Art Devlin, ski jumper and longtime TV analyst, dies in Lake Placid at 81

By Published On: April 26th, 2004Comments Off on Art Devlin, ski jumper and longtime TV analyst, dies in Lake Placid at 81

Art Devlin, ski jumper and longtime TV analyst, dies in Lake Placid at 81{mosimage}A memorial service will be held April 27 in Lake Placid, New York, for three-time Olympic ski jumper Art Devlin, who died of cancer. Devlin, who lived in Lake Placid all his life, died at home April 22 at the age of 81.

A promising junior ski jumper with the Lake Placid Sno Birds before the war, Devlin was commissioned in the Army Air Corps during World War II and flew 50 missions over Germany. He was discharged in 1946, the same year he won the U.S. jumping championship.

He went on to make the 1948, ’52 and ’56 Olympic teams; he was injured in 1948 but finished 15th in at Holmenkollen in Oslo in 1952, 21st at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, in 1956. Devlin also was in the 1950 world championships — the jumping events were held in Lake Placid but, because of poor snow, the cross-country races and completion of nordic combined took place in Rumford, Maine — and the ’54 championships.

In 1963, Devlin was elected to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in Ishpeming, Michigan. He spent more than two decades as ski jumping analyst for CBS and ABC, which broadcast the Olympics as well as a variety of ski jumping events each winter.

His first wife, whom he married in 1952, died in 1989 and Devlin later remarried. He is survived by his widow and three children. The memorial service will be at 11 a.m. at St. Agnes Church in Lake Placid with private burial.

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About the Author: Pete Rugh