Olympian reflects on competing in Cortina 70 years ago as games return to Italy
Originally Published: 10 FEB 26 12:42 ET
By John Franchi
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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (KSTU) -- As the Olympic Games unfold in Milan and Cortina, Italy, the slopes of Cortina are once again hosting Olympic alpine skiing. But this isn't the first time these Italian mountains have welcomed the world's best skiers.
For 90-year-old Marvin Melville, a Utah native and two-time Olympian, watching the games return to Cortina brings back vivid memories from seven decades ago when he competed there as a 20-year-old in 1956.
"The parade, being a part of the team and representing the United States, there's nothing quite like that," Melville said.
The 1956 Olympics were the seventh iteration of the Winter Games, featuring only 32 countries compared to the 93 expected to compete this year. Melville's experience represents a simpler era of Olympic competition, captured in his family's home movies that transport viewers back 70 years.
His memories of skiing the treacherous Olympic downhill course in Cortina remain as vivid as those classic home movie reels. "I got halfway down the mountain and crashed and broke my skis and couldn't finish," Melville said. "But there were probably 80 competitors, maybe more, and there was only about 20 that got to the finish line."
The Olympics provided Melville with unexpected moments of human connection that transcended Cold War tensions. While watching a U.S.-Russia hockey game, he stood next to a Russian cross-country skier. "The Russians scored a goal, and she took her fist and slammed me in the shoulder. All of a sudden I had a strong, warm affiliation with the Russians, which previously, you know, I thought they were the enemy," Melville said.
Four years later, Melville competed again at the 1960 Olympics in California at what is now known as Palisades Tahoe, where he finished in 22nd place. "It makes you very patriotic. And I was also served in the military for two years. So yeah, I feel like I'm a patriotic citizen," Melville said.
Melville has donated his Olympic mementos to the Alf Engen Ski Museum, though he borrowed them back to share his story. His official team jacket still fits after all these years. "Having this on your ski uniform was a big deal," Melville said, referring to the Olympic patches.
Now battling polycythemia vera, a form of blood cancer, Melville reflects on his life on the slopes and the family he raised in Utah. He has five daughters, 29 grandchildren, and 56 great-grandchildren.
Surprisingly, skiing wasn't always his passion. "No, no, I did not think that. I didn't even like it the first few times we went up to Alta," Melville said when asked if he always planned to be a skier.
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