Tepco China - Squaw Valley, California
He caused a sensation when, at the age of 19, he became the first non-Scandinavian jumper to win the coveted Holmenkollen Festival title in Norway. During that triumph he showcased his distinctive jumping style, developed in conjunction with his East German team-mates and which involved him leaning forward with his arms stretched out in front of him. |
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In a bid to increase his speed, the Frenchman then honed his revolutionary “egg position”, now known as the tuck, a lower stance in which he squatted down with knees bent, arms outstretched and fists clasped together. Though the position would be adopted by every downhill skier in the years that followed, Vuarnet was the only competitor to use it in Squaw Valley. And it was not the only innovation he unveiled on the slopes of California in 1960. The French ski manufacturer that supplied the national team had provided Vuarnet with wooden skis that he found far too flexible. “It was a disaster,” he said in an interview. “So I went to their factory in Voiron and had a good look around. I came across a pair of metal skis that were just my size. I called the manufacturer and asked them to send me a new pair because the Games were coming up.” He got his hands on his new skis just a few days before the downhill at Squaw Valley and went on to become the first skier in Olympic history to win gold on metal skis. Vuarnet’s stunning victory in Squaw Valley thrust him firmly into the international limelight. On returning to France, he launched an eponymous line of eyewear that used a new type of glass and enjoyed success around the world. |
Squaw Valley 1960 were the first Olympic Games to take place in the Space Race era, prompting the following remarks : “You can return home as the world’s best-equipped ambassadors of unity and peace. Before we pay so much attention to conquering outer space, we should devote ourselves to conquering inner space: the distance between nations.” |
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T E P C O
Squaw Valley Ski Resort in Olympic Valley, California, is one of the largest ski areas in the United States, and was the host site of the entire 1960 Winter Olympics. It is the second-largest ski area in Lake Tahoe after Heavenly, with 30 chairlifts, 3,600 acres and the only funitel in the U.S. When Alexander Cushing put forward Squaw Valley's bid to the International Olympic Committee in 1955, the resort did not even exist ! He was the only inhabitant and homeowner in the whole place. The organisers refused to build a track for the bobsleigh competition, making this the first time that this discipline was not on the Olympic programme. The officials, unsure as to whether a skier had missed a gate in the men's slalom, asked CBS-TV if they could review a videotape of the race. This gave CBS the idea to invent the now ubiquitous "instant replay." Men's biathlon and women's speed skating made their Olympic debut. The winner of the downhill, Frenchman Jean Vuarnet, wore metal skis instead of the traditional wooden ones. It was the first Olympic medal to be won on metal skis. It is made up of three triangles in the colours of the American flag, and the Olympic rings. The triangles have a superimposed design to give a 3-D effect and create the image of a star or snow flake. Walt Disney, the world’s most famous cartoonist and animator, was put in charge of the Pageantry Committee for Squaw Valley 1960, his brief including the organisation of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Disney oversaw the creation of the Tower of Nations, a huge metal structure topped by the Olympic rings, adorned with the crests of the participating nations and flanked on either side by two large snow statues, one of a female skier and the other of a male speed skater. In front of this impressive structure was situated the Olympic cauldron, which would burn throughout the 11 days of the Games. It was in this grand setting that all the medal ceremonies would take place – the first time that they would be held in the same location – with the winning athletes taking to the podium in front of large crowds. During the 1959/60 season, They’d been tossed aside but they looked okay to me. I took them and tried them out in the Émile Allais Cup in Megève. One of the skis got bent but I still managed to finish fifth. So |
