Commentary on headlines of Ski Racing mag

I'll try to make this a regular thing whenever there's an interesting story on their website, especially now that the sport seems to be in something of a flux. I must say, Skiracing has done a great job of becoming THE international magazine of the sport, and I'm happy to say that their reporting remains true to the ideals of journalism. When they were aquired a few years ago by the same folks that publish velo-news, I was very psyched, indeed. Anyone who's familiar with that publication knows that they're known for their depth, timeliness, and, frankly, dominance.

On to more important topics that jump off the page of today's frontpage of Skiracing. Firstly... is it me, or does the visual of Julia Mancuso in a thong seem really distracting to whatever the headline is on www.skiracing.com? It's been on for several weeks now. I'm not saying I mind, terribly; I'm just saying it's distracting in the best possible way. Still, given the current, er... "stodgy" status of the sport of Alpine, I suppose it's no accident that she's up there on the front of the flagship publication lending credibility to the proposition that ski racing is an extremely sexy sport. I mean that in a marketing sense, of course. Whatever it takes to keep the base broad. However... If you're getting into ski racing to surf in Maui all summer long like Julia, you may have to wait until you win a few medals at the international level. Love the fact that it works for her, though. I've always said that the very best ski racers are the ones who've figured out their own methodolgy, and have the confidence (and demonstrated success) to get away with it. Can't say I had that much courage of my convictions when I was competing at that level, which is why I have so much respect for athletes like Julia and Bode. Say what you will, but (cue the Frank Sinatra) they do it their way.

Also, it's good to see "team SCHL" (Schleper and Schlopy) back on the team for next year, hopefully healthy. Schlopy made the development team right about when I was at the peak (I mean that in relative terms, of course) of my career in 1989-90. It's been apparent for a while now that experience can compete with youth in ski racing, and few demonstrate that more clearly than Erik. Let's just hope that they both come back where they left of, e.g. near the top. When I was competing, there was no "coming back" from injury or retirement. Any event that took you out for a season was considered career-ending by the powers that be. Glad to see the business model of the team has discovered the value of their more invested athletes. Nothing like a retread tire; low price, great performance.

First post

I've been in my usual spring quiet and thinking mode long enough. Once July comes around it's time to start putting the ideas down. Here's to a productive and word-filled summer on my favorite subjects: Ski Racing and coaching it...

First things first... I'm getting ready for an upcoming trip to Chile with five of our athletes from Loon and one from Michigan. Our recently upwardly mobile career coach Nick Foster has signed on.. I think he got me to agree to it over Sushi a few short nights ago, and frankly I'm really psyched. Although I'd like to think my 41 year old body still has some game in the gates... my back tells me not so much when it comes to carrying them. This will be the best athlete-to-coach ratio that we've ever had. It'll be a luxury. Good thing I don't do these trips for much of a profit, though! My sources tell me they've already gotten over 3 meters (that's 10 feet!) of snow, and we still have a month to go. Could I get a little "amen," people?

Keystone, aka Winter Park: On the other end of the spectrum, we've already got 32+ athletes signed up... young group, naturally, owing to the same demographic profile of the Loon Race Team. I changed the venue from Keystone, then changed the hotel, pretty much to suit demand. Fortunately, my constituency is pretty used to these types of changes & seem to trust my judgment. For the most part we've been lucky every time a change is made. I want nothing more than the best fall training camp in the country. Why don't we make it a big commercial offering? Look two sentences back.

Herminator switches to HEAD. OK, I guess that officially makes Head the "Home of the Charismatic later career world-champion-caliber" brand. No doubt the great results Bode got last year on Head's speed skis were not lost upon him. And, of course, there's the $$$. Where Head is getting it I frankly couldn't tell you.