Many of you have seen this site already, so we don't need to go into detail about it. It is worth pointing out, though, that Jerry of The Day is awesome, hilarious, and updated much more consistently than, say, this site that you're reading right now.
Right now, and probably just this once, we're going to unabashedly hijack their thread and pose the question: Who wore it best? In this case, we're talking about the faux-blue jeans ski pants of none other than Eric Harlow (former US Ski Team coach, now at Stratton) and UVM assistant coach Johnny Davidson (arguably American skiing's favorite Canadian).
Here's the photo. That's Harlow on the left, Davidson on the right:
And a couple others, so that you have all the information you need:
Who rocks the fake jeans harder?
And while we're at it, why don't we vote on our preferred word for the general public. Jerry of The Day makes the bold claim that "Jerry" has taken over for the once nearly ubiquitous "Joey" or "Joe Bag." We've heard some other popular names, including "Gomer," "Touron," and "Texan," depending on what region you're from. So, let's put it to a vote. Pick your favorite term, and if you don't see it here, put it in the comments:
What's the proper terminology for you-know-who?
If you haven't yet, start reading Jerry of The Day now, you'll love it.
Franz Klammer is one of the best skiers of all time. Everybody knows that. His career was lengthy, starting with a win at Schladming in 1973, a final victory at the Hahnenkamm in 1984, with a gold medal in Innsbruck in 1974 and 23 World Cup victories in between. So, in the interest of history and posterity, here's Franz doing his thing in 1984:
It really goes to show you just how much things have changed. Really, it doesn't get a whole lot more dangerous than what you see there, so it does make you wonder how we got to the place we are now, covered in B-net and yet still getting dinged left and right. Perhaps Franz is skiing the course as it is, and too many of us ski the course we wish we had (or think we deserve)? How often have you been to a race and watched skier after skier blow out in the same gate, even after they've gotten the course report? Skiing the course you wish you had, where you can hit every apex at full throttle and lay it over as hard as you want, is often different than skiing the course as it actually is. The correct line is not always the one we've dreamed about and idealized in our mind before the run. Not casting blame about, just a thought that I know a few of us could stand to consider.
Back to Klammer. Winning gnarly Downhills is something he does well. Something he doesn't do very well is to help FIS shed their image as a male-dominated and sexist organization. Witness the promotional poster for the Bad Kleinkirchheim Women's World Cup, in which the race organizers, Klammer, and FIS by extension made themselves out to be a bunch of chauvinist idiots:
This is a poster for a women's World Cup sporting event? I mean we're really just one or two garments removed from Logjammin' here. The sexual overtones of the poster are obvious: two women in tight clothes fawning over and stroking the big man in the suit. Is this what we've come to in women's athletics? "Hot young broads in tight clothes! Everywhere!"
For all of our sake, I hope we're better than this. Pro sports is already a male-dominated enterprise, from the playing field to the coaches to the front office. This was an opportunity to reverse that paradigm, but instead it got flipped back around so that Klammer, Hujara, and Hungus remain on top. Is this really the best we can do? For a frame of reference, here's the poster from the men's race that same weekend:
Not even a hint of menage-a-trois! It took me about 5 seconds to find this photo of Bad Klein's analogous hometown girl:
But no, we'll take Janka's kissy face and Klammer's giant wangsalad fingers (seriously, look at his hands in that picture) over Viktoria Rebensburg eating everybody's face. I mean yeah, she's wearing the leader's bib, but it's the women's leader's bib so I guess it doesn't really count.
It should surprise no one that this same cabal of dimwits didn't include any women in their injury "study." We're better than this. We have to be. Please?
First stop: Mikaela Shiffrin on the cover of Powder Magazine.
We don't use this phrase lightly, but I have to say it takes some serious balls to say that Mikaela Shiffrin is, in any sense, the #2 skier under the age of 18. Alright, so maybe she's the #2 GS skier under 18. But #2 overall? Certainly not. And no, nobody here read the article so we have no idea who's named #1, but anyone reading this article knows that there's just no way in hell someone else under the age of 18 is as good as Mikaela (although we must say, that Wendy Holdener is coming on strong). Sorry, Powder Magazine. You do a good job, and you've certainly endured your share of flack for putting a photo of a skier on "hardpack" on your cover, but you are, in this case, most definitely incorrect.
And in other news:
This gem has been floating around the Internet recently. Is it Photoshopped? Probably. Does that make me like it any less? Not at all. I prefer it 'shopped, in fact, because it gives me hope that the lifties would be smart enough to not park their snowmobiles right underneath him.
And finally, perhaps the least recent of all our news, Akira Sasaki fulfills our blood lust, for now:
Cool helmet/goggle combo, but where's the chin bar when you need it? The price you pay for fashion, I guess. This photo is from the excellent Action Plus Sports Images Facebook page. If I were in the market to purchase some photos of big time action sporting events, these guys (Mitch Gunn, specifically) would be my first choice.
On second thought, the chin bar doesn't always do the trick does it? Just remembered this beauty from one of our favorite Facebook stops. I'll leave it to you to click the link. By the way, the entire second half of this post is probably NSFW if you work with children.
As a few of you have pointed out in grouchy emails, there hasn't been a lot of blogging in my life lately. Life gets in the way, I suppose. It makes me grouchy too, so please know that you are not alone. Now then, enough crying, let's get down to business (again). We'll be posting some long overdue "news" under the banner of "Outdated Information."
Outdated Information 1: Conrad Pridy Tastes The Challenge of the World Cup
Conrad Pridy came basically out of nowhere and raced a few World Cup DH races. Alright, "nowhere" might be a little pejorative for the B.C. Provincial Team (sorry Dykster) but really, did anyone see this coming? As a non-Canadian, and therefore an ultra-outsider into the strange world that is their National Team (WTF is with the mustaches you guys?), I was shocked to see his name on the startlist at Wengen. Pridy went from barely inside the top-20 at the Panorama Nor-Ams in December (he finished 17th one day. Yehaw) to racing two of the biggest Downhills on the World Cup circuit: Wengen, and Kizbuehel. Wengen went sort of alright. He was 11 seconds out on the first training run, but by race day he was only 6 seconds out, and he only moved back one spot. Kitzbuehel went less good during training, as you can plainly see above, but he lived through it all to finish just over 3 seconds out on race day.
The snow tastes a little better in Germany, apparently, because one week later in Garmisch he actually moved up 25 spots and finished in 25th place (World Cup points!), right behind Mr. Beat "You're Saying It Wrong" Feuz, and just 1.16 seconds out of perennial ass-kicker Didier "Ich fahre diese Scheisse" Cuche (that track was shortened nearly in half on race day, but it's impressive nonetheless).
6-seconds out, 3-seconds out, 1.1-seconds out, scoring in the 20's and then the teens. A late surge to take second place in the Nor-Am DH standings by 20 points (World Cup spot!). That, ladies and gentleman, is how it's done.
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