12/21/24
January 28, 2006
You've probably seen Gilles Leclerc.: He was the barrel-jumping "thrill of victory" guy in the opening montage of Wide World Of Sports. Sadly, his sport has faded away in recent years, a victim of warmer winters, lack of ice time, and the rise of other "extreme sports" (they haven't held a Canadian or World Championship since 1995), but there was a time in the 1960's & 70's when barrel jumping was a staple of winter programming, and there was serious talk of adding it to the Olympics.
Leclerc is mostly retired now, but he & his sons still perform the occasional exhibition sometimes.
posted by chicobangs to other at 01:54 AM - 10 comments
Yeah, well, there's apparently been more than one "thrill of victory" (Pele and Mario Andretti were both part of the victory montage too), but there's a bit more info out there on them. One more (kind of sad) quote that shines a little more light:
Barrel jumping was never an Olympic sport, although it is a sport indeed and has been covered on ABC's Wide World of Sports. And as the name implies, it's all about jumping over barrels–on ice skates. The skater circles the rink a few times, picking up speed. At about 30 mph, the athlete tries to leap over a batch of fiberglass barrels, side by side by side on the ice. The jumper must leap about five or six feet into the air to make it over, launching much like an airplane. (The world record is something like 18 barrels.) "We must have speed and guts," says Gilles Leclerc, president of the Canadian Barrel Jumping Federation, which tried for about 25 years to get the sport included in the Olympics. In 1992, the federation sent a jumper to a Lillehammer winter-sports festival, according to Outside magazine. But no dice. The demo was canned, perhaps because of fears the fellow would hurt himself. A video was shown instead. Olympic officials were not convinced. "It appeared to be a brutal sort of sport," a spokesman said. "Nobody really makes it. Everybody seems to fall on their backside." Leclerc, a former Canadian champion, says barrel jumping isn't dangerous, because the experts wear specially padded bodysuits and know how to land without hurting themselves. Even so, Leclerc says, the notion of barrel-jumping Olympians is dead. "We cannot do it," he says. "Now there are fewer countries, and the people are discouraged. When you are refused all the time, all the good jumpers stop training. Instead of going forward, we are going back."
posted by chicobangs at 03:39 AM on January 28, 2006
I just downloaded a Commodore 64 emulator last night. Maybe it's time to grab Winter Games and get jumping.
posted by yerfatma at 06:45 AM on January 28, 2006
I just downloaded a Commodore 64 emulator last night. Maybe it's time to grab Winter Games and get jumping. barrel jumping is on World Games, not Winter Games. (i recommend the caber toss as well)
posted by goddam at 11:23 AM on January 28, 2006
I guess this shows how ignint I be, I never heard of barrel jumping until today. Seems like the Winter Games version of the long jump. Chico, do you subscribe to Obscure Sports Quaterly?
posted by HATER 187 at 12:30 PM on January 28, 2006
Although I've never seen it, I'd rather watch barrel jumping than ice dancing or synchronised swimming (OK, both easy targets) which are Olympic sports. And (slightly off topic) what is it with the rule in ice skating that you can't put the skates over your head? Skaters have been able to do front and back flips for years, but can't incorporate them into routines. Does anyone know why? It would certainly make the sport much more entertaining and challenge the athletes.
posted by owlhouse at 02:14 PM on January 28, 2006
Good call goddam. I had 'em all, so it's tough to remember. Then again, it's scary how quickly Jumpman has come back to me.
posted by yerfatma at 02:56 PM on January 28, 2006
It's funny that you posted this, chicobangs. I was JUST going to do some research about this and see what happened to the sport. I was in the parking lot of my office this week and was running to my car (it was cold out). I saw there was a patch of ice, so (naturally) I decided to slide across it. There was a break in the ice patch, so I tried to jump over it. I cleared the bare spot with room to spare, but stumbled when I landed and fell on my ass. That immediately triggered the memory of watching barrel-jumping on WWoS (or at least seeing the opening). Thanks for the update.
posted by grum@work at 11:27 PM on January 28, 2006
Glad to help. I was looking for something else altogether and just happened across the Sun article. (Which is terribly written, but frankly, that's no shock.) It just bummed me out that the sport is basically dead. It happens, I guess, but still.
posted by chicobangs at 12:56 PM on January 29, 2006
I cleared the bare spot with room to spare, but stumbled when I landed and fell on my ass. This thread is useless without pictures. Nice post, chico.
posted by Ufez Jones at 02:21 PM on January 29, 2006
Very cool. Thanks chicobangs. You always hear about the "agony of defeat" guy. This is the first time I've read about the "thrill of victory" guy. I miss wide world of sports, and I feel old, but those are good memories.