Canadian National ski jumper Greg Baxter landed in Squamish last week to talk about his emerging sport and inform local residents on how they can get involved in the upcoming competitions in the Callaghan Valley, including the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Baxter competed in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy as the youngest Olympian that year at age 16.
Now 18, he said he's excited at the prospect of competing at home since the ski jumping circuit is based mainly in Europe and Scandinavia.
"It's great to finally have the Olympics at home again," he said. "It's been such a long time, and just to have another centre in Canada to train at too will be great for the sport overall."
After presentations at the Squamish Valley Golf Course and Howe Sound Secondary School on Thursday (Oct. 25), Baxter pitched his sport to a younger audience at Garibaldi Highland Elementary School of Friday (Oct. 26).The Grade 3 students watched Baxter's ski jumping slideshow in awe.
"This guy's insane," remarked one student to a buddy. "This guy's really insane," his buddy replied.
Since Baxter's parents recently bought a house in Squamish, he'll be spending a lot of time in town preparing for upcoming competitions. He'll take his first flight at Callaghan Valley this winter in preparation for the Canadian National Championships and North American Championships running from Jan. 2 to 5.
Baxter said he and his teammates will benefit from the extra air time.
"I'm definitely looking forward to getting a lot of experience up there because it will be quite different from the hills in Europe."Ski jumping isn't a popular Canadian sport, but Baxter, who started the sport at age six, notices it slowly emerging among young athletes. After all, at 18-years-old, he is the second oldest on the National Team.
"There's a lot of development kids in the country right now just trying to work their way up because we haven't really had a major team for a while," he said.
"2006 was the first Olympics since 1992 that Canada had anyone representing."
The Squamish area is turning into a hub for all things Nordic, said Chamber of Commerce manager Denise Imbeau. She pointed out that the sport managers for ski jumping (John Heilig), biathlon (Max Saenger), cross country (Rob Bernhardt) and VANOC Nordic director John Aalberg to name a few, all live in Squamish.
"We have this huge Nordic contingent living in Squamish," she said. "This is a phenomenal opportunity for the community to embrace this."
Registration for ski jump officiating training is now open for upcoming events in 2008 through to 2010. Those volunteering for the championships in January will likely be invited to the Olympics, said Imbeau.For more information visit www.boldtracks.com.
