Word: engan
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Dates: during 1963-1963
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Nose to Tip. Such jitters apparently never afflict Toralf Engan, 26, a brown-haired, slightly built sporting-goods salesman from Trondheim. Norway. Engan has been skiing since he was three, jumping since he was seven, and outjumping almost everyone for nearly a decade. "When I jump." he says. "I feel like a bird. Birds aren't afraid to fly. Why should...
Awaiting his turn in the starting pen, Engan spends half an hour putting a glassy wax surface on his skis. Then he is on his way, whistling down the slide, tucking his body into a ball to get more speed. Soaring high above the hill, arms pressed tightly along his sides, body tilted forward until his nose is inches from the tips of his skis, Engan has perfect balance. "Until I touch down," he says. "I could just as well close my eyes...
Through the Fog. Form counts heavily in points; yet Engan wins mainly because of the fantastic distance he can fly. He was sick and unable to compete for the 1960 Olympic team. But last year he won 22 of the 24 major events he entered, including the 65-meter world championship at Zakopane, Poland. Last week, competing against 72 jumpers from 14 nations in the German-Austrian Four Hills Championship, Engan demonstrated why he is the odds-on favorite to win an Olympic gold medal...
...Oberstdorf, he turned in the longest jumps of the day. On his very first jump at Innsbruck's Berg Isel ski jump, site of next year's Olympic jumping, Engan broke the hill record with a 298-ft. jump. Fog and snow made a nightmare of Germany's Garmisch-Partenkirchen a few days later. But Engan still went 292 ft.-16 ft. past the "critical point." or safety limit of the hill. After the first three hills, he had the championship sewed up. "All he needs," said a competitor, "is to toss his shoes over the edge...
...Engan's rivals call him "the world's safest jumper" because he has never been injured in 15 years of competition. Crowds of up to 135,000 turn out to watch him make like a bird. He is a national hero in Norway, where his biography is a bestseller, and in Austria children mimic his style on tiny backyard ski jumps-the one who jumps farthest gets to call himself Toralf Engan all day long...