Yoopers who received Olympic medals

Rodney Paavola (left), Jack McCarten, and Carole Heiss pose during the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley. (Provided photo)

A BIT OF OLYMPIC HISTORY

Modern-day summer Olympics were first conducted in Athens, Greece in 1896. While the first winter Olympics were conducted in 1924 in Chamonix, France.

The 1896 summer games had 241 participants representing 14 nations. Other accounts state it was 12 participating nations.

The Athens games primarily centered upon track and field, cycling, swimming, gymnastics, weightlifting, wrestling, fencing, shooting, and tennis.

The 1924 French winter games offered 250 participants from 16 nations. Competition included bobsleighing, cross country skiing, curling, figure skating, hockey, military patrol, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and speed skating

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) states military patrol is a combination of cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. While Nordic combined is cross-country skiing and ski jumping.

Prior to the first Olympic winter games, Sweden sponsored Nordic games in 1901, 1903, and 1905. In 1916, a winter sports week game was conducted in Berlin, Germany.

An interesting approach of including a winter sport occurred at the 1908 London, United Kingdom, Summer Olympics where figure skating was conducted.

This year’s Paris summer games have 10,500 athletes representing 206 nations

The 2022 Beijing, China, winter games had 2,893 participants representing 84 nations.

A memorable entry during the 1988 Calgary, Canada, Winter Olympics was the Jamaican bobsled team. A 1993 film entitled; “Cool Running” profiled their intriguing history and performance. The one hour 37-minute movie is available through numerous resources.

Since 1896 and until the current Paris Summer Olympics, American athletes received 2,629 gold, silver, and bronze summer and winter medals.

YOOPERS WHO SHINED

Besides Iron River’s Nick Baumgartner, who received a gold medal in Beijing’s 2022 snowboarding competition, Michigan’s upper peninsula has a rich history of winter and summer Olympic recipients.

Here is a summary of upper peninsula medal recipients from Wikipedia and the Switzerland-based IOC:

1924 CHARMONIX

Clarence John (Taffy) Abel of Sault Sainte Marie, silver in ice hockey.

1952 HELSINKI

Albert Rossi of Bessemer, bronze in rowing

1956 CORTINA

Weldon Olson of Marquette, silver in ice hockey

1960 SQUAW VALLEY

Weldon Olson of Marquette, gold in ice hockey

Rodney Paavola of Hancock, gold in ice hockey

2022 BEIJING

Nick Baumgartner of Iron River, gold in snowboarding

Abel was a flag bearer for the 1924 Olympic games. He is believed to be the first Native American to serve in an Olympic game. During the game he hid his heritage. He received his nickname, Taffy, by sneaking taffy candy into his classroom.

His ice hockey career took him to playing for the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks. He was on two teams who won the Stanley Cup. A famous response from Abel was when asked what business he was in. He replied, “I’m in the business of winning.”

Mentoring numerous youth hockey teams, Abel passed away in 1964.

Rossi was coxswain in the 1952 rowing competition. Taking the bronze, his team was edged out by Swiss and Czech rowing teams. Following the Olympics he graduated from the University of Washington. His primary career, in Seattle, was teaching and education administration. Following his education career he served as program director at Renton, Washington’s Longacres thoroughbred racetrack.

Olson, a silver and gold medal recipient, came from a family of nine siblings. All of his brothers were active in ice hockey. He went on to play for the Michigan State University Spartans from 1951 to 1955. During his university career he scored a record 125 goals. It is stated he never missed a Spartan game.

His career was as an ice hockey coach, referee, official and league administrator.

Olson received recognition in numerous Sports Halls of Fame, including the U.S. Olympic Hall and U.S. Hockey Hall. He passed away at age 90 in May 2023.

Paavola played baseball, football, and ice hockey for the Portage Lake Pioneers. At the 1960 Olympics he and his team received a gold medal playing against the Soviet Union. A 2013 Daily Mining Gazette article on Paavola stated this win was America’s “First Mircale on Ice.”

He played in minor league ice hockey for the Muskegon Zephyrs, Dayton Gems, and Providence Reds. He later returned to Portage Lake coaching the Pioneers.

Paavola, at five feet and ten inches and 165 pounds, was known as an aggressive defenseman. He was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. In 1995, at age 56 he passed away.

When snowboarding was introduced as an Olympic game at the 1998 Nagano, Japan, Winter Olympics, Nick Baumgartner was nearing 18 years in age. After completing high school at West Iron County, he attended Northern Michigan University where he played football.

After university, Baumgartner went on to compete and win a variety of snowboarding championships. He participated in the 2010 Vancouver, Canada, Winter Olympics where he finished 20th. He also participated in the 2014 Sochi, Russia, and PyeongChang, South Korea, 2018 winter games.

At the 2022 Beijing winter games he won the gold in the mixed team snowboard cross game with Lindsey Jacobellis of Connecticut. Baumgartner is noted as the Olympics’ oldest medal winning snowboarder.

Jeffrey D. Brasie is a retired health care CEO. He frequently writes historic feature stories and op-eds for various Michigan newspapers. As a Vietnam-era veteran, he served in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Naval Reserve. He served on the public affairs staff of the secretary of the Navy. He grew near the tip of the mitt and resides in suburban Detroit.