OCR Text |
Show SPORTS The Park Record. Editor: Ben Ramsey sports@parkrecord.com 435.649.9014 ex.104 Twitter: @ParkRecSports LIFEGUARD CERTIFICATION COURSE Silver Mountain Sports Club is offering an American Red Cross Lifeguard certification course open to anyone over the age of 15. Participants must pass a pre-course swimming skills evaluation and are required to complete online coursework before classes start. Classes will be held at Silver Mountain Sports Club in Prospector starting May 5. For specific dates and times check Silvermountainspa.com. The certification costs $185. To sign up contact 435-649-6670 or email swim@SilverMountainSpa.com PARK CITY SOCCER INFORMATIONAL MEETING The Park City Soccer Club is hosting an informational meeting for those interested in learning more about competitive club soccer at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, May 7, in the Park Room at Trailside Park. Beginning May 21, Park City Soccer Club will host player placements for girls and boys aged 7–18 for the 2018-19 season. For season lengths and more information, visit www.parkcitysoccer.org or call Coaching Director Eli Ulvi at 907-7485075. HOLE IN ONE Gary Thurgood shot Soldier Hollow Golf Course’s first hole-in-one of the season on April 27. Witnessed by Bill Noland, Russ Hurley and Monroe Gibson, Thurgood sank the 162-yard shot with a five iron on Gold Course, Soldier Hollow’s fifth hole. For more sports briefs please visit www.parkrecord.com/sports MINERS GIRLS GOLF VIES FOR REGION 11, B-2 B-1 LOCAL GOLF COURSE RECOGNIZED, B-3 www.parkrecord.com WED/THURS/FRI, MAY 2-4, 2018 After telling athletes’ stories, Kelly will turn page A U.S. Ski and Snowboard mainstay, he’ll retire in June BEN RAMSEY The Park Record Tom Kelly, vice president of communications at U.S. Ski and Snowboard, sat in the atrium of the Center of Excellence next to a gold-painted stump positioned as an end table. Kelly, who has worked with U.S. Ski and Snowboard since 1986, is readying to leave the organization. Though he said he probably didn’t have to be there that day, or any day now that the staff transition was essentially complete, he wanted to. For one thing, he wanted to take advantage of the last six weeks of his career with the organization. But also, after 32 years of telling athletes’ stories through his public relations work and his Behind the Gold columns in The Park Record — with a dedication that recently earned him the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Building Dreams Award, for helping athletes reach their potential — Kelly was ready to share his own story. So, how does a kid growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, in the 1950s and ‘60s go on to stand in the finish area for upwards of 75 U.S. Olympic medal performances? A fascination with ski jumping helps, but that only started after Kelly, at 7 years old, saw alpine racing for the first time. Back in 1960, Kelly didn’t know what skiing was. “Never heard of it before,” he said. But his mom turned on the television one day, and the image of the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley lit the screen. “I absolutely, distinctly remember watching the women’s downhill,” he said. “Penny Pitou won the silver medal for America. Something just registered with me as a kid that this was something I wanted to be involved with, but I didn’t TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD Tom Kelly in front of his Silver Creek home. Kelly started working for the then U.S. Ski Association in 1986 and moved to Park City when the organization joined the U.S. Ski Team. know how to go skiing or how to connect with it.” When Kelly was a teenager, the Blackhawk Ski Jump in Middleton, Wisconsin, added plastic to its jump, making it the first year-round jump in North America, which he said drew the U.S. Ski Jumping Team. A budding photographer at the time, Kelly took advantage of his proximity to the team to photograph ski jumping, and got to know Ron Steele, a would-be Olympic ski jumper and president of Group Rossignol North America. “Getting to know the U.S. Ski Jumping Team and getting connected at that level was really pivotal,” he said. But to get to the U.S. Ski Association (now U.S. Ski and Snowboard), Kelly followed a winding path, working at a handful of newspapers around Wisconsin, then taking a job in public relations for Telemark Ski Area, where he met his wife, Carole Duh, on his first day. Telemark became a training spot of the U.S. Nordic team, and Kelly and its founder, Tony Wise, were instrumental in creating the World Lopped — an international circuit of large-scale Nordic races for amateur racers. Kelly took his experience with international Nordic skiing and created a Nordic ski travel company, which shepherded amateur American racers around the globe to ski races, including a race in Murmansk, Russia, near the northern border of Norway, in what was then the Soviet Union. Seeking something more stable, Kelly turned to the U.S. Ski Association and took his first job at the organization as the assistant national Nordic director in June 1986. He and Carole then weathered the orPlease see Leaving, B-3 assemble Park City’s Premier Co-Working Space WORK WHERE YOU PLAY Located next to Basin Recreation and just steps away from the Swaner Preserve and miles of trails Private Offices • Business Lounge • Semi-Private Work Stations Conference Rooms • Reception Services • Daily Rates Available For details please contact Angela at 435-200-1312 info@assembleparkcity.com | www.assembleparkcity.com | located in Newpark @ Kimball Junction RESTAURANT GUIDE PARKRECORD PARK CITY | UTAH | SERVING SUMMIT COUNTY SINCE 1880 On lin e! There are about 170 restaurants in the Park City area. Let us help you narrow down your dining choices. Explore these restaurants by culinary style, location and much more with our online restaurant guide. Visit www.parkrecordonline.com/restaurants to discover what you are missing |