Jumping Gene

American ski jumpers seldom finish better than 20th in big international meets, but last week a young 18-year-old from Duluth, Minn, placed tenth against the world's best at the Holmenkollen in Oslo, Norway. He would have done still better had he not faltered on one landing. As it was, Eugene Robert Kotlarek actually outjumped the winner, and established himself in a sport traditionally dominated by Europeans.

Slim (5 ft. 11 in., 143 Ibs.) and supple, Gene Kotlarek first lashed on a pair of jumping skis at the age of four under the watchful eyes of his truck-driver father, George Kotlarek, himself a former U.S. champion. A freshman at the University of Minnesota's Duluth division, Gene practices two nights a week and on weekends with his father, still jumping at 46, and younger brothers Glenn, 17, and Wayne, 10, who compete in age-group meets. To develop strong leg and stomach muscles required for jumping, he does deep knee bends in his basement for an hour at a time with 35-lb. bags of sand on each shoulder.

The secret of his success is his technique. Instead of jackknifing from the waist as most U.S. skiers do, young Gene adopted the Finnish jumping style of leaning forward from the ankles, found that it cut down wind resistance, gave more horizontal thrust for longer jumps. Fortnight ago in the North American championships at Squaw Valley, Calif., he came within 3.3 points of beating Finland's Kalevi Karkinen. one of the world's best. "We were all amazed," said Norway's top expert, Sigmund Ruud, after watching Kotlarek at the Holmenkollen. "The U.S. has never had a more promising jumper."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.