Big Thunder Ski Jumping Center

Big Thunder Ski Jumping Centre
Big Thunder
Location	Northwestern Ontario Thunder Bay Canada
Opened	1963 (1963)
Closed	1996 (1996)
Size
K–point	K-120 K-90
Official hill record	Tommy Ingebrigtsen (137.0 m (449 ft)) Takanobu Okabe (108.0 m (354 ft))
Top events
World Championships	1995

Big Thunder Ski Jumping Centre was a twin ski jumping hill located in Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. It constitutes part of Big Thunder National Training Centre. The first hills were built by Knute and Thor Hansen and opened in 1963. They were originally known as Lille Norway Ski Area, then Mt. Norway Ski Area, and Sundance Northwest Resort before taking the current name. The large and normal hills were built in 1974 and the venue was taken over by the provincial government in 1985. The hills hosted 29 FIS Ski Jumping World Cup and 50 Canadian Ski Jumping Championships tournaments between 1975 and 1995, climaxing with the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1995. Funding was then cut and the venue has since been closed and unmaintained.

History

The location was first identified by Knute Hansen, a ski jumper who felt that a location in Mount McRae in Lakehead would be ideal for a ski jumping hill. He and Thor Hansen built the first jumps, which were opened in 1963 and named Lille Norway Ski Area. In 1969, after the Hansens had fallen into financial difficulties, the venue was sold and renamed Mt. Norway Ski Area. Additional land for the complex was also leased, and the provincial government provided funding to construct the main twin hill. Construction of the 70 meter and 90 meter (current K-90 and K-120) hills was completed in 1974. The following year, the venue hosted its first Canadian Ski Jumping Championships. Three years later, the venue was again sold, this time being named Sundance Northwest Resort. In 1981, the Provincial Government of Ontario started redeveloping the site to transform it into a national training center. In 1985, the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Recreation bought the site. In the course of five years, they built a K-64 hill, as well as Little Thunder, which consisted of K-10, K-20 and K-37 hills. The two largest of these were equipped with porcelain in-runs and plastic landing slopes, allowing for their use during summer.^[1]

In 1990, the venue was awarded the hosting of the 1995 Nordic World Ski Championships. This required a major upgrade to the infrastructure, including floodlights. World Cup tournaments were placed on hold after 1991 for the upgrades. The venue hosted the Pre-World Championships, part of the World Cup, in 1994. In the final jumping event in the 1995 World Championships, Tommy Ingebrigtsen set a hill record of 137.0 meters (449 ft), 9 meters (30 ft) beyond the previous hill record.^[1]

During the campaigning for the 1995 Ontario provincial election, Conservative Party leader Mike Harris deemed Big Thunder a "cash cow" as part of his Common Sense Revolution. Following the party's victory in the election, the venue was closed.^[1] Even though the venue closed, it sill costs the province several hundred thousand dollars per year.^[2] The citizens group Friends of Big Thunder Bay announced on 1 March 2010, following the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, that they had sent a letter of intent to the provincial government where they stated that they wished to re-open the sports park.^[3] They intend to not only reopen the hill, but also the associated sports area and provide year-round training of ski jumping, freestyle skiing, cross-country skiing, mountain biking, event hosting and hiking. Ski Jumping Canada has asked the province to establish a training facility for ski jumping in Ontario, stating that lack a facilities make it difficult for Canada to produce ski jumpers for the world scene, and that this among other things will result in poor performances in the Olympics.^[2]

Events

Big Thunder was a regular site for the FIS Nordic Ski Jumping World Cup, and arranged a world cup round, typically with two jumps, every season from 1980 through 1991. Nordic combined was, in addition to the World Championships, hosted twice, in 1989 and in 1994.^[4][5] The last World Cup tournament was held in 1994 as a Pre-World Championship tournament.^[1]

Contested between 9 and 19 March 1995, the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships is the hallmark of the venue, and the only major world championship to be contested in Northern Ontario.^[1] The Nordic combined individual took place on 9 March, and was won by Fred Børre Lundberg ahead of Jari Mantila. The following day saw Japan win ahead of Norway and Finland in the Nordic combined team event. In ski jumping, the individual normal hill event took place on 12 March, which saw a double Japanese victory with Takanobu Okabe winning ahead of Hiroya Saito.^[6] The team event in the large hill on 16 March saw Finland win ahead of Germany and Japan.^[7] In the large hill individual event on 18 March, Tommy Ingebrigtsen set a new hill record and won ahead of Andreas Goldberger.^[8]

Results

The following is a list of all FIS Ski Jumping World Cup and FIS Nordic World Ski Championship tournaments held at Big Thunder, with the date, hill and top three finishing athletes or teams.

Date	Hill	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref
000000001980-01-19-000019 January 1980	K-120	Kogler, ArminArmin Kogler	Moullier, BernardBernard Moullier	Groyer, AlfredAlfred Groyer	[9]
000000001980-01-20-000020 January 1980	K-120	Kogler, ArminArmin Kogler	Neuper, HubertHubert Neuper	Innauer, ToniToni Innauer	[10]
000000001981-02-21-000021 February 1981	K-90	Ulaga, PrimozPrimoz Ulaga	Sætre, JohanJohan Sætre	Collins, SteveSteve Collins	[11]
000000001981-02-22-000022 February 1981	K-120	Broman, JohnJohn Broman	Mobekk, IvarIvar Mobekk	Felder, AndreasAndreas Felder	[12]
000000001982-01-23-000023 January 1982	K-90	Bulau, HorstHorst Bulau	Rigoni, MassimoMassimo Rigoni	Vettori, ErnstErnst Vettori	[13]
000000001982-01-24-000024 January 1982	K-120	Bulau, HorstHorst Bulau	Rigoni, MassimoMassimo Rigoni	Neuper, HubertHubert Neuper	[14]
000000001983-01-22-000022 January 1983	K-90	Bulau, HorstHorst Bulau	Hansson, OlavOlav Hansson	Kokkonen, PenttiPentti Kokkonen	[15]
000000001983-01-23-000023 January 1983	K-120	Nykaenen, MattiMatti Nykaenen	Bulau, HorstHorst Bulau	Hansson, OlavOlav Hansson	[16]
000000001983-12-10-000010 December 1983	K-90	Bulau, HorstHorst Bulau	Nykaenen, MattiMatti Nykaenen	Opaas, VegardVegard Opaas	[17]
000000001983-12-11-000011 December 1983	K-120	Opaas, VegardVegard Opaas	Nykaenen, MattiMatti Nykaenen	Bulau, HorstHorst Bulau	[18]
000000001984-12-08-00008 December 1984	K-90	Felder, AndreasAndreas Felder	Kokkonen, PenttiPentti Kokkonen	Vettori, ErnstErnst Vettori	[19]
000000001984-12-09-00009 December 1984	K-120	Felder, AndreasAndreas Felder	Puikkonen, JariJari Puikkonen	Vettori, ErnstErnst Vettori	[20]
000000001985-12-07-00007 December 1985	K-90	Ulaga, PrimozPrimoz Ulaga	Opaas, VegardVegard Opaas	Nykaenen, MattiMatti Nykaenen	[21]
000000001985-12-08-00008 December 1985	K-120	Ulaga, PrimozPrimoz Ulaga	Neuländtner, FranzFranz Neuländtner	Vettori, ErnstErnst Vettori	[22]
000000001986-12-06-00006 December 1986	K-90	Weißflog, JensJens Weißflog	Nykaenen, MattiMatti Nykaenen	Kalso, JukkaJukka Kalso	[23]
000000001986-12-07-00007 December 1986	K-120	Nykaenen, MattiMatti Nykaenen	Klauser, ThomasThomas Klauser	Opaas, VegardVegard Opaas	[24]
000000001987-12-05-00005 December 1987	K-90	Nykaenen, MattiMatti Nykaenen	Ploc, PavelPavel Ploc	Vettori, ErnstErnst Vettori	[25]
000000001987-12-06-00006 December 1987	K-120	Nykaenen, MattiMatti Nykaenen	Klauser, ThomasThomas Klauser	Weißflog, JensJens Weißflog	[26]
000000001988-12-03-00003 December 1988	K-90	Thoma, DieterDieter Thoma	Laakonen, RistoRisto Laakonen	Nykaenen, MattiMatti Nykaenen	[27]
000000001988-12-04-00004 December 1988	K-120	Laakonen, RistoRisto Laakonen	Johnsen, ErikErik Johnsen	Thoma, DieterDieter Thoma	[28]
000000001989-12-03-00003 December 1989	K-90	Thoma, DieterDieter Thoma	Kuttin, HeinzHeinz Kuttin	Nikkola, Ari-PekkaAri-Pekka Nikkola	[29]
000000001989-12-04-00004 December 1989	K-120	Laakonen, RistoRisto Laakonen	Felder, AndreasAndreas Felder	Kuttin, HeinzHeinz Kuttin	[30]
000000001990-12-08-00008 December 1990	K-90	Felder, AndreasAndreas Felder	Thoma, DieterDieter Thoma	Petek, FranciFranci Petek	[31]
000000001990-12-09-00009 December 1990	K-120	Felder, AndreasAndreas Felder	Petek, FranciFranci Petek	Nikkola, Ari-PekkaAri-Pekka Nikkola	[32]
000000001991-12-01-00001 December 1991	K-90	Nieminen, ToniToni Nieminen	Nikkola, Ari-PekkaAri-Pekka Nikkola	Horngacher, StefanStefan Horngacher	[33]
000000001991-12-02-00002 December 1991	K-120	Vettgori, ErnstErnst Vettgori	Holland, MikeMike Holland	Zünd, StephanStephan Zünd	[34]
000000001994-03-25-000025 March 1994	K-120	Germany	Norway	Japan	[35]
000000001994-03-26-000026 March 1994	K-90	Siegmund, GerdGerd Siegmund	Goldberger, AndreasAndreas Goldberger	Recon, RobertoRoberto Recon	[36]
000000001994-03-27-000027 March 1994	K-90	Weißflog, JensJens Weißflog	Okabe, TakanobuTakanobu Okabe	Bredesen, EspenEspen Bredesen	[37]
000000001995-03-12-000012 March 1995	K-90	Okabe, TakanobuTakanobu Okabe	Saito, HiroyaHiroya Saito	Laitinen, MikaMika Laitinen	[6]
000000001995-03-16-000016 March 1995	K-120	Finland	Germany	Japan	[7]
000000001995-03-18-000018 March 1995	K-120	Ingebrigtsen, TommyTommy Ingebrigtsen	Goldberger, AndreasAndreas Goldberger	Weißflog, JensJens Weißflog	[8]

References

Coordinates: 48°17′15″N 89°23′00″W / 48.28750°N 89.38333°W / 48.28750; -89.38333