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Show The Salt Lake Tribune ROAD TO THE GAMES Thursday, January 31, 2002 A Half Century Later, No U.S. Peterson Designed Speedy Plan To Reach Olympics Fame in Boise, Idaho, in 1997, we're excited,” U.S. freestyle coach Jeff Wintersteen said after Peterson’s selection to the team. Despite his strong showing, Peterson's inexperience could thing he wanted inscribed on a be a handicap during the Games. His best jumps are not BY JIM WOOLF ‘THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE When Jeret Peterson was named to the Youth Hall of he was allowed to have anyplaque placed in the city hall. “[ put the U.S. Ski Team emblem andthe words:‘2002 Gold Medallist,"” says Peterson, who is now 20 andliving in ParkCity. Hewill have a chance of fulfilling that dream after being named to the U.S. Olympic men’s aerials team this week to replace injured aerialist Emily Cook of Belmont, Mass. Cook's Olympic dreams fal- needed for a medal. “But the good thing is he handles the pressure really well,” said Wintersteen. “The Olympics are going to be a pressure cooker like no other. If those guys don't put down their best jumps, he’s going to be right there to pick it up.” Peterson is a mi friendly man with short blonde hair and a small silver loop in injury, she was named to the U.S. Olympic team on Jan. 22, but team officials selected Peterson as “first alternate” in compliment he has received lately was from friends who described him as “humble.” case she couldn't compete. Although he describes tak- “T try to not be arrogant,” he said. “I can’t stand people who [winning the gold medal] I see myself at the bottom ofthehill, looking up, and just being so happy,”he said. Peterson went from little known “development skier” to Olympian in just a few weeks. Foryears, he has practiced emony of the 1960 Winter Olympics. After four decades, there may have been a physical difference in the way she conveyed the torch, but not much ofaspiritual one. “It was just really a wonderful moment; it’s almost hard to describe,” said Lawrence from her home in Mammoth, Calif..“It’s a moment when there’s an enormous sense of exuberance and, on a personal level, a tremendous sense of what yet as difficult as those per- each ear. He says the biggest has dreamed for years about an Olympicvictory andis ready to compete. “When I picture myself question ofwhat I had to do.” she arrived in formed by the leaders such as Bergoust, so it will be a challenge get the high scores tered when she dislocated an ankle on Jan.17 while training at LakePlacid, N.Y. Despite the ing his teammate’s place as “bittersweet,” Peterson said he Skier Has Matched Lawrence are arrogant, like Dennis Rodman,I feel he’s a horrible athlete. Yes, he can rebound a basketball. But he’s ridiculous as a human being. Michael Jordan is a wonderful athlete, but he’s also human. He’s humble. He’s good, but helets his actions speak for him andI feel that’s very important.” older. “She’s been wonderful,” said Peterson. Linda Petersonsaid she isn’t really surprised by her son’s nurse in Boise. His parents ing to Park City for a ski com- were divorced when he was on the Nor-Am Circuit.— the petition when he drew them young and she raised both Jeret andhis oldersister, Erica. and hesaid: ‘Momma, I’m going His second chance camelast monthat LakePlacid, where he finished fourth — higher than both 1998 gold medalist Eric Bergoust and Park City’s Joe Pack. This was also the second highestfinish of the year by an American man, and convinced the coaches to give him a chance at the Olympics. “He's jumping great and Bramble Feeds Off Adrenaline tion so he could entera training camp at Lake Placid that was limited to those 12 and motocross when he was a kid because I was afraid he would skiing instead.It’s just not in your hands.” Some termed it a death wish. “No,it’s a life wish,” he would reply. “[Being daring] remorse, without even a trace of sadness: “No one was surprised whenI broke myback,” he says. “Theyall knew me too well.” It seems many, even Bramble, considered an injury of that magnitude a foregone conclusion. Growing up in South Jer- sey, Bramble was always searching for adrenaline highs. “Kevin was born a daredevil,” his mother Joyce says. “He was always trying to keep up with his older brothers and big sister. He could ride a skateboard when he was 4 and he rode a motorcycle when he was 5. Hejust wasn’t goingto be left out.” Surfing the Jersey shore, and Bogus Basin resort after he get paralyzed. Well, he went @ Continued from C-1 skating, tiently drove him to the nearby discovered a passion for skiing at age 9. Whenhedecided to take up freestyle skiing at age 11, she scraped up the moneyfor instruction and even changed the year ofhis birth on an applica- racing bikes, Kevin made trips to the hospital across the street from the Bramble’s home a regular occurence, “I broke so many bones and had so manystitches,” Kevin jokes, “my mom didn’t want to take me to the hospital any- more. She was afraid they would think I was getting beat up or something.” Joyce and her husbandjust learned to live with the fear. “You just learn that you can't protect them,” Joyce says.“I wouldn't let Kevin race makes mefeel closer to life than to death.It makes mefeel powerful.” Noonewas surprised again when Bramble hit the road back to Tahoe just two weeks after an 18-month stint in a body cast back home in New Jersey. After all, much to the chagrin ofhis parents, he took aroadtrip to Vermontto visit a friend while he wasstill in the bodycast. “He just said, ‘What’s the problem?’” Joyce can laugh aboutit now,“’l don’t see the problem here mom.” Though he had never seen anyoneuse one, Kevin bought a monoskibefore the cast had even comeoff, and returned to Tahoe justin time to catch the last three days of the 1995 season. In 1998, Bramble moved to Winter Park, Colo. to try his luck with the National Sports Center for the Disabled. In 1999, he made the U.S.disabled ski team but the combination of his renegade attitude and the structure of the racing team left both sides with a bitter taste. He was sent home to be in the 2002 Winter Olympics.” I thought to myself: ‘Maybe that kid is right,’ sol put them in thefile.” Tt was during that first training camp in Lake Placid that Peterson was nicknamed “Speedy” because he didn’t like to waitin line to jump and kept rushingpastthe otherskiers to get to the topofthehill. two like being upside down andliving on the wild side.” His long-term plan is definitely calmer. He wants to continueclasses at the University of Utah and eventually get a master’s degree in business ad- ministration. Then he would like to run a business, perhaps arestaurant. But for the last several century ago. again. like a punk snowboarder, with coaches] have beena lot cooler likes the excitementofflying 60 bleach-blonde hair who would rather“hang out in the terrain parks.” “He's fast — he’s got no fear, that’s for sure,” says Kevin Jardine, a coach with the U.S. disabled ski team. “He has his own technique, which he refuses to change. He ends up doing exactly the opposite of what we're telling everyone else to do.” Bramble went back to the freedom of Tahoe and never trained another day in a race course. He focused hisefforts instead on whatheloved to do best, free ski, and “huck big.” He does admit to calculating his stunts a lot more after his accident because of his more limited mobility. Still, the Paralympics beckoned, The chance to prove that he is the fastest downhiller (naturally the only event that interests Bramble) in the world,proved to be too great a temptation. He burst back onto the racing scene with an appearance, and a victory, last year in a World Cup downhill at Snowbasin, earning him a spot on the C-team. Then he disappeared, and showed up this season for a speed training camp in Snow- basin and the Paralympic qualifiers in Park City. He was named to the Paralympic team Jan. 9. “(The to’methis time around,” says a more mature Bramble. “I proved my theory to them.” After hegets his shot at gold in March, this aging stuntman has his sights set further down the road. He spendshis free time designing and building his own adaptive equipment. He just sold is first monoski and next year plans on transferring from Truckee Meadows Community College to the engi- neering program at the University of Nevada in Reno. As forhis skiing, he also has big plans. “T personally think there’s no respect for disabled racers. Everyone says ‘Oh you're so inspirational’ but nobody says ‘Wow,you rip!’” Bramble has already ap- peared in “The Tahoe Project.” A moviefilmed last year thatis yet to be released. The movie features him jumping the “KT Gap,” a 25-foot rock band at Squaw Valley. Next season he wants to focus on competing in able-bodied events. Heis petitioning to compete in the 24 hours of Aspenrace as well as the skier-cross circuit. As far as he is concerned, doesn’t “{ wanttobe considered in the elite of all skiers,” he says with conviction, “Just skiers.” in one the public eye was set on the ski struction during the summers to earn enough moneyto train medals protect her exquisite mountain environment. But, for all that she has done,herplace in only one thing: the 2002 Olympics. That has meanttraining every winter and working con- feet into the air offajijump. “Tlove thrill sports,” he said. “] jumped out of an airplane aerialists, Peterson said he gold Olympic Games. Since then, she has led an accomplished life, moving to the California Sierras in i the years, his focus has been on “You know,it’s been tough,” hesaid. “I haven’t had much of a social life. But that’s something I chose to give up. To go to the Olympics and hopefully win a gold medal I'd give upall e beer and the parties in the world.” Like most of the freestyle from Europe for disciplinary reasons. “I hated it,” he says unabashedly, even though he was successful as a rookie. “There were too many politics, too muchtravel, and not enough skiing. They just looked at me tons offun.I like skiing fast, I Paul Fraughton/The Salt Lake Tribune success. “T have a couple of drawings from when he wasnine years old,” she said. “We were travel- sports, Peterson said she pa- once, and that’s something I could definitely get into. It was is the 50th anniversary of an achievement that has not yet been matched by another United States Alpine skier. In 1952, at the Winter Olympics in Oslo, Lawrence,then a 19year-old newlywed from Rutland, Vt., won twoevents, the giant slalom and the slalom. Noother U.S. skier has won Freestyle skier Jeret Peterson has had his eye on the 2002 Olympics since he was 9. Peterson gives a lot of the credit for his success to his mother, Linda Peterson, a Although his mom wasn't particularly interested in Lawrence, who will turn 70 in April,left office three your history represents.” Lawrence’s history becomes especially noteworthy in this Olympicyear,for this equivalentof the minor leagues in baseball. Last year, he was given one chance atfreestyle skiing’s big league — the World Cup —andplaced a respectable 15th at SundayRiver, Maine. backflips with upto four twists person .” she said. “Theserural boys can kind of let you have it.” ; of Norway a half- “There's a part of it that’s timeless, and that’s your in- ner clock, your inner self,” she reflected on the passage of 50 years since her golden moments. “It’s a timeless expe- rience, because once you do it, it lasts your lifetime.” Lawrence wasa three-time Olympian.In 1948, she was 15, too young to make a dentat St. Moritz. In 1956, she was the mother of three already and not considered a factor, although amazingly she came within a 10th of a second of winning a bronze in the giant slalom at Cortina. But 1952 was hertime, and she met the moment. Thegiant slalom was held on the opening day of the Games, and Andrea blitzed the field by more than two seconds. Six days later in the slalom,she experienced what she calls “the defining moment” of her competitive career: the second run, after a fall in the first run had put her medal chances in Jeopardy. Lawrence had spun outof a gate on her first run andestimates that she lost three seconds because ofit. She had someground to makeup, and she did it with a second run that was almost four seconds faster than her first — and two seconds faster than anyone else’s. She had her second medal. That supreme momentinformed the restofherlife. She that moment.It’s being able to go inside yourself to do that, and there was no Lawrence, whose daughter Quentin lives in Salt Lake City, will be visiting here during the Olympics. There = be more laurels awaitmete is oneof six finalists for the Havoline Star Award, an annual honor for U.S. Ski Team alumni for their community service. The award will be made today. And Olympic filmmaker Bud Greenspan has putheron his list of the top 25 Winter Olympians ofall time, which means she is in the running to be one ofthe top 10 that will be named during the Games. But some of her former skiing compadres believe she should be honored in a more official manner by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee — for instance, in the Opening Ceremony.Linda Meyers Tikalsky, a member of the 1960 and 1964 U.S. Olympic ski teams, drafted a letter to the editor to that effect and gathered i ee Itran ina recentSalt Lake Tribune. “T will be extpemely disappointed in Salt Lake, in SLOC, in the whole movement, if they don’t honor her,” said Tikalsky, who lives in Bayfield, Colo., and calls her mentor regularly. “Tt takes away whatI believe [the Olympic movement] is about.” Asked about SLOC’s plans for Lawrence, spokeswoman Caroline Shaw said last week that the committee “has extended an invitation for her to run the Olympic torch relayin Salt Lake City on Feb. 8 in an honored spot.” Lawrence, who didn’t see the Tikalsky letter until her daughter faxed it to her this ary m that keeps her honors, even the two gold medals, in perspective. “Havingthe gold medals is what has allowed me to get ay Pan out there, and for am very grateful,” shesaid. “But we feato use these public acknowledgments, and we forget that there are people around every day in the world who do things that are more important than winning gold medals.” 2002 SPECIAL Rent a Commercial Vac for $2.00 a day (based on 30 day rental) This week only!get a Commercial Quality use sismeiad change Out Home BONUS Lightweight Powerful Indestructible FREE CAN-VAG (6100akin) on ie best rated HEATING G AIR fentirills” Inventory Clearance - Your Choice 18's Hard to Stop A Trane.™ (Next to Staples) mone FREE NO PRESSURE ESTIMATES| éUPPER LIMIT FITNESS WAREHOUSE Salt Lake City 815 W.2400 S. 973-7303 We. 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