Steve Collins

Collins, Steve

Steve Collins, ski jumper (b at Thunder Bay, Ont 13 Mar 1964). Trained in Thunder Bay, Steve Collins burst into international prominence by winning the World Junior 70 m Championship in 1980 and went on to victories in a World Cup meet and an International Ski Flying Championship later the same year. Collins, who started skiing when age 4, has placed in the top 20 at several World Cup events. On 15 Dec 1980 he set a world record for the longest 90 m jump, 128.5 m, while on a run at Thunder Bay, Ont. In 1985 he won his first national 90 m ski jumping title at the Export A Canadian Championships at Thunder Bay. After taking a year off, he rejoined the Canadian ski jumping team in 1987. In the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, he was 13th in the 90m jump and 9th in the team jump, Canada's best Olympic showing in these events.

Collins stopped competing after the Olympics, although he made a brief comeback in 1990, when he won first in the 120m jump and third in the 94m event at the Canadian Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Championships. In 1995 he was inducted into the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame.