“The Olympics are always something of a marker in my life, as I’m sure they are for everyone.” Thus I began yesterday, aware of a potential little twist: “Tomorrow,” I thought, “the Olympics might become the marker in K’s cousin’s life.”
I first heard about K’s cousin, Kamil, as a ski jumper one day in the early 2000s when K and I were in Zakopane and she mentioned offhandedly that her uncle was probably there too, coming to take Kamil to ski jump practice. He was just a teen, and I found it terribly impressive, remembering how utterly terrifyingly steep the jump and hill under it seemed when I’d gone to a ski jump competition at the same slope some years before.
“He’s been jumping on the big hill since he was about twelve,” K clarified. At twelve, I thought it was impressive that I dared to ride my skateboard down a slightly steep street. I was utterly impressed.
But in a sense, it was a natural progression for Kamil. He started jumping in his backyard at age give when he cobbled together his own ramp. K and I were there during the spring of 2004 when it was under a blanket of crocus blossoms.
Just months later, he attended our wedding. By then, he was an up-and-coming national ski jumper. It was clear to everyone he was going to be competing on the international level shortly, but that day, he stole the show by reaching down and casually swiping the garter just from the grasp of my best friend, J, who literally dove for it.
During our family visit in 2010, we’d hoped to see Kamil. By then, he’d had some limited success on the world circuit, proving correct the initial speculation about his potential. We sat in his family’s living room, his father, an audiophile extraordinaire, putting on record after record for us as we downed cup after cup of tea. Babcia reminisced about how Kamil used to jump off this old table, the chair that used to be in that corner.
Since then, he’s gone from being a new-comer on the international scene to the reigning world champion and current World Cup points, entering today’s ski jumping competition in Sochi as an odds-on favorite.
When he won, though, the excitement that rippled through the country and through our house as well.
Congratulations, Kamil!