In 1972, at the Sapporo Winter Olympics on the island of Hokkaido, Japan, the United States had high hopes to win a medal in alpine skiing. The men were lead by Rick Chaffee, Bob Cochran, Tyler Palmer, and Hank Kashiwa, all members of the successful 1970 Val Gardena World Championship squad when Billy Kidd captured the gold in Combined, an American first. In Japan Palmer took ninth in the slalom; Bob Cochran earned a top ten finish in the downhill.

Eric Poulsen

Palisades Tahoe's Eric Poulsen did not win any medals in skiing at the 1972 Olympics. The day before the start of the men's downhill, an event he was favored to excel in, he fell during practice, tearing his knee apart and breaking his arm.

"The course, as far as downhills go, wasn't that fast," Poulsen recalls. "It was a technical course--very turny and difficult to maintain speed."

That day the light was flat with snow falling.

"On a fairly steep section, which included a compression, there was a left-hand turn. I got inside on it and back on my skis. I fell into vertigo. The compression did the rest."


It was a bitter disappointment for Poulsen and the U.S. team. The fall came at the height of a sometimes overlooked, but very successful amateur career.

For close to a decade prior to the Sapporo, Eric Poulsen skied to consistent top-ten finishes on the World Cup circuit. During his career, the Palisades Tahoe racer became one of the few international skiers to be seeded in the top-15 of each discipline --slalom, giant slalom, and downhill.

Named to the team in 1969, Poulsen was a collegiate All-American at the University of Denver. In 1971, he won the giant slalom and placed second in the slalom at the prestigious World University Games. Competing against the greatest competition of his era--Karl Schranz, Piero Gros, Gustavo Theoni, and Bernhard Russi--Poulsen helped create a large respect abroad for U.S. racing. Notable finishes included a sixth-place at Kitzbuel in the legendary Hahnenkamm downhill and a fourth place in a giant slalom in Murren, Switzerland.

"Eric was not a natural talent compared to his brother Lance and sister Sandra," says Osvaldo Ancinas.

Ancinas, a three-time Olympian from Argentina, coached all three siblings during their junior racing careers with the Lake Tahoe Ski Club. Both Lance and Sandra were national team skiers. Sandra was also member of the 1972 Olympic team. Lance would have competed in those same Olympics if not for breaking a leg earlier in the season.

"Eric, however, was a very smart skier. He worked hard and had perseverance. What maybe sticks out most about him was his mental approach. He thought about racing every minute, on or off the course," says Ancinas.

Poulsen did persevere through his tragic injuries. He came back onto the U.S. squad and skied well for two more years before turning pro in 1975. He won the Sierra-Tahoe Pro tour his rookie year.

"I suppose I never really was the same," admits Eric, today a successful family man and realtor in Palisades Tahoe. "The disappointment of those Olympics was tough...as well as the rehab. The doctors told me I would never ski again. But I had a lot of support from my family. My older brother Lance and I were always competitive. He pushed me to get back in the gates."