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WATERSKI MagazineSusie Lohr knows enough to be careful around dock edges. There is something about Lohr that makes people want to stuff her into garbage cans and toss her into lakes.
“I'm good at grabbing back now,” she says. “If I go in the water, I always make sure someone goes with me.”
Lohr, 19, was always underestimated growing up in Sparta, Virginia. When she was a tiny 8-year-old, a boy dared her to go over the corner of the jump ramp for a pack of gum. Three years after chewing that challenge into a wad, Lohr was standing on the top step for the medal ceremony at the U.S. Nationals. The only problem was she looked more like she was standing in a hole because the second- and third-place finishers in Girls 1 jump were hovering over Lohr.
“People still ask me how I do it at my size,” says Lohr, who, at an even 5 feet won titles in jump and tricks at the 1998 Collegiate Nationals as a freshman. “The biggest thrill for me is to go places as an underdog and show people I've been working really hard, and this is what I can do.”
Two years ago, at 17, Lohr launched her diminutive frame 151 feet to become only the ninth woman to ever go past 150. Last summer, after winning her third straight Junior Masters jump title, she cracked the jump finals at a World Cup event for the first time, finishing third at the U.S. Open.
Lohr can now set her sights on a couple of enterprises that, although sky-high, are surprisingly within her reach. There's the number 166 (Brenda Baldwin's world jump record) and the opening ceremonies at the 2008 Olympics, if not the 2004 games. It will only spur Lohr out of the sack in the morning to know she's supposed to fall short.
“I'll keep going as far as I can,” says Lohr. “Right now, there's no way I can stop.”
She hefts a pair of gargantuan jumpers onto the roof of her red compact, which is parked door-handle-to-door-handle with a black pickup belonging to the most physically gifted skier of the bunch.
Born: April 25, 1980 Hometown: Sparta, Virginia In practice I'm: Jumping 159 feet, tricking mid-7,000s Most memorable moment: Jumping 151 feet at Jack Travers' site Water-skiing heroes: Kristi Overton Johnson; my brother Benny
When I'm not skiing I: Study for class at Rollins Favorite Olympic moment: Kerri Strug's vault on a sprained ankle in Atlanta (1996)
Favorite movie: Armageddon
Favorite music: Sublime I could live on: Macaroni and cheese Most
awesome place I've seen: Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs On Friday nights I usually: Rent a movie and order Papa Johns The person I'd most like to spend one day with: Michael Jordan
