SR's 40 YEARS TIMELINE

The Nov. 7, 2007, edition of Ski Racing chronicles the first 40 years of the publication's coverage of the snowsport world. Check out the issue for great moments and personalities in alpine, nordic, freestyle and more. Here, the staff at Ski Racing offers a more comprehensive version of the timeline that appears in the Nov. 7 edition.
    While not intended to be a complete picture of each season, the timeline offers a glimpse into the world of racing spanning a memorable 40 years. We start with the first edition of the magazine in October 1968, and we take you through the 2007 World Cup Finals and Bode Miller's split with the U.S. Ski Team. Where will the next 40 years take us?

THE NOV. 7, 2007, edition of Ski Racing chronicles the first 40 years of the publication's coverage of the snowsport world. Check out the issue for great moments and personalities in alpine, nordic, freestyle and more. Here, the staff at Ski Racing offers a more comprehensive version of the timeline that appears in the Nov. 7 edition. While not intended to be a complete picture of each season, the timeline offers a glimpse into the world of racing spanning a memorable 40 years. We start with the first edition of the magazine in October 1968, and we take you through the 2007 World Cup Finals and Bode Miller's split with the U.S. Ski Team. Where will the next 40 years take us? Enjoy the journey.

*NOTE: TIMELINE NOT REPRINTABLE WITHOUT PERMISSION OF SKI RACING MAGAZINE

1968
October       First Ski Racing is published in Denver, Colorado
November    First national women’s XC team announced
December    Bob Beattie resigns as alpine program director, effective April 1

1969
February        IOC President Avery Brundage: “To ski down a mountain is a sport, but it is not a major sport. To do it for six to eight months a year makes it a circus. Is this sport, or business?”
March              Bob Beattie: “In the end it will be the intensity and quality of local programs which will dictate the future of U.S. ski racing. More staff is needed at the divisional level to work in the area of development.”; Marilyn Cochran, 19, wins World Cup GS title without recording a race win
April            Avery Brundage calls for ban of skiing from Olympics and asks via FIS to have Jean-Claude Killy and Nancy Greene return Olympic medals — they do not

1970
February        Michel Bonzon dies of injuries sustained in Megeve downhill after striking snow fence support pole; At worlds, Billy Kidd gets bronze in slalom, fourth in DH, gold in combined, says will turn pro. Barb Cochran nabs silver in slalom, bronze in combined
March          Adrien Duvillard wins Lange Cup, beating Billy Kidd in the finals and earning $12,000 for what then is biggest pro payout in history
October         Marc Hodler and Avery Brundage reach agreement that keeps skiing in Olympics
December     Pros plan nine-race tour under Bob Beattie

1971    
March          Annemarie Proell and Gustavo Thoeni claim overall World Cups, Thoeni becoming the first Italian to do so

1972
April           Massive crowds attend first SIA show in Las Vegas
November    Colorado rejects Winter Olympics
December    Jean-Claude Killy makes pro debut with great fanfare and interest, but with slowest qualifying time he does not advance far; Italian Piero Gros wins first Cup race he enters but Austrian domination of downhill makes for rumors of “secret” skis

1973
January         U.S. competition budget slashed. Coaches Jimmie Heuga and Dan Craig released. Tom Kelly will take five — not 12 — girls to Europe, while Ron Sargent will coach on Can-Am circuit for both genders. Hank Tauber, assistant alpine director, retires before cuts are made. It is anticipated men’s teams will not complete a full World Cup schedule; Jean-Claude Killy gets first pro win at Mount Snow, Vermont
April           U.S. Ski Team is split from the USSA, to be administered under USSEF

1974
January        Cindy Nelson halts Annemarie Moser-Proell’s streak of 11 straight downhill wins at Grindelwald
October        Anders Haugen, 86, is presented with Olympic bronze medal 50 years after earning it at 1924 Games in ski jumping; Lake Placid, New York, wins right to host 1980 Olympic Winter Games

1975
January       Annemarie Moser-Proell wins three races in three days at Grindelwald — a World Cup record
February     Legendary coach Willy Schaeffler hospitalized after skier rams him skiing blindly off a lip. “Call the State Department and get me a permit to carry an anti-aircraft gun. Then I’m going to every ski area and shoot down those hotdoggers,” the 60-year-old says. He had undergone open heart surgery in October
March         Franz Klammer reports having received 483 fan letters in one day

1976
February     Bill Koch wins silver medal in Olympic 30 km won in record time by Soviet skier Serge Saveliev. Andy Mill gets America’s best men’s downhill result of the season in Olympics in sixth, with Franz Klammer getting the gold
April         Vladimir Spider Sabich dies of gunshot wound to stomach. Claudine Longet questioned, and a month later, she is charged with reckless manslaughter

1977
February    William Traeger named executive director of U.S. Ski Team; Klaus Klammer, Franz’ 18-year-old brother, is permanently paralyzed by downhill fall at Lienz, Austria. He had won the Austrian junior title two weeks previous
June        World Cup scoring overhauled, reverting to the original formula. Gate requirements for GS are changed to make event faster. Parallels and combineds are axed.

1978
February    North Americans sweep Kandahar as Ken Read wins downhill (with Dave Murray second) and Phil Mahre takes slalom
March     Phil Mahre winds up World Cup in second overall to Ingemar Stenmark, third in both GS and slalom
May        Bill Marolt to join U.S. Ski Team

1979
January    Alison Owen-Spencer wins first nordic World Cup race at Cable, Wisconsin
March     At Heavenly Valley, Ingemar Stenmark wins 10th straight GS, but Peter Luescher will win the World Cup overall; At Cup finale in Japan, Stenmark matches and beats Jean-Claude Killy’s mark of 12 wins by winning slalom and GS for 13. He sweeps entire season’s GS schedule

1980
January    Canadian Ken Read takes Kitzbühel
February    Ken Read wins Wengen; Leonhard Stock wins Olympic downhill gold, Steve Podborski gets bronze; Annemarie Moser-Proell finally gets an Olympic gold in downhill
May        Franz Weber wins speed event at Silverton, Colorado. Steve McKinney forced to leave before final event to compete in TV’s “Fittest of Them All” competition; NCAA drops ski jumping

1981
January    Hansi Hinterseer is mistakenly hauled out of his hotel room, cuffed and charged with rape and assault; Tamara McKinney gets U.S. women’s first win in two years with Haute Nendaz GS, while Steve Podborski takes Kitzbühel
February    Austrian federation officials decide they want Marc Girardelli to ski for them again. Helmut Girardelli says OK, if Austria refunds the costs of training for the last three years; Ingemar Stenmark wins Are GS for 62nd win in 121 starts
March     In a great week for the Americans, Phil Mahre beats Ingemar Stenmark in Aspen GS and Tamara McKinney wins GS in Aspen; In one of the great slalom races of all time, at Furano, Japan, Mahre’s first-run time holds up to best Bojan Krizaj and Stenmark
March     William Traeger resigns as national team executive director
October    Inverted aerials banned in United States

1982
February    U.S. claims five medals at alpine worlds, with Christin Cooper’s slalom silver, GS silver and combi bronze a U.S. record; Steve Mahre’s GS win is his first international GS win
April         Phil Mahre claims overall, combined, slalom and GS globes, Steve Podborski downhill; Bill Koch wins cross-country World Cup in a dramatic final race, while U.S. squad takes final relay
October    Galina Kulakova retires with 10 Olympic and seven World Championships medals
November    Scoring debut of super G

1983
February    Canada’s Todd Brooker wins Hahnenkamm: “It was a wild run,” he notes. Ken Read is third; Using no-wax skis, Bill Koch takes pre-Olympic 30 km
March     A second and two wins at Waterville propel Tamara McKinney to the overall Cup title; Franz Klammer wins unprecedented fifth DH crown
    
1984
January    Kerry Lynch wins (tie) first-ever nordic combined World Cup race after squabble over start procedure; Phil and Steve Mahre return to Parpan, but wear each other’s bibs. Steve is stripped of Cup slalom win. Ingemar Stenmark falls and Marc Girardelli collects his second career win, but he presents Steve with the trophy; Bill Johnson, catching edges and being thrown way off-course, wins the Lauberhorn at Wengen
February    Olympic gold medal for Deb Armstrong, silver for Christin Cooper in GS. Bill Johnson wins downhill gold. Jeff Hastings just misses bronze in 90 m jump, finishing fourth; Mahre twins take gold and silver in Olympic slalom
September    Harald Schoenhaar hired to replace Bill Marolt as alpine director. Marolt goes to University of Colorado as athletic director

1985
February    At world champs, Diann Roffe wins GS gold, Eva Twardokens silver, with Deb  Armstrong fourth
March        Franz Klammer announces retirement
May         A nine-member board of directors to govern the U.S. Ski Team; Cindy Nelson retires: “My memories are of the highlights, like the veteran of a war, you try to forget the hard times.”
October    World Cup XC splits season between skate and non-skate; Former Subaru exec Alan Ross takes U.S. Ski Team helm; Vail gets ’89 world champs on first ballot; Canadian XC star Reino Keski-Salmi dies in helicopter crash while fighting fires in British Columbian forest
November    Ski association director Howard Peterson named secretary general; Super G will be scored separately from GS

1986
March        Hilary Lindh wins world juniors downhill gold and national downhill gold; Aspen faces revolt as Peter Mueller and top three refuse to wear Subaru bibs, as they have vehicle sponsors. Broken wrist and controversy aside, Mueller aces Aspen, but Peter Wirnsberger places second, assuring at least a tie for the title
April        U.S. women’s coaching shakeup: Brad Ghent is gone, Erik Steinberg is gone, Bill Bourton is gone; Aldo Radamus, Max Ramey also leave national team women’s staff; Diana Golden wins four gold medals to lead U.S. romp at disabled Olympics
May        Chip Woods hired as women’s head coach
September     Bill Koch retires; Austria demands dismissal of Serge Lang from World Cup commission for “unforgivable insults”
November    Serge Lang resignation forced; 1992 Olympics awarded to Albertville, France

1987
January        Pirmin Zurbriggen takes Kandahar downhill at Garmisch. It is Tommy Moe’s first Cup race, placing 74th, six seconds out; Jure Franko strips to his underwear after making the final four of Beaver Creek pro race to call attention to a lack of sponsorship. It won’t help a bit. Jarle Halsnes and Jorge Seiler win
February    Ingemar Stenmark wins his 85th Cup race at Markstein
May        Marty Hall turns down U.S. nordic director
’s chair. Whole U.S. staff is asked to resign; Dr. Richard Steadman’s care list includes Bill Johnson, Kristi Terzian, Tracy McEwan, Hilary Lindh, Felix McGrath and Marc Girardelli; Freestyle training pool (for summer aerials) being built at Lake Placid

1988
February    Pirmin Zurbriggen wins dual with Peter Mueller for Olympic downhill at Nakiska; Eddie the Eagle lands in 38th, dead last, and celebrates
March        Harald Schoenhaar and Alan Ross are out, John McMurtry, John Bower and Howard Peterson are in
April        Willy Schaeffler dies at 72; Francis McKinney dies
May        Deb Armstrong will retire; USSA and U.S. Ski Team will merge, locate in Park City

1989
January     Mike Holland claims first U.S. World Cup jump win in Europe; Daniel Mahrer takes Hahnenkamm, narrowly, over Marc Girardelli, while Brian Stemmle suffers vicious fall; Vreni Schneider takes her 11th straight, moving past Annemarie Moser-Proell’s 10 straight mark
February     Prince Alfonso de Bourbon of Spain is killed skiing into a cable on a closed trail at Vail. He was a FIS Council member
May        U.S. coaching staff changes: Theo Nadig and Dave Gavett resign; Mike Holland retires

1990
January        Franck Piccard gets France’s first men’s downhill win in 20 years at Schladming; With just one career Cup point to his name, Richard Kroell wins Alta Badia GS
May        Michela Figini joins Maria Walliser in retirement
September    Brian Stemmle returns to win Pan-Am DH in Argentina: “Now that’s a great story”
October        Georg Capaul fired by John McMurtry, then rehired; Director McMurtry dismissed; Tamara McKinney makes retirement official
November    Steve McKinney dies when car he is sleeping in is struck by allegedly drunk driver

1991
January        Bill Hudson breaks shoulder, arm, rib, injures lung at Kitzbühel crashing over the fence at the Mausfalle; Kyle Rasmussen breaks collarbone at Kitz; Austrian Gernot Reinstadler killed at Wengen when legs gets hung up in nets; U.S. sent home when Gulf War erupts
April        Dennis Agee named to head alpine team
October        World Ranking List will replace FIS points for World Cup. Top 30 will score points on a 100-point scale; Bob Beattie struck while biking in France    

1992        
January     Franz Heinzer edges AJ Kitt for Hahnenkamm win. Heinzer also collects win in makeup race on Streif. Alberta Tomba wins slalom, but Paul Accola pads his tour lead with combined win
February    Patrick Ortlieb wins Olympic downhill at Albertville, Frank Piccard gets second. Megan Gerety crashes with Norwegian coach. Alberta Tomba collects GS gold and is the first to repeat. Pernilla Wiberg gets GS gold, Diann Roffe and Anita Wachter share silver
September    U.S. Skiing budget cuts hit $1.3 million; Snowboard merger nixed
October     First-ranked skiers on the scoring list will select their start number
December    Peter Wirnsberger II dies in freak race accident; Julie Parisien’s older brother, JP, dies in car crash

1993
January        Petra Kronberger, 23, announces retirement
February    Julie Parisien, Picabo Street collect silver medals in weather-ravaged worlds in Japan. AJ Kitt claims bronze. Kjetil Andre Aamodt awesome in collecting three medals. His best event, super G, is canceled; Bernhard Knauss tops $1 million in career earnings, earns world champ title
March        Chip Knight takes world juniors slalom crown
October        Mike Jacki, 10-year veteran of USA Gymnastics, named CEO of U.S. Skiing
November    Jack Benedict, former head of the disabled team, is tabbed to head cross-country program; Rob Boyd gets grief for a nude poster promoting Whistler area music festival
December    Burke Academy founder Warren Witherall stirs controversy with new book on technique, focusing on “suspension” and canting

1994
February    Ulrike Maier dies after sustaining a broken neck in a crash on the downhill course at Garmisch-Partenkirchheim, Germany; Hilary Lindh claims her first Cup win (and America’s 100th) in downhill at Sierra Nevada Spain; Tommy Moe wins Olympic downhill, leaving hometown Kjetil Aamodt with silver. Canadian Ed Podivinsky gets the bronze. Markus Wasmeier collects Germany’s first gold medal in skiing since 1936 by winning the super G, and Moe gets silver to become the first American male to medal twice in the same Games. Diann Roffe-Steinrotter, with no super G finish better than fourth to her name, starts first in the Olympic SG and then waits. No one beats her. Liz McIntyre gets her best-ever finish for the silver in moguls; Gretchen Fraser, America’s first alpine medal winner, dies
March        Melanie Turgeon skis to five World Junior Championships medals at Lake Placid; Tommy Moe gets his first World Cup win at Whistler, the first U.S. men’s super G Cup win; Disabled team earns 43 medals at Paralympics Games at Lillehammer
May        Sun Valley renames a trail “Picabo’s Street”; Mark Lampe named USSA chief financial officer; Austrian Herwig Demschar is named to head women’s alpine team. Tomas Karlsson to head men. Aldo Radamus will head men’s gate team squad

1995
January        Alberto Tomba collects third win in three days, matching Annemarie Moser-Proell’s record; Kyle Rasmussen wins the Lauberhorn at Wengen; Picabo Street wins at Cortina (after a second place the previous day); Trace Worthington wins both the combined and the aerials at LeRelais, Quebec
February    Dartmouth upsets Vermont at UVM’s own carnival to end a 23-year win streak; Greg Lyle and Ross Powers go 1-2 at FIS Snowboard World Cup at Breckenridge and make the cover of Ski Racing
September    Tim Leiweke signs to serve U.S. Skiing as CEO and president for six years, faces $2.4 million deficit. He was former president of Denver Nuggets NBA team. Mark Lampe named CFO; Salt Lake City win the bid to host the 2002 Winter Olympics after four tries, 29 years and millions of dollars; Ballet is cut from U.S. Ski Team budget
December    Picabo Street makes it six straight DH wins at Lake Louise after getting reprieve when a mediocre performance is nullified by a race cancellation; 18-year-old Todd Lodwick wins the opening event of the nordic combined World Cup in his hometown of Steamboat Springs

1996
January        Men’s moguls team sweeps the podium at Lake Placid, with Jonny Moseley collecting his first win, Jim Moran in second and Troy Benson third. Donna Weinbrecht notches a record-high woman’s tally for her 37th career win
February    Claudia Riegler becomes the second Kiwi ever to win a Cup race; Eric Bergoust sets all-time high score for aerials, 247.51, after barely qualifying; Todd Lodwick wins gold at world juniors
May        Tim Leiweke quits as president and CEO of U.S. Skiing in favor of the Los Angeles Kings NHL team
November    Jim McCarthy succeeds Nick Badami as U.S. Skiing chair; Bjorn Daehli passes Gunde Svan on all-time XC win list
December    Picabo Street lost for season after Vail training crash; Svetlana Gladishiva, Russian skier, charges from back of the pack to win super G at Vail: “I love Vail. I love the United States. I love you all. Now I think I will go have a little party.” Austrian Renate Goetschl, 21, crushes field for her first Cup downhill win

1997
January        Bernhard Knauss announces he will give up pro racing; Kari Traa is new moguls star with wins at Tremblant and Lake Placid; Donna Weinbrecht falls for just second time in career; SR founder Bill Tanler dies at age 67 near Sante Fe; Joe Pack gets his first aerials win
February    “Without his permission, Marc Girardelli’s body finally retired” — Steve Porino
        For first time in history, U.S. freestyle does not win a gold at world champs; “Queen of the Hill” reads SR cover as Hilary Lindh stuns the powers to win downhill at worlds; Rob Boyd retires, officially ending Crazy Canucks era
March        Hilary Lindh announces her retirement; Sarah Schleper nabs silver at world juniors; U.S. is ninth in Nations Cup
April        Paul Major resigns as USSA athletic director, head alpine coach Tomas Karlsson and tech coach Jesse Hunt do as well, Bill Egan bumped to head coach. Bruce Crane, technical services director, also retires; Carrie Sheinberg, cut from the team, wins national GS
May        Shannon Nobis dropped from team for skipping dryland camp; Alan Ashley picked to replace Paul Major, Aldo Radamus heads development program; New 21-member board to run restructured USSA
November    Hermann Maier wins at Park City for his third podium in three starts this season; Deb Compagnoni crushes field in women’s GS (third-largest margin in history) for her seventh straight GS win counting worlds; Iceland’s Kristinn Bjornsson raises eyebrows, coming in second to Thomas Stangassinger in Park City slalom
December    Austrians sweep five places on Birds of Prey as the course debuts as a World Cup alpine venue

1998
February     Kristina Koznick gets first Cup win in Are, Sweden, just before Olympics; Jonny Moseley unveils the 360-mute grab at Breckenridge in winning his third moguls comp of the season; Picabo Street claims Olympic gold in super G, 14 months after having knee ligament replaced. Moseley gets first U.S. gold of the Games in moguls. After a horrifying upside-down crash witnessed by millions of television viewers, Hermann Maier returns to win gold in SG … easily. Katja Seizinger wins downhill, becoming first to repeat the gold medal. Jean-Luc Cretier wins men’s downhill in a wild event. Niki Stone and Eric Bergoust sweep aerials gold. Bjorn Daehli claims record for Olympic gold (seven) and overall medals (11)
March        Guenther Mader, Thomas Stangassinger and Heidi Zurbriggen announce retirements; Mickey Cochran dies
October        SR cover reads: Farewell to the Great Alberto; USSA rewraps the NorAms as Super Series
November    Bode Miller eighth at Park City for best U.S. showing in GS in more than a decade; In an interview with SR’s Hank McKee, Bode Miller says after skiing on sidecut skis, “This is a joke. There is no doubt this is an unfair advantage”; Austrians sweep top five super G places at Aspen, and that’s with four Austrian crashes; The un-retired Thomas Stangassinger wins his ninth Cup slalom at Aspen
December    Austrian men sweep first nine places in Innsbruck super G, led by Hermann Maier

1999
January        Benjamin Raich bursts onto scene with slalom win at Schladming: “The greatest I have seen in my life,” says Toni Sailer
February    Lasse Kjus and Hermann Maier tie for gold in world champs super G at Beaver Creek. Alexandra Meissnitzer leads Austrian women’s sweep in women’s race, while 20,000 turn out at Vail to watch downhill. After a meticulous inspection, Maier wins downhill over Kjus and Kjetil Aamodt. Kjus scores a record five medals at worlds. Zali Steggall gets first gold medal for Australia in slalom, while Kalle Palander gets first gold for Finland in slalom; Americans win world junior nordic combined title (Bill Demong, Carl VanLoan, Jed Hinckley and Johnny Spillane)
November    Serge Lang, World Cup founder, dies Nov. 21 at age 79 of a heart attack at his home in Sternenberg, France: “Every ski racer has lost a friend in Serge Lang. Personally, I’ve lost a man who shared in our dreams, our tears and our victories for 25 years.” — Ken Read

2000          
January        Austrians Christian Mayer, Benjamin Raich and Hermann Maier sweep last race of the millennium in Saalbach’s giant slalom
February     Sarah Will wins gold in the women’s downhill at the World Disabled Championships in Anzere, Switzerland; 15-year-old Julia Mancuso wins overall and GS titles at the Super Series
November    Ski and snowboard competitors die in cable train disaster in Kaprun, Austria, including German World Cup freestyle skier Sandra Schmitt
December    Sarah Schleper nabs first World Cup podium in slalom; Men’s World Cup director Guenter Hujara says, “Think about it. There’s no other sporting circuit which brings together the 60 best athletes in a sport each weekend all winter”

2001
January        Justin Wadsworth has the best finish b
y a U.S. cross-country skier since 1984, finishing eighth in the 30 km at Soldier Hollow, Utah; Austrian skiers finish 1-2-3-4-5 in Wengen slalom; Daron Rahlves wins super G World Championships at St. Anton, Austria; Aerialist Matt Chojnacki announces his retirement, citing, “A lot of my decision has to do with the recent FIS ruling against quad somersaults in the World Cup and Olympics when obviously some of us are ready”
February    Austrian jumping head coach Alois Lipburger dies in car crash
March        Kirsten Clark wins first World Cup in downhill; Hannah Hardaway wins second straight U.S. moguls title; 40-year-old former Olympic downhill champion Bill Johnson is still in coma after a downhill fall in his comeback bid
April        Bjorn Daehlie of Norway, one of the top cross-country skiers in the history of the sport, announces his retirement; Bill Johnson emerges from coma
October     USSA chief Bill Marolt continues to stress that the team can win 10 medals at the Salt Lake Olympics. “Clearly it’s a stretch, yet achievable,” Marolt says.
November     French star Regine Cavagnoud killed in a downhill training accident
December    Nina Kemppel qualifies for fourth Olympic team, a record for a U.S. female cross-country racer

2002
January        Bode Miller wins Adelboden slalom by 1.92 seconds, the largest margin of victory in a slalom since 1995; Austria’s women alpiners are struggling as Americans Kristina Koznick and Sarah Schleper pile up top 10s in Maribor tech races. “We don’t know what’s wrong,” said Hans Pum, Austria’s alpine director; Hermann Maier concedes that he will not compete in the upcoming Olympics after nearly losing a leg in a summer motorcycle accident; Nina Kemppel wins record 18th U.S. cross-country title in Bozeman, Mont.; Austria’s Stephan Eberharter wins Hahnenkamm; American Bill Demong wins first World Cup nordic combined race in Liberec, Czech Republic.
February     Fritz Strobl wins Olympic DH gold, while 21-year-old Marco Sullivan leads U.S. racers in ninth. France’s Carole Montillet wins women’s DH, with Picabo Street 16th in final race of her career. Travis Mayer wins surprising silver in men’s moguls behind Finn Janne Lahtela. Shannon Bahrke wins silver in women’s moguls. Todd Lodwick posts best-ever finish for a U.S. man in combined sprint in seventh. American John Bauer places 12th in men’s 15 km XC race, the best finish by a U.S. skier since 1976. Bode Miller takes silver in combined, nearly overtaking Kjetil Andre Aamodt for gold with run Bill Marolt called “the best of the year, if not of all time.” Miller later adds a silver in the GS. Swiss Simon Ammann wins shocking double gold in jumping events.. Joe Pack takes silver in men’s aerials; Swedish great Pernilla Wiberg retires
March        Stephan Eberharter secures World Cup overall title in Kvitfjell; U.S. racers win record five medals at junior worlds, led by Julia Mancuso’s DH gold; Austria’s Michaela Dorfmeister wins World Cup overall title on home snow at Finals; DU wins third straight NCAA title; U.S. racers collect a staggering 43 medals at Paralympics; Todd Lodwick (sixth) and Bill Demong (10th) make U.S. history as first two U.S. men to finish top 10 in final WC nordic combined standings.
April     Jesse Hunt named USSA alpine director. Phil McNichol named U.S. head men’s alpine coach; Nina Kemppel retires with four Olympics under her belt and 19 U.S. cross-country titles;
October        Bode Miller to make $1 million thanks, in part, to his new contract with Rossignol; Alain Baxter, Britain’s first alpine Olympic medalist, loses an appeal to have his bronze medal from the Salt Lake Games reinstated
November    U.S. moguls world champ Ann Battelle announces retirement; Tommy Hilfiger announces its official sponsorship of the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team; FIS approves far-reaching punishment for competitors and their affiliates involved in doping
December    U.S. men’s speed team pulled off the best downhill result since Kitzbühel in 1972 with Daron Rahlves, Bode Miller and Marco Sullivan finishing in the top 10 at Beaver Creek    

2003
January        University of Mexico takes first overall title since 1992; Seven-time world champion snowboarder Craig Kelly killed, along with six others, in an avalanche outside of Revelstoke, British Columbia; Gretchen Domek, an All-American nordic skier from the University of Utah, wins a Rhodes Scholarship
February    Kris Freeman wins at inaugural U-23 cross-country championships in Valdidentro, Italy; Americans finish second behind Austria in the World Championships medal count with six, besting their goal of four
March    FIS announces that remnants of a banned drug were found in Finn cross-country racer Kaisa Varis’ blood samples and her worlds silver medalist relay team would be stripped of its medal; Croatia’s Janica Kostelic wins second overall title, Austria’s Stephan Eberharter wins downhill, super G and overall globes
April    Norwegian Bente Skari, one of the best women nordic skiers in the world, announces her retirement, citing lack in motivation
May    Ski Racing announces its move from newspaper format to glossy magazine; Two-time Olympic alpine racer Megan Gerety retires

2004
November    “After 20 years of racing, the time has come to say goodbye,” says Austrian alpine champion Stephan Eberharter
December    Bode Miller and Lindsey Kildow both score first World Cup downhill wins in Lake Louise, Canada; Miller writes in Ski Racing about dollars and sense of life on the World Cup: “If you look at the total number of people on the ski team in the last 25 years, and divide that by everyone’s total income — even including myself, Daron, Moe and Picabo — I bet you get an average of $20,000 to $25,000. There have been guys that could make a living out of it. But nothing that compares to any of the other professional sports out there. Especially considering the risks and the time commitment. The ratio is way, way off. If you look at what a typical B team ski racer is paid for what they do, it’s easy to conclude that it’s a terrible career.”

2005
January        Bode Miller joins exclusive club of skiers who have won in every discipline in a single season
March        Jeremy Bloom, with six straight World Cup wins, ties the marks set by Russia’s Sergei Shuletsov and U.S. Hall of Fame skier Donna Weinbrecht; Bode Miller clinches overall Word Cup title, first for a U.S. male since Phil Mahre in 1983
October        Six German racers ag
es 10-15 and three coaches are killed when the gondola they are riding in is struck by cargo dropped from a helicopter in Sölden, Austria; Rossignol and Dynastar move from Vermont to Park City, Utah; Jim Weinstein, one of the founders of SnowSports Industries America, dies at age 101

2006
January        Tina Maze and Jeremy Bloom top Ski Racing’s list of athletes with the most sex appeal; Lindsey Kildow takes World Cup downhill in Val d’Isere, France, and wins a cow
February    Ted Ligety surprises world, takes home gold in Olympic combined; Julia Mancuso wins Olympic gold in giant slalom
March        University of Colorado rumbles to first NCAA title since 1999; Todd Lodwick, the most successful U.S. nordic combined skier ever, retires    
July        Kristina Koznick retires
October        Marc Hodler, FIS president from 1951-88, dies at age 87: “I learned everything I know from him,” Gian Franco Kasper tells Ski Racing
November    IOC votes to allow skiercross, deny women’s ski jumping for the 2010 Winter Games
December    Modeled after cycling’s Tour de France, Tour de Ski boosts excitement on cross-country circuit; Steven Nyman gains career World Cup win No. 1, taming the Val Gardena downhill; Austrian men winless on alpine circuit through 11 races

2007
January        Honda signs on to sponsor The Ski Tour, a skiercross and skierpipe, made-for-TV series spearheaded by U.S. Ski Team trustee Kipp Nelson; Comeback kid Phil Mahre, 49, lowers points in bid to race at U.S. nationals in 2008; Kjetil Andre Aamodt retires as the leading Olympic and worlds medalist in alpine racing history; Virpi Kuitunen, Tobias Angerer claim inaugural Tour de Ski crowns; Jeret Peterson nails the Hurricane with a record score to win Deer Valley aerials, then repeats the next night
February    Anja Paerson wows the home fans at the Are alpine worlds, netting three golds, a bronze and team silver. Lindsey Kildow secures two silvers and Julia Mancuso manages one, but the strong U.S. men’s squad is shut out; Pioneering jumper, ski instructor Erich Windisch dies in Vail at age 89
March    Bill Demong wins a stunning silver medal in the individual event at the nordic combined World Championships in Sapporo. It is just the second medal ever by an American at worlds or Olympics; U.S. moguls stars Nate Roberts and Shannon Bahrke medal at freestyle worlds; In one of the most exciting alpine World Cup Finals ever, Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal and Austria’s Nicole Hosp clinch overall crystal globes in their final races. Bode Miller wins super G season title, while Julia Mancuso finishes third in the overall; Dartmouth wins NCAA title, ending 14 years of Western dominance; Stanley Hayer (skiercross) and Simon Dumont (skierpipe) win the overall titles in the first season of The Honda Ski Tour; Kirsten Clark, Thomas Grandi, Fritz Strobl, Janica Kostelic, Bruno Kernen among large group of retirees
April    Julia Mancuso and Bode Miller named SR’s U.S. Alpine Skiers of the Year, while Will Brandenburg and Leanne Smith are the top juniors; Former Ski Racing editor and publisher Don Metivier, 70, passes away in Glens Falls, New York; Tricia Worthington leaving USSA after 12 years at helm of financially successful foundation
May    Bode Miller forges into independent waters, splits from U.S. Ski Team
July    USSA breaks ground on $22.5 million Center of Excellence in Park City