Olympic Update I

Greetings Blog fans. It's been a few weeks since the last post. Many things have happened, but I have needed to save up a bit to fire out a few good blasts. I'll hit the big stories of the last few days about some of our favorite athletes.

Ted Ligety: Go back to the January 10 post where we talked about young Ted's brilliant start to the 2006 WC season: "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." Well, he started to show even more of this brilliance at the night slalom in Schladming. While he was caught on camera straddling a gate about half way down the steep, icy face, he also put down a blistering pace that toasted the field by nearly a full second. No one, including Pallander, who ended up winning the race, was even close. It was too bad that he straddled, but everyone who watched the run left knowing that Ted had the speed. Guess he picked a pretty good place to really show his ability over both runs earlier this week in the Olympic combined! My favorite part had to be the quote from Ted where he said that "you just have to get in the gate and throw down what you've got." Any ski racer would benefit from that kind of an attitude. He also said that it was too bad Raich didn't finish because he "wanted to race him standing up." To me, the way Raich was skiing the second run (.32 advantage at the split where he straddled) it was going to be very close at the finish. Ligety really blazed the bottom so I have to think that he would have won anyway. Every first seed slalom racer from Rocca to Pallander to Raich is hoping that Ted makes a mistake in the olympic SL because that's the only way the 21 year-old Park City youngster who still lives with his parents doesn't win another gold medal.

Lindsey Kildow: so at least give her a gold medal for pure guts. I mean, who stacks it in like that, gets a helicopter ride followed by a night in the hospital, and then hobbles out to get eighth in the DH race. Unbelievable. I'll talk more below about what a clown show the American press has been towards the games, but give them credit for properly recognizing a really impressive and inspired performance. I just finished watching the first run of the combined slalom on NBC, and while she ended up 11th on the run, I am giving that another podium performance for making it down the hill. Too bad that she skied out on the second run (I haven't seen the video yet so I don't know exactly what happened). I would like to see her recuperate a bit and come out for a great performance in the Super-G. Assuming that the pain from her injuries eases up, she should be a solid contender on that hill. Her size and feel for the snow should be an advantage on rolling, slightly flat terrain. She has also gotten her confidence back after successfully navigating the DH and part of the combined. It will be her last realistic chance at a medal since her GS has not been at the podium level and she should realistically expect to be top 6 at best in the slalom.

Bode Miller: so what's the big deal? I don't look at fifth in the Downhill as being a disaster or disappointment. I mean, it would have been nice to get on the podium, but as he said, he thought he skied well and just made a few mistakes on the last three turns. He correctly points out that there are many variables out of his control, and he felt that he did a good job managing the run as best as possible. He also totally made the right call to use the new cap skis as they were very fast on the top section, and as he showed in the combined downhill, they were probably faster than his more traditional pair with flat sidewalls. Moving on to the combined, he showed that he is skiing well (beat DH Silver medalist Walchhofer by 1.18 sec) and he had a little bad luck in the slalom. Anyone who watches the circuit knows that it is a crapshoot for him to finish a slalom, and had his skis been 1 or 2 mm over in the flush, he would have finished the first run cleanly. For the Super-G tomorrow, the conditions could really favor his slightly earlier start (23) than other favorites like Rahlves (29) and Maier (30). There are a few inches of fresh snow on the mountain now and like Kildow, Miller has the size and feel for the snow that could lead to a very fast time. So why are some members of the media all over this guy? I think that Miller's observation that the media likes to tear down heroes is true. Here is an example. Full time clown Mark Kizla of the Denver Post, who probably has never even skied a NASTAR course, spent precious time and ink bashing Miller the day after the combined instead of praising Ligety, who was only the fourth American man to win Olympic Gold. Kizla's quote about Miller "missing a gate" showed such ignornance that I wanted to cancel my subscription to the Post and sign up for the Rocky Mountain News. Thankfully for the Post, they have a very credible and fair ski reporter in John Meyer, so I will focus on his work instead. There was another story about how Miller was supposedly out late the night before the downhill and was seen drinking beers at dinner. Now I wish that Miller would show some restraint in these situations, if only becuase of what conclusions may be jumped to, even if they are incorrect. In no way do I think that a few beers negatively impact his performance. Here's a suggestion to the media pundits: go stand in the starting gate of Kitzbuhel, and then go ahead and tell these guys what they need to be doing in their off hours. Furthermore, if guy doesn't have a start until 12 pm the next day, why should he be in bed by 9 pm? (Especially if he has already taken three training runs on the course, where ordinarily, he gets one or two before a World Cup DH). I don't mean to go off, but I just think the coverage is out of bounds. Anyway, Miller will pull together some good runs in the Super-G and GS and he should leave the games with at least one medal.

Daron Rahlves: what I liked about his DH performance was that he didn't get too wigged out about a potentially disappointing 10th place in the race. He thought that he skied pretty well, for some reason, he didn't have the right speed, and he was ready to move on. We've said it here before, but he is such a class act. Something tells me that his Super-G is not quite there for a podium finish, but you never know until the race. However, he will be a very strong contender in the GS, so I wouldn't rule out a GS podium with two Americans on the stand. My only criticism of Rahlves so far is that he might have been faster on those cap skis, and to change over with less than two minutes before the start may not have been the best move. Easy for me to say from my couch, though.

So there we are. There will be many more exciting runs and I can't wait for the rest of the action!

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.