Zoom with a view: Norge crowns summer ski jump champions
Skiers climbed to the top of a 150-foot tower that stands above a 200-foot hill on Sunday at the Norge Ski Club in Fox River Grove. Looking off the end of the tower they could see the Chicago skyline, and to their left, Wilmot, Wis.
Though there was no snow, each skier took three chances to glide down the tower and jump, trying to stay airborne for as long as possible.
Twenty-seven competitors aged 11 to 21 made these jumps - one as a trial, two for competition - in an attempt to garner the title of Norge Ski Jump champion. Michael Glasder, 21, of Cary took first place in the Open Men's category of the 26th annual event that brought people from across the Midwest and Northeast. He had the longest jump of the day at 75 meters.
Glasder started ski jumping at Norge when he was 4 years old. Over the last 17 years he has moved up through the levels of competition, just missing out on the Olympic team last year. He leaves for Sweden Monday for yet another contest with the U.S. Ski Team, prepared to keep jumping as long as he can.
"I'm going to stick around another four years and see what happens," Glasder said.
Norge Ski Training Center is open year-round with snow in the winter and plastic mats sprayed with water for summer skiing on five hills of increasing height. Training center President Jason Steeno said Norge is the only facility in the U.S. that can jump every hill year-round.
"We want to help kids get what they want out of the sport - the kids who want to have fun and try something new to the kids who want to go to the Olympics," Steeno said.
About 500 people made it out on Sunday for the event, a smaller crowd than the ski club usually sees. Charlie Sedivec, publicity chairman, attributes that mostly to the chance of rain. The club's January competition that brings ski jumpers from around the world draws the second-largest crowd out of any ski hill in the country - second to Iron Mountain in Michigan.
With no injuries and the smoothest competition he has ever seen at Norge, Sedivec called Sunday's event a definite success.
<p class="factboxheadblack">Top jumpers</p>
<p class="News"><b>Girls:</b> Annie Frenette, Lake Placid, N.Y., with 83 points</p>
<p class="News"><b>Boys:</b> Christian Friberg, St. Paul, Minn., with 227.2 points</p>
<p class="News"><b>Women:</b> Karin Friberg, St. Paul, Minn., with 171.9 points</p>
<p class="News"><b>Men:</b> Michael Glasder, Cary, with 230.1 points</p>