1939: Skiing

Skiing, in 1939, enjoyed its best season in two years in the United States, with an abundance of snow from Thanksgiving Day until late in the Spring at many of the popular resorts. Likewise, many more people became enthusiastic about the sport (there are nearly 500,000 skiers in the U. S.) and there are a few added luxuries such as ski tows, chair tramways, modern funiculars and cableways to tow skiers up to the top of ski runs. Week-end skiers had their fun and competitive skiers engaged in the busiest program in the history of the National Ski Association, in tournaments from coast to coast, attended by many foreign stars.

The nationals comprised the most interesting of the year's events, held at Timberline Lodge, on the slopes of Mt. Hood, Portland, Ore. It was here that Dick Durrance, of Dartmouth, made a clean sweep of the three 'restricted amateur' downhill and slalom titles, as well as winning the Federation Internationale de Ski combined downhill and slalom tryout. The national open downhill went to Toni Matt, youthful protegé of the Austrian ski instructor, Hannes Schneider. Reidar Andersen, of Norway, led the ski jumpers, besting the Rudd brothers who dominated the jumping events during the previous two winters. Andersen won more than a dozen important events in North America, including open class jumping, and Class A jumping.

Another sensation from Norway was 19-year-old Torger Tokle, in the Eastern meet at Laconia-Gilford, N. H. Competing in Class B, he outjumped and outscored the Class A fields in the eight events he won, winding up a season that was nothing short of phenomenal. Warren and Howard Chivers, of Dartmouth, won every event of note in cross-country skiing except the nationals which they passed up, as well as combined langlauf and jumping, two of the most difficult phases of the sport. They were supreme in the intercollegiates, at Lake Placid, and in the Eastern and F. I. S. national try-outs.