Kitzbuhel Slalom

Kitzbuhel Provisional Slalom Results:

1-Jean-Pierre Vidal (FRA) 0:47.21 :51.67 1:38.88
2-Reinfried Herbst (AUT) 0:47.95 :51.29 1:39.24
3-Benjamin Raich (AUT) 0:47.50 :51.88 1:39.38
4-Stephane Tissot (FRA) 0:47.950 :51.69 1:39.64
5-Rainer Schoenfelder (AUT) 0:47.67 :52.25 1:39.92
6-Ted Ligety (USA) 0:48.42 :51.70 1:40.12
18- Miller
20- Knight

Giorgio Rocca missed a gate in the first run and failed to win for the first time this season. In some ways he's probably happy to whiff one before the Olympics, but I'm pretty sure he'd rather just get more points on the board. J-P Vidal won today for the first time on the World Cup since 2001 Kranska Gora (don't forget he also won the 2002 Olympic title as well), so he has to be considered a contender in Torino now as well. Looking at the scoreboard the top five looks more like a France-Austria time trial than a World Cup result sheet. The first man to break the Austria-France barrier was Ted Ligety, who was a little off in his first run. He gutted out a tough second run, though and came back well to finish in the top 6 overall. He should hold onto second in the slalom standings and continue to carry momentum into Torino. Benni Raich really came through as he finished third overall (60 points) and put up another 100 points for taking the combined. Bode wasn't blazing fast but he got another slalom finish and 80 additional points for being second in the combined. Wonder if he is going to ski in Schladming Tuesday night since he has already said that he could sit out the Garmisch Downhill next weekend to rest his knee and work to get his equipment more dialed in. For the American Olympic team, I think Chip Knight sealed the third Olympic slalom spot with his 20th place finish today. The fourth spot will become clear after the night slalom in Schladming. My thoughts on who will be on the team: Ligety (automatically qualified), Miller, Knight and Cochran. Rothrock will be the other contender, but he hasn't been nearly consistent enough this year to really be considered. The night slalom in Schladming should be a great one to watch!!

Kitzbuhel Downhill

Provisional Results from the Kitzbuhel DH:

1-Michael Walchhoffer (Aut) 1:46.75
2-Marco Buechel (Lie) 1:46.80
3-Daron Rahlves (USA) 1:47.08
4-Bode Miller (USA) 1:47.13
5-Erik Guay (Can) 1:47.43
6-Didier Defago (Sui) 1:47.58
7-Kristian Ghedina (Ita) 1:47.59
14- Marco Sullivan (USA) 1:48.15
20- Scott Macartney (USA) 1:48.49
26-Steve Nyman (USA) 1:48.93
31-Justin Johnson (USA) 1:49.22

First impressions from the scoreboard:

-The race organizers must have moved the start down past the Mausefalle due to bad weather or the recent snow. The winning time should have been closer to 1:56 or 1:57 rather than 1:46. While Daron Rahlves took advantage of a lower start in 2003 to win the race, he was not as fortunate today.

-Michael Walchofer was a mild surprise to win today. I would have given him a better chance to win last week at Wengen since that course is known more as a glider's track. Last week I bet most people would have predicted Walchofer to win at Wengen and Rahlves to win at Kitzbuhel rather than the other way around.

-Daron Rahlves finishing on the podium is an extremely successful day from my perspective, but he is probably feeling a bit unfulfilled. I'm sure he will get over it after he stands on the podium and then hightails it over to the Londoner to serve up a few cocktails to the crowd this evening.

-Bode had a very solid fourth place finish today. Eurosport described his run as being a little out of control, but fast. This downhill finish follows a turnaround slalom performance at Wengen last week, and makes up for the DNF in yesterday's Super-G. He has the opportunity to gain more confidence in slalom tomorrow, and put up a few more overall WC points since the results of the SL will be added to the DH for a "paper" combined.

-The American men overall had five finishers in the points, and the sixth, Justin Johnson, just missed with a 31st place result. Marco Sullivan added to his recent success with a 14th place, and he was followed closely by Scott Macartney in 20th. Following today, I think both Sullivan and Macartney sewed up olympic DH starts to join Daron and Bode. It's possible that Nyman gets to go to Torino to compete for a spot in the DH training runs, but I don't feel that is too likely.

-Kjetil Aamodt did not start today becauase he had to fly back to Norway for personal reasons, according to Eurosport. I hope that everything is OK for him.

-Hermann came in pretty low in the standings and the Austrians only had one finisher in the top seven. So while the Kitzbuhel faithful are celebrating Walchofer's victory, I'm sure there are some disgruntled fans in the crowd who were grumbling that more hometown heroes weren't higher up in the standings.

See you tomorrow for the slalom!!

Kitzbuhel Super-G

Provisional results from the Kitzbuhel Super-G:

1-Hermann Maier (AUT) 1:22.97
2-Peter Fill (ITA) 1:23.02
3-Hannes Reichelt (AUT) 1:23.25
4-Stephan Georgl (AUT) 1:23.37
5-Klaus Kroell (AUT) 1:23.44
6-Daron Rahlves (USA) 1:23.46
7-Fritz Strobl (AUT) 1:23.48
8-Ambrosi Hoffmann (SUI) 1:23.5
9-Patrik Jaerbyn (SWE) 1:23.52
10-Konrad Hari (SUI) 1:23.53
Miller- DNF

Yesterday we thought the Austrians would be tough, and with 4 of the first 5 finishers, they proved everyone correct. We also believed that Daron/Bode were probably not contenders for the podium based on recent Super-G results, and while Rahlves finished a solid 6th, he probably was hoping for a bit better. According to the Eurosport summary, Miller skied out but is fine. Congratulations to Hermann on a strong performance. He will be carrying a lot more confidence into the Downhill tomorrow than he has had in recent weeks.

Kitzbuhel DH Training and Super-G

We have a few items for you today as we get ready for the Super Bowl of skiing- Kitzbuhel!!

Kitzbuhel stories- Kitzbuhel is famous for the hill, the race course, the crowd, the fear- really everything. Everyone has a few stories or quotes from Kitzbuhel. One of my favorite descriptions of the experience came from Chris Puckett, long time USST skier, Olympian and current Director of the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. He said that coming out of the starting gate on the first pitch and shooting onto the mausefalle gave him such an adrenaline rush that one side of his face felt totally swollen until he came off the long flat over 45 seconds later. Incidentally, Chris was a skier who always rose to the occasion at the 'Buhel. Over the last two or three years of his career his best results came on this tough, gnarley, unforgiving course. Another favorite comes from the coaching side of the world. I spent the better part of five seasons coaching J4s (11-12 year-olds) at the Winter Park Comp Center with Mike Bowman, who is now the the head coach at the Telluride Ski and Snowboard Club, and with Steve Gordon, who has been coaching J4s at Winter Park since about the late 1940's. We always followed the World Cup results and we had the good fortune of being in Steamboat for a Super-G during Kitzbuhel weekend in January of 2001. ESPN was showing same day coverage of the race and we were relaxing at night after the race talking smack and immensely enjoying the footage. As if the hill isn't tough enough, the course itself seemed to be causing some trouble for the field. It was one gate in particular, a right footer coming across the sidehill right before the Zeilschuss, where a higher than average percentage of the field was skiing out, and many of them seemed to be Austrians. Every time another skier would miss the gate, Gordon popped off with a snide remark like "who set this thing?" What was he thinking? Then Daron Rahlves came down, ripped across the pitch and ended up fourth for the day. Well, later that week we learned that we actually had a connection to the coach who set the course. It was set by Norwegian Men's World Cup coach, Marius Arnesen, whose older brother Kimme was my rommate and teammate on the ski team at CU. After the WP crew yukked it up all weekend after the Super-G, I made contact with Kimme telling him that some of the Winter Park coaches had some course setting feedback for Marius. We laughed about it and even got an email back from Marius asking if we liked his course. There was another good postscript to the story as well. Right after the Super-G was over, the Austrian press cornered Marius and started firing questions at him about the set. In an amazingly cool move, Marius looked ahead and calmly informed the crowd that he would be glad to discuss the course, but that he would do so only in English (Marius is totally fluent in both German and English, but the Austrian press is much, much better in a German only conversation). What a way to defuse the crowd and end up looking OK. I'll tell you that Daron Rahlves sure didn't mind Marius's sets. Following his fourth place at Kitzbuhel, Daron aced the Super-G at the 2001 World Championship at St. Anton on a course set by- you guessed it, Marius Arnesen. From January on "I'm only taking questions in English," became a permanent part of our repartee.

Training Run 1 Results

Well it turned out that there was only one training run due to the overwhelming amount of snow received yesterday. Here were the results:

1- Strobl
2- Walchofer
3-Dalcin
4-Rahlves
6- Maier
7-Aamodt
22-Kjus
28- Miller
30-Macartney
31- Justin Johnson
40-Marco Sullivan

No surprise to see Strobl near the top- he won here in 1997 and 2000 and he skied really fast last week at Wengen. On race day, however, I have to think that Rahlves will be very tough to beat. Tommy Moe was interviewed by Ski Racing this week and I would tend to agree with him. (Speaking of Rahlves) "He's going to take the 'Buehel, the Olympic downhill, the overall downhill title, and call it a career.”

http://www.skiracing.com/news/news_display.php/3113/ALPINE

Look at it this way- Daron has won three downhills this year, all on big courses, so you have to think he is going to be bringing the heat at the biggest of them all. Allowing for the variables in skiing that can turn any race upside down, there really isn't anyone else to consider. I see the podium here being very similar to Wengen: an American and two Austrians. I think Strobl is in there and then it will be either Walchofer or Maier joining them. Other thoughts? Well, let me know.

For the others- I think Bode and Kjetil will be top six, there will be a couple of surprises and lots of fun.

Super-G

There hasn't been as much attention on the Super-G even though it takes place before the downhill. The Austrians will be tough of course. I'd like to say that Daron or Bode will be close to the top, but they have not been as strong in Super-G as they have been in GS or Downhill. I don't have a strong feeling about the finish order, so we'll have to wait and see.

http://www.fis-ski.com/pdf/2006/AL/0115/2006AL0115SLR0.pdf

Course Setter: John McBride, USA (where's Marius? He did already set at Beaver Creek, so he may have to wait awhile for another turn).

Start order:

2- Macartney
8- Kjus
17- Fritz Strobl
26-Raich
27-Svindal
28-Rahlves
29-Maier
30-Miller

I'll be checking Eurosport early tomorrow morning, but probably not live!. The start is 11:30 ECT, which means if you want to watch live from Colorado, you'd better be at your computer by 3:30.

Wengen Slalom

Second run results from the slalom are in:

1- Rocca
2- Palander
3- Vogl
5- Ligety
8- Miller

I'll have just a few quick remarks this morning. First, for Rocca, this makes it five in row. He should have all but mathematically clinched the slalom title today, and barring unforseen issues, he is everybody's favorite for the gold medal in slalom at Torino. I think only three other people have a realistic shot at knocking him off. You have to start with Benjamin Raich of Austria. Today Raich won his fourth first run of the season and blew out on the fifth gate of the second run. That's unfortunate because he has been skiing so well and showing that he is the world's best overall skier so far in the World Cup this year. While consistency is not usually an issue for Mr. Raich, he has a bad streak going in second runs right now. If he can change course and hold it together for two, there's no reason why he couldn't take gold. The second person who has a shot is Ted Ligety. He came in fifth today after being in third spot in the first run. While this seems like almost a let down, let's keep in mind that top five in any World Cup is pretty solid, and recall how far Ted has come this year. In less than half a season he has held onto second place in the slalom standings since the first or second race of the year, he made the top seven first seed, and he's only 21! What's on Ted's side is that he won't have any of the media attention or expectations that will be placed on Italian native son Rocca during the Torino games, and furthermore, he won't even be garnering the most press love on the U.S. side given that Daron and Bode will have most of the microphones stuffed in their face. Ligety can go to the games, gain confidence in the GS (I believe he will be named to the GS team on coaches discretion) and let it rip in the slalom. The third man who is a threat is none other than Bode Miller. He snaked his way through the first run today, made a wild recovery to qualify for the second run and then lit up the field with the fastest second run to finish eighth. Just yesterday I pointed out that he should be gaining confidence after the fast skiing marred by the DQ in the super combined slalom. I called for a podium or top 6 in slalom in the next few races due to his increased confidence (and improved boot set-up); I figure eighth is pretty close to the mark. Bode is a big event skier and if he is properly motivated, he will throw down some fast runs. (Slalom is the only event in which he has not won an Olympic or World Championship medal.)

For the other Americans, it was a so-so day. Tom Rothrock qualified for the second run after finishing 17th he but skied out early in the final course. Chip Knight and Jimmy Cochran just missed qualifying, coming in 34th and 35th while Erik Schlopy was 46th (don't give him too much grief, he started 76). Knight really needed to finish to make a case for the olympic slalom team, but there are two left for him to prove himself before Torino.

Last item: is there any bigger class act than Daron Rahlves in ski racing or any other sport for that matter? Check out this interview on Eurosport from yesterday. He is the man.

http://www.eurosport.com/home/pages/v4/l0/s48/sport_lng0_spo48_sto813578.shtml


See you at Kitzbuhel.

Lauberhorn Downhill and Super Combined

Lauberhorn- Provisional Results:

1- Daron Rahlves
2- Michael Walchofer
3- Fritz Strobl
4- Hermann Meier
5- Kjetil Aamodt
10-Finlay Mickel
12-Bode Miller
14- Aksel Svindal

Very impressive skiing from Rahlves today! While his training runs were solid, he was a little off his game in the downhill portion of the super combined yesterday and had not given all the indications that he would be so strong today. If you recall for his last victory in Bormio, Darren won both training runs and he really put out an expectation of victory all week. Walchofer stopped playing possum yesterday in the supercombined and lived up to pre race expectations with a second place finish, and the winner of the first training run, Fritz Strobl, was 1.06 behind Rahlves for third. The times are pretty spread out from first to fifth as two seconds separates Rahlves and Aamodt (fifth) while 11 racers are stacked into the next second (Sulzenbacher from Austria in 16th at 3.10 seconds out). Bode skied decently into 12th, tied with Kristian Ghedina at 2.41 seconds back, but I would be surprised if he wasn't a little bit disappointed. He was third and fifth in training runs, and second in yesterday's downhill run of the super combined. I haven't seen video yet, but I would guess that he had a pretty big mistake somewhere and perhaps his skis weren't quite as fast as Darren's or the Austrians. Just into the finish was Marco Sullivan, who blazed into 16th place from the 44th start position. While this would be a good finish for anyone with that high of a bib number, this probably feels like a victory for Marco. It is far and away his best result since returning from injury and it came on one of toughest courses on the World Cup. He probably made a good case for inclusion on the Olympic team and must be feeling a huge surge of confidence after that very solid run.

For Rahlves, this is his third victory of the year, and it came on a course that he likes but doesn't have the same feeling for as perhaps he does for a Beaver Creek or Kitzbuhel. He is going to be very tough to beat next week on the Streif. As much as I am enjoying his great results, I have to keep fighting off that feeling of dread knowing that it could be his last season on the circuit. Darren, don't stop now!!!

Wengen- Super combined:

Raich demonstrated more of that bullet proof consistency with a decent downhill and very strong slalom skiing yesterday to paste another 100 points on the overall World Cup board. Man, this guy is tough. The guy puts up 360 points in a week, but most of the press was focused elsewhere. He was asked this week why he doesn't garner the same attention as some other stars of the circuit. His response was really funny, but still true: "I'm not American and I didn't crash at the Nagano Olympics." It shows that while he has the appearance of the robotic, remorseless approach reminiscent of the great Marc Girardelli, Raich doesn't take himself too seriously. Miller grabbed headlines again for his straddle near the bottom of the slalom run that surely cost him the victory. It was debatable that he should have been disqualified, but not really. When I read the charge of "tips didn't cross the plane" I knew for sure there was no video feed in the world that would prove anything else. Despite the apparent failure, I think we saw a significant development in Bode's season. This was the first slalom run that had the type of speed we expect from him in the event. Even on the runs Bode has finished this year in slalom, he has not been fast (in Kranska Gora, for example, he had a huge mistake, still finished, but was over three seconds out and did not qualify for the second run). I have to believe that the lights clicked on during his run yesterday when he came through the finish with a 1.11 lead (straddle or no straddle). I would not be surprised to see him put down a top three or top six race in slalom before Torino.

Last note: I caught the OLN feed of the Adelboden GS and slalom last night on Tivo. Here's a few words to consider: steep, icy, gnarly. Anyone stepping into the starting gate, much less making it alive down the final steep is totally worthy in my book. If you want to see great skiing, watch Giorgio Rocca's second run of slalom down the last pitch. While Ligety was only .6 out at the end of the race, and put down some great turns, Rocca was in a different league.

Lauberhorn Training 2 and Bode

Many good things to talk about today: second Lauberhorn training run and more from Bode.

So let's talk about the most important things first: training run results! http://www.fis-ski.com

1- Eric Guay
2- Peter Fill
3t- Miller
7-Aamodt
14- Rahlves
18-Kjus
19-Svindal
32- Sullivan

The course is running 2:32 for the fastest guys all the way to 2:47 for the later runners. I don't know about you, but I think that's a pretty long stinking time to be on a downhill course. Earlier in the week, I thought Walchofer would have been more of a factor, yet he finished 28th on this run. That doesn't necessarily mean that he won't be fast on race day, but I still would have expected him to be further up. Miller is looking very solid with a third and fifth so far and I think he will be on the podium Saturday.

More Bode Miller
It's too bad that I didn't get my post up yesterday shortly following Phil McNichols' comments on Bode. Today, things turned out about as expected, and I want to point out that perhaps Phil missed an opportunity to take the high road and keep himself out of the crossfire. As many of you saw, Bill Marolt planned a quick trip to Europe to address the situation as any good US Ski Team CEO should. (See http://www.skiracing.com and the Jan. 10 Blood's Blog post for more comments.). Even after Bill said he was coming across the pond, Phil spoke out in the press about how Bode is sort of a cowboy and that he needs to decide if he wants to be on the US Ski Team. Interesting. I'll assume that Phil has nothing but good intentions here, and he is just somewhat frustrated with the whole scene. His frustruation is very understandable, but there wasn't really any reason for him to speak publicly. He has Mr. Marolt providing pretty significant air cover already, and even if Bill wasn't coming over, Phil could also defer to Alpine Director Jesse Hunt. Better yet, Phil could have had all the fun of teeing off on Bode in private and then sort of give a glazed look to the press and grumble about having to focus on getting four Americans qualified for the olympic slalom. There was an opportunity to actually build some more trust with Bode (read: more leverage later), let Bill be the bad guy and avoid most of the mess.

So today Bode delivered a short but sincere apology to the European press contingent and then went to play hockey with his teammates. Bill Marolt was quoted as being "delighted" with Bode's comments and that the topic of Bode not skiing with the team "never came up." It's kind of funny because now Bill is looking like the benevolent father who figures out how to keep the kids in line without making them look bad. What happened to big, bad Bill? And what's up with Phil? I didn't see any comments from him, and I think everyone's cool, but like I said earlier, maybe he didn't need to get himself caught in the middle.

Lauberhorn!!

It's an exciting week for Ski Racing fans- time for the 76th annual Lauberhorn! After perusing tomorrow's start list on FIS-ski.com, I noticed two amusing points: 51 gates, IN A DOWNHILL and of course 100, count 'em, 100 competitors. How many racers do you think brush the fence at the last bump after they have been on the course for a good 2 minutes 20 seconds?

More good Lauberhorn memories come to mind such as 1984 when Bill Johnson caught an edge, nearly crashed and hit the fence, and then pulled it together for his first world cup win ever. I cut out the frame by frame summary from Ski Racing (I was in the eighth grade) and taped it to my locker for the rest of the school year. U.S. Ski Racing fans probably also remember some tough times here as Chad Fleischer essentially ended his career on this course before the Salt Lake City Olympics. We'll take a look at the splits after tomorrow's training run to get an idea of who will ski fast here this week. I have to think that Walchofer will be a factor, as could Kjus and don't rule out Miller. Rahlves has been skiing well, but I don't think this course is nasty enough for his liking. I don't expect Raich to do anything crazy, but he will want to be comfortable for the super combined and slalom later in the week.

Here are a few takes on U.S. men's team results over the last week of World Cup action:

Bode Miller: I feel obligated to address the Miller scene since it has been grabbing alot of attention this week. Today, the news was about Bill Marolt getting ready to fly to Europe to have a little chat with Bode about his comments made on 60 minutes Sunday night. How do you think that conversation goes? "Hi Bode, do you have a few minutes, I'd like to share a little feedback with you." I've been on the Bode side of those conversations, and they typically don't go well. You have to give Bill credit though- even though he understands that he needs Bode more than Bode needs the USST, Bill is still doing the required dance. Expect this one to end the way things went after Bode was fined by the FIS for not submitting to an equipment test after blowing out of the first run of slalom in Kranska Gora: there were a few days of posturing and ultimately the USST paid the fine and Bode was at the start for the next race. For more perspective on the 60 Minutes episode, check out Steve Porino's excellent column on Skiracing.com, and look for Bode's column from today's Denver post (www.denverpostonline.com) I'll get better at providing links in the future...

Bode should ski pretty fast this week at Wengen. I expect a top five in downhill, a podium in the super combined and a first run exit in the slalom. He is skiing well, but I have to wonder if there is more to the reported knee issues is being reported. Just speculation on my part. He has fought through knee challenges before, and the bigger factor is his motivation. It was very high at Beaver Creek, it should be pretty good for the next two weeks (Wengen and Kitzbuhel) and then if he is healthy, he will be a contender in the Olympics.

Erik Schlopy: some people are probably looking at his less than stellar second runs at Adolboden as a sign of lackluster performance. I see the opposite. He's just starting to gain momentum on the tough hills. It looked to me like Erik skied well above his expectations on both first runs (4th place in GS, qualified for second run in SL after starting back in the 70's) and did not have the mental game plan for similar second runs. I'm not being critical here, I think he was ready to race, it's just that his confidence in the gate for the second run was probably not at the same level as the first. However, for the next race, he will go into both the first and second runs expecting to do well. I wouldn't be surprised to see him put together a few top 10- top 15 runs in the next two slaloms to clinch an Olympic slalom spot.

Ted Ligety: hits his third podium of the season, and he almost pulls off the victory. I love watching this guy. I saw his second run of slalom at Beaver Creek in December and it was amazing- clean arcs every turn, kept it going downhill and blindingly quick in the combinations (he was second on the run and moved up in the overall from 12th to third). His turns reminded me of Bode Miller's second run at the combined slalom in Salt Lake in 2002, which was the greatest run of slalom ever skied. He was putting together more runs like that at Kranska Gora and Adolboden, but he wasn't quite as clean as Rocca. Absent a few mistakes, he is the best slalom skier out there. Watch him compared to Rocca or Raich and tell me who turns over sharper angles and makes a shorter arc. While Rocca is the odds on favorite for Olympic Gold, I think the slalom has frequently gone to a dark horse candidate, so Ligety has to be considered.

Let's throw out a few kind words for Chip Knight as well. He qualified for the second run of GS for the first time in his career and followed it up with a very solid finish the next day in the slalom. His timing was fortuitious since any American not named Ted Ligety who finishes a WC slalom at this point will be in contention for an olympic spot.

First Post

It was way,way too easy to set up a blog. Here's the deal: Go to Google, type "how to do a blog" fill in a few pieces of information and away you go. Since it's so easy to set up, I guess you have to focus your energy on making the content of a blog meaningful for people to read.

Since I wasn't really ready to start firing away, I'm not expecting great things from the first post. Guess I'll start in with why I want to get this going. For most of my 36 years, I have been obsessed with Alpine Ski Racing. I'm one of those guys who religiously reads Ski Racing, Eurosport, FIS.Com, AP Ski News, really anything that comes across the wire. I regularly wake up at 4:30 in the morning to follow live World Cup results on the internet, I watch all of the OLN coverage on TV, and I am seriously considering going to Canada, if not Torino, to catch the Olympics so I can watch start to finish Alpine Ski Coverage. I love it and can't get enough. I also follow plenty of other sports including (American) football, cycling, track and field, and I have found that there is a great deal of commentary and discussion about those sports, and not enough about Ski Racing. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate Steve Porino and Chad Fleischer on TV, and John Meyer, for example, in the Denver Post, but maybe I can bring some of these disparate sources and ideas together into an interesting and thought provoking forum.

There will be plenty of ground to cover. In later blogs, I will share some of my experiences with the sport and why I think it is so fascinating and addicting. I'm also hoping to bring in some of the thoughts and ideas from people that I have met over the years who are part of the sport. There won't be many ground rules here, other than as Rome would say "have a take." Instead of then saying, "and don't suck," however, I'll say, "don't be a jerk." I want this place to be a forum for open and candid discussion, but since I would like all people who follow the sport to participate, the comments have to be in bounds.

This will serve as the test first post. A few takes will follow in the next couple of days.