Leo Massa (October 15, 1929 – September 3, 2009) was an American

cross-country skier Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

. He competed in the men's 30 kilometre event at the

1960 Winter Olympics The 1960 Winter Olympics (officially the VIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Squaw Valley 1960) were a winter multi-sport event held from February 18 to 28, 1960, at the Squaw Valley Resort (now known as Palisades Tahoe) in Squaw Vall ...

. Raised in

Red Bank, New Jersey Red Bank is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. Incorporated in 1908, the community is on the Navesink River, the area's original transportation route to the ocean and other ports. Red Bank is in the New York Metropolitan A ...

, Massa played baseball at

Red Bank Regional High School Red Bank Regional High School (often abbreviated RBR) is a comprehensive regional four-year public high school and school district that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from the boroughs of Little Silver, Red Bank and Shrewsbu ...

well enough to earn a Major League Baseball tryout, before switching over to focus cross-country skiing, a sport he learned in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

during his pre-teen years.Parker, Don
"Massa On Cold, Cold Ground; Leo Massa Did Not Complain When He Drew The Last Starting Position In The National Cross-Country Championships And, Over 15 Kilometers Of Wilderness, Last Was First"
''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'', February 24, 1958. Accessed Julne 27, 2019. "The highlight of the show was the performance of Florida-born Leo Massa, 28, currently a carpenter in Red Bank, N.J., who spent five of his pre-teen years learning cross-country skiing in his father's native Finland."

References

1929 births 2009 deaths American male cross-country skiers Olympic cross-country skiers for the United States Cross-country skiers at the 1960 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Clearwater, Florida People from Red Bank, New Jersey Red Bank Regional High School alumni Sportspeople from Monmouth County, New Jersey {{US-crosscountry-skiing-bio-stub