Danes get slice of American life—baseball, shopping…

 

(Here’s an article I wrote that ran in the June 29, 1988 West County Press-Journal. Not only am I including the article and a great photo taken by one of our wonderful photographers, but also a tough-to-read thank you letter mailed to me from Denmark that included a photo of me interviewing a Danish swimmer! It was one of several thank you letters I received while covering soooo many in-person events from March 1983 through February 1999. I had more than 2.500 paid, published articles just in that 16-year time span. I ended that about four months after I decided to change from part- to full-time work at Western Union due to the decrease in newspaper size. But writing for those publications was such a positive because my stories were hardly ever edited much, they always ran two to five days after they were submitted, and there were always lots of events to cover!)

Anheuser-Busch’s introduction of Carlsberg beer to its United States product line hardly represents the only recent Danish import.

That Denmark to St. Louis flavor was also experienced recently when 20 members of the ‘Swimteam Holback Danmark’ participated in the Burger King/Parkway Invitational Summer ‘Sizzler’ June 24-26 at Queeny Park.

After arriving in New York City, the entourage made its way to Memphis, Tennessee before reaching its home base of Fort Smith, Arkansas on June 17. Four days were ultimately spent in St. Louis, and it was pretty much an eye-opening experience for everyone; especially in swimming.

The Danes had a few outstanding individual performances like Christian Ness’ first-place finishes in the 50-, 100-, and 200-meter freestyle for boys 13-14; Jacob Gylling’s second place in the 100 breast stroke; Jasper Fried’s third in the 200 back of the same age group; and a fourth-place showing for Heidi Lemb in the girls’ senior 200 freestyle. Other than that, the Danes finished far off the pace in most events.

“We were looking forward to the trip to the U.S.,” said Danish coach Tommy Christiansen, whose town of Holback is roughly 45 miles west of Copenhagen. “For us in Denmark, the U.S. is the mecca of swimming, and we were told that St. Louis is one of the top places in the area. But we didn’t expect it to be so hot (102 degrees on June 25.)

“We caught a little of the shock right when we got here, and I believe the heat slowed us down. It’s been so bad that nobody’s been in the mood for swimming. In Denmark, when the temperature gets close to 30 Celsius (or 86 degrees Fahrenheit), it’s considered a heat wave. The average high summer temperature is only about 22 (72 Fahrenheit.”

Due to Denmark’s climate, the country is almost entirely devoid of outdoor pools. And the nation only has five 50-meter pools like the one at Queeny Park.

     Yes, that is me on the right interviewing a young Danish swimmer!

Besides the weather, members of the Danish team noticed another obvious area where a world of difference exists between the two cultures. Whether as temporary guests to west county homes or in restaurants, the food here just isn’t the same as in Scandinavia.

“Here in America, they eat junk food a lot,” swimmer Mette Lemb said. “Our coach told us we weren’t going to eat it because he wanted us to swim fast since we’re in hard training. We kept asking for salads, but I love the sweets! We thought we would have to worry about the calories, but with the heat, we probably sweated it off.”

While in St. Louis, the Danish contingent went to a few picnics, saw John Tudor two-hit the Phillies, 2-0 on June 23, and visited what Gersholm referred to as 'Gate of the West’ (the Arch).

Since the U.S. dollar is so weak, shopping was another favorite activity; especially among the females. The team must have heard of the local ‘Meet Me at the Mall’ radio commercials because they spent most of Saturday morning buying up Chesterfield Mall—from t-shirts and Walkman radios to watches and cameras.