Elite athletes honored at Utah "Ski Affair"

Picabo Street, Muffy Davis and Sondra Van Ert were local athletes saluted at the Ski Archives’ ninth annual "Ski Affair" Oct. 22 in Salt Lake City’s Little America Hotel.

Some 600 nostalgia-bent diners and donors were on hand to acknowledge the accomplisments of the honorees, to rekindle bygone friendships and to reminisce about their ski exploits of yesteryear.

The "history-makers" all won medals at the 1997 World Championships and 1998 Olympic Winter Games and Paralymic Games.

Street won a 1998 Olympic gold medal in super giant slalom and Van Ert captured the gold medal in giant slalom at the FIS World Snowboard Championships. Davis was the slalom bronze medal at the 1998 Paralympic Winter Games.

Other Idaho honorees were Lisa Kosglow, giant slalom silver medalist in world snowboard; Mike Jacoby, parallel slalom gold medalist in world snowboard; and Jacob Rife, SG sivler medalist at the Paralympic Winter Games.

The remaining honorees were Hilary Lindh of Utah, downhill gold medalist at the World Alpine Ski Championships; freestyle medalist Eric Bergoust of Montana; Nikki Stone of Utah, freestyle gold medalist in aerials; Shannon Dunn of Utah, snowboard halfpipe bronze medalist; and Maggie Behle, bronze medalist at the Paralympic Games.

One other very important person recognized at the dinner was Earl Miller of Ogden, Utah.

Miller served as director of the ski school at Snowbasin Ski Area in Utah from 1950 to 1985. He was one of the founders in 1958 of the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA). Miller was an influence in formalizing the American Teaching Method in 1962.

From 1964-75, Miller coached the Weber State University ski team. He was named Ski School Director of the Year by the PSIA-Intermountain chapter in 1972. At the Oct. 22 banquet, he received the S.J. and J.E. Quinney Award for Outstanding Contributions to Intermountain Skiing.

According to Dave Amidon of Park City, chairman of the Ski Archives volunteer advisory board, the "Ski Affair" is the largest fund-raising event of the Ski Archives program.

Proceeds fund the search, preservation and cataloguing of materials relevant to the development of winter sports in the Intermountain area.

To date, the Ski Archives has made available to the public, news media and researchers hundreds of photographs, scrapbooks, film footage, audio interviews, memorabilia and other items it has collected since its inception in 1989.

Amidon said the Oct. 22 dinner was the first time the Ski Archives has honored history-makers so soon after their triumphs.

He said, "In the past we’ve honored those who made an impact on skiing 30, 40, 50 and even 60 or more years ago. This year, we’re honoring the athletes while they’re still basking in the glow of their outstanding achievements.