Competing well
Have you been enjoying following the fortunes of Bode Miller, Lindsey Vonn, et al. in Vancouver? Thank British writer, mountaineer, and Catholic convert Arnold Lunn. He invented the slalom race in 1922, and fought to have downhill and slalom skiing included in the winter Olympics (which they were for the first time in 1936).
John Fry told the story of Lunn’s conversion in our pages last June. A prolific writer, Lunn traced his religious awareness back to his experiences skiing and climbing:
When he was nineteen years old, he found himself “resting on an Alpine pass after a climb and a sunset of supreme beauty. Suddenly I knew beyond immediate need of proof that a beauty which was not of this world was revealed in the visible loveliness of the mountains. From that moment I discarded materialism for ever.”
And it was, as they say, all downhill from there. Read Fry’s account for the details.
Instead of faith that can move mountains, Lunn found mountains that can move faith.
I would be enjoying ice hockey if NBC would deign to televise it!
Lunn, whose mountain books I have read for years, also wrote a book about his conversion to Catholicism, called “Now I See,” which his friends used to refer to as “Now I Ski.” I’m not absolutely certain he invented the slalom, but he was certainly instrumental in putting it on the map, setting up the first races (I think) at Mürren (there’s an umlaut on that u which may or not make it in transition) in the Berner Obeland. He also founded the Kandahar Ski Club and set up a famous race in Austria called the Kandahar-Arlberg. Those who have really long memories may remember that the favored bindings on skis of the 30s and 40s and early 50s were called Kandahar bindings.
As for ice hockey, I live far enough north to get a couple of Canadian channels via Comcast, one in English, one in French. The English one (CTV, which is private, not part of CBC) does many hours a day of the competitions, some skiing, some hocky, and an awful lot of curling! The French channel seems to do no Olympics, though last fall they were doing half-hour episodes of Tintin, looking very much like the comic books.