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Aller, 85, Boasts Four Gold Medals in World Championship Masters Skiing
by Cynthia Hochswender
Staff Reporter
Lakeville Journal (Ct.)
May 2002

March 7, 2002
President of the International Ski Federation, Harold Herbert, presents Rod with the Combined Tile Award - Abetone, Italy
Rod (86 yrs. old) takes four gold medals (Class XIII) at The FIS World Master Criterium

Salisbury, CT. -- He's 85 years old but Rod Aller's knees are still holding up, well enough, in fact to keep him schussing and twisting at high speed down slalom ski courses. So well, in fact, that he won four gold medals at an international ski event in March in Abetone, Italy, beating champions from around the world.

The 14th World Masters Criterium was held in the Italian Apennines and was attended by 538 racers from 16 countries, with the heaviest attendance from Italy and Austria. And though many of those Italian racers had been down the Abertone courses before and were familiar with the texture of the local snow, Mr. Aller was the overall champ in his division at the races, winning all four of the events offered.

There were only about nine other racers in his over-80 division, he said. But being one of the last remaining competitive skiers in one's age group is something of a prize in and of itself.

Others on the American team were Duffy Dodge, Dewey Davidson and Anne Nordhoy. Together, they collected nine gold, two silver and one bronze medal.

Mr. Aller, an attorney in Lakeville was quite casual about his triumph in Europe, which is not surprising when one sees the sizeable cache of beribboned metal discs, crystal statuettes and engraved trophies on various hooks and surfaces in his office.

He keeps them at work now, he sighs, because his wife, Anne, insisted he get them out of the house. There are so darn many of them, they were taking up too much room.

Mr. Aller also dominated the American Masters races in his division in New England this winter, a task he waves off easily.

"I only went to six of the races in his division in January, and I won them all," he said. "But I was tied for the overall winner in my class with Adelbert "Del" Ames, because he went to more races than I did."

While it may sound like he's an awfully confident fellow, in fact Mr. Aller is quite charming and humble about his accomplishments. It helps that when he describes his life on the slopes he does it in a captivating silky baritone with a Southwestern-sounding draw. He spent his childhood in Arizona but his mother, Catherine Goddard Aller, was a Salisbury native and she brought her family back to the Northwest Corner in 1934.

Mr. Aller attended The Hotchkiss School and then headed off to Princeton, where he helped found the college's first ski team. Competing in intercollegiate events, they couldn't beat the powerhouse Dartmouth team but they managed to defeat the teams from Yale, Cornell and Brown.

After college, Yale law school and World War II, Mr. Aller settled once and for all in Lakeville setting up his legal practice and also becoming president of the Salisbury Winter Sports Association.

"There were no jumps at that time because the tower had fallen into decay and collapsed during the war," he recalled. "We put the tower together and started the jumps again in about 1948."

As most Salisbury resident know, ski jumping has changed radically over the years. The senior skiers still keep their feet parallel as they lift off the slopes, while younger competitors create a distinctive v-shape with their legs. And while downhill skiing techniques haven't changed much since Mr. Aller's youth, the equipment has changed quite a bit. Skis are shorter now and have a different shape, for example.

"When I first started, skis didn't even have edges [to allow skiers to dig into the slopes for better control]," he recalled.

And boots weren't cinched onto the skis back then, leaving heels free. Anyone who has tried to make it downhill in a pair of cross-country skis, or has tried the new telemark skis, can imagine how challenging it must have been to ski back then.

It was those championship Dartmouth skiers who introduced many Americans (especially the fledgling Princeton skiers) to advances in gear.

"The boys at Dartmouth got edges and bindings first and the next year we got them," Mr. Aller recalled. "We could see the advantages of the new equipment. They keep improving boots, bindings, skis. They're all better now than they were five or 10 years ago."

There certainly are things in the world that get better with age. Ski equipment, for instance. And athletes like Mr. Aller, who look to men like local legend Ole Hegge and cross-country champion "Jack Rabbit" Johannsen who kept going until he was 112 years old.

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