Behind globes’ glare, trouble with U.S. Ski Team?

Taking stock at the end of the World Cup season, three things stand out glaringly.
First is the glare from the globes won by Lindsey Vonn, Bode Miller and Ted Ligety, along with many other standout performances to remember as we wait for October again.
The other two things that stand out are more ominous, and they call into question what is happening behind the scenes on the U.S. Ski Team heading into a pre-Olympic, not to mention a World Championship, season in 2009.
In spite of World Cup globes and a promise of more focused support of athletic programs, the team is losing long-term coaches and cutting proven talent.
Not one, but both head coaches announced their retirement from the U.S. Ski Team. Phil McNichol, who had been with the team for 11 years, and Patrick Riml, who had been with the team for eight years, said they would leave their posts as head men’s and women’s coaches.
Already, the men’s position has been filled by six-year veteran Sasha Rearick, who was promoted from his post as the men’s technical coach (it should be mentioned that Rearick stepped into the position last year after Mike Morin decided to leave).
Nothing has been announced about who will replace Riml.
Coincidentally, Bode Miller’s head coach, John McBride, also left, leaving Miller with a staffing issue of his own.
A coach leaving implies instability. The rapid rate at which coaches seem to be filing out the U.S. Ski Team door is disconcerting and it makes one wonder what is going on behind the scenes.
That the team has decided to hire internally is a good sign, though. It will mean less turmoil for the athletes headed into an important season, and it’s sensible to bring along the talent you develop (too bad this doesn’t apply to the young athletes the ski team is in the process of cutting right now — we’ll address that in a minute).
Though it may well be coincidence that the two head coaches and various other staff decided to leave, I can’t help recall a conversation I had not long ago with U.S. Ski Team CEO Bill Marolt.
Over the phone from his office in Park City, he explained that we could “expect to see smaller teams as the Olympics approach.” He said the downsizing will allow the team to focus its program on the athletes it believes will win medals in Vancouver.
That brings us to the third glaring object: the ruthless cutting of the U.S. Ski Team’s proven talent.
Already, the downsizing is happening. Sources say the U.S. Ski Team is expected to cut eight currently funded men from the team before next season. Similar cuts will be made on the women’s side.
Before this year, the team handed bad news to nearly a dozen U.S. Ski Team athletes: Their funding would be cut. So, they banded together and raised money on their own so they could finish the season that was already months under way.
It’s not certain, but one can’t help but wonder if coaches are leaving, at least in part, because of the changes the team has and will continue to impose on its athletes.
Maybe it just doesn’t jibe with the coaches.
Maybe it’s been difficult for the coaches to relate directly to the athletes on the edge of getting cut for good. Maybe it went against a philosophy of athlete development they believed in.
Behind the glory of globes won by a few U.S. athletes, the future of the team seems unstable.

Globes galore

It all came down to the wire at the finals in Bormio. Americans Lindsey Vonn, Bode Miller and Ted Ligety each had to continue the fight they began in late October to capture World Cup glory.
They all succeeded.
For Miller, it was his second overall title, for Vonn it was the first, and Ligety (who put down one of the most exciting performances of the year) held off Austria’s Ben Raich to win the giant slalom globe.
It all seems a bit surreal. If we turn the clock back a year, only Miller had clinched a title. Ligety was eighth in giant slalom, Vonn was sixth overall and third in both downhill and super-G, while Julia Mancuso finished third in the overall and second in downhill and combined.
This year the story is much, much brighter.


Ligety’s glory

Ligety started the season with a spark, finishing second at Soelden, but then he went under the radar. It wasn’t until Kranjska Gora, the second-to-last race of the season, that he pulled out a win on the twisty Podkoren course, which Raich normally dominates.
Going into the last race at Bormio, Ligety held a slim lead over Raich.
“Going into the race, I was a little nervous, having only a 27-point lead on Raich,” Ligety said. “It was not very comfortable at all, being as strong of an athlete as he is.”
After the first run at the finals, Ligety was in seventh place, three-tenths behind Raich. He knew he would have to risk everything on the second run.
“I was actually relieved that I had to throw it all on the line in the second run,” he said. “Coming down, when I crossed the finish line seven-tenths ahead, I was stoked but I was also super-nervous, because I knew I had to wait a couple of guys before Raich came down.”
Ligety’s run was flawless. Where others stivoted (a combination of steering and pivoting the skis at same time), Ligety arced and moved through the course, generating speed and shaving off the line. He held a lead through the first two splits, then skied the bottom section flawlessly and crossed the line seven-tenths ahead of everyone else.
Raich needed to beat Ligety by two places to take the title away, but he could not match Ligety’s speed on the bottom section and crossed the line in second place.
“The title’s huge. It’s sweet to have it, especially in GS,” Ligety said. “GS, in my mind, is the event that is a gauge for everything else. If you’re good at GS, you can translate those skills. Bode’s done that, Raich has done that and other guys have done that.
“To win the last two races is pretty crazy,” Ligety added. “I thought I lost it halfway through the year, and to come back and have a couple of clutch races is pretty surreal.
“It definitely beats out my Olympic gold, for sure.”


Miller time

Miller’s overall win on the World Cup this year was spectacular, especially considering he did it on his own.
Though Miller said he didn’t accomplish as much as he wanted to (he wanted to win the downhill, super-G and giant slalom titles as well), he admitted feeling good about the title.
“I think the overall title represents a whole season of work. You don’t win it by chance; it’s always the best guy over the season. I think it’s a great achievement. There’s a lot of guys who ski well out there. I’m definitely excited about that.”
One reason he was reserved about the win was that the downhill race at the finals was canceled because of poor conditions.
“The finals were really kind of a letdown for a lot of people,” Miller said. “The downhill obviously was shaping up to look really positive and a really cool finish for the season. To get that canceled, it hit everyone.
“For me, I came in here and I knew I had to do a couple of things and I would win the overall. I didn’t do much, but I did enough.”
Shortly after the finals were over, John McBride, his head coach, announced he will not return to Miller’s Team America next season. In fact, the only coach on board for sure is Forest Carey. What Miller will end up doing will be interesting to watch. He’s hinted at not skiing next year, but given his momentum this year, that is unlikely. Some speculate he will try to work things out with the U.S. Ski Team, as both would profit — literally — from a reunion. Miller would be able to pocket the cash he would need to spend to run his own show (in the ballpark of $900,000) and the U.S. Ski Team would be able to demand more cash from sponsors headed into the Vancouver Olympics.


Vonn’s first title

Locked in a tight race for the overall title headed into the finals, Lindsey Vonn fended off last year’s overall winner, Nicole Hosp, and Germany’s Maria Riesch to take her first overall title.
She is the second American woman in history to pull it off. The first was Tamara McKinney, in 1983.
After dominating World Cup downhills all year and winning the title in that event, Vonn pulled out her best super-G result in over a year to eliminate Austria’s Nicole Hosp from overall contention at the finals in Bormio.
The next day, in giant slalom, she secured the overall globe by winning the second run and placing seventh overall — her second-best finish ever in the event.
“It’s pretty amazing. To have done something that only one person in history has done is a dream come true,” Vonn said. “I’ve been dreaming of this title since I met Picabo (Street), but it really hasn’t set in quite yet.”
Throughout the season, Vonn, who is just 23, said she was not concentrating on the overall title. Instead, she was targeting the downhill globe. After it became apparent she would win that title, and since she was able to rack up so many points with all her wins, she found herself in a position to win it all.
An idol can inspire other young skier to success, Vonn said: “I think it helps bring younger kids up when they have someone to look up to and have a role model and someone who’s succeeding in the sport.”
Vonn hoped to reach the heights that Street once did because, as she put it, “Picabo just dominated downhill and brought attention to ski racing.”
She hopes her success in ski racing will make an impression on young athletes.
“That is what our generation is doing now,” Vonn said: “Inspiring the young kids that are coming up to want to ski-race and to want to go out there and ski.”