised $35,000 for snow-making equipment.
"In 1999, volunteers raised half a million dollars and built the ski lodge after a wall on the old lodge caved in," Haney said.
Cook said support from the community "has been incredible. Friday should be a great event, and we couldn't be more excited to host the U.S. Ski Team. Having our 2010 American Alpine Olympians skiing here will certainly prove to the community at large that anything is possible."
E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com
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