At 87, Nixon keeps speeding in fast lane

By John Howell
Posted 4/27/17

By JOHN HOWELL Life started getting faster for Bill Nixon when he turned 55. And since then he's been going faster and faster. Now he's the fastest 87-year-old on skis, a title he's held as the national champion for the past three years. Bill, whose

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At 87, Nixon keeps speeding in fast lane

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Life started getting faster for Bill Nixon when he turned 55. And since then he’s been going faster and faster. Now he’s the fastest 87-year-old on skis, a title he’s held as the national champion for the past three years.

Bill, whose Warwick Neck neighbors know him for his love of cars and the congenial host of post July 4 parade festivities on his yard overlooking Greenwich Bay, does a lot of skiing on the mountains of New Hampshire. For him the sport is not a matter of sliding down hill but rather maximizing one’s speed to get to the bottom.

It hasn’t always been that way, he said in a recent interview. Bill pulled out a copy of the Jan. 16 1992 edition of The MountainEar featuring his picture on the cover. Nixon was fast then, too.

“NASTAR’s Nixon is fast on the slopes,” reads the headline to a story relating how he was the country’s second fastest NASTAR skier in his age group. At that time, he was a relative newcomer to racing, although he had been skiing for years.

A friend, Tom Paine, suggested he try racing. Bill told him he’d give it a try when he turned 55. He was a natural, winning his first NASTAR gold medal on his third race and piling up hundreds more since then. He estimates he’s won 300 gold medals.

Why does he do it, especially at 87 when many of his peers have difficulty walking around no less flying down a mountain?

“I guess it’s the competitiveness, the challenge. It really measures your ability,” he said. The key to speed, he said, is not to slide. Sliding in the turns kills speed and, naturally, that adds time to the run.

Not all his runs are perfectly executed. Bill has suffered a concussion, broken ribs and a broken nose plus too many bruises and cuts to remember.

His life on skies started when he was 30. When he got into racing at 55 he took some lessons and watched videos. His passion was made all the more affordable when he became a stockholder at Attitash in 1970. That enabled him to purchase a lifetime pass for $1,000, a price his friends found outrageous, as day passes at the time were $8. Those friends aren’t laughing now, but then they aren’t on the mountain either.

“A lot are either dead or don’t ski anymore,” Bill said.

That’s not to say Bill is a loner. He’s most likely by himself on a descent. But Bill is gregarious and guaranteed by the time the lift closes for the day he’s met and befriended many on the mountain.

So how do you get to be the best in the country in a certain age group? Where’s the big race?

Bill laughs.

There isn’t a single race day or location, but instead countless self-directed races. He explains there are about 100 mountains with NASTAR courses that are of the same length with identical decline and gate configuration. Competitors can race the course as many times as they choose, using their three best times for their cumulative score. This past winter Bill estimates he raced 35 times.

It has always been an easy ride, although Bill is trim and healthy. About seven years ago his doctors detected a heart problem and he underwent open-heart surgery.

“I was lucky,” he says.

Bill doesn’t know the number of competitors he faces in his age group from across the world. He doesn’t doubt that the ranks are thinning, suggesting that one is never too old to start racing.

“It’s a lot easier to get a gold at my age than 20 years younger,” he says.

Good reason to start now, although catching Bill may be impossible.

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