Cameron Smith is the Second Coming of Bode Miller, and Other Totally Rational Thoughts

Editor's Note: Charles Christianson called me today and demanded that there be some new blog posts. He sounded pretty serious (read: he chastised me and used the word "bullshit" a lot), so I figured he was right and I asked him to write the piece. So just like that we're back online. Fans of the site will be glad to know that we're planning something bigger and better, but for now we're going to keep the action on Blogger. So without further ado, please welcome Hard Snow Life's newest contributor. He has his own blog, about his own self at www.charleschristianson.com

Killa Cam Sauce, Camslice, Cam Dogg, Cam’Ron on Ice, Nightcrawler, Daddy, The Other Guy Who Rocks Airbrushed Tees. These are just a few of the nicknames that have been given to Cam Smith throughout his ski racing career. Yesterday morning a new name was added. He’s now known as “That Guy Who Scored Sub-Teens and Single Digits in Australia.”

Yesterday (tomorrow?) in Australia, Cam Smith won two ANC Cup GS races with the Swedish national team in attendance. These races, as sanctioned Continental Cups, did not have the typical 3-point adder to the penalty that normal FIS races do, meaning it was especially awesome for him to ski so well. Scoring a 9.17 and a 12.74, Cam Smith now has 10.96 GS points (much lower than mine, btw) and should be ranked around 59^th in the world and 7^th in the US. He barely eked out a win over Johan Oehagen to score the 12, but he won both runs of the next race and took the overall by almost a second to score the 9. Point being, he skied to win (we think); always a good decision.

So who is Cam Smith? You might remember Cam Smith from HSL WikiCoaching blogposts last year, where this site posted video of Cam skiing GS and solicited coaching advice from the crowd. Cam was hoping to get faster so the CU Ski Team would consider putting him in the starting lineup. Well Cam can relax about skiing for CU now, as he just qualified through objective criteria for the B-Team of the USST. And given the way that FIS points lists work, these points should be good not only for this year but through next season as well. Can you say fresh course anyone?

So. “Cam F***ing Smith” (nickname credit: Bart Molin). How did he do it? As usually happens when someone goes big, rumors are flying. I’m in the dead heat back in the States rehabbing my knee and I’ve heard a few reasons why, besides good quality skiing, Cam won the annual ANC Points-For-Nothing Sweepstakes.

A confirmed-totally-unconfirmed source tells me that the new skis are the main reason for this success. I mean lets face it, how could a guy with a Brandon Walsh haircut from 90210 ski so fast in 2012?

The much talked about FIS regulations for longer (195cm), straighter (35m) GS skis go into effect this year for the World Cup and European Cup circuits, with the rest FIS and every other Continental Cup following next year. The longer skis are harder to steer than the older cut of skis (27m, ~191cm). The difference is negligible on a hard, icy surface, and many WC skiers attested to skiing faster last spring on the new dimensions. But in Australia, where the snow was apparently sloppy and the courses were turny, the older boys had no shot against all that is Cam.

It’s quite a story, but, believe it or not, we’ve heard it before. In the spring of 1998 1996, an 18-year old kid named Bode Miller got ahold of some crazy new skis just before Junior Olympics. K2, his equipment sponsor, had just created the first-generation of radical sidecut K2 Fours. Bode had ~60 FIS points, and he used his new parabolics to torch JOs at Sugarloaf and then finish third at US Nationals in the slalom. These results put him on the Team and he never looked back.

That was an incredible Cinderella story, and although Bode has had a few ups and downs (mostly with the American media), his rise to prominence was pretty smooth. But that isn’t always the case, and it remains to be seen what will happen with Cam. Hopefully he can accept his new start position at high level races and use the opportunities to continue getting faster, better, and more consistent.

What Cam achieved in Australia may have had contributing factors, but the reality is that his decision to train at Mount Hotham for the last 4 years with his Aussie high-school roommate, working hard year-round, taking advantage of a situation, and without question getting Wikicoaching and the HSL Bump all contributed to some amazing results for the world’s 59^th best skier. As my buddy Warner Nickerson likes to say, “Never trade luck for speed.” In skiing this couldn’t be more true, and sometimes, if you’re patient and you work hard, you find both on the same day. Congrats, Cam. You got the world’s attention, and it’s going to be great for you to capitalize on the new opportunities you’re sure to have.


Update: Since posting there have been new confirmed-totally-unconfirmed claims that the Swedes in fact did not use the 35m skis because the snow was so rotten. This is interesting, but a similar argument has been floated: that training on 35m skis since last March, only to jump back onto different sidecut skis, would be equally disruptive to performance. Who knows, either way Cam still has better points than you.