Street, Weinbrecht and others inducted into Hall of Fame

Street, Weinbrecht and others inducted into Hall of Fame{mosimage}ISHPEMING, Mich. (Jan. 28) – Olympic, World and World Cup champions Picabo Street (Park City, UT) and Donna Weinbrecht (West Milford, NJ) were inducted Friday night into the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in Ishpeming, the birthplace of organized skiing in America 100 years ago this season.

“I’m really in awe,” said Weinbrecht. “This wasn’t an honor I really thought about during my career. This is really cool!”

“When you’re competing, your goals are focused on Olympic medals,” said Street. “What’s especially meaningful about this honor is that it’s not something you can focus on or even try to achieve during your career. To be selected for this honor by my peers in my sport is truly humbling.”

Both Weinbrecht and Street were emotional about the outpouring of warmth, especially from the hundreds of young children who attended the ceremony in Ishpeming’s Peterson Auditorium, and who were on hand for a race that afternoon at nearby Marquette Mountain in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan..

Also inducted in the Class of 2004 to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame Ishpeming, Mich., were Thor B. Groswold, former ski racing official, coach and director for 16 years of the Winter Park nordic program, which sent several athletes to the U.S. Ski Team, who also was a longtime executive with Colorado’s Winter Park Resort, and ski historian Alan Engen.

The four new inductees brought the total in the Hall of Fame to 342. The Hall of Fame, which celebrated its 50th anniversary a year ago, is located in Ishpeming in Michigan’s upper peninsula. The Ishpeming Ski Club is the oldest in America, having been founded in 1887. It was also the location of the first U.S. skiing championship, then only ski jumping. And in February, 1905, it was the site of the founding of the National Ski Association of America, which later became the present-day U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.

Street has one of the most illustrious careers in U.S. racing – the first American, male or female, to win a World Cup downhill title in 1995, and then she repeated in 1996. She also won the 1998 Olympic super G gold medal in Nagano, Japan, – using the same skis she wore at Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994 when she was downhill silver medalist.

She won nine World Cup races and added three World Championships medals – gold in downhill at Sierra Nevada, Spain, in 1996 and bronze twice, in combined at Morioka, Japan, in 1993 and in super G at Sierra Nevada in 1996.

Weinbrecht had a similar career – gold in the first Olympic moguls event in 1992, five World Cup titles, the 1991 World Championships gold medal and 46 World Cup victories. She also was silver medalist at the 1989 and ’97 World Championships, and won seven U.S. moguls titles. Coincidentally, she and Street each retired in 2002 as three-time Olympians.

Both of their careers were marked by tremendous highs, and challenging lows from injuries. But both athletes made it a habit of making stunning comebacks.

Both Street and Weinbrecht were lauded for the legacy they left behind for the athletes of today. “People ask me if I miss the sport when I see skiers like Lindsey Kildow doing well,” said Street. “It’s the exact opposite. One of my biggest concerns as an athlete was whether or not there would be new girls coming up to beat me. I love to see Lindsey and the other girls do well. And I’ll bet you’ll see her on the podium in Bormio this week — the same podium where I won my first World Cup title in 1995.”

“It’s really exciting for me to see how strong the mogul team is today,” said Weinbrecht, who weathered many substantive changes in her sport during her 14 years. “I can’t believe the inverteds (aerials) they’re doing in moguls now! And I’m proud when I hear how we swept the podium again at Deer Valley!”

Engen, the son of famed ski jumper Alf Engen, was a pioneering historian who has written two books. Over the past two decades, he focused his energy on the development of the new Alf Engen Ski Museum at the Utah Olympic Park. The $10-million facility, part of the Joe Quinney Sports Center, is the most modern ski museum in the world. Groswold, whose father Thor and brother Jerry are also honored members of the Hall of Fame, was a lifelong ski racer and official in Colorado where his work was highly respected, especially in the area of alpine timing. In the 1970’s, he and brother Jerry combined to develop what was then the largest ski area expansion in America with the Mary Jane complex at Winter Park.

The Hall of Fame began in 1954 to both honor those who contributed to the sport in America, and to house a museum to display and archive historic memorabilia. In 1992 a 14,500-square-foot facility was inaugurated which presently houses the museum’s collections, including the Roland Palmedo National Ski Library, one of the largest collections in the world.