Kenai Peninsula skiers make tracks into Winter Olympics
The Olympics five-ring symbol, representing the union of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and America, needs a new link. One for the Kenai Peninsula.
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Jay Hakkinen, biathlon athlete from Kasilof, represented the United States in Nagano, Japan at the 1998 Olympics. He was on the front lines again this year in Salt Lake City. In 1980, Tustumena Elementary School teacher Dave Michael of Kasilof was on the U.S. Olympic cross-country ski team hosted by Lake Placid, N.Y. And in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1976, and Sapporo, Japan, in 1972, Larry Martin of Homer held a spot on the U.S. Olympic cross-country ski team.
The Olympic creed says, "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."
The separate paths of Hakkinen, Michael and Martin are living examples of the single-minded struggle to take part.
Although biathlon is a popular sport in Europe, it has lacked recognition in the United States.
And then came Hakkinen.
"Little did the Americans know that a young bundle of talent up in the little fishing village of Kasilof, Alaska, was dabbling in ice hockey, wrestling and cross-country skiing," according to a description of the sport's history on the United States Biathlon Association's World Wide Web site.
In 1993, Hakkinen was a national champion in the United Stated Ski Association Junior Olympics. In 1994, he was a foreign exchange student in Vingrom, Norway, the Norwegian headquarters for biathlon. His host family introduced him to the sport. With Lillehammer hosting the Olympics that year, the timing couldn't have been better -- for the United States biathlon team -- and for Hakkinen.
"At the same time, the biathlon association was looking for kids to develop for medalists in Salt Lake City," said Hakkinen, who graduated from Skyview High School in 1995. "That was the direction I wanted to go, so it was kind of an ideal situation. It's pretty amazing how it worked."
It worked because of the years of intense hours of training in different locations and under a variety of conditions, testing equipment and experimenting with different kinds of wax.
In 1997, he became the first American world champion by winning the 10-kilometer sprint at the Junior World Championships in Forni Avoltri, Italy. His results in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano -- 42nd in the 20-kilometer competition -- were not as memorable, but in 1999 he placed fifth in the World Cup competition in Lake Placid. During 2000, he continued to give encouraging performances, kept competing during 2001 and is in Salt Lake City this month.
Last Monday, he finished 26th. He missed three targets in 20 shots on the firing range, absorbing three minutes in penalties. Had Hakkinen eliminated just two of those misses, he could have finished as high as 11th.
"I started thinking too much going into my second round of shooting and kind of choked up (missing twice from the standing position),'' he said. "I knew I had to hit all my shots to be competitive. But with those kind of penalties, it's tough to get a good result.''
It's all heady stuff for a kid from Kasilof, who went on to post a best-ever finish for an American biathlete -- 13th place -- in Saturday's 12.5-kilometer pursuit.
Jay Hakkinen of Kasilof is competing in the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. He finished in 13th place -- the best-ever finish for a U.S. biathlete -- Saturday in the 12.5-kilometer pursuit.
Clarion file photo
"The world is our playground," Hakkinen said. "But Kasilof is still my favorite place to train. I have everything set up. It's home. There's not any hassle. I just do what I want to do."
The biggest challenge is to stay focused.
"As a junior it was really easy, and I felt like I had unlimited energy," he said. "As you get older and the years go by, you start to think a little too much. But you still have to train. You still have to get out there. That's what gets the results -- the fight."
At the Olympics, there's the struggle to stay centered in the face of so many activities and events.
"The distractions are terrible," he said. "It gets really bad. But the best athletes will come to the Olympics and nothing will distract them. They're there for one purpose -- the medals -- and those are the guys that will do well."
And then there's "doing something that no American has done."
"We've come a long way and we've got a long way to go, but we're going in the right direction," Hakkinen said.
That direction has earned him the support of the home folks. According to Skyview High School teacher David Carey, who also is the mayor of the city of Soldotna, some 200 students made cards that were hand delivered to Hakkinen in Salt Lake City.
"They appreciate that he's a Skyview graduate, that he's from Kasilof and they wanted to wish him the very vest of luck" Carey said. "It is our hope that it makes him feel good and might even help him do a little better."
A resolution honoring Hakkinen was passed at the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly's Feb. 5 meeting.
"Jay is a credit to his family and community and the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly extends its congratulations on a job well done and wishes Jay Hakkinen all the best as he competes for Olympic gold," the resolution read.
That support doesn't go unnoticed.
"I hear that and it's really nice," Hakkinen said. "I'm really proud of where I come from, that's for sure."
Thinking back on his experience on the U.S. Olympic cross-country ski team, Dave Michael can relate to Hakkinen's self-discipline.
Sporting the U.S. Olympic cross-country ski uniform, Homer's Larry Martin, who was on the team in 1972 and 1978, participates in a 1973 competition.
Photo courtesy of Larry Martin
"It's kind of a monastic lifestyle," he said. "But there's something about the purity of it and pushing yourself to the max. If you have a bad day, it's your fault. If you have a good day, you did well. It's nobody else's fault but your own."
Michael was born and raised in Juneau. He took a liking to cross-country running while attending Juneau-Douglas High School and the coach suggested cross-country skiing as a way to stay in shape during the winter. But finding level ground in mountainous southeast Alaska wasn't easy.
"We started skiing in the graveyard," Michael said. "People find out that little piece of history and they just about fall off their rockers. But it was the only flat place in town."
After the first couple of months, Michael decided cross-country skiing wasn't for him.
"I thought it was kind of a crazy sport," he said.
However, he picked it up again his sophomore year and came home from a competition in White-horse, British Columbia, with a trophy "the size of a Volkswagen."
He attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks for a couple of years after graduating from high school in 1975.
"I was trying to go to college and train (in cross-country skiing) at the same time," he said. "And I felt like I was chasing a moving target. It got to be too much."
More recently, Martin has been volunteering his time helping with the Homer Middle School's cross-country ski team. His son Tad is on the team.
Photo by McKibben Jackinsky
Temporarily setting his education aside, Michael focused on training and competing, consistently finishing in the top 10 in the nation. His success earned him the support of Alaska's Nordic ski community and placed him in position to try out for the Olympic team in Lake Placid.
"It was my first Christmas away from home, and I remember opening Christmas presents in a hotel," Michael said, remembering his disappointment that it was raining and there wasn't any snow. The tryouts were moved to Quebec and suddenly, Michael's world changed.
"I got up there and everything started clicking," he said. "Contribute it to what you may, but I'm a Christian and have a good strong faith in a God that's looking out for you and guiding you, and I felt that was something I was supposed to be doing."
During tryouts, he placed first in the 30 kilometer and second in the 15 kilometer.
"And all of a sudden, I was on the Olympic team," he said, recalling the sudden shift from having to struggle for that position to having it handed to him. "My whole world was upside down. I think I would have done better had I not had all the stuff thrown at me. It was a shock."
An illness kept him sidelined during the games and unable to participate. In 1984, he made a run at the U.S. biathlon team, placing eighth in the nation, narrowly missing a spot on the six-member team. In 1987, he gave it another shot.
"I was racing really well in late December, but then in January, I just fell flat," he said.
Now, cross-country skiing is something Michael shares with the students at Tustumena Elementary. A successful after-school program keeps him busy, with more than 70 students expressing an interest.
"For most of these kids, and adults included, this time of year is very hard on them," he said. "Grades take a drop, families have problems, there's a lot of tardiness, kids miss more school and get sick more easily. But taking those kids out there and running them around, playing games on skis, that's my approach. I just want them to have fun on skis and on snow. You never know which kid you're going to create a spark with."
Larry Martin was one of the people who created an Olympic spark in Michael.
"He wouldn't know me from the man in the moon," Michael said. "But he was one of those Alaskans who was in previous Olympics and was a big motivator. He probably never realized or even knew the impact he had."
Martin was born in Glennallen and moved to Homer when he was 5. His two older brothers were in all the sports, and Martin followed suit, beginning cross-country skiing while in grade school.
Homer had the only ski team on the Kenai Peninsula in those days, which meant traveling to Anchor-age to compete.
"The parents took turns (driving)," Martin said. "We'd load up in the cars and ski all weekend."
During high school, he was on the Alaska Junior National Team. In 1966, he had the best individual times in Nordic events, which helped Homer High School win the state championship. He went on to represent Alaska in the Junior Nationals in Winter Park, Colo. After graduating in 1969, he attended Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., on a scholarship. The school met Martin's requirements -- it was small and had a good ski program.
When Durango hosted the national championships, Martin's skiing ability got him a spot on the U.S. "B" -- development -- team.
"They invited us to training camps and took some of us young guys to Europe to get exposure in international competition," Martin said. A three-week tour during his sophomore year took him to Norway, Sweden and Finland. After the tryouts in Vermont during December 1971 and January 1972, Martin made it to the Olympic team.
On the way to the Sapporo games, the flight to Tokyo stopped in Anchorage and friends were there to wish him well. Homer Mayor Hazel Heath declared the week of the 1972 Winter Olympics "Larry 'Tad' Martin Week." And in an article about Alaska's 1972 Olympic athletes, the Anchorage Daily News wrote, "The residents of Homer are not alone as they salute one of Alaska's finest athletes."
Martin remembered the pace set by the Scandinavian, Russian and German teams.
More recently, Martin has been volunteering his time helping with the Homer Middle School's cross-country ski team. His son Tad is on the team.
Photo by McKibben Jackinsky
"It was like minor league baseball playing against the major leagues," he said. "I think we're narrowing that gap. But back then it was pretty amazing."
After the 1976 Olympics, Martin decided it was time to call it quits.
"I was 26 by then and had a couple of injuries I had to deal with," he said. "I couldn't see putting another four years into trying to see what else I could do."
Competing had given Martin opportunities to travel. The harbors and the friendly people of Oslo, Norway, stand out in his memory.
"But after so many years, when we'd go to Europe, we'd only ski in the same areas so I wasn't seeing any new scenery and that kind of got to me," he said. "We'd go to some of these fancy places and people would later ask if we'd seen this museum or that landmark, but no, we'd just kind of passed through."
There were other benefits, like the memorable opportunity to present two Russian cosmonauts and three American astronauts with U.S. ski team pins.
"The Russians had just been to the moon and here they thought it was great getting these pins," Martin said.
Meeting other Olympic athletes also had an impact on the Homer skier.
"In Sapporo, we had a chance to visit with speed skaters," he said. "We seemed to come together because the sports are somewhat the same. They involve distance, training and neither sport was very well known."
Leaving all that behind wasn't an easy decision.
After a day teaching at Tustumena Elementary School, Dave Michael, his wife, Debbie, and their sons Levi, 4, and David, 18 months, spend time skiing. The Michaels other son, Lucas, 7, skis, too.
Photo by McKibben Jackinsky
"The hardest thing when I quit skiing was knowing I was going to sever the relationships with those people," he said.
He eventually returned to Homer and owns Lakeshore Glass. When his daughter Ida was on Homer High School's cross-country ski team, Martin helped coach the team. She graduated last spring and is now a student at Western State College in Gunnison, Colo. His son Tad is on Homer Middle School's cross-country ski team, and Martin's plan is to continue as a volunteer coach as long as his son is interested in skiing.
Although running his business requires a lot of time, he said, "I try to get out on the weekends and ski. Mainly for my health and peace of mind, and I still like to try and stay in shape."
And of the 2002 Winter Olympics, Martin said, "It brings back lots of memories."
McKibben Jackinsky is a free-lance writer who lives in Ninilchik.