Big Thunder Ski Jumping Center

The location was first identified by Knute Hansen, a ski jumper who felt that a location on Mount McRae in Lakehead would be ideal for a ski jumping hill. He and Thor Hansen built the first jumps, which were opened in 1963 and named Lille Norway Ski Area. In 1969, after the Hansens had fallen into financial difficulties, the venue was sold and renamed Mt. Norway Ski Area. Additional land for the complex was also leased, and the provincial government provided funding to construct the main twin hill. Construction of the 70 meter and 90 meter (current K-90 and K-120) hills was completed in 1974. The following year, the venue hosted its first Canadian Ski Jumping Championships. Three years later, the venue was again sold, this time being named Sundance Northwest Resort. In 1981, the Provincial Government of Ontario started redeveloping the site to transform it into a national training center. In 1985, the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Recreation bought the site. In the course of five years, they built a K-64 hill, as well as Little Thunder, which consisted of K-10, K-20 and K-37 hills. The two largest of these were equipped with porcelain in-runs and plastic landing slopes, allowing for their use during summer.[1]

In 1990, the venue was awarded the hosting of the 1995 Nordic World Ski Championships. This required a major upgrade to the infrastructure, including floodlights. World Cup tournaments were placed on hold after 1991 for the upgrades. The venue hosted the Pre-World Championships, part of the World Cup, in 1994. In the final jumping event in the 1995 World Championships, Tommy Ingebrigtsen set a hill record of 137.0 meters (449 ft), 9 meters (30 ft) beyond the previous hill record.[1]

During the campaigning for the 1995 Ontario provincial election, Conservative Party leader Mike Harris deemed Big Thunder a "cash cow" as part of his Common Sense Revolution. Following the party's victory in the election, the venue was closed.[1] Even though the venue closed, it still costs the province several hundred thousand dollars per year.[2] The citizens group Friends of Big Thunder Bay announced on 1 March 2010, following the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, that they had sent a letter of intent to the provincial government where they stated that they wished to re-open the sports park.[3] They intend to not only reopen the hill, but also the associated sports area and provide year-round training of ski jumping, freestyle skiing, cross-country skiing, mountain biking, event hosting and hiking. Ski Jumping Canada has asked the province to establish a training facility for ski jumping in Ontario, stating that lack of facilities make it difficult for Canada to produce ski jumpers for the world scene, and that this among other things will result in poor performances in the Olympics.[2]

Big Thunder was a regular site for the FIS Nordic Ski Jumping World Cup, and arranged a world cup round, typically with two jumps, every season from 1980 through 1991. Nordic combined was, in addition to the World Championships, hosted twice, in 1989 and in 1994.[4][5] The last World Cup tournament was held in 1994 as a Pre-World Championship tournament.[1]

Contested between 9 and 19 March 1995, the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships is the hallmark of the venue, and the only major world championship to be contested in Northern Ontario.[1] The Nordic combined individual took place on 9 March, and was won by Fred Børre Lundberg ahead of Jari Mantila. The following day saw Japan win ahead of Norway and Finland in the Nordic combined team event. In ski jumping, the individual normal hill event took place on 12 March, which saw a double Japanese victory with Takanobu Okabe winning ahead of Hiroya Saito.[6] The team event in the large hill on 16 March saw Finland win ahead of Germany and Japan.[7] In the large hill individual event on 18 March, Tommy Ingebrigtsen set a new hill record and won ahead of Andreas Goldberger.[8]

The following is a list of all FIS Ski Jumping World Cup and FIS Nordic World Ski Championship tournaments held at Big Thunder, with the date, hill and top three finishing athletes or teams.

Date	Hill	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref
19 January 1980	K-120	Armin Kogler	Bernard Moullier	Alfred Groyer	[9]
20 January 1980	K-120	Armin Kogler	Hubert Neuper	Toni Innauer	[10]
21 February 1981	K-90	Primoz Ulaga	Johan Sætre	Steve Collins	[11]
22 February 1981	K-120	John Broman	Ivar Mobekk	Andreas Felder	[12]
23 January 1982	K-90	Horst Bulau	Massimo Rigoni	Ernst Vettori	[13]
24 January 1982	K-120	Horst Bulau	Massimo Rigoni	Hubert Neuper	[14]
22 January 1983	K-90	Horst Bulau	Olav Hansson	Pentti Kokkonen	[15]
23 January 1983	K-120	Matti Nykänen	Horst Bulau	Olav Hansson	[16]
10 December 1983	K-90	Horst Bulau	Matti Nykänen	Vegard Opaas	[17]
11 December 1983	K-120	Vegard Opaas	Matti Nykänen	Horst Bulau	[18]
8 December 1984	K-90	Andreas Felder	Pentti Kokkonen	Ernst Vettori	[19]
9 December 1984	K-120	Andreas Felder	Jari Puikkonen	Ernst Vettori	[20]
7 December 1985	K-90	Primoz Ulaga	Vegard Opaas	Matti Nykänen	[21]
8 December 1985	K-120	Primoz Ulaga	Franz Neuländtner	Ernst Vettori	[22]
6 December 1986	K-90	Jens Weißflog	Matti Nykänen	Jukka Kalso	[23]
7 December 1986	K-120	Matti Nykänen	Thomas Klauser	Vegard Opaas	[24]
5 December 1987	K-90	Matti Nykänen	Pavel Ploc	Ernst Vettori	[25]
6 December 1987	K-120	Matti Nykänen	Thomas Klauser	Jens Weißflog	[26]
3 December 1988	K-90	Dieter Thoma	Risto Laakonen	Matti Nykänen	[27]
4 December 1988	K-120	Risto Laakonen	Erik Johnsen	Dieter Thoma	[28]
3 December 1989	K-90	Dieter Thoma	Heinz Kuttin	Ari-Pekka Nikkola	[29]
4 December 1989	K-120	Risto Laakonen	Andreas Felder	Heinz Kuttin	[30]
8 December 1990	K-90	Andreas Felder	Dieter Thoma	Franci Petek	[31]
9 December 1990	K-120	Andreas Felder	Franci Petek	Ari-Pekka Nikkola	[32]
1 December 1991	K-90	Toni Nieminen	Ari-Pekka Nikkola	Stefan Horngacher	[33]
2 December 1991	K-120	Ernst Vettori	Mike Holland	Stephan Zünd	[34]
25 March 1994	K-120	Germany	Norway	Japan	[35]
26 March 1994	K-90	Gerd Siegmund	Andreas Goldberger	Roberto Cecon	[36]
27 March 1994	K-90	Jens Weißflog	Takanobu Okabe	Espen Bredesen	[37]
12 March 1995	K-90	Takanobu Okabe	Hiroya Saito	Mika Laitinen	[6]
16 March 1995	K-120	Finland	Germany	Japan	[7]
18 March 1995	K-120	Tommy Ingebrigtsen	Andreas Goldberger	Jens Weißflog	[8]