Still Short

The skier who outjumped them all, Torger ("Old Iron Legs") Tokle, used to say that if the ski jump at Steamboat Springs, Colo. were fixed up a bit, a new U.S. record could be set there. He did not live to see it: Sergeant Tokle of the skiborne 10th Mountain Division was killed in Italy.

This week, with Steamboat Springs properly improved, four ski jumpers had no trouble breaking Tokle's course record of 248 feet, and three others tied it.

Tokle's old No. 1 competitor, Norwegian-born, 36-year-old Alf Engen of Sun Valley, set the new course record at 259 feet to win the first National Ski Championships since 1942. His leap was still 30 feet short of Tokle's U.S. record jump, made off Michigan's Iron Mountain in 1942--and far short of the 300-ft. jump that Tokle had predicted for Steamboat Springs.

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