Photograph courtesy of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame.
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, Ishpeming, Michigan, announced that Jim Martinson is one of seven athletes and sports pioneers elected to the Hall of Fame Class of 2015. The honorees will be formally inducted in Aspen, Colorado, on April 9, 2016.
Martinson, who sustained bilateral lower-limb amputations in 1967 during the Vietnam War, grew up ski racing in Washington state. In 1985, his frustration in trying to return to skiing led him to develop the Shadow, an adaptive sit-ski device. Martinson traveled to ski resorts to meet with mountain managers and ski patrols to demonstrate how the product worked and also taught skiers to use it. His mission was to help educate people about the possibilities for athletes with disabilities, according the National Disabled Ski Hall of Fame, which inducted him in 2003.
“I wanted to make a sit-ski that really worked, with a shock to replace the natural shock from a person’s knees. I also wanted to be able to get on the lifts by myself,” Martinson told the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame.
Using the sit-ski, he went on to win several national championships and a gold medal at the 1992 Winter Paralympics, and, at 63 years old, was the oldest person to compete in the 2009 Winter X Games.
