Eugene Robert "Gene" Kotlarek (March 31, 1940 – November 9, 2017) was an American former ski jumper. He competed at the

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

and

1964 Winter Olympics The 1964 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IX Olympic Winter Games (german: IX. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1964 ( bar, Innschbruck 1964, label=Austro-Bavarian), was a winter multi-sport event which was celebr ...

with the best result of 14th place in the normal hill in 1964.

Biography

Kotlarek was trained by his father George, a member of the American Ski Jumping Hall of Fame. He won the 1958 National Boys title, the 1959 National Junior A championship, and the U.S. Senior titles in 1963 and 1966–67. In 1964, he set a national record at 138 m (454 feet), which stood for nine years. Kotlarek graduated from the University of Minnesota and later worked as an accountant. In 1982, he was elected to the National Ski Hall of Fame. Kotlarek died on November 9, 2017, in

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

References

1940 births 2017 deaths American male ski jumpers Olympic ski jumpers for the United States Ski jumpers at the 1960 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 1964 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Duluth, Minnesota {{US-skijumping-bio-stub