Harold S. Hirsch Awards winners
Carson White Golden Quill Award winner
Lifetime Achievement Award winner
Gillen Memorial Award winner
Competitor of the Year Award

Harold S. Hirsch awards

Seven journalists were awarded 2002 Harold S. Hirsch Awards for Excellence in Snowsports Journalism at the annual convention in Charlevoix, Quebec.

Winners of the awards are: Jay Cowan, Snowmass, Colo., for magazine features; Martin Griff, Trenton Times, for columns; Mitch Kaplan, Fairlawn, N.J., for on-line journalism; Fred McKinney, Cleverdale, N.Y. for photography; Chris Robinson, Toronto, Ont., for television broadcasting; Allen St. John, Upper Montclair, N.J., for book writing; and Dino Vournas, Hayward, Calif., for newspaper features.

The Harold S. Hirsch awards honor NASJA members for outstanding journalism during an entire snowsports season. This year's awards honor journalistic work during the 2001-2002 season. All awards are presented annually, with the exception of the award for book writing, which is presented every three years. There was no award presented this year for radio broadcasting.

Cowan, winner of the award for magazine features, contributes regularly to publications such as SKI, Skiing, Powder, Freeskier, Couloir, Travel Holiday, Outside, Sojourner, Big Sky Journal, Cross-Country Skier and others. He is author of the book "The Best of the Alps." This is his second Harold Hirsch award for magazine writing.

Griff, winner of the award for column writing, is a photographer and
snowsports columnist for The Times, in Trenton, N.J. He previously won the Harold Hirsch award for newspaper columns in 2000.

Kaplan, winner of the award for on-line writing, is the content editor for Kidznsnow.com and the travel editor for Onthesnow.com. Kaplan's free-lance work has appeared in Skiing, Ski Area Management, Snow Country, Snow Country Business, Ski Resorts, Skier News, Family Circle and Continental Airlines Magazine among others. He has authored seven books, most recently "The Unofficial Guide to the Mid-Atlantic with Kids" and "The Cheapskate's Guide to Myrtle Beach."

McKinney, winner of the award for photography, has specialized in ski and winter lifestyle photography for editorial and commercial use for more than 20 years. Assignments have taken him around the world covering the sport of skiing, including to several winter Olympic Games and World Cup events. He photographs have been featured on more than 100 magazine covers, and his ski photography has been published in numerous national magazines, including Ski,
Skiing, Powder, Ski Canada, Outdoor, Time, Vanity Fair, Woman's Day and Newsweek, as well as regional and airline magazines, brochures and catalogues. This is his second Harold Hirsch award for Excellence in Ski Photography.

Robinson, winner of the award for broadcasting, is the host and executive producer of World of Skiing television show (distributed in the United States and internationally under the title Skier's World). Robinson's company, Double Black Diamond Productions, is an independent Canadian production company focused on skiing and snowboarding. In addition to World of Skiing, DBDP has covered many national and international events for Canada's major TV networks and clients around the world. A former professional freestyle skier, he remains been heavily involved with the sport. Currently, he is the chairman of the FIS Freestyle Skiing Committee, president of the Canadian Ski and Snowboard Association and an elected director of Canadian Ski Council.

St. John won the award for books for Skiing for Dummies. St. John is the author of nine books including Skiing for Dummies, Bicycling for Dummies and the upcoming Mad Dog 100: The Greatest Sports Arguments of All Time, with radio personality Chris Russo. He is a also a contributing editor at Skiing Magazine, the Village Voice and Tennis Magazine, and his work has appeared in a wide variety of national publications ranging from The New York Times Magazine to Playboy to U.S. News and World Report. His recent work has been honored by Best American Sports Writing. This is his third Harold Hirsch Award. He has won two previous Harold Hirsch awards for magazine writing.

Vournas, winner of the award for newspaper features, works as a free lance for the Associated Press. He is former chief photographer, travel and outdoor sports writer for the San Francisco Examiner, and previously, he was with the Oakland Tribune/ANG. He is a two-time Harold Hirsch winner, having previously won the award for photography.

Women's skiing pioneer Jeannie Thoren's lifetime devotion to making skiing easier and more fun was recognized by North American Snowsports Journalists (NASJA) at their annual meeting in Quebec.

Thoren, of Duluth, Minn., received the Carson White Golden Quill Award for 2003, presented by NASJA at its annual meeting here. The Golden Quill recognizes individuals who have made outstanding individual contributions to the advancement of snow sports in North America. The award is named for Carson White, first president of the U.S. Ski Writers Association (now NASJA) and was first presented in 1969.

Thoren's legacy can be found in today's women-specific ski equipment and in the many women-only ski clinics and workshops that prosper at resorts throughout North America.

Thoren has a mission, and for the past 20 years she has pursued it with all the gentility and reserve of a pit bull. Her goal: to help women ski better by making their equipment better.

Thoren, 54, made the Junior National Team as a high school junior and was the only woman on the Northern Michigan University men's team. During her years of skiing in Switzerland and Sun Valley, she came to realize that certain aspects of the female anatomy -- particularly a woman's wider pelvis and a lower center of gravity -- limit most women's ability to improve, particularly if they use ski gear designed for men.

After fighting for years to get the industry to listen, Thoren struck out on her own, traveling to ski resorts with a van full of equipment, helping thousands of women ski better by modifying their equipment for the way women ski. Eventually the manufacturers took note and today - thanks to Thoren's pioneering efforts - women enjoy an array of ski products specifically geared to their anatomy and the way they ski.

Using herself as a guinea pig, Thoren developed a system of equipment modification (placing heel lifts in boots, mounting bindings ahead of the manufacturer-recommended positions) to move a woman's center of mass forward and over her skis, thus easing turn initiation. Her doggedness and determination led to an eventual industry standard for women's skis.

More importantly, Thoren has done more than any individual to keep women from losing interest in skiing and dropping out of the sport. Thoren is a pioneer in women's skiing programs and conducts more than 25 on-snow events annually nationwide, customizing ski equipment for hundreds of women every year.

Ski Magazine ranks her among the 100 most influential skiers of all time (1999), she is among the top 100 ski instructors in the U.S., according to Skiing Magazine (1999), and she was one of the first inductees into the Women's Ski Hall of Fame (1994). Thoren and her efforts have also been the subject of articles in more than 15 national and regional publications.

Today, Thoren's mission remains the same as it has always been: to help women ski better by making their equipment better.

Encouraging and developing young ski racers earned Ginny Cochran, of Richmond, VT, the 2003 Lifetime Achievment Award.

The award was presented at the North American Snowsports Journalists Association (NASJA) annual meeting March 22, in Quebec. The Lifetime Achievement Award honors an individual for a lifetime achievement in snow sports.

In addition to mothering a tribe of Olympic skiers, Cochran has turned her home into a virtual incubator of little skiers. The achievements of Cochran's progeny, of course, are well known. All four were on the U.S. Ski Team: Barbara Ann won Olympic gold, Marilyn was the first American overall World Cup champ (GS), Bobby won at Hahnenkamm, and Lindy had top American results at Innsbruck.

Cochran kept her kids well grounded and grew them into exceptional adults. Her dedication was extraordinary. Barbara Ann claims her mother outdid any modern soccer mom, twice driving them across the country for their first U.S. Ski Team camps because they couldn't afford plane tickets.

One-half of a dynamic duo that for 38 years grew a community resource out of their backyard hill, when husband Mickey was coach of the U.S. team in 1973-74, Ginny ran Cochran's by herself, always the businessperson to Mickey's engineering and coaching talent. Giving countless kids and families the opportunity to enjoy the simple pleasure of sliding on snow, Cochran's kitchen amounted to the area lodge in the area's early days. Today, school buses cram the parking lot, thanks to Cochran's-sponsored after-school programs.

Cochran has always been a skier. She met Mickey when she caught a ride to Stowe with him back in their University of Vermont days in the 1940s. As recently as three years ago--well into her 60s - Cochran was logging 50 to 60 days a winter on skis. She is also an exceptional teacher. When the area
opened in 1961, Cochran taught an after-school program at the request of the local PTA. Since that time, thousands of kids have learned to "ski the Cochran way."

Cochran was also an important contributor to the development of some exceptional national-level skiers as part of a network of parents that supported their kids' friends and teammates whenever they needed a place to stay. Early in her career, Cindy Nelson was dropped from the traveling team and sent home from Europe. Where did she go? To the Cochrans for a month of Cochran's cooking and Mickey's coaching. Similarly, Terry Palmer did his senior year of high school at Mt. Mansfield Union, living with the Cochrans because his New Hampshire high school was unimpressed with the talents of an aspiring racer.

Cochran's crowning contribution was her recent gift of the ski area to the public for outdoor recreation and preservation. It was no small contribution. Developers had eyed her lovely hillside for years, and though she could easily have reaped a sizable profit by selling, she would rather see Cochran's live on, continuing to grow little skiers.

Cochran is still teaching never-ever kids how to ski every Saturday - make that teaching parents how to teach their kids, a Cochran trademark. She's a skier, first and foremost, a mother to skiers, a ski area operator, a ski instructor, a supporter of American ski racing and a benefactor of Vermont
skiing. Cochran is also wisecracking, warm, ornery, patient, loving ... and when the need arises, tough as nails.

Chip Carey, vice president of marketing and sales for The Canyons in Utah, received the Bob Gillen Memorial Award for 2003. The Bob Gillen Memorial Award honors an individual corporate member of the association who exemplifies the highest standards of professionalism in public relations and communications and understands the working relationship between the information specialist and the journalist.

Carey spent 25 years at Sugarloaf/USA, in Carrabassett Valley, Maine, before transferring with the American Ski Company to The Canyons, Park City, Utah. An early adopter of new technologies to get his message out to the media from the mountains, in the '70s and '80s, he was at the forefront of fax and computer database technology. At one point, he actually hot-wired a photo transmitter to a telephone pole so he could transmit ski race photos to the AP Wires. He started WSKI TV, a closed-circuit cable TV station. Carey also was a pioneer for ski resort Web sites, introducing people to the World Wide Web, in it's earliest stages, at the Boston Ski Show, and using it to promote ski conditions and other resort information.

Carey also started the Sugarloaf/Reggae Fest in 1992. The event started out as just a band on the deck with a few hundred people, but it has grown to be the biggest spring ski party in the East, now attracting as many as 11,000 people.

Carey has masterminded some memorable special events for publicity over the years at Sugarloaf and The Canyons, from the World Heavy Championships and the Virgin Atlantic Balloon crossing at Sugarloaf to having The Canyons be the host for 18 days of NBC's Today Show during the 2002 Olympics.

Competitor of the Year

Alpine skier Bode Miller's dominance at the 2003 World Alpine Skiing Championships in St. Moritz contributed to his being named 2003's Outstanding Competitor. The award was presented at the NASJA annual meeting March 22, in Quebec. It was the second consecutive year he has won the award.

At the World Alpine Skiing Championships, Miller won three medals: silver in
super G, gold in combined and gold in giant slalom. With these three medals,
he tied Billie Kidd and Christin Cooper for the most medals in major skiing events (five Olympic and World Championships medals).