Ski Heroes

The scandal was as taken out of a Finnish television theater, and it ended every bit as tragic. The FIS Nordic Skiing World Championships in Lahti 2001 will forever be remembered with horror in Finland. In our Halloween Special this year we go through the stages of the Lahti 2001 scandal all the way through to the impact the scandal continues to have on Finnish skiing today, almost 24 years later. 

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Few have felt the pressure from a whole nation on his shoulders the way Masahiko Harada did at the 1998 Olympic ski jumping team competition in Nagano, Japan. In episode 18 we follow the journey of the Japanese ski jumping team from their let down at the 1994 games to their emotional comeback at their own Olympics four years later.  

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Talk about living life to the fullest. Gone too soon under tragic circumstances, Kasha Rigby showed us all how a life can be lived. From her early days of ski bumming in Colorado, to her countless expeditions and first descents, she stayed true to her friends, her passion, and her telemark style to the very end. In this episode we recount Kasha's amazing life and highlight a few of her long list of accomplishments, all while being a bit jealous of the badass she was and the badass life she got to live. 

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Her aggressive style of skiing made people compare her to fellow Italian skier Alberto Tomba, but she was no female version of him. Her demeanor may have been humble and shy, but Deborah Compagnoni was fearless on the slope. Despite an injury plagued career, she had a unique ability to pull it together when it mattered the most. In Episode 16, we explore Compagnoni's career through wins, injuries, and massive Olympic successes 

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Ski jumping needs innovation. And an unlikely hero may have just showed up to save the day, or at least save it for one day.. In episode 15 I share my thoughts on Red Bull's recent publicity stunt in Iceland, the impact this may have on ski jumping as a sport moving forward. And of course, I share my thoughts on Ryoyu Kobayashi's fantastic jump and new world record of 291 meters. 

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Ski flying has always been about chasing records.  In a never-ending pursuit of longer and longer jumps, ski flying hills were expanded faster than the jumpers could keep up with. By the 1980s, hills had become uncontrollable monsters and the sport produced some of the most spectacular crashes in skiing history. Our Halloween Special dives into the story of ski flying leading up to when it all culminated in the 1980s. 

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Toni Nieminen from Finland was only 16 years old when he introduced himself to the world of ski jumping. As the sport was going through a massive change from the old parallel style to the new V-style, Nieminen became the first jumper to truly master it. In episode 13 we cover the story of his absolutely epic 1992 season where he dominated the World Cup, the Four Hills Tournament, and the Olympics. 

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Skiing was a thing in the Wild West. Snowshoe Thompson, a native of Tinn in Telemark, Norway, introduced skiing to California during the now legendary Gold Rush in the 1850s as he delivered mail and supplies to the gold and silver miners in the Sierra Nevada's as a mailman for Uncle Sam. His skills and ability on a pair of skis became legendary in the Sierras, and Snowshoe became an institution of the era being the only thing connecting the miners from the outside world during wintertime. The Sierra Nevada's and Lake Tahoe in specific are now a world renounced ski area, and it all started with an immigrant from Norway: Snowshoe Thompson. 

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It only takes one person to make a big change. US cross-country skier Bill Koch had been a loner most of his life and was never afraid to go his own ways. Having won the silver medal at the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics, his career struggled following the Olympic success. To reinvent his career he decided yet again to go his own ways, and he ended up forever changing the sport of cross-country skiing in the process. 

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What a cool life Andrea Mead Lawrence lived! Staying true to her motto of skiing for fun, by the time she was 19 she was a two time Olympic Champion and had travelled the world to do the thing she loved the most, skiing of course. In episode 10 of Ski Heroes we cover her life as a skier, Olympic champion, and three time Olympian, and how she ultimately leveraged her Olympic status to create a platform for environmental activism to protect nature as ski areas were developed. 

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