Swiss Men's Team Goes Go-Karting. Obession With Rules Continues.




















In America, when we want to let loose and have a good time, we have things like bumper cars and demolition derbies.  In Switzerland, they write CAS arbitration laws and procedures.

So we had to laugh when we read the article on fisalpine.com about the Swiss men's team going out for a day of go-karting.  The regulations and delineations are comically staggering:  "Training groups 2 and 4," qualifying rounds, starting orders, calculated results, and of course, a points system that probably has its own rule book.  Also, because the order in which you cross the finish line might not tell the whole story in a go-kart race, they held a time trial afterward and somehow scored that with the main event to determine the final winner:  Beat Feuz by a whopping 38 points.  Disappointment of the day surely goes to Daniel Albrecht, who had just 4 points.  4 points?!  I mean REALLY.

By the looks of the full-face helmets and fire suits, these go-karts might not have been your average mini-golf/batting cages/bumper boats setup.  Although they do appear to be smash-ready with the 360° bumper skirts, ramming speed doesn't appear to have been a big part of the racing.


Photo copyright Swiss Ski.  You can see it at fisalpine.com.

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Change of Pace

As with the pace of our sport, the pace of thinking and writing about it ebbs and flows.  We're going to ebb a bit here in the coming weeks.  We'll still be posting regularly, just not as much as we have been.  It's been a fun early-Summer run with you all, check back soon!

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Can You Top This? Best Ski Team Video We've Seen



Double ski flips!  Muscle-ups!  World domination!  Bruce Goldsmid doing... something.  Alright, we don't want to get stuck in a rut here or anything, but we came across this vid while cruising YouTube, and we have to give credit where credit is due.  This is probably the best video of a ski team ever (or at least the best one that we've seen).  And, because they're Canadian, we can say this:  Top that America.  No seriously, let's see what you got.

Dykster, for the win, again!


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A Note on Sources and Identity

Greetings readers.  As evidenced by the poll we have running on the site right now, there is considerable angst among the ski racing population about advancement and standing within the USSA/USST system, especially if one chooses to speak out in a way that reflects negatively on that system.  We are concerned because we've been hearing reports and rumors about certain people being affiliated with this site when, in fact, they are not.

So follow this logic:
  1. It's written and edited by one person.
  2. When discussing potentially sensitive issues with people, I have always come forward and said, "Hey, just so you know, it's me," because I don't want to be a deceitful little rat about this.
  3. Nobody has yet come to me and said, "I think it's you."
  4. Therefore, if you've gone to someone and said, "I think it's you," then you were wrong; it's not them.

A few more facts:
  1. I do not work for any ski club, team, or academy, although I have in the past.
  2. Oddly enough, my sources of information and my fact checkers for the Women's Development Team Selection post are personal (not professional) connections that I can trace back to the mid-1990's.  Point being that my past affiliation with any ski club, team, or academy is irrelevant, especially for that piece.

A note on criticism:
There is a difference between criticism and facts.  Criticism is a matter of opinion.  Facts are real events (in this case, put into words).  You can disagree with criticism.  You can't disagree with facts.  Facts can, however, be incorrectly or incompletely stated, in which case we'd like to know when we've done that and we'd like to be corrected.


Thanks for reading.  Please take a minute to cruise around the rest of the site to see what it's all about before passing judgment on what's going on here.  Though the Women's Development Team Selections post has garnered the most attention by far, this site isn't intended to be a forum on one single issue.  If it really is a one trick pony, you won't come back and read more, but we hope to be more than that.  As ski racers, we share a lot in common, but don't share with each other often enough.

Thanks,
-P.C

Rock Ski Video Makes Your Knees Feel Kind of Gross



Ever skied over gravel that was covered by just a little bit of snow, only to come to a screeching backwards-knee-bending halt?  Shudder.  Somehow, this French guy makes that look easy, and a little fun.  There are so many excellent parts to this video.  How about the massive rock he dislodges at 0:44, or his assertion that "The people who can ski on the stones can ski in any kind of snow," as though anyone besides him is doing this. Best part:

Q:  So you skied Mt. Fuji without snow?
A: Yeah.
Q:  How was that?
A:  What can I say?  One turn to the right, one turn to the left.

Pretty much says it all right there.



PS - this dude is wearing leather boots.

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Roland Pfeifer Is a Man with a Plan





















When we first read this article about newly hired women's tech coach Roland Pfeifer, somebody made a fart noise and then we moved on.  On the surface it's a boilerplate profile of someone 90% of us will never even lay eyes on.  Inner monologue:  "Blah blah...Austrian...blah...looking forward to a great year...blah blah blah...Shiffrin...Lindsey...Julia."  Not really that interesting.

But then we read it again and noticed the part where Pfeifer says, “We need to make them ski relaxed. We need to bring some fresh motivation and fun into the team... We need to convince them of what we are doing and we need to talk a lot, and train a lot.”

Whoa.  Wait a minute.

Didn't you think it was sort of extreme when he said "fun"?  I mean seriously, "We need to convince them of what we are doing."  Really, what kind of quack is this guy?  You call that a coaching methodology?  What ever happened to "Because I said so."?

And Mikaela?  Well, he had this to say:
“I’ve got this unbelievably talented and gifted Shiffrin. She is skiing like a grownup already... I’m not putting too much pressure on Mikaela because she is 16 years old, I’m not going to set any goals for results, just to qualify top-30... She shows really good skiing, I like the way she skis and I like her. I’ve never met a 16-year-old that knows so much about skiing and she loves it. ”

Um, Roland, shouldn't he be bossing someone around?  Aren't you going to get all Donald Trump on us and kick somebody off the team?  Or are you just going to be all nice and positive and Tim Lepard?  Jesus, Roland, it's like you're taking coaching cues from Phil Jackson or something.  Don't forget, just because Phil is one of the most successful coaches of all time (ever, in any sport) this isn't basketball!  This is ski racing!  Get real!  Maybe what he meant to say was, "This is a critical year for these girls and they really need to live up to the expectations we put on them and show us that they're worth our continued time and investment.  We'll see if Shiffrin can live up to the hype, but at 16 she's already a little behind the development curve."  Maybe the new hires haven't had a chance to get through the media training yet?

Alright, well that's our sarcasm quotient for the day (no, actually that's probably not true), and maybe those jokes are a little unfair, but, well... start your own blog.

For real though, it's nice to see that kind of philosophy stated outright, especially for the women's team.  There's a lot of talent on that side, and it would be great to see the continued development of athletes like Duke, McJames, Stiegler, and Shiffrin (and a resurgent Schleper, too).  It's easy to rest on your laurels when you can point to huge success stories like Vonn and Mancuso, but it's the true champion's mentality to continue to work on development, even when things are going well.  It's also nice to see someone with clear and logical standards for measuring where the athletes can be.  There's none of the sweeping cliche of "Best in the world," or "Win Olympic medals and World Cup globes."  It's clear: Schleper and Resi can make the top-10 and get on the podium, and Hailey and Megan can be consistently in the top-30.  And in Pfeifer's words, those are all things that "we" need to do (emphasis added).

This looks like a good move by USSA/USST and it would be amazing to see Pfeifer continue this tone with the women's team, and to follow through the season with it.  Does he have the necessary faith in the process?  Do his bosses have that faith?  Time will tell, but the initial signs are promising and we're really psyched to see what the future holds for women's tech.



And, in case you missed the Tim Lepard link, you owe it to yourself to watch this:






Photo of Roland Pfeifer from the VSV website.  Auf Deutsch!
Bode video from Nike.com, way back in the day.

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Be Careful, Delta Airlines Might Pee on Your Stuff



Truly an unfortunate circumstance for this gentleman.  Gotta love people who are willing to speak their minds and take the time to point out things that aren't right, don't you?  Seriously, you do, right?

Here's a great write-up about it.  Hopefully this guy either doesn't need to wear clothes while he's in Minneapolis, or that he works in a pet shop or a composting facility or something.

US Ski Team Nominations: Men's Development Team




















The time has come to rip the Men's D-Team for all of their past failures and missteps.

Ha, just kidding Randy.

Too soon?

As with the women's team, the known facts of the men's team are what they are, and we'll try our best to stick to them here.  The men's Development Team has enjoyed enough success over the past few years that you really do have to give credit where credit is due.  The men's side has a spotty history when it comes to successfully advancing athletes to the B- or C-Teams in the last decade or so.  They've enjoyed considerable success in some years, but have fallen well short in other years.  At times when they've carried, say, 16 guys on the D-Team, you got the sense that they were just throwing it all against the wall to see what would stick.

These days, though, it seems to be swinging upwards in a positive way.  In the last couple of years, a number of guys have moved up to the C- and B-Teams (Cochran-Siegle, Rubie, Ankeny, Daniels, Granstrom, Gregorak, Kasper, Maple, Ford, are we missing anyone?), and in large part they've done a good job sticking with their athletes and helping them realize their potential.  Many of those who have moved up from the D-Team were on it for multiple years.  There have been a few guys along the way that many people feel should have been given another chance, but overall you can see something that looks like a development process in motion.

This year sees a healthy crop of new blood in the system.  Scott Snow made criteria outright, as did Stratton's Nick Krause.  Krause is Stratton's first male Ski Teamer since 2002 when Brad Hogan was 22-years old, and he's the proud handiwork of their program since he was at least a J3.  Bryce Bennett, though he was a fair ways from meeting criteria, brings his rather loud voice out of the NDS and onto the Ski Team courtesy of coaches Randy Pelkey and Ian Garner's discretion.

Rob Cone just missed criteria (ranked 258 in GS and 434 in SL, though at one point last season he was 265/379, which just barely sneaks him in) but nonetheless earned himself a year off of college - the first college guy to make the D-Team in a very long time (maybe ever?).  Kieffer Christianson was also sort of close to criteria and was given the go-ahead, likewise for Tanner Farrow, a product of Sun Valley and highly recommended by Tyler Palmer.  A couple years ago at Loveland during the now-infamous superdeath injection hell week, Farrow was literally the only person whose skiing looked at all worthwhile, besides Sarka Zahrobska, but we can't seem to find any video so you'll just have to take our word for it.

Brian McLaughlin of GMVS made criteria, as did his teammate Sandy Vietze (the second "e" is silent).  Two GMVS guys making the Team in one year?  That hasn't happened since, dare we say it, the Transue brothers?*  Steve Utter, if you're reading, feel free to weigh in here.**  McLaughlin surprised everyone at an Aspen Nor-Am Super-G when he moved from #79 to 20th and scored a 33, and then he sealed the deal at the end of the year with GS in Stoneham and Mission Ridge.

And lastly, Matt Strand.  Strand traveled with the team on what seemed like Double Secret Invitee status last year.  He's a bit of a rarity on the D-Team these days because his point profile is so heavily weighted to one event (Slalom, insert Buck Hill joke here), but when he's on, he's so good that you really can't turn him down.  8th place at World Juniors, anyone?  Despite his 86 Super-G points, we'd still pick him for our fantasy team.  And really, 36 GS points is pretty damn good.

Go team go.



*2 GMVS guys is one thing, but 5 Eastern guys?  It's like USSA forgot about the Western Bias Conspiracy while making their selections.
/sarcasm

**That GMVS count doesn't include their Tryout and Mt. Hood camp invitees Danny Duffy and AJ Ginnis.  That's a power team.

Update: Comminques Regarding Women's D-Team Post, Part 2

We've had quite a bit more commentary in the last few days regarding the analysis of the Women's Development Team selections (or, more accurately, the non-selections).  For our own sake, we should say that some of the comments on the page take a tone that we're not entirely comfortable with.  While we're hesitant to give the program administrators the benefit of the doubt here, there's no need to revert to name-calling.  In case you missed it, here's some of what was said:


One Anonymous commenter rumored that non-funded athletes are not allowed to use the USST or USSA name in their fundraising efforts.  We don't think that's correct, at least not to any meaningful extent.  You won't find Bill Marolt or Walt Evans prowling the wares at your silent auction or golf tournament looking for any sign of the logo.


Roger Brown, a Dartmouth graduate and former member of the B-Team, wrote in to educate us:
"Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible. (From wikipedia - for what that is worth)

"So yes, calling the U.S. Women's D-team totalitarian was certainly hyperbolic, but not totally incorrect in my view. We should keep in mind that there is not a particularly public application process for for USST and USSA staff positions, and no input from the greater USSA community on those hirings; no appeals process for team selection decisions (and no independent board to appeal to if there were); and little input solicited or given on other major decisions at USSA (race sites for one thing).

"That said, a closed system isn't necessarily a bad system (the Red Sox don't take a lot of input from the public either...) and might be the best way to run it given the circumstances."


Another communicator, who wished to remain anonymous, noted that his daughter (who is on the D-Team) had actually established a good relationship with Seth McCadam and felt that she was already beginning to move along.  While he did note some shortcomings with the D-Team program's 4-event focus, he did not feel that everything was all wrong all the time.


And there was another milestone when we received the very first comment from an Anonymous user who disagreed with the facts as stated.  The comment appears to have been subsequently deleted from the page, though we didn't even think that was possible by anyone but us.  Nonetheless, we don't see anything wrong with republishing it here since it was submitted anonymously:

"Journalism 101. There are always two sides of every story. The unnamed author of this blog has an obvious bias toward the girls who did not make the team and against the ski team coaches who made the decisions. In order to be fair..., we should also be informed of the accomplishments of those who did make the team and what the thought process of the USSA coaches was in naming them to the team and why. Maybe there are other circumstances, criteria and factors that come into play that the author is not aware of. I don't know and that's my point. Without more information from other perspectives, presented in a unbiased manner, I'm in no position to judge. As presented, this is nothing more than irresponsible and damaging rumor mongering. We should be analyzing and acknowledging the hard work of those who did make it, and the coaches working hard to build a successful team, rather than trying to sabotage them all with unsubstantiated controversy before they even start. The author's bias and personal criticisms of the coaches leaves me wondering if he either knows or coaches one of the girls that didn't make the team. Let's see, which ski academy...hmmmmmm. "

There are some good points in there, so let's pick them out:
1.  Journalism 101, indeed.  Well played, sir.
2.  "The unnamed author of this blog..."  Yes, that's correct.  See: the poll results on the upper right.  Whether or not it's real, the perception is that criticism will be held against you by USSA, or that you are at least risking some kind of indirect retribution.  Ironic, isn't it, that the comment was submitted anonymously as well.  Looks like we're all sort of hedging our bets on the whole identity thing, aren't we?
3.  "We should be informed... what the thought process of the USSA coaches was..."  We agree, and we wish you the best of luck with your quest.  Parents of these kids (yes, they are kids, no, they are not professional athletes) have found it nearly impossible to get straight answers from anyone at USSA about how or why decisions are made.  The answer is usually very oblique, though when pushed it often comes out to something like "That's the decision, take it or leave it, it's done."  Have we, ourselves, asked?  No we have not.  But it's reasonable to guess that, were we to ask USSA or the coaches to justify their exclusions, we would be roundly rejected.  Note to USSA:  If that's not the case, please let us know.  We are interested in, and capable of, civil discourse.  Notice that we have no interest in them justifying the athletes they did include.  This is not a question of why so-and-so got named to the Team.  It's a question of why someone else didn't get named to the team.
4.  "As presented, this is nothing more than irresponsible and damaging rumor mongering."  Just to be clear, this article was fact checked by a number of different sources from both inside and outside the US Ski Team.  If you, or someone you know, has information that isn't presented here, or if you know some of this information to be factually incorrect, we need to know that.
5.  "The author's bias... leaves me wondering if he either knows or coaches one of the girls that didn't make the team. Let's see, which ski academy..."  Take your pick:
Caston: Park City
Berther: Snoqualmie
Samuels:  Rowmark
Samuelson: Ski Club Vail
Mounsey: Snoqualmie

So it must be Rowmark.  Okay, I give up.  It's me, Dave Kerwynn.*

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*Just kidding.  It's not Dave Kerwynn.

Better Late Than Never: The Fischer Vacuum Boot is the Sh**

Pearson Neal and Chris Smith are master Compressor Vacuum boot fitters.
Slow to the line with this one, but hey, boots are tricky to judge.  The process is shown below, but here's the bottom line: it's awesome and you should seriously consider this boot.

To answer the most common questions I got:  Yes it works, and yes you can re-mold them.

The Fischer "duck foot" stance has been an integral part of their lineup since Fischer first introduced alpine boots back in about 2002, when they coined it the "Soma Stance" or "Somatech," whatever "soma" means.  Any Latin students in the audience?  9 years later, they've dialed in a pretty nice race boot that's available to the public, and a really sweet looking race boot that's not available to the public.

That not-available boot does not have the duck stance, or at least it's a much lesser degree of duckiness.  The boot that you and I can get is toe-out about 3-degrees.*

This was my first experience on the duck boot, and when I was running in a straight line getting off the lift, I noticed it immediately.  In my first few turns, I was amazed at just how quick it felt to the new edge.  However, I initially felt that it lacked power in the apex.  Somehow I just couldn't get the grip I wanted to really crush the ski.  The snow was soft though, so I chalked it up to the conditions for the time being and gave the performance of the boot a "maybe."

I wear a size 13 Adidas, and I have a 28.5 Head B1 as my standard footwear.  Normally, in a 28.5, I punch and grind the left toe, and just grind the right toe.  When we did the Fischer vacuum fit, we padded my left toe with one foam pad, and we didn't pad my right toe at all.  In retrospect, we should have padded the left toe double, and put one pad on the right toe.  My left foot is about 1 size bigger than my right foot.  The first day I spent 5 hours straight wearing the boots (with brand new liners) and they felt amazing all over, except for a little discomfort on the big toes.  If you get this done, I recommend one foam pad on the toe/heel if you normally grind in that spot, and two if you grind a lot there (or punch and then grind, as I do).  Based on my experience, I really don't see anybody but Sasquatch needing to pad the ankle or the 6th toe, just pad for length because the boot doesn't stretch that well in that dimension.

The second day, I spent 6 hours in the boots, but the toe pain overcame me after a few hours and I switched into my broken-in Head liners.  That freed up a little too much room in the ankle, but it took some of the pressure of my toes so I went with it.

That second day of skiing was a much more fair test of the boot, and I liked it.  I still felt a slight lack of *umph* approaching and leaving the apex, at times the edge just felt a little looser in the snow than I was used to.  But, there's research that suggests that loose is fast, so I'll let you be the judge.  Duck stance aside, the fit was absolutely dead on and felt like a snuggly yet business-oriented teddy bear wrapped around my ankle.

In some ways, the most impressive part of the fit is how it sits against the top of your foot coming into the ankle joint.  It feels perfect and the contour is dead right.  Someday, you'll spring for a nice set of wheels on your mountain bike and you'll have this feeling like "Hmm, I never even knew I was missing that."  That's what this was like.  You don't know how lonely that part of your foot is until you wrap some toasty plastic around it and let it cure.

The boot fitting process was simple and expedient.  I bet you could do the whole deal in under 20 minutes if you know what you're looking for, and nobody even has to wear safety glasses.  There are some pictures of the process below, but here's the rundown:

Things I liked:
  • Incredible fit even with brand new liners.  Just perfect.  Except I messed up with the toes.
  • Quick and easy fitting process
  • The boot felt like it was RIGHT there when switching edges
  • I love the cuff buckles
  • The feel on the top of the foot is weirdly amazing

Things I didn't like:
  • A little weak feeling when trying to hammer the apex, but it's possible that I just don't ski that well (this was also a 130 flex boot, a fair bit softer than my normal setup)

Here are the pictures I took during the process, like a nerd.  Huge thanks to Pearson Neal and Chris Smith for getting me dialed in on these boots!

Some shots of the "vacuum" machine:





























The boots go in the oven:






































Then you put them on and the cold packs go on over them, followed by the inflatable air bags. The cold packs get refrigerated in the machine's built-in freezer and are basically just medical ice packs.  They cool the boot faster so you don't have to wear it for hours on end while it cures.





















































Then the inflatable air bags get hooked up to the machine by air hoses, and then they inflate.  Technically, the system should be called the Compressor (or more likely, the Kompressor, but Mercedes already has that locked up) instead of the Vacuum, but Fischer's been in love with the word "Vacuum" since at least the early '90 's, so we'll let it slide.

















You wait 8 minutes while all these nifty screenshots go by.  You can increase or decrease the air pressure to change the conformity of the fit.



















Voila.  A new par of shoes.  The plastic is allegedly neither polyethylene, nor polyurethane.  Rather, they call it "Vacu-Plast."  We find this kind of hard to believe, as every other ski boot is made of polyethylene or polyurethane (or leather, if you're skiing on rocks).  It felt like polyethylene, but really, who cares?  Notice how the boot on the left is a little more contoured than the one of the right?  It was more noticeable in person, my photography skills are lacking.



























The cost of the Vacuum boots is the same as the cost of the regular boots, so there really isn't any reason to get the regular boots.  Make your life easier (and more comfortable) and get the Vacuum boots!


*Unless you are on a National Team, you can't have the straight boot.  Unless you buy them from someone who is on the National Team...


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Sun Valley Ski Academy Goes Live

As the trend towards ski academies creeps outward from the Eastern region, many club teams are realizing that they have the means to set up an Academy-style environment by just using their local resources more effectively.  Parents and kids alike are looking for more intensive specific-sport opportunities, but, college admissions being what they are, you can't afford to have poor quality academics.  Ford Sayre Academy set the standard decades ago, when club teams first started to feel the pinch from ski academies and needed to find ways to offer more opportunity.  They offer local kids the opportunity to have a modified public school schedule in the Winter to allow for more training time.  More recently, Ski Club Vail has famously adopted a similar model, though with substantially more funding and a much more comprehensive approach to the local school/local ski club relationship.  What started as a local ski club supported by a public high school has now become something analogous to a charter school - part of the public school system, but with it's own teachers, schedule, and facilities.

Now we can add the Sun Valley Ski Academy to the list, too, as they have partnered with Sun Valley's Community School in an effort to boost participation with the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation.  The school will offer both boarding and day options, which means it can completely tailored for the local kids, while still attracting and serving athletes from other regions.  The living quarters look new, although not that different from the standard ski academy chic, and the program they propose sounds downright home-like.  From takeout nights to riding the bus to school, seems like it would be a great place to be.

Also, SVSEF is a great ski team and has had tons of great athletes come through in the last 6 years or so.

Along these lines, USSA is also now offering an academic portion to their facility in Park City.  As pointed out by Bill Marolt, "every country in Europe has gone in this direction,” and it's time USSA did too.  Details have yet to emerge about how the program will take shape exactly, but we'll probably find out more over the summer.  Will it be a tutorial program, where athletes receive help on assignments they get from their home schools?  Or will it be a full-on school system in which teachers and administrators design and implement their own curriculum?  Will it be US Ski Team only, or open to any applicant?  In the last couple of years, many people have theorized that the Ski Team doesn't want to nominate athletes that are still in school.  If that's true, it would seem unfair to put skiing and graduating from high school at odds with each other, but perhaps this USSA academy will address that issue.

USSA is also adding an on-snow facility at Copper Mountain for more reliable early season training.  Unclear how that may conflict (if it does at all) with Vail's newly revamped and injected facility, but as Luke Bodensteiner pointed out at the USSA congress when the plan was announced, “That facility will provide incredible terrain in an early season situation.  For the elite teams, it’s a massive advantage but it will be amazing for a lot of development level kids and clubs.”  Definitely true.  We've heard that something like 55% of USSA memberships come from the East, so it will be interesting to see what, if anything, happens there too.

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Time to Get to Work







































Well, it looks like Vonn's in shape.  What are you up to this summer?


Photo from Facebook via Twitter

Insane Post-Surgery Scar Photo From @JulianLizeroux

What Lizeroux tweeted as a "small present" is actually a monster scar following surgery on his quadriceps. We can't remember which leg he injured, and we can only sort of tell which leg this is by looking at the picture. Here's wishing you all good health.







































Cringe.

Photo linked to in Lizeroux's twitter feed.

"Incredible Ski Accident" Never Gets Old



For a video shot that's really pretty well composed, this goes terribly wrong in a hurry.  Everyone appears to be okay, but really, how does this video only have 1500 views?  Ski community, be ashamed of ourselves.

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There IS Such a Thing As a Dumb Question

Like many of you, we check out SkiRacing.com on a daily basis. There's some great material on there, though we preferred the print version more than the new digital standard. But, as I'm sure many of you would agree, not everybody is right all the time.

This is a screenshot from the poll on the front page of SkiRacing.com

Give me a break.  Is this where we've ended up, after the most successful US women's teams ever?  Really?  Is this how we can grow and develop women's sports in this country?  "You've done some great work out there ladies, but we also will be evaluating you on your physical appearance and the extent to which it stimulates our sexual sensibilities."

I mean seriously, if the rednecks at Nitro Circus (who are, by their own admission, "testosterone driven") can get it pretty much right, why can't we?

Hey, Ski Racing, you're doing it wrong:




Note to the editors of SkiRacing.com: If traffic is down, try writing about something like national team selections. There is no need to swing so low as asking who we'd most like to make out with.

Update: Comminques Regarding Women's D-Team Post

Alright people, it's time for you to start posting in the comments.  We're a small staff here and it's going to be tough for us to keep up with all this.  Here's some of what we've heard so far, from coaches, parents, fans, affiliates, and so on and so forth:

In response to either this site, or to other coaches possibly being unhappy about the post, one responded: "I'm mostly interested in the people who have the nuts to say what they think.  There's a difference between those who complain and those who respond."

And from another commenter:
"I would like to thank you for a fantastic article... As I know many of these girls personally, I witnessed first hand there disillusionment with both the D Team program and in some cases with the sport itself...

"As far a the now legendary jacket incident is concerned... In sports and life I see the need for outside motivation.  Sometimes a good 'kick in the pants' is what is needed to jump start an athlete.  I have had lots of experience with women athletes and usually they don't respond well to that type of motivation.   That being said (and my opinion) if the stripping of unis was going to be used as a motivation, as a coach wouldn't yours be the first one on the pile?  To me the statement would be this: 'Ladies it is clear WE have a problem.  WE are under performing as a TEAM.  I don't feel WE are deserving of the uniform at this moment.  Tomorrow WE are going out there without the pride of this uniform.  I am personally going to do what I can to get this program back on it's feet.  Until I do my staff and I will not wear OUR TEAM uniform either.'  To me this instills team unity and pride in the fact you are on some small level representing The USST...

Thanks for a great article.  I for one appreciate the candor."

Traffic on the site is way up, so clearly there's some interest in this issue.  Let's hear from you.

If Winter Sports Parties Were Contests, Hockey Would Win

While Vancouverans (ites?) were busy burning cars and shooting each other in the junk with M80's, the Boston Bruins were getting busy at the bar at Foxwoods.  Luckily, a copy of their bar tab is now circulating around the Internet.  Hockey players, like skiers, can apparently handle themselves at the bar.  The big difference is that none of us have $100,000 to spend on one bottle of champagne.  However, as one commenter asks, "Who is the lame ass who ordered 2 Coors Lights?"

Sure would be nice to be one of the Big 4.

















Just keep watching, over and over again:

Update: Editorial Review Women's Development Team Selection Post

In light of recent feedback on our posting regarding the selections for the 2012 women's Development Team, the decision has been made to rescind some of our commentary on the matter and to try more diligently to let the facts stand for themselves.  We referred to last year's D-Team program as tyranical and/or Totalitarianist; an attempt at humor via hyperbole.  However, ski racing being a small community of intensely dedicated people, there was concern that our comments might not have been received as we intended, and we felt that it was ultimately unfair to D-Team coaches Seth McCadam and Mike Prado to opine on their program with sarcasm.  To that end, we've tried to paint a picture with factual information and to leave the sarcasm and eye-rolling out of it, especially where the matters can be pretty intensely personal.  If we've gotten some things wrong, or are lacking pieces of information that may help tell a more complete truth, please tell us so that we can make it right.

As of now, the piece has been edited to reflect the goal of fact-based coverage on this topic.  One of the goals with this site is to create a forum where the ski racing community can communicate openly with each other about the issues in our sport.  We want to keep the lines of communication open, so feel free to comment or email with any input.

Learn How To Celebrate From This Italian Goalie



When it comes to celebrating how much of an ass kicker you are, ski racers could stand to learn a few things.  Schoenfelder was good, Paerson was decent and humorous, and Cuche has his cliche ski flip (which he reportedly has told other athletes they are not allowed to imitate).  As demonstrated by this Italian goalie, they've got a lot to learn.  The pants are off.  The fire extinguisher is out.  Go team.




 
Cuche photo courtesy of The Examiner.

US Ski Team Nominations: Women's Development Team

Update: This posting was edited from its original version based on feedback received after the initial publication.

Update #2: Please read this: linked-to note regarding sources and identity.  Please also take the time to look through more of the site than just this one page before passing judgment on what we're all about.  Thanks.



Well, a picture might not be worth 1,000 words exactly, but this one's worth at least a few.  The intensity and the grim look on Development Team head coach Seth McCadam's face as he watched his best Slalom skier of 2011, Lizzie Kistler, train at Loveland last November.  A few days after this training session, Kistler was ordered to take a week off snow immediately before the opening Nor-Ams in Colorado.  Skill acquisition and maintenance be damned: the logic said she had to be feeling physically fresh for race day, so she was sent home to vineyard country in California and wasn't allowed to train in the run-up to the races.  And thus began the unwinding of the women's Development Team last year.

After poor performances in those opening Nor-Ams, the girls were lectured (some have reported it as more of a berating) by McCadam and other Ski Team coaches about professionalism, their approach to the sport, and the fact that they were now working for a business and needed to behave as such.  One such dressing-down occurred in the dining room at the team's hotel in Lake Louise, in front of numerous other club and regional teams.  For their apparent failure to meet company standards, they were forbidden by their coaches to wear their US Ski Team uniforms during the Panorama Nor-Ams, until they shaped up (which, by the way, is not accordance with USSA's own policy regarding team apparel).  The girls appeared on the hill in jackets from their home clubs, or other clothing they borrowed from teammates and friends.  The results and the treatment did not improve from there, although they were eventually allowed to wear their uniforms.

By season's end, the women's D-Team was decimated.  Abby Fucigna, Lizzie Kistler, and Devin Delaney all returned to their home programs part way through the season, unhappy with the atmosphere and management of the D-Team.  Anna Marno was injured in February, and Foreste Peterson was injured before the season even started, which left just 2 girls to finish out the season: Abby Ghent and Rose Caston.  Only Ghent was renamed to the Team for 2012, even though Caston was injured in 2010 and then named for 2011.  Vanessa Berther finished out much of the season traveling with her parents and handling her own travel and logistics, even often on race day.  All the girls, except Ghent, refused service from the Ski Team's chosen technician, Jeff "Chief" Wagner, because of his insistence on 2-degree side bevels (laughable on anything but deep powder) and doubts about the quality of the work.

At the end of the year, the buzz among coaches was that surely McCadam would be let go, and likely his assistant coach, Mike Prado, too.  Rumor had it that USSA might not even field a women's D-Team for 2012, needing to step back and reassess the role of the D-Team and women's development in ski racing nationwide.  If they did field a team, would the athletes who left opt to come back?

None of that ended up happening.  Both coaches kept their jobs*, an outcome that surprised many in the ski racing community.  And the nominations for the 2012 women's D-Team are out, but only Peterson, Marno (both injured for 2011), and Ghent were asked back.  The composition of the rest of the team can perhaps only be described as a hodgepodge.  Discretionary picks abound, and the coaches seem to have capitalized on the fine print of US Ski Team nomination guidelines.

What's less surprising than who they did nominate is who they didn't nominate.  And if you compare those two lists, it can be even more puzzling.  We're not going to detract from the happiness that the nominated athletes must certainly be feeling, but it does seem odd to many people that one could be named to the Development Team with, say, over 70 SL points.  That's the case now, and there's no question it's a little strange.  Stranger, though, are the people who didn't get picked.

We looked at the top 5 girls in each event, for each birth year eligible for the D-Team ('92-'95).  Some of the girls nominated appear in the top-5 rankings for their year in only one event, and they do not rank in the top-3 in that event.  Only one girl, Paula Moltzan, appears in the top-5 for her year in all 4 events.  Of the 10 girls nominated, only 4 of them make that top-5 in three or more events.**

None of this would be all that strange if there weren't exceedingly qualified candidates on the sidelines.  Lauren Samuels, for instance, skied through injuries all year and ranks in the top-5 for her year in 3 events, and is 6th in Super-G.  Vanessa Berther, on the D-Team last year, also makes the top-5 in 3 events and is 6th in Downhill.  Her points are in the 30's across the board, except for her 65 Downhill points.  Last year she ranked 16th in the Nor-Am DH standings (her best Nor-Am rank), so you know she's got potential there.  Both Samuels and Berther have experience on the ski team and would seem like natural choices to help lead the younger crew on the D-Team (as would Rose Caston, a '92 who also ranks in the top-5 in 3 events: GS, SG, and DH).  It's been said by team members and staff on the inside that these girls were simply not liked by the powers that be.

Non-nominee Kaytlyn Samuelson ranks in the top-5 for '93 's in three events: 2nd in GS and SG, and 5th in DH, and she was apparently injured in February 2011, which makes her every bit as qualified (if not more so) as any of the other '93 nominees.  Brittany Lathrop, the D-Team's only nomination from the class of '95, ranks in the top-5 for '95 's in 3 events: 3rd in SL and SG, and 4th in GS.  However, left off the list is '95 Anna Mounsey, who also ranks in the top-5 in 3 events: 2nd in SL, and 3rd in GS and DH.

Leaving these girls off the list seems contradictory to the D-Team's mission to develop the best young athletes in the country.  The math doesn't add up: see above. The athlete development track is illogical: nominating young athletes with barely less than 100 points in core events like Super-G and Slalom doesn't make sense.  And unfortunately the coaches and management apparently answer to no one: their nominations reflect an unchanged decision making process from last year and meanwhile they have not been required to justify themselves to the athletes or their parents.

Again, the point here is not that any of nominated girls shouldn't have been chosen; coaches and athletes alike debate that all year, every year, with regards to the Development Team.  The point is that the girls not nominated should have been nominated, and that their exclusion is both unjustified and unjustifiable, whether or not you compare them to those that are nominated.

Here's the list of nominees.  It will be interesting to see who accepts, or maybe who doesn't accept, in the wake of last year's chaos:


NAME    HOMETOWN  DATE OF BIRTH 
Abby Ghent   Edwards, CO 9/25/92
Libby Gibson   Jamaica, VT 12/15/94
Katharine Irwin   Vail, CO 6/5/94
Lila Lapanja   Incline Village, NV 12/3/94
Brittany Lathrop   South Londonderry, VT 3/20/95
Anna Marno   Steamboat Springs, CO 11/23/92
Paula Moltzan   Lakeville, MN 5/7/94
Foreste Peterson   Berkeley, CA 9/9/93
Katie Ryan   Aspen, CO 1/3/93
Sydney Staples   Park City, UT 2/16/93



*McCadam and Prado are not listed on the 2012 roster, but they are listed in other materials distributed by USSA and the US Ski Team regarding staffing for 2012.

**Due to long-term injury, Foreste Peterson does not rank in the top-5 for her age in any event.  It's impossible to say for sure where she would rank had she not been injured for over a year, but if you've seen her ski, then you know she can hang with the best of the '93 's.

Photo borrowed from flickr.  You can see the original here.

Lizeroux Out for 2012


Julien Lizeroux might be a sexy beast, but that doesn't mean he's super human.  The handsomest Frenchman since Killy tore up his knee in January of last year.  The report now is that he's had some complications with ligaments in his quad, or something like that, and he'll miss 2012.  Somebody should hire this guy to commentate.  Based on his past on-screen performances, it's obvious that he has a distinctly French knack for being charming and also just offensive enough for you to want him (or want to BE him) even more.

Also, Ski Racing Magazine knows how to use Cut and Paste.


Photo can be found at sportsnet.ca, who wrongly reports that Lizeroux is a Slalom and nordic combined champion.

Stuck























Stuck in the airport over night?  We've all been there at one point or another, but most of us didn't do it this well.  On their way home from a Formula Drift event in Florida, these two dudes got stranded overnight at DFW (coincidentally, a surprisingly common occurrence for those flying to Chile also).  Being pro photographers, they were carrying about $30,000 worth of gear in their backpacks, and they capitalized.  Try this at home.

Click the picture, or see the video here:  http://youtu.be/JHdEy_3PaKk

Coming Up: We Test The New "Vaccu-Plast" Moldable Boot From Fischer


Plastic is moldable.
Ski boots are made of plastic.
Therefore, ski boots are moldable.

Pretty simple logic, but it's sure taken the ad wizards long enough to come up with that one.  Fischer claims their new plastic is neither polyethylene nor polyurethane, which is what every other plastic ski boot is made of.  According to Western Fischer rep Chris Smith, the new plastic "has some weird name in German that we can't pronounce or spell, so we just call in Vaccu-Plast."  The process is simple but involves some specialty equipment that has apparently been 6 years in the making, alongside the development of the new plastic.

We got a fresh pair of 130's molded last night.  We'll let you know how they ski, and go more into detail about the molding process and fit, after a day or two on snow.

US Ski Team Nominations

































As always, there's lots to talk about with who is and isn't nominated for various national teams right now.  Let's start by stating outright that, despite the claims made by USSA SkiRacing.com, it is not true that "Nominated skiers have qualified for the teams according to published criteria."  Unless you count coaches' discretion as meeting criteria, which we don't.  USSA knows a thing or two about discretion.  And that's where the fun begins:

Alice McKennis made the women's A-team criteria for last season and then was injured early on this year, after some strong finishes in Lake Louise.  So she makes the A-team again.  The question is: how did she used to have less than 6 DH points, despite having never scored below a 15 in that event?  It must be because she was ranked 22nd on the World Cup Start List, and 30th in the world gets 6 points, so she also gets 6 points?  Thank you, Swiss people, for the rules.  Either way, she's in.  And she has plenty of WC top-15's to back it up.

Noticeably left off the men's A-team (and, in fact, left off of every other team) is Warner Nickerson.  Despite scoring some World Cup points, qualifying for the World Champs team, and generally being on the up-and-up, men's head coach Sasha Rearick has deemed it best for Warner to ski with them only "when it makes sense."  They treated him well last year and gave him plenty of opportunity, but it's unfortunate that a WC points scorer needs to rely on favors and good will to continue to get opportunity.  Hopefully that good will holds out for another season.

America's Favorite, David Chodounsky, got nominated for the B-team after a pretty stellar season and a great run over the past 3 years.  The former US National Slalom Champion needed just one top-35 world ranking, and he just snuck in there with a 34th in SL.

There were a number of discretionary picks at the B-team level on the women's side.  Kiley Staples got picked for her truly excellent skiing ability.  She needed one top-50 world rank, but her best is 66 in GS.  In other words, 16 places out is not good enough to get you named to the team, unless your skiing looks good and has plenty of obvious potential.  The same goes for Hailey Duke.  Her points skyrocketed at the last list after injuries and a long string of DNQ's and DNF's.  Everyone who knows Hailey and has seen her ski is certain that she'll figure it out, and apparently her coaches agree.  Megan McJames and Chelsea Marshall both suffered injuries, but were renamed based on past performances.  Also, they started a catering/baked goods business in Park City, so if you've got a hankering for some cupcakes...

For the men's C-team, the athletes had to meet "a technical event performance band or a speed event performance band."  Whatever the hell that means.  There are some published criteria for the C-team, but none of the guys in the group qualified with that.  I guess they're just a good speed band or something?  By the looks of it, if you scored 20 or fewer points and didn't make the B-team, you made the C-team.  Except Warner.  Regardless, between Kelley, Tarberry, Ankeny, and Stiegler, there are a bunch of good skiers in that group.

The women's C-team is a little leaner, with just 2 athletes: Julia Ford and Brook Wales.  It would be great if someone could explain having 9 men, none of whom made criteria (aside from the elusive "performance band") and only 2 women.  They both made C-team criteria, but apparently the discretional love was not spread to the women's side.  Is it because almost all of last year's D-team was either injured or left the US Ski Team and are now college-bound?  Perhaps the person with the answers will also speak Norwegian?  I guess we have lots of questions these days.

As for the Development Team, well, that's a whole separate article unto itself.  Let's just say there's been lots of head scratching among coaches lately about what exactly is going on, who is making decisions, and how they are making them.  More on that later.  We just finished listening to that (German) Warrant song again, and we're headed out to the parking lot to do some donuts and let off a little steam.

Here's the full list of nominees, and here's the published USSA criteria.  Have fun, we sure did:


A TEAM
Men
Jimmy Cochran (5/29/81; Keene, NH; Cochran's/Mount Mansfield Ski&Snowboard Club)
Tommy Ford (3/20/89; Bend, OR; Mount Bachelor Ski Education Foundation)
Nolan Kasper (3/27/89; Warren, VT; Burke Mountain Academy)
TJ Lanning (8/27/84; Park City, UT; Park City Ski Team)
Ted Ligety (8/31/84; Park City, UT; Park City Ski Team)
Bode Miller (10/12/77; Franconia, NH; Carrabassett Valley Academy/Franconia Ski Club)
Steven Nyman (2/12/82; Provo, UT; Park City Ski Team/Sundance)
Marco Sullivan (4/27/80; Squaw Valley, CA; Squaw Valley Ski Team)
Andrew Weibrecht (2/10/86; Lake Placid, NY; New York Ski Education Foundation)

Women
Stacey Cook (7/3/84; Mammoth, CA; Mammoth Mountain Ski Team)
Julia Mancuso (9/9/84; Olympic Valley, CA; Squaw Valley Ski Team)
Alice McKennis (8/19/89; Glenwood Springs, CO; Rowmark Ski Academy)
Laurenne Ross (8/17/88; Klamath Falls, OR; Mount Bachelor Ski Education Foundation)
Sarah Schleper (2/19/79; Vail, CO; Ski&Snowboard Club Vail)
Leanne Smith (5/28/87; Conway, NH; Mt. Washington Valley Ski Team)
Lindsey Vonn (10/18/84; Vail, CO; Ski&Snowboard Club Vail/Buck Hill Ski Team)


B TEAM
Men
Thomas Biesemeyer (1/30/89; Keene, NY; New York Ski Education Foundation)
Will Brandenburg (1/1/87; Spokane, WA; Schweitzer Alpine Racing)
David Chodounksy (6/25/84; Crested Butte, CO; Crested Butte Ski Team)
Ryan Cochran-Siegle (3/27/92; Starksboro, VT; Mt Mansfield Ski Club)
Erik Fisher (3/21/85; Middleton, ID; Bogus Basin/Rowmark Ski Academy)
Travis Ganong (7/14/88; Squaw Valley; Squaw Valley Ski Team)
Colby Granstrom (9/21/90; Lake Stevens, WA; Mission Ridge Ski Education Foundation)
Will Gregorak (9/30/90; Longmont, CO; Ski&Snowboard Club Vail)
Tim Jitloff (1/11/85; Reno, NV; Park City Ski Team)
Wiley Maple (5/25/90; Aspen, CO; Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard)

Women
Hailey Duke (9/17/85; Boise, ID; Park City Ski Education Foundation/McCall Ski Team)
Chelsea Marshall (8/14/86; Pittsfield, VT; Green Mountain Valley School)
Megan McJames (9/24/87; Park City, UT; Park City Ski Education Foundation)
Mikaela Shiffrin (3/13/95; Eagle-Vail, CO; Burke Mountain Academy)              
Kiley Staples (2/2/89; Park City, UT; Rowmark Ski Academy)
Resi Stiegler (11/14/85; Jackson Hole, WY; Park City Ski Team/Jackson Hole)


C TEAM
Men
Michael Ankeny (1/17/91; Deephaven, MN; Buck Hill Ski Team)
Nick Daniels (4/5/91; Tahoe City, CA; Squaw Valley Ski Team)
Mark Engel (10/1/91; Truckee, CA; Sugar Bowl Ski Team)
Jared Goldberg (6/17/91; Holladay, UT; Team Flow)
Robby Kelley (5/26/90; Starksboro, VT; Cochran's Ski Club / Mt Mansfield Ski Club)
Keith Moffat (2/3/91; Berkeley, CA; Squaw Valley Ski Team)
Brennan Rubie (4/8/91; Salt Lake City, UT; Snowbird Ski Team)
Seppi Stiegler (11/28/88; Wilson, WY; Jackson Hole Ski Club)
Ace Tarberry (2/4/88; North Conway, NH; MWVST-Mount Washington Valley Ski Team)

Women
Julia Ford (03/30/1990; Plymouth, NH; Holderness Ski Team)
Brooke Wales (08/28/1990; Sammamish, WA; Mission Ridge Ski Education Foundation)

If You Can Read Norwegian, Please email Me


The cryptic message from Warner, attached to the forwarded email, says "Long story short, I went to the Norwegian equivalent of the Golden Globes on Friday night with this really kickass girl."  Somebody please tell us what the hell is going on here.  All I can read is "New Hampshire."

And we're back...

Took a little break there (as we all should have) to regain perspective on skiing and life.  Spring is a time to try some new things and meet some new people who don't know or care a thing about single pole Slalom, sidecut, canting, or whether or not Vonn paints her old Rossignol boots to look like Heads.  When it's all said and done, you realize that those new people are losers, and that it's time to get back down to business.

Incidentally, our exhaustive research indicates that while she, or more likely her husband, often tapes over the rivets and hinges on her boots, they most likely do not go so far as to put actual paint on them.  Although this Austrian lady actually might have, and if she did, then she did a crappy job.

These are pictures from some of the races in question.  You decide.

Zoom in to see the tape on this one.

Possibly more of a matte finish here?

Meh, probably not:

































Photos courtesy of some stalkers in an Epicski.com forum thread entitled "Is anyone else getting pissed/annoyed at Lindsey Vonn, or am I the only one?"  The Pistenchef is not annoyed.  Thomas Vonn is widely regarded as a disciple of the squirrel, but this is probably over the top.  Although, get a load of those plates.  Do yours look like that?