Winter 2010

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an Olympic rather than World Cup medal.
Historically, the U.S. has had limited success
on the forty or so World Cup races held each
year, but they show up come Games time.
Washington’s Debbie Armstrong never won
a World Cup race, but she won an Olympic
gold in 1984. The same year, Gresham,
Oregon resident Bill Johnson won his
downhill gold medal after only four career
World Cup starts, though one was a win. He
added two more victories that year and then
disappeared into the ether. In 2006, two
21-year-old Americans Ted Ligety and Julia
Mancuso won Olympic Gold medals having
never won a World Cup race.
What can you tell us about the downhill
event that doesn’t translate well to TV?
Even the most sophisticated, high-speed,
high-def cameras steal so much of the speed,
pitch and peril from downhill racing. To
stand on the sideline as a racer passes at 70
or 80 mph is a thunderous and breathtaking
experience that invariably makes me
wonder: What the hell was I ever thinking?
The killer is the panning camera. It takes a
skier traveling around 100 feet per second
and suspends him, almost static, in the
middle of your screen. It flattens pitches that
are frequently much steeper than your roof,
and washes out surfaces so hard the skis'
edges may penetrate as little as 5 millimeters
into its ice. That’s hanging by a thread when
you consider the forces can jump briefly
over 10 g's (or more than a ton for the
average-sized downhiller). On the upside,
today’s high-speed cameras do get closer to
the truth. They can slow down the action
to where you see a fully contracted thigh
bounced around like a bag of water, and
watch how rigid skis writhe over the snow.
What are your favorite places to ski? I find
it’s the moment more than the location that
makes the most lasting impressions. Like
the summer of 1988. We went to train in
Las Lenas, Argentina. We flew to the middle
of nowhere then drove another two hours.
Then we got 9 feet of snow in three days.
So the powder was ours and ours alone. As
with the people, there was also a wonderful
scarcity of boundaries, laws, and, frankly,
safety. That to me is the true mountain
experience. It means you can ski anywhere,
and whatever happens is both your
adventure and your fault. The arid snow of
the Andes stayed light for days. On day one, I
learned to do a backflip on skis. By day three,
it was a double back. We spent evenings
jumping from the hotel’s third story into the
snow … because no one stopped us.
For sheer ambiance, beauty and history, there
is no place like Wengen, Switzerland. You
take a 100-year-old cog railway to a little town
scribed into a mountain that faces the Eiger,
Mönch and Jungfrau. No cars are allowed.
Transport is by foot and, if you’re a kinder,
by sled. Restaurant pubs perched high on the
mountain stay open late, and they’ll gladly
rent you a sled to careen home on.
What are your expectations for the
US Ski Team for the Winter Olympics?
Miller is back. I don’t think he’s as potent
in all disciplines, but I have to imagine he’ll
be more disciplined with his nocturnal
choices. If so, he’s got medal potential in
four of five disciplines. He’ll be helped by
the distraction Lindsey Vonn will provide.
She will be America’s media darling going
into Vancouver. She was, without a doubt,
What holds my
interest is that
Miller only started
training in earnest in
September. He's going
to enter Vancouver
with a freshness he's
never experienced.
the best all around skier in the world last
year and is the best American female ever.
She is every bit as dominant as Miller was
in his prime, but more consistent. This is a
skier who has set a new standard, training
eight hours a day. After winning the
World Championship downhill last year in
France, she gracefully maneuvered through
interviews and appearances that lasted until
9 p.m. At that time, she turned to me and
politely excused herself. She had ninety
minutes of training to get in before bed. Ted
Ligety, gold medal winner in 2006, also has
the nerve for big races. If he continues the
momentum he’s shown in the last two years,
he’ll be a favorite in giant slalom and an
outside hope in slalom.
The flighty Julia Mancuso, the other
American gold medalist from 2006, is more
of a wild card. If she commits herself, she has
the talent for two medals.
There’s also a strong contingent of men on
the speed side: Marco Sullivan, Steve Nyman,
Scott Macartney (Bellevue, WA). All of them
have a chance at a medal.
What’s our medal count for alpine skiing
at the end of the Vancouver Winter
Olympics? I said this four years ago (and was
wrong) but will say it with greater conviction
now. This team has the highest medal
potential of any the U.S. has fielded. I’m
saying seven medals. The record is five from
1984. Vonn: two gold, one other. Miller: one
gold, one other. Ligety: one medal. Mancuso,
Sullivan, Nyman, Macartney are good for
number seven.
Who might surprise us on the podium in
Vancouver? One name you won’t hear much,
but should, is Carlo Janka of Switzerland.
He’s a young talent with absolute nerves of
steel. I first noticed his talent two years ago at
the Olympic venue. He was 21, and won the
second run of giant slalom.
Last year he won a few races under great
pressure. Bode Miller hooked a gate to
disqualify him from winning the combined
downhill/slalom at the 2006 Torino Olympics.
Will we see vintage Miller in Vancouver?
I don’t think we’ll see the vintage slalom
skiing Miller inspired us with in the early
2000s. I think we could see it everywhere
else. What holds my interest is that
Miller only started training in earnest in
September. He’s going to enter Vancouver
with a freshness he’s never experienced.
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