Greg Poirier’s introduction to skiing was innocent, but the sport transformed into a passion that has continued to guide him throughout his life.

Poirier is preparing to embark on his latest endeavor as coach of the United States Nordic combined team that will compete in the Olympic Winter games at Vancouver, British Columbia, next week.

The Rumford native is no stranger on the international circuit. He was with the U.S. Ski Team from 1988-1996 and was the head coach for the U.S. ski jumping team in the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France. He also coached the Nordic combined team at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. In 1997, Poirier coached Canada’s Nordic combined team as well as
serving as head of the ski jumping & Nordic combined national training center.

“This will be my fourth Olympic Winter Games,” Poirier said. “I guess you could say that I worked in developing many of the nation’s best Nordic combined skiers in the club level, competing at the Junior Olympic level.”

Poirier is extremely confident about the potential of the U.S. team that will compete at the Olympics. Of the five athletes heading to Vancouver, three are world champions — Johnny Spillane, Billy Demong and Todd Lodwick.

“We are entering the games with the strongest medal contenders,” Poirier said. “The U.S. has never medaled in the Olympics in Nordic-combined skiing. In the next few weeks, we are anticipating a historic performance from our team.”

Poirier began skiing at approximately 10 years old with the Chisolm Ski Club and graduated from Rumford High School in 1978. The former Panther skied four events — slalom, giant slalom, ski jumping and cross country — but his focus was always on Nordic combined (ski jumping & cross country).

His memories of Rumford begin with trying to learn how to ski jump like some of the boys in the neighborhood off the small ski jump built in Poirier’s backyard. The novice would jump, crash, cry and wait for mom to untangle his skis, and then in sheer spite, would march back to the top of the jump to repeat the same action over and over again. Once he mastered the backyard jump, Poirier practiced on a small ramp built between the trees.

Poirier was quick to praise his parents, Bernard and Lorraine, for being supportive and playing a big roll in commuting to Black Mountain, on a daily basis in the winter.

“My parents encouraged me to play many different sports,” Poirier said. “But they realized that skiing was the sport that I had the greatest passion. My introduction to cross country was less memorable except for the day I went to get my skis. It’s almost surreal as I remember diving up Blanchard Street in the Virginia section (of Rumford) to some guy’s house.”

That ‘some guy’ was none other than Olympian Wendall ‘Chummy’ Broomball, who pulled down an old pair of pine-tarred Splitter cross country skis. With that, Poirier’s Nordic combined career began.

Many people coached and influenced Poirier, including Chummy and son Scott, neighborhood kids, cousins Mike and Steve Mickeriz, Herb Adams, Chendy Chenard, Aurel Leger, Jeff Knight and many others who were teaching skiing to the young members of the Chisolm Ski Club.

“Like today, younger athletes are influenced by many,” Poirier said. “But I think the greatest influence comes from the role models in your sport. In my case, there were many in Rumford and Mexico to aspire. What a fantastic core of athletes to pave the way in Nordic skiing.”

Poirier accepted a scholarship to New England College in Henniker, N.H., where he graduated in 1982.

He skied competitively throughout school, including the 1980 Olympic Trials in Lake Placid, N.Y. He decided to stop competing following graduation in 1982 and accepted a coaching job in Winter Park, Colo., and that was the launching point of a 28-year coaching career.

Fittingly, while on a borrowed snowboard, Poirier proposed to Shannon on Valentines Day in 1992 during the Olympic Games on the slopes of Courcheval, France, overlooking the Olympic ski jumping venue.

In 2004, his family, which includes daughters Danielle, 14, and Brienne, 12, moved to Utah when Poirier became the Executive Director of the National Sports Foundation, a ski club based at the facilities left behind following the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games. In 2006, Poirier was asked by Canada to head up their Nordic Combined Olympic Team for Turin, Italy.

“In my opinion, I wasn’t the best athlete,” Poirier said. “But in my parents eyes, the trophies I brought home from tournaments might as well have been Olympic gold. They were never competitive or pushy parents, as I battled my way up the ranks of ski jumping and cross country skiing. Rather, they played a key roll in my love of Nordic skiing, a role they continue to play 48 years after my very first day on skis back in Rumford.”