BLAST FROM THE PAST ... 1991 World Disabled Ski Championships

Back in my relatively youthful days (35-40) I helped coach for the U.S. Disabled Ski Team, which is now called the Para-Olympic Team.

I met Joe Raineri, a super fit, blind racer, out in Lake Tahoe one year while I was skiing in the National Championships. The following winter he showed up in Lake Placid for a training camp, his race guide was too slow, and so the team coach asked me to jump in and guide him on a time trial on the Ladies 5K.

We were a good team, and I coached and guided in two world championships ... one in Seefeld, Austria and the other in Jackson, New Hampshire. In 1991 we had two really good races at the Worlds, just missing the podium in 4th and 5th. (As a warmup for those races I guided Joe on the Lake Placid Loppet, which with NCS students manning the aid stations gave him lots of cheering and special attention every time he came through.)