McKee's McThoughts: Relish the education the World Cup affords our athletes

By Published On: January 27th, 2008Comments Off on McKee's McThoughts: Relish the education the World Cup affords our athletes

It is customary here in the US of A to complain about the amount of time our World Cup racers have to endure in Europe. What, we should hold it in Minnesota?
    No offense to my many friends in Minnesota.
IT IS CUSTOMARY here in the US of A to complain about the amount of time our World Cup racers have to endure in Europe. What, we should hold it in Minnesota?
    No offense to my many friends in Minnesota.
    I have seen many, not just a few, natives of Minnesota who possess a passion for ski racing as strong as anyone I know. Most of them hang out together spending their weekends making ski racing happen. The programs in the Midwest, in general, and I believe in Minnesota, in particular, are perfectly geared to nurturing young athletes and better young people. They are good programs run by good, passionate people. As a by-product of that they have contributed their share of athletes to the U.S. Ski Team.
    And I ask you — all of you — would you take away the opportunity for your son or your daughter to experience Europe from the right side of a sport? What is that worth alone, that travel to distant and quaintly exotic lands. The reasons many parents support the ski racing habit are the lessons the sport teaches them. All that and a perspective from a different region of the pale blue dot we call earth.
    Thanks to the Internet and television’s ability to gain complete and utter access to anything, the sights I have seen from Europe this season — from my WiFi cabin in the woods — have really struck me. So far we have visited spectacularly scenic Val Gardena, the high-end Ritz of St. Moritz, the vastness of the birthplace of skiing, St. Anton, the Christmas week in Lienz during Krampusnacht. Plus, of course, Wengen. If a car-free mountaintop village you have to take the train to isn’t romantic enough, then turn around and look at the Eiger for a while.
    Maribor is developing these days into a hot little city and has a 45,000 sq/m wine cellar beneath much of town. Surely Kitzbühel is worth a stop Hahnenkamm week and Cortina is perhaps the most beautiful scenery of all.
    And this weekend have Chamonix, off the flank of the largest mountain in the Alps, and Ofterschwang, a series of small Bavarian communities that enjoy celebrating their culture.
    These aren’t bad places to visit, especially if they’re holding a festival in honor of your being there. They all add a special flavor to the World Cup custard and their citizens love their ski racing. These folks have been doing ski racing for a long time, probably longer than Minnesota.
    Maybe that’s the whole thing; maybe it’s just my love of tradition. So far we’ve done Lauberhorn LXXX, Hahnenkamm LXVIII and now Kandahar LX is in the batter’s box. Kind of makes the NFL look a little silly, doesn’t it?
    Now, I am not an anti-American, or Canadian. I wave the flag when I’m proud of what we do and stand for. I just believe it’s more practical to beat up the rest of the world in sport than with either weapons or diplomacy. These kids we’re so proud of as people are out there in Heidi-land playing the other guys’ game and kicking the snot out of them. And that’s pretty cool.
    Bode’s got the U.S. wins record and the team has as many podiums to this point of the season than the record mark set in a 1982 chart spike. That value — podiums before February — has not decreased since 2000. Say what you will, these are heady days for the U.S. Ski Team. That’s eight years of steady, improving performance, and that has never even been approached before. Canada, too, is gathering her strength and giving the Europeans a run.
    Austria is still the undisputed leader in the sport, but they have gained 17 downhill top-six results to date. Canada has 12; the U.S. has 14. That is being competitive.
    I had worried new technologies were taking some indefinable element from the sport. After this season I’m convinced they have not and will not. Racers still have to race, and because of the sheer array of elements involved in ski racing that means risk, putting it further out on the edge than your competitor. Kitzbühel’s Streif has been spitting out competitors since LXVIII was a I so we should not be shocked when she spits out more. As long as that element of danger remains, downhill will be intact. The other disciplines are not as susceptible to serious bodily harm, but they are not immune to it either as I’m sure Resi Stiegler would attest. Ski racing is an art and at the top levels, these who do it tell me, the mental aspect needs to be exactly as strong as the body and skills.
    That said, the men’s super G at Kitzbühel had a nice little thought twist to it. The podium, if you kick out the younger of the two guys who tied for third, was the oldest ever. But there were a couple of younger North American guys who took advantage of what they had available. Robbie Dixon moved from 43rd to sixth, Marco Sullivan from 52nd to 10th. The course conditions had changed from the downhill training and neither of these guys has a ton of experience at Kitzbühel; it was the first time Dixon had seen the course. Embracing technology they watched the long list of racers ahead of them ski the course on a live television feed at the top. They saw where their competitors and friends had troubles and so knew what to expect where. A new generation finds a better way to attack a race course.
    Like I say, there are many life lessons a ski racer learns through the sport. Our guys and gals are not only learning them, they are in the best sense of the word, teaching.
    So why not use their classroom?
    This is a good way for us, as a worldwide community, to grow up.
    Alexandr Horoshilov, you successfully negotiated the Streif and even got combined points. Welcome to the McThoughts All-Name Team.

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About the Author: Pete Rugh