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FREESTYLEFORTITUDE
WORLDCUPCHAMPMIKENEMESVARYWASTHEJAMESBONDOFFREESTYLESKIING.THENHEFELLTOEARTH
words :: JosephMathieu
World champion freestyle skier Mike Nemesvary grew up in a water-skiing
family. He was an active kid, the middle child of three, who grew up in
the suburbs of Ottawa. He learned early on that he liked to go fast. On the
water he developed his taste for speed, for wind in his face. It’s where he
learned that the only way to go is forward, and
it’s where he got into strapping planks to his feet.
“When I was very young I knew I wanted to
be the best freestyle skier in the world,” says
Mike during a stroll near his house inManotick,
Ontario. “Of course, I kind of feel cheated…” He
watches a powerboat whizz by on the Rideau
River. “But why worry about it? …That boat is
planing perfectly, see that? Just perfect.”
Mike is whizzing along in his own craft, a
motorized wheelchair, alongside his scrappy
assistance dog, the golden lab Jigger. Mike’s a
quadriplegic, and has been ever since a routine
trampoline exercise inMay 1985 ended in
tragedy. The 55-year-old hasn’t skied in over 30 years but he lights up
with the same enthusiasm as when he was 15 and won his first title at the
1976 Canadian National Freestyle Skiing Championship at Camp Fortune.
“It is what it is,” he smiles as the boat disappears around a bend. In the
early 1980s, twenty-somethingMike excelled at theWorld Cup–level aerials.
Hewas representing Canada, his adoptive country, though hewould later
take up his native UK flag. OnMarch 19, 1983 at Angel Fire Resort in New
Mexico, he won theWorld Cup aerials event for Great Britain. The sport-
wide excitement about aerials becoming a demonstration sport at the 1988
CalgaryWinter Olympics was brimming over in
the young champion.
He was testing his mettle in competition
while experimenting with stunt work, and
he threw himself into commercials for Audi
and Ballantine’s whiskey by throwing himself
over moving vehicles and cameramen.
Mike appeared in the opening credits of
1985 James Bond film
AView toaKill
, where
his skiing silhouette somersaulted and
spun to the music of Duran Duran, and
he was also featured inWilly Bogner’s
Fire
and Ice
, alongside his freestyle idol and
friend John Eaves. “John has supportedme
unconditionally before and after my injury,”
he says. “During the release of Willy Bogner's IMAX film
Ski to the Max
in
2000, we did the North American premiere in Calgary and all the profits
went towards my 'Round theWorld Challenge charity.”
ABOVE
In St.Moritz, Switzerland, filmingWilly Bogner's
Fire and Ice
in 1983.Mike is in the gold suit.
BELOW
Training in Livigno, Italy, 1983.
COURTESYMIKENEMESVARY
MOUNTAIN
LIFER
