Text Courtesy USALuge.org
Jack Elder, a member of the 1972 United States Olympic luge team, received the Dorothy Franey Langkop Ambassador Award on Sept. 25 at the 2014 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Assembly held in Chicago.
The honor is named after the woman who pioneered women’s ski jumping on its road to Olympic inclusion.
The Dorothy Franey Langkop Ambassador Award was established to recognize an individual or a program associated with a U.S. Olympians and Paralympians Chapter. It demonstrates the special spirit of Olympism and has illustrated the Olympic ideals through their actions or have rendered outstanding services to the Olympic cause.
Elder’s sports career dates back to 1958 and his days as an all-state high school linebacker. He learned luge in the early 1960s as a member of the military in Berchtesgaden, Germany, competing in four world championships prior to his 15th place effort in doubles at the Sapporo Olympic Winter Games. Elder is also credited with several bronze medals in national and North American luge competitions.
His professional career includes a stint as development director with the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame Museum. The Seattle native was founder and president of Oregon Sports Action, a group that looked into the feasibility of bringing the Olympics to that state.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Assembly was initiated in 2005 to give a voice to the various member organizations of the USOC; to keep dialogue open between members, staff and volunteer leadership; and to help further the Olympic and Paralympic movements in the United States.
Thank you…..
Thanks to the United State Olympians-Paralympians Association, the selection committee of Sammy Walker, President Gary Hall, Caroline Holmes and Tina Noyes.
Congratulations to Pat Sapp the 2012 Langkop winner and the 2013 winner Pat McCormick.
I’d like to share a little of my story to put this award in perspective and include a short Dorothy story.
But first I’d like to say hello to the National Association of Sports Commissions especially to Don Schumacher and Hill Carrow. Congratulations to Hill who was awarded U.S. Masters!
30 years ago my non profit, Oregon Sports Action, was a local organizing committee considering a bid for the Olympic Winter Games.
When Portland decided to not to be a bid city we changed our purpose to that of Olympic sports development in Oregon.
I have not done this alone, OSA has more than fifty past members of the board and I also share this award with the current board of directors of OSA which consists of four Olympians and an IJF official.
They are:
Clem Eischen a 1948 Track Olympian,
Sean O’Neill a two time Olympian in table tennis,
Katy Steding a member of the 1996 Women’s gold medal basketball team,
and Mark Hirota, a B-rated IJF referee.
Chuck Richards 1972 Olympian in Modern Pentathlon was my mentor in the mysteries of long term fundraising through charitable gaming…also know as bingo.
Given more time I’d love to share the full story of OSA and how I believe it can be replicated in other communities. Contact me if you are interested.
Here’s my Dorothy story.
I became an Olympian in ’72 but it was years later, when I first met Dorothy that I began to understand how I could share my experience and give back to the Olympic movement.
It was at a USOC meeting in Washington DC in the late 80’s or early 90’s. The Oregon USOC fundraiser, Alan Zell, pointed out a meeting of Olympians on the official agenda and asked if I was going to attend?
I said no, he asked, why not? I replied that a one time Olympian in a minor winter sport who finished 15th is pretty low on the pecking order of Olympians.
His reply was you are an Olympian and you should be there. He was right.
When I walked into the room…one of those USOC temporary office rooms with miscellaneous office equipment and supplies stacked around, I saw four people, Olympian Decathlete Champion Bill Toomey, Barry King a marketing staffer and British Olympian Decathlete, Olympian Dorothy Franey Langkop and Marketing Director John Krimsky.
Dorothy instinctively knew that Olympians had much to share and were underutilized in the Olympic movement. She had been lobbying for a reactivation of the US Olympians and in this meeting she proceeded to explained the history of the US Olympians and drew a straight line from the US Olympians in the Games of 1896 and how they founded the US Olympians at a reunion of that Team in 1946 at the New York Athletic Club and how those and other Olympians assisted the fundraisers in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s.
The outcome was that Bill agreed to Chair future meetings, Barry became the inside staffer guiding us through the complexities of USOC policy, I volunteered to be the scribe and note keeper and Dorothy continued to stir the pot because that is what Dorothy did best.
At the Miami 1992 meeting the USOC recognized the US Olympians as its alumni group.
In ’93 at the Phoenix USOC meeting Francois Carrard agreed to brief IOC President Sammaranch on the progress of the US Olympians and initial efforts of Olympians in Great Britain and Canada.
The following year in 1994 at the Centennial meeting of the IOC, the World Olympians Association was founded.
It is a straight bright line from the 1896 Olympic Team to the 1946 founding of the US Olympians to the rejuvenation instigated by Dorothy, to this assembly today. The Olympians and now Paralympians have carried on Dorothy’s passion from Toomey to John Naber to Willie Banks and now Gary Hall Sr.
I am very proud to be a recipient of the Dorothy Langkop Ambassador Award and a U.S. Olympian. I wish you good fortune in your efforts today and tomorrow and good luck in the future.
I leave you with this thought….we do what we because that is the way we are and is it not amazing just how much you can get done when you are not concerned about who will get the credit?
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