Heuga & McKinney--Olympic Legends

In early February 1964 during the IX Olympics at Innsbruck, Austria, Tahoe's twenty-year-old Jimmie Heuga started out the second seed. Hatless and without goggles, he negotiated quickly down the tight, bone-hard, slalom set on the Patsherkofel track.

Gaining momentum, Heuga zipped into the final combinations on the course and propelled himself solidly into third place, only .25 back of teammate Bill Kidd, who missed Pepi Stigler's gold medalist winning time by only .14.

As Heuga kicked out of his Kastle skis, an estimated crowd of sixty thousand roared in disbelief. Kidd had won the silver and Heuga the bronze. For the first time ever in Olympic competition, American men had triumphed over their once-invincible European counterparts.

Heuga was not the first Tahoe native to compete in the winter Olympics and he'd be far from the last.

Lake Tahoe Ski Club member Anders Haugen won America's first Olympic medal in winter sports--the bronze for jumping in Chamonix, France in 1924. Roy Mikkelsen of the Auburn Ski Club represented the United States in 1932 and 1936 in ski jumping. Reno's Hal Codding was a member of the 1932 American Olympic alpine team. Donner Summit's Dick Buek competed in the 1952 Oslo Olympics finishing 12th in the downhill. Reno's Dodie Post was captain of the 1948 U.S. Olympic Women's Team. Another Donner Summit native, downhiller Starr Walton, was a teammate of Heuga's in 1964.



Heuga went on to compete at the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble, France, finishing his amateur career with two top-ten finishes in Giant Slalom and Slalom. His Olympic teammate, South Lake Tahoe native Vladimir "Spider Sabich, placed fifth in Slalom.

Tamara McKinney
During Tamara McKinney's career she has captured just about every accolade in ski racing: Overall women's World Cup Champion; World Championship gold; nine national titles; 18 individual world cup wins; 24 2nd and 3rd place finishes.

The one achievement that always eluded her was an Olympic medal. Nevertheless, she still fondly recalls her participation in three Olympics, especially an episode during the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.

It was those Winter Games that the American Alpine team, in an unprecedented feat, produced a treasure chest of three golds and two silvers. Bill Johnson turned from a "nasenbohrer" to "die wunderkinder" as he swept down the Bjelasnica downhill course to become the first American to win gold in that discipline.

Phil and Steve Mahre, who had said they didn't care much about Olympic medals, proved they really did by taking the gold and silver in the slalom.

The Alpine Women's team didn't disappoint its country either. A tightly knit unit, the U.S. women were unified and interdependent-- given to supporting each other and feeding off each other's talents. Though no one on the team had won a World Cup that season, they were skiing well. Christin Cooper, th ex-ballet student from Sun Valley, had two sixth-place finishes and a seventh; then she captured third at Maribor, Yugoslavia. Debbie Armstrong, a second-year team member from Seattle, was skiing in a consistent, powerhouse style; she'd taken third in a super giant slalom at Puy St. Vincent, France. Holly Flanders, from Deerfield, NH, who had won two downhills in 1982, had finished eighth and ninth in recent World Cup downhills.

Then, of course, there was Tamara. She'd won seven races the season before on her way to becoming the 1983 overall women's World Cup Champion. In the following Olympic season she'd finished second, took sixth place twice, and a fourth in World Cup races before getting hot and placing second in a pre-Olympic slalom at Maribor. It seemed almost a foregone conclusion that the U.S. women, who had won the Nation's Cup in 1982, would medal in Sarajevo.

"There was a lot of pressure and expectations were high," recalls Tamara from her home in Palisades Tahoe. "People magazine was showing up at our room. Our privacy was taken away. It was a real eye-opener to see yourself become a commodity.

For the American public, who count medals as the only symbol for success, the results of the women's giant slalom would make chests swell and hearts thump. Debbie Armstrong shocked the world as she came out of the 15th starting position to claim the first gold medal for the U.S. since Barbara Cochran's slalom victory in 1972. Sitting in second position to teammate Cooper following her first run, Armstrong let out all the stops and grabbed the gold, while Cooper held on for the silver. McKinney just missed the bronze medal by 43-hundreths of a second after sitting in eighth position following the first run.

"I actually won the second run, but it just wasn't good enough for me to podium" McKinney recalls. "I was satisfied. I'd skied my best. I was really happy for Debbie and Christin. It was a great day. Our coach and trainer, Michael Rudigoz and John Atkins, came down into the finish corral along with teammates and techs. Everybody was pumped.

"However, Christin was mad. She even swatted a boom microphone while being interviewed for television. She was mad she hadn't won. It's hard to believe. You'd think a person would be satisfied by medaling, but Christin's a very intense, competitive sort. Second place wasn't good enough."

"After the slalom a few days later, Christin couldn't wait to get away from the Olympics. The slalom had been raced in a thick fog and both of us had straddled gates and did not finish. She became even more angry."

There was a still a week's worth of Olympic events remaining and Tamara stayed to enjoy them as a spectator.

"Sarejevo was a beautiful city. I ended up meeting many Americans competing in other events and I got to see some exciting figure skating, hockey, and other stuff. I even attended the closing ceremonies."

Her final day in Sarejevo, Tamara was cleaning her apartment when in a trashcan she discovered Christin's Olympic race suit.

"Christin had hated it. It was candy-cane colored and really tight on her. It was so tight she'd slashed holes under the armpits for more mobility. Who knows, that's what could have cost her the gold with the added wind drag." The suit had been bundled up and scrunched into the trash.

Back on the World Cup circuit, Tamara went on a tear, winning four of the final seven races to lift herself to the World Cup Slalom title and finish third overall. It was the first and only time in World Cup history that an American woman won the slalom crown.

"I would have loved to win a medal," says McKinney, today a successful realtor in Palisades Tahoe and a mother to daughter, Francesca. "In general, I should have won mores races. But everything happens for a reason. I didn't need to be consoled. Coming in fourth at the Olympics was not the worst thing to happen to me. We are all fortunate as athletes to represent our country."

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