Norge Ski Club hosts 104th ski jump tourney
The jumpers are specks atop a tower that thrusts above the surrounding landscape, a distant intrusion against a deep blue sky.
They grow in size by the second, barreling down the ramp at to 50 mph toward the point of no return. Airborne for well over 200 feet, the skiers touch down and, hurtling toward the crowd, quickly assume normal proportion.
For hundreds of fans, the 104th Norge Ski Club's ski jump tournament competition Sunday in Fox River Grove was a chance to see something extraordinary.
Ski jumping is one Olympic sport most casual athletes will never try.
"It's a great feeling. It's like floating. You're weightless," says hometown favorite A.J. Brown of Fox River Grove. He's 13 but has been at it 10 years. "When you've been doing it a long time, it doesn't seem nuts anymore. It's safe."
Brown was among 22 jumpers from eight states, including the ski meccas of Utah, Vermont and New York, vying for a spot at the upcoming Junior Olympics in Anchorage, Alaska. Two Russian teams also were in the competition.
The marquee event came later Sunday as some of the best professionals in the country took to the 70-meter hill for cash and points in the Super Tour showdown. Fox River Grove is the first of five stops in a tournament sanctioned by the United States Ski and Snowboard Association.
Friends Lucian Lange of West Dundee and Alan Wicker of Sleepy Hollow usually take a ski trip to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. They decided to save some money this year and get some local entertainment.
"I've been meaning to do this the last 10 years," said Lange, who also came Saturday with his son. "It's interesting to see somebody fly 230 feet."
Wicker said this was his third time and represented an evolution. He came as a young boy, then as a 20-something adult and now about 15 years later.
"It's something really different," he said. "This is the next best thing if you can't go skiing - cheer for somebody who's nuts."
The atmosphere is spirited at the Norge complex, where skiers train year round. The club, a volunteer group founded in 1905, recently expanded to include two smaller hills for juniors.
The tree-lined hillside is like a little slice of the Northwoods and there is a sense of community in the crowd.
"There is so much camaraderie with people who are here. It's amazing," says Jan Vogeler of Cary.
Sunday also marked the 85th anniversary of what would become known as the first Winter Olympics. Ski jumping was among the sports that thrilled spectators in the French Alps at Chamonix that day in 1924.
Gene Brown, A.J.'s father and president of the Norge Ski Club, says unlike in Europe, it's tough to make a living ski jumping in the U.S. Most competitors are younger than 20 and they're either trying for a shot at the Olympics or for bragging rights and prestige among peers.
Though the jumping fraternity is small, the public spectacle is big.
"It's an Olympic type experience and one of the few you can find in Chicagoland," he said.