Monday, April 3, 2006

By: Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer

Thirty-six Olympians who have lived or trained in the Tahoe area will be honored Tuesday by the Placer County Board of Supervisors.

District 5 Supervisor Bruce Kranz said a commendation honoring all Winter Olympians from the Tahoe area, past and present, represents the Board of Supervisors' way of expressing thanks and recognition to the Winter Olympic athletes living or training in the county.

Among those honored will be two gold medal winners from this year's Turin Olympics:

Julia Mancuso, a North Tahoe High School graduate who lives in Olympic Valley, won gold in the women's giant slalom. She has been skiing at Squaw Valley USA since she was 2.

Hannah Teter, a Vermont native now living in the Tahoe area, won gold in the women's halfpipe competition.

The list includes Olympians stretching back to 1952 Oslo games double gold skier Andrea Mead Lawrence, 1964 Innsbruck bronze medal slalom skier Jimmie Heuga, 1976 combined bronze winner Greg Jones, and Auburn's Jeff Hamilton (a bronze medallist in speed skiing at the 1992 Albertville games).

"It is with great pride that Placer County can claim to offer some of the best training facilities in the United States for Olympic athletes to use for training in the Winter Olympic Games," Kranz said. "Many of the Lake Tahoe region resorts are utilized on a regular basis for this purpose."

Additionally, many of the athletes competing in the winter Olympics are residents of Placer County communities, he said.

The Journal's Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com.