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Whiteface, NY's Olympic mountain, is 50

By JOHN KEKIS, AP Sports Writer

Mon Jan 28, 8:39 AM ET

 

 

WILMINGTON, N.Y. - Jim Hoyt slid to a stop on the new-fallen snow and looked skyward at the icy face of his favorite place.

 

"It's the love of my life," said the 70-year-old Hoyt, a member of the ski patrol at Whiteface Mountain Ski Center for longer than he cares to remember. "I've skied it mostly every day."

 

It's been a half century since Gov. Averell Harriman came here on Jan. 25, 1958 to celebrate the opening of what would become New York's Olympic mountain.

 

"When they opened it, that was the real deal," said 85-year-old Bob Wall, who used to write a ski column for the Syracuse Herald-Journal. "There weren't many places to ski and Whiteface was like a real mountain. It was like going out West. Everybody loved it. These other mountains were like pimples, with a vertical drop of 600 or 700 feet."

 

Nearby Lake Placid had already hosted the 1932 Olympic Games that featured ice hockey, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, figure skating, speedskating and bobsled, along with three demonstration sports

Edited by sexkitten

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