Gordon Wren

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Gordon Wren Ski jumping Cross-country skiingNordic combinationAlpine skiing
Full name Gordon L. Wren
nation United StatesUnited States United States
birthday January 5, 1919
place of birth Steamboat Springs , Colorado ,  United States
date of death November 25, 1999
Place of death Steamboat Springs , Colorado ,  United States
Career
discipline Ski jumping
Cross-country skiing
Nordic combined
Alpine skiing
 

Gordon L. "Gordy" Wren (born January 5, 1919 in Steamboat Springs , Colorado ; † November 25, 1999 ibid) was an American ski jumper , cross-country skier , Nordic combined skier and alpine skier . He qualified for the Olympic Winter Games in 1948 in the Nordic and Alpine disciplines and achieved fifth place in the special jumping event. In 1950 he became the first American to cross the 300- foot mark.

Career

Gordon Wren is the only athlete from the USA who was able to qualify for four different disciplines at the Olympic Games. At the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz , he was qualified not only for special jumping but also for cross-country skiing, Nordic combined and alpine competitions. However , he withdrew his participation in the downhill and slalom before the competition in order to concentrate fully on the Nordic ski competitions. In the special jumping he reached fifth place on the normal hill. In the Nordic Combined, he could not achieve any of the top places, but managed with 68.5 meters in the second run, the second place in the combined jumping and the largest distance of the competition.

1950 Wren became the American Nordic Combined Champion in Steamboat Springs. In the same year he achieved the first jump of an American over the 300-foot mark on the Howelsen Hill ski jump with a distance of 301 feet (91.7 meters). He had already achieved one of his greatest successes in alpine skiing eight years earlier when he won the slalom of the Harriman Cup in Sun Valley in 1942 . During the Second World War he was a member of the 10th Mountain Division of the US Army for four years .

From 1950 Wren was manager of several ski resorts, first in Steamboat Springs, later in Loveland and Jackson Hole . In Reno , he directed one of the largest training programs for young skiers, for which he received the Russell Wilder Memorial Award from the United States Ski Association in 1959 . Wren was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame in 1958, the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 1972, and the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame in 1979. He died of cancer at the age of 80.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ United States Ski Association (Ed.): A History. United States Ski Association. Colorado Springs 1967, p. 90
  2. ↑ Skier's Bookshelf: Steamboat: Ski Town USA by Tom Bie. In: Skiing Heritage. Vol. 15, No. 1, March 2003, p. 46 ( online at Google Books )
  3. ↑ United States Ski Association (Ed.): A History. United States Ski Association. Colorado Springs 1967, p. 73
personal data
SURNAME Wren, Gordon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wren, Gordy; Wren, Gordon L.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ski jumper, cross-country skier, Nordic combined skier and alpine skier
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Steamboat Springs , Colorado
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 1999
Place of death Steamboat Springs , Colorado