Rachel Rochat ’95
(Switzerland)
Hockey  •  2006 Torino
“Our Olympic qualification was the most tremendous part. We scored with six seconds left to beat China in Beijing and qualify. It was incredible, and I won’t ever forget grabbing someone’s cell phone and calling my parents. It was really early in the morning, but I had to wake them up and tell them the news. We did not do very well at the Olympics themselves, but the opening ceremonies were, of course, incredible, and my personal highlight was scoring a goal against Russia. I often think about how lucky and blessed I am to have had that experience. It also gives me a huge confidence boost whenever I am feeling down. Sometimes I am still shocked to think that I am really an Olympian.”

James Page ’63
Alpine Skiing  •  1964 Innsbruck
“My most enduring memory is of standing at the top of the ski jump near Innsbruck, Austria, Olympic number bib on, waiting for my turn to take my first Olympic jump and thinking that the goal and dream I had had my whole life had been realized. But it was also a kind of empty feeling, because there was nothing I had planned for beyond it. It was a classic case of finally realizing the journey is often more important than the destination.”

Sarah Parsons ’10
Hockey • 2006 Torino
“It sounds very cliché but my strongest memory was walking into the stadium for opening ceremonies. Seeing all the flashing lights and thousands of people was pretty cool. I was so excited that while trying to film and take pictures of it all at the same time I managed to drop and break both my video camera and my camera.”

Erich Wilbrecht ’84
Biathlon  •  1992 Albertville
“My most indelible memory of the Games was walking into the Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremonies. We walked through a tunnel into the bright lights of the stadium and the crowd exploded with cheers and applause. It caught me off guard. I was grinning wide and actually feeling a bit patriotic, which was the last emotion I expected. For me it brought to the forefront the larger purposes of the Games—those of international exchange and friendship, all under the auspices of high-level competition. Whether you like it or not, you are an Olympian for life. It provides you with instant credibility, even with total strangers. That still surprises me today.”

Walter Malmquist II ’78
Nordic Skiing  •  1976 Innsbruck, 
1980 Lake Placid
“In 1980 we were on our home turf in Lake Placid. We had the attention not only of the world but of America, an unusual phenomenon when it comes to winter sports. American athletes and spectators publicly celebrated many fabulous performances by American athletes. ‘USA! USA! USA!’ was chanted slopeside, at the ice rinks and the bobsled runs. Those cheers inspired confidence, determination and a higher level of performance in American athletes than years of physical and psychological training.”

Stacey Wooley ’91
Biathlon  •  1998 Nagano,
 2002 Salt Lake City
“All the athletes get to the opening ceremonies way before they start. Officials put everyone, all nations together, in a big holding room for more than two hours and gave us Oreo cookies and disposable cameras. Everyone went around trading cameras and taking a few pictures and trading again. Lots of the pictures were of people eating Oreo cookies with big smiles and black teeth.”

Patrick Biggs ’06
Alpine Skiing  •  2006 Torino
“The feeling I experienced in the start gate was similar to going into a final exam with your diploma on the line, needing an A to graduate. Nailing down a good run was similar to sinking that last full to clench victory in an epic pong battle. The disappointment of skiing out of the second run? Probably the same as showing up to the Hop for a cordon bleu special, then realizing it was yesterday. That about sums it up.”

Gretchen Ulion ’94
Hockey  •  1998 Nagano
“During the gold medal game I vividly remember watching the clock tick down, knowing that we had only a one-goal lead. We had been leading Canada in close championship games before and each time had watched that lead slip away. Then teammate Sandra Whyte took the puck and scored an empty-net goal. Our bench erupted—we knew we’d won. Counting down those last 10 seconds was so exciting and then hitting the ice to celebrate was pure mayhem. When I visit schools and share my gold medal with children, I feel it is important they know that what I treasure most is my entire Olympic experience and the challenging road I took to get there, not just the hardware I brought home.”

Arnold C. Oss Jr. ’50
Hockey  •  1952 Oslo
“The ability to travel to Europe and play various countries at the Olympic games was fun. I was there from Thanksgiving through Easter. The Europeans thought we played rough. The Russians did not join the Olympic community at that time, so we didn’t get to play against them. There were only seven to nine teams in total and we played every one.”

Geoffrey Pitchford ’64, Tu’65 
(Great Britain)
Alpine Skiing  •  1960 Squaw Valley
“My strongest memory is the contrast between the opening and the closing ceremonies. The Games started with each team marching behind a standard-bearer holding high its national flag. The Games ended with all the participants mixed together, regardless of nationality or sport, ambling along rather like a bunch of tourists from every corner of the world, enjoying the uniqueness of a very special moment. I was able to achieve a personal goal, one that came at the cost of delaying both my education and the start of my business career, but one that also brought me to the United States and to Dartmouth and Tuck: I had learned about the College from several alumni on the U.S. ski team between 1956 and 1960.”

Tim Caldwell ’76
Nordic Skiing  •  1972 Sapporo,
 1976 Innsbruck,  1980 Lake Placid,
1984 Sarajevo
“During one relay race we were doing really well, and I remember the look of excitement on my teammate’s face as I came into the tag zone. It was a great day. I rarely actually think about the experience. There are too many other things going on. Yet it is always with me. I skied internationally from 1971 until 1984. During that time our equipment evolved from wooden to fiberglass skis, from leather to synthetic boots, from pine tar as a base wax to alpine wax for speed, from strict classical technique to so-called freestyle. The evolution was fascinating and exciting. Frequently our team was on the leading edge of the changes. Dartmouth’s year-round schedule allowed me to compete internationally each winter without missing many classes. With its great skiing tradition, there were plenty of other students to train with in the summer and fall while I was at school. The only drawback for me was that I never was able to compete for the College.”

Richard W. Taylor ’59
Nordic Skiing  •  1964 Innsbruck
“The Olympic experience for me was not one but two—the team I did not make and the one I did. In my tryouts for the 1960 team I failed. Not making that team was devastating at first. I then worked at the Games, trained and finished the season by winning the national 30-kilometer championship. In all, it was a fine year, but it most importantly proved to me that my joy in the sport was not defined by making a team of some sort but by the movement itself and the sensations of its power and grace. Making the team in 1964 was less informative. To be sure, there was excitement and deepening experience, but the Games themselves were too big, too clogged with officials and needless administrators. Nordic team members were not able to get tickets to most of the other events, for example—our officials had them all. During my race, the 50 kilometer, I came finally to the crest of an exhausting climb, there to feel the firm hand of a German skier—who was not in the race—at my low back, running beside me for a short way, lifting me over the top.”

Walker T. Weed III ’71
Nordic Skiing  •  1972 Sapporo
“People always make the Olympics such a big deal nationally, but in terms of the actual ski competition, the competitions at the world championships are probably run better. There’s so much hoopla at the Olympics—a gazillion paperweights, people who are affiliated with the Olympic committee, everybody is vying for a free plane ticket. It’s not as pure a competition as the worlds. A lot of that has to do with the TV coverage and people constantly saying who has the most medals. It was a very positive experience and I don’t regret it at all, although I’ve often told friends of mine that my Dartmouth skiing experience was almost greater than the time I spent with the U.S. ski team.”

Leslie Thompson Hall ’86
Nordic Skiing  •  1988 Calgary,  1992 Albertville,  1994 Lillehammer
“In Calgary there was a lot of man-made snow because they didn’t have a big snowy winter. At that point we hadn’t cross-country skied on manmade snow very often. I asked my coach about downhills. I was nervous about the jumps and rolls. He said to pre-jump it—lift my legs and push down on the other side so I wouldn’t fly through the air. So I told myself to go fast and pre-jump, but instead of that I basically launched myself off and fell, landed on my face and got a huge black eye. I had to race with a black eye and got lots of comments. People asked if I got into a fight with my teammates or something. But I don’t think I intimidated the competition too much.”

Donald Nielsen ’74
Biathlon  •  1976 Innsbruck,
 1980 Lake Placid,  1984 Sarajevo
“The Olympics were an amazing experience, but they were not really a culmination. Instead they were a kind of justification for continuing the kind of thing I had always loved best and which was such a strong part of my life at Dartmouth: running alone in the woods, in the mountains, feeling the wind in my hair, breathing in the scent of the pines. I actually preferred training for cross country and biathlon to the racing itself, but the racing pulled you forward with purpose and a vengeance, and the Olympics were useful shorthand to explain to people why one might take a decade and spend it running in the woods. One summer I ran almost all of the White and Green Mountains barefoot. I couldn’t stand shoes that year and felt so damn alive from the contact with the dirt and leaves and roots.”

Sarah Konrad ’89
Biathlon/Nordic Skiing  •  2006 Torino
“As a two-sport athlete I needed to move my temporary residence from one Olympic Village to another halfway through the Games. Staff from the ski team came in the evening to pick me up and make the move. In the village below Sestriere, my destination, the Italian police did not want to let us through. I didn’t have the appropriate credentials for Sestriere—dealing with a two-sport athlete was not in the operational plan. It took a half hour sitting in a dark van on the side of the road and many phone calls to straighten things out.”

Thomas Corcoran ’54
Alpine Skiing  •  1956 Cortina,
 1960 Squaw Valley
“One day during pre-Olympic races in Europe in 1960 I had a true epiphany, and in an instant I knew why I had long been an also-ran among the world elite in the giant slalom (GS). It had to do with taking a lower, faster line between gates and stepping up before making the turn into the next gate. As a result I won the next GS races in Europe and the United States, and I went into the Olympics with a high level of confidence. Because my newfound expertise came late, I had not yet moved into the first-seeded group and drew 24 for my starting number, a big disadvantage because of course erosion. I finished fourth, just out of the medals but the best finish for an American man in Olympic GS until Bode Miller won a silver medal in 2002. I look back on my experience with fondness and a quiet pride. I did my best and finished on a high note. If I had started earlier I’m sure I would have earned a medal and perhaps won, but it was not to be.”

John Caldwell ’50
Nordic Skiing  •  1952 Oslo
“It was great to make the Olympic team in 1951. It was my first exposure to international competition, and I—and the rest of the team, for the most part—got whupped real bad. I was so embarrassed by my performance, but also by the lack of experience we all went to those Games with, that I have dedicated a lot of time since then trying to promote the sport. Actually, my name is probably pretty well known in Nordic skiing circles, partly as a curmudgeon, no doubt.”