Tompkins 7th among monoskiers at the Hartford Ski Spectacular
Joe Tompkins of Juneau finished seventh among monoskiers and 37th overall during the men's giant slalom race at the Hartford Ski Spectacular on Friday at Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado.
Tompkins, a member of the U.S. Disabled Alpine Ski Team, was competing in his first big race of the season. The Hartford Ski Spectacular is a week-long event that introduces people to skiing with disabilities, and this year there were camps where U.S. soldiers in the Iraq War learned how to ski.
Tompkins completed his two runs of the giant slalom course with a total time of 2 minutes, 15.33 seconds, good for 37th overall in raw time. With his disability level - a mid-back paralysis due to a late-1980s car wreck involving alcohol - factored in, Tompkins' adjusted time of 1:53.57 placed him 32nd overall.
Among monoskiers, Tompkins finished seventh. The top monoskier was U.S. Disabled Ski Team member Chris Devlin-Young of Campton, N.H., who had a raw time of 1:58:62 and an adjusted time of 1:40.14.
Devlin-Young posted the seventh-fastest adjusted time overall and was the second disabled skier to finish. George Sansonetis of Fraser, Colo., a standing skier who suffers from a neurological disorder, was the top disabled skier in sixth overall with a raw time of 1:49.67 and an adjusted time of 1:39.85.
Several local able-bodied youth skiers completed the course and were listed in the results, including top skier Austin Johnson of Quantum Ski Club, who posted a raw and adjusted time of 1:37.35.
Tompkins, who is on the U.S. Disabled Alpine Ski Team's C team, will compete in the Huntsman Cup in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 3-5. He is trying to make the travel squad that will compete in Disabled World Cup ski races in France and Austria in late January. Tompkins won the first official Disabled World Cup race, a downhill in Colorado in December 1999.