Afton Pospisilova / Colorado Mountain News Media
FRISCO — We, the people — the athletes — of Summit County live in a truly unique and challenging place for sports. High up in the Rocky Mountains, our sporting lives and journeys come complete with high-altitude conditions and mountainous terrain. As Summit County has become settled over the last century, our snowglobe setting has been the perfect place for the sprawling, progressive growth of winter sports.
A century of sporting spirit
It was just about 100 years ago Summit County’s primary sporting pastime began transitioning from America’s game, baseball — which was popular among early mining settlers — to winter sports. In 1919, Anders Haugen, a famous Norwegian skier, jumped to a world record of 213 feet at the Dillon ski jump, located near the present-day overflow outlet at the base of the Dillon Reservoir dam. Ever since, to quote the title of the autobiography penned by Arapahoe Basin Ski Area co-founder Edna Dercum, it’s been “downhill all the way.”
There has been downhill skiing greatness here in Summit County, but I mean what I say more as a metaphor. The county’s momentum in winter sports has never stopped. Whether it be the influences of international Olympic downhill racers in the middle of the century, the bravery and boldness of high-Alpine skiers a few decades later, or the ardent ambition of our snowboarders today, Summit County has a sporting ethos all its own.
That athletic spirit is a history harbored by the people of this place. It’s an energy that revolves around a bravery to try what’s never been tried before. It is us. It is Summit County.
Chronicling greatness
In honor of this history, the Summit Daily News is launching “Peak Performers: The Mount Rushmore of Summit County athletes.” With Peak Performers, it’s our goal to work hand-in-hand this winter with the people of Summit County to honor the best athletes and most influential figures in the history of four sports at the core of our community: Alpine skiing, snowboarding, freestyle sking and Nordic skiing.
We’ll do so by having you, the people of Summit County, submit nominations across those four sports for the Peak Performers Mount Rushmore. In the spirit of our country’s national memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Peak Performers Mount Rushmore will be the four top county figures in the history of these winter sports.
Help tell the tale
But long before audience votes and the input of a judging panel decides who will be on Summit County’s sporting Mount Rushmore, we are asking the people of Summit County to submit nominations for those Mount Rushmore spots. If you have a family member, a friend, an idol whom you think deserves to be recognized as part of our county’s history, please nominate them at our Peak Performers page: summitdaily.com/peakperformers.
Nominations submitted at that link — where you can send in a photo and write up to 200 words on what makes the nominee special — will be published in the Summit Daily News sports section. This is our way of shining a light on all those who have helped shape the sporting story of Summit County over the last century.
When nominating, be sure to remember that both athletic achievement and community impact will be weighed when taking into account the total gravity of a Peak Performers nominee. We know there’s going to be debate between, say, an Olympic athlete who succeeded at the highest level and a more local figure who may have had more of an long-term influence on winter sports here in Summit County. That’s part of the debate, part of the fun, part of the story.
The timeline
Nominations are open now through Feb. 15. Then, on Feb. 23, the voting phase of Peak Performers will begin. Come March 7, voting will close.
The input of voters will be combined with input from a judging panel — none of whom are eligible for the Peak Performers Mount Rushmore — to finalize the four faces of Summit County winter sports. To wrap up Peak Performers, the Summit Daily will publish the results via feature profiles of Peak Performers winners, as well as complementary content highlighting the other top finishers in each sport.
An eye to the future
In sports, especially in Summit County, there’s always a focus on what’s next. We are also accepting nominees for a youth category across all four sports. The same nomination, voting and judging process will be used for this 17-and-under category.
With the youth category, we are asking the people of Summit County to clue us into a youngin’ who may just be in contention for the Mount Rushmore of Summit County sports 50 years from now.
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Max Dercum, founder of Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, is in his element skiing some early morning powder at the ski area.
Courtesy Edna Strand Dercum, Summit Historical Society
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Edna Dercum takes a moment to relax during her first day at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area in 1946.
Courtesy Edna Strand Dercum, Summit Historical Society
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Peak 8 Ski Area, the predecessor to the current Breckenridge Ski Resort, is depicted in this drawing from the 1961-62 season. The drawing shows the original half-dozen runs at the ski area.
Courtesy Summit Historical Society
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Members of the Shredbots snowboard crew ride through Woodward Copper’s summertime Pipeline Park terrain park at Copper Mountain Resort.
Courtesy Jeff Brockmeyer, Woodward Copper
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2018 Pyeongchang Olympic gold medalist and 2019 Burton U.S. Open champ Red Gerard, right, fist bumps a young snowboarder during Monday’s grand-opening Red’s Backyard rail jam at Copper Mountain Resort.
Courtesy Woodward Copper
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Chris Corning poses for a celebratory photo with trophy in front of the 15-story scaffolding big air jump at the SunTrust Park baseball stadium in Atlanta on Friday night.
Mark Clavin / U.S. Ski & Snowboard
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Sochi 2014 Slopestyle Olympian Bobby Brown of Breckenridge and members of the resort’s Epic Pro Team sign autographs in 2014 after a ‘Big Air’ exhibition — part of the mountain’s closing weekend festivities.
Summit Daily file
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Gene, Matthew and Josh Dayton pause during a brief cross-country ski outing at the Breckenridge Nordic Center several years back.
Summit Daily file
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The Frisco Gold Rush Cross Country Ski Race.
Courtesy Todd Powell
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Breckenridge’s C.J. Mueller holding a tucked position during a speed run. Mueller credited a tightly clinched tuck for his ability to reach speeds as high as 137 mph.
Courtesy Colorado Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame
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The Arapahoe Basin lodge in 1963.
Courtesy photo
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A snowboarder holds Old Glory high while riding a rail at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area in honor of Independence Day.
Courtesy Ian Zinner, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area
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Red Gerard, of the United States, jumps during the men’s Big Air snowboard qualification competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea in February 2018.
Associated Press
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Steamboat Springs native and Breckenridge resident Taylor Gold flies high over Breckenridge Ski Resort during his run through last winter’s modified superpipe competition at the Dew Tour.
Courtesy Dew Tour
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Chris Corning of Silverthorne executes a trick in midair during Dew Tour on Dec. 16, 2018, at Breckenridge Ski Resort. The Dew Tour will relocate to Copper Mountain Resort this winter and next.
Summit Daily file
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Woodward Copper Senior Manager Adam Kisiel carves a sweeping turn at Copper Mountain Resort during the Woodward Copper #RideOnJake memorial lap on Thursday, Nov. 21, in honor of the late founder of Burton Snowboards, Jake Burton Carpenter.
Curtis DeVore / Copper Mountain Resort
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Lauren Weibert throws a method off a hip hit at Woodward Copper at Copper Mountain Resort.
Chad Otterstrom / Special to The Daily
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Michigan native and Silverthorne resident snowboarder Kyle Mack, who won a silver medal in big air at the 2018 Winter Olympics, rides through Woodward Copper’s Pipeline summer terrain park on-mountain at Copper Mountain Resort.
Courtesy Jeff Brockmeyer, Woodward Copper
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This photo from the 2010 Tricks for Treats event in the Woodward Copper barn features a young Red Gerard (second from left), members of Woodward Copper’s staff and pro snowboarder Josh Sherman on the far right.
Courtesy Woodward Copper
Share the story
A century after Haugen set a world record at the Dillon ski jump, it’s our vision for Peak Performers to be a 21st century chronicle of our winter sports history, journey and influence. It’s our goal to tell your story.
To do that as best we can, to do it together, let’s get the word out. Feel free to share the project with family and friends, whether that’s the old-fashioned way — while chatting on your first ride up the chairlift one morning — or via Facebook, Instagram or other social media.
Here’s to Summit County. Here’s to the athletes who’ve made us who we are.
And, of course, here’s to winter.