Sölden: World's best rarin' to attack the glacier

The World Cup ski season kicks off this weekend with the two reigning overall champions trying to repeat their winning ways and two former champions hoping to climb back to the top.
SÖLDEN, Austria — The World Cup ski season kicks off this weekend with the two reigning overall champions trying to repeat their winning ways and two former champions hoping to climb back to the top.
    Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway and Austria’s Nicole Hosp marked a changing of the guard when they won the men’s and women’s overall titles for the first time last season, and will seek to make an early statement in this weekend’s giant slalom races on the Rettenbach Glacier.
    Bode Miller, meanwhile, split from the U.S. ski team to go on his own in the hopes of recapturing the success he enjoyed in 2005 when he became the first American since Phil Mahre in 1983 to win the overall title. Just two victories shy of Mahre’s American record of 27, Miller is expected to surpass that mark this season.
    Similarly, Hermann Maier switched from the Austrian-owned Atomic company to Head skis, like Miller did last season. Atomic had been Maier’s brand since before his beginnings on the World Cup and was closely identified with the four-time overall and double Olympic champion.
    Maier, who was sidelined for 18 months after a motorcycle accident in 2001 nearly cost him a leg, has since struggled in the giant slalom because the twisty discipline puts pressure on his distorted shin. He plans to concentrate on the speed disciplines.
    “It had been a while since things stopped advancing,” said Maier, who last season had his worst World Cup campaign ever with just one podium result. “I’m hoping the switch will give new life to my career.”
    It is the 10th year the World Cup season kicks off on the Sölden glacier, with the next competition being slalom races in Levi, Finland, on Nov. 10.
    Svindal, a talented all-around skier, is in the hunt for a first career slalom win so he can join Miller, Kjetil Andre Aamodt, Marc Girardelli, Guenther Mader and Pirmin Zurbriggen as the only men to have posted World Cup wins in all five alpine disciplines.
    The Norwegian will keep a close eye on 2006 overall champion Benjamin Raich, who lost last season’s title to Svindal by just 13 points, as well as Didier Cuche, who finished third.
    Miller, fourth overall last season, can never be counted out as a contender. This summer, the 30-year-old American increased his efforts in the technical events.
    On the women’s side, Austria's women are expected to dominate as they did last season when they posted 23 victories and 54 podium finishes from 38 races, and took all five discipline titles.
    Hosp, who clinched the overall in the final race, will find a tough rival in teammate Marlies Schild, who won seven of eight slalom races last season.
    Anja Paerson is determined to reclaim the title she won in 2004 and 2005. Last season, the Swede struggled to return from knee surgery but ended the season by sweeping three World Championships gold medals at home in Are. She will revert her focus on the technical events.
    “I want to make sure I’m not slipping behind in slalom and giant slalom,” said Paerson, who won both speed events at the worlds. “With my knee injury, I fell behind a little bit and now I want to come back and close the gap. In the last years, it’s been coming better and better in the speed disciplines. But I don’t want to end up just in the speed disciplines. I want to be up there in the technical events, too.”
    Americans Julia Mancuso and Lindsey Vonn — who gave up the surname Kildow when she married former U.S. teammate Thomas Vonn last month — are also strong contenders.
    Mancuso tied for the overall lead in early March and remained in the running until the finals in Lenzerheide. Vonn was a double silver medalist at the worlds and also climbed the World Cup podium eight times.