FARMINGTON – A ski area magnate, the most decorated Maine skier ever at the international level and a tireless volunteer at the Chisholm Ski Club in Rumford highlight this year’s list of inductees to the Maine Ski Hall of Fame, announced Tuesday.

Leading this year’s class is a skier who won more international gold medals than any other Maine skier. Sara Billmeier grew up in Yarmouth, and lost a leg to bone cancer at age 5. She began skiing at age 8, ski racing at age 10, and made the U.S. Disabled Ski Team at 14, winning a World Championship gold medal that year. She went on to win six World Championships and 13 Olympic medals before entering Harvard Medical School.

New York native Les Otten is also among this year’s honorees. Once hired to help run Sunday River for the larger Killington company, he was unable to convince that company to expand the resort.

So he bought the place.

That year, 1980, the area drew 32,000 skier visits. A decade and a half later, the figure was close to 600,000, and Maine had one of the top five ski resorts in New England.

Rumford native Herb Adams excelled as a four event skier at Gould Academy in the early fifties, and went on to captain the ski team at the University of New Hampshire. Following college he began a coaching career in Lake Placid and moved to his native Rumford in 1964, where his teams won both state and New England crowns and many of his athletes went on to excel at higher levels. As a volunteer and an official, he has participated in many championships, including the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, and continues to serve at Black Mountain in Rumford.

Lisbon native John Litchfield started skiing at the age of four, competed at Edward Little High School in the 1930’s, excelled in skiing at Dartmouth and was a member of the first U.S. Alpine Ski Team at the Pan American Winter Games in Chile in 1937. He was chosen for the 1940 Olympics, which were canceled by WWII.

John Roderick joined the Chisholm Ski Club as a teenager in the 20’s and skied out of that club for 68 years. He began as a jumper, and maintained a Class A rating until age 57. During his career he won at least 77 trophies, medals and bowls and served as chief of course at the 1950 World Championship held in Rumford. He assisted his fellow club member Chummy Broomhall in the cross country competition at the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics.

After graduating from the University of Maine in 1923, Ted Curtis-coached teams won six state high school ski titles before he returned to his college alma mater in 1930. For the next 30 years his ski teams were perennial Maine college champions and skiers he coached went on to excel at the national level.

Tom Bennett’s involvement in skiing goes back to the earliest days at Pleasant Mountain, when he was instrumental in founding the Downeast Ski Club. His service as a volunteer includes ski patrolling, coaching racers are serving as an official at races. For decades, he was a presence at every race that took place at Pleasant Mountain and into the later years as Shawnee Peak.

When it came to skiing, Byron “Bud” Dow did it all. He operated a ski shop, raced, became a certified instructor, participated in the founding of the Maine Professional Ski Instructors, the Pinnacle Ski Club of Pittsfield, the Maine Ski Association and the Maine Ski Council. He is remembered most for his leadership in developing the Pinnacle Ski Slope in Pittsfield.

The Maine Ski Hall of Fame Class of 2009 will be inducted at the annual banquet at Lost Valley Ski Area in Auburn on Oct. 23.