A First

Yesterday was a first for American ski racing: I was able to watch the Beaver Creek World Cup live on television. Not online through some shady website pulling in a live feed of Eurosport, not through universalsports.com's season pass access, but on an actual television on an actual channel when it was actually happening, all in the USA.

This is a big deal. One of the most common questions I get when I am working with kids on an ITA project is how people can watch me. Specifically, what channel. It can be a bit hard to explain the significance of the sport to someone who is used to every other relevant sport being available at any time on almost every channel. Directing someone to a pay-per-view or a European gambling site doesn't exactly grow a viewer base, so just the ability to know that someone might actually stumble upon ski racing yesterday is comforting. I would have done just about anything to have been on the other side of the lens yesterday, but standing and screaming at the television made me feel a  lot closer to the sport than I have in the last couple of months. Let's hope this type of thing continues.

Where's Nate Silver When We Need Him?

Last week, the election for Alpine athlete representative to the USSA Board of Directors got underway. Since declaring on this site that I was running for the position, the election for the seat has gotten a few nods from the ski blogs and the ski community at large. Hard Snow Life was the first blog to add its two cents into the discussion, followed by an Op-Ed on Alpine Press by former NCAA Champion, Dartmouth grad, and ex-World Cup skier Roger "Primetime" Brown. I also started a Facebook fan page to help communicate why I am running and provide an arena to demonstrate support for these ideas. The response has exceeded my wildest expectations. It's great to see that fellow athletes and friends are equally passionate about solving these issues, and humbling that they think I might be useful in this cause.

Not to be left out, the incumbent, Scott Macartney, also responded with his own stump speech about his decision to run for re-election. All in all, it's been a crazy two weeks.

I've been getting text or FB messages from some voters who said that they were endorsing my candidacy, but other than that I haven't seen any actual election results. The voting period runs until December 14th. This seems a bit long when you consider that only 145 athletes or so are eligible to vote (eligible voters include finishers in the top half of any US Nationals event in the last two years, those nominated to the USST in the last two years, and those nominated to a World Championships or OWG in the last ten years). Add in the fact that the voting is done via email, and it should be a relatively quick process. With the next board meeting in May, it's not mission critical that the votes get tallied immediately, but it's frustrating to have to wait over 4 weeks to find out the results of an election. (I hate waiting.)

I feel comfortable saying the decision to run has generated some more critical thinking about what needs to be done to better align the USSA/USST with the talent pool and resources that exists in United States alpine skiing. Like other sports,  alpine skiing requires a lifetime commitment in order to excel at the highest levels. But unlike other sports, alpine skiing requires a massive financial commitment,  forcing those involved with the sport on all levels to believe in the governing body's development structure, or at the very least accept it. The decisions from the USSA and USST have a direct effect on the livelihood and careers of these athletes, whether it's to raise the head tax on a USSA race or to lower the maximum age of B Team athletes. With a seat on the Board, the athlete representative has the unique opportunity to communicate to the powers that be exactly what is going on at the ground level, to explain the effects of decisions made in the past, and to provide context to ideas for success going forward. People in the ski community recognize this importance, and I believe this is the reason why the election has generated the response that it has.

I'll let you know what shakes out on the other side. I hope people are enjoying a great beginning to the ski season!

A Very Important Election

Obama and Romney got nothing on this. Earlier this month I got a blast email from the USSA informing me that the alpine athlete representative for their Board of Directors, and by extension the USSA's Athlete's Council, is up for election. After speaking with the current athlete rep, Scott Macartney, about the role in detail, I decided that this was an opportunity to directly communicate with my sport's national governing body I could not pass up.

I want to work with the USSA/USST to develop a more viable pathway for U.S. skiers who choose to ski at the collegiate level, not as an exit from our sport, but as a breeding ground towards a professional, World Cup-level ski racing career.

After submitting my application this afternoon I learned who would be voting for this nomination. It's a select voting pool – athletes/alumni as defined by the USOC having participated in an Olympic or World Championship competition within the last 10 years and they broadened the athlete definition to include the top 50% of the athletes who competed in the national championships within the last 24 months – making it fewer than 200 people in the sport of alpine.

As someone who spent a fair amount of time working in DC during summers to help fund my skiing, I learned a few things about elections. Chief among them, figure out who can vote for you before crafting a stance on an issue, not after. My DC employer would have flogged me for this. However, I am far less concerned about locking up the the undecided-single-female-Ohio vote than making sure I communicate why I believe this issue is so important to our sport. It felt good to write.

I have full confidence that there are plenty of capable candidates for this position, and each person will bring a different view of what changes would best benefit ski racers today (Scott indicated that he is actually running for re-election, and he couldn't have been more of a gentleman encouraging me to run). Competing full-time after college is something that I feel uniquely qualified to speak on, and is a growing trend in our sport; at least 14 athletes, men and women, competed in a World Cup in the last calendar year AND went to college before they got their first start. Many of these starts went to athletes from other countries. The USSA/USST needs to capitalize on this critical mass of skiers who are developing outside of the traditional European-based model of ski racer development, and use the multitude of college budgets and available training grounds of the 26 or so D-I programs to our advantage. Below is my nomination form which basically says the same in thing in a little greater detail. Elections are on November 12th, we'll see what happens!

Sölden

A week from today the Alpine World Cup season kicks off in Sölden, Austria. The opening weekend is always a festive one. I've trained a lot in the Ötz valley, and the days leading up to their date with the World Cup build like a crescendo with more media and sponsorship tents arriving every day leading up to the weekend.

This year the race is especially interesting because of the new rules mandating longer and skinnier skis for the athletes. It hasn't been since the mid 90s that people competed on skis with this long of a radius, and it has been an issue that has dominated discussion since the rule change was announce this time last year. But no amount of athlete protesting has changed the rules, and next week we will find if the changes will benefit a new type of skier, or if the best will maintain their spot at the top.

Here are a couple of pics to tide you and me over until the race. Viewing is available for Universal Sports on TV or online. Words cannot express how much I'd like to be over there gearing up for competition, but since that's not in the cards it's time to bring out the bullhorns and root for the USofA! Rip it up ladies and gents, I'll be screaming at you through my computer screen!

A look up the hill from the race finish last year. 

Coming off The Pitch and into the finish makes for a tiring run.

The USST yesterday after a training sesh on the hill. Fire it up!

Progress Report, Sponsorship Envy

Heading back to Vail for my 12-week post-op trip to the doctor’s office was a little bittersweet, as I could feel the early beginnings of the fall season in the mountains. The fall is always a great time to be in ski country, as each passing day brings a greater chance of the first snow. Knowing that I'll be missing any early tracks this fall bummed me out, but the mood quickly passed. I try to never dwell on things out of my control. Instead, I focused on getting my newest slate of rehab exercises from Thomas at Howard Head and continuing the healing process.

I was pleased to learn from my fitness testing that my recovering quad, while still measuring slightly smaller, is within 5% max strength of my non-recovering quad, as is my hamstring and hip flexors. I need to work on my gluteal, so I‘ll be doing one-legged butt blaster exercises to get my posterior nice and firm. 

This is the time in my recovery process when I can really start to focus on building muscle in a controlled situation, as the ligaments are structurally sound enough to withstand most non-lateral movement. If things go well then I will be cleared to ski in 12 more weeks, so hopefully rehab continues on its positive arc.

Finally, the hands down best place to eat in Vail is the Westside Cafe in West Vail. With a 24-hour breakfast menu serving the best huevos rancheros in the valley, it is a frequent post-training eating establishment for the ski racing community. Between double sessions of rehab I met up with my head coach, Peter Lange, to catch up on how things were going on both ends. This time, while waiting for a table, I happened to look over and see hanging on the wall a picture of ITA’s very own Sylvan Ellefson! Apparently Nordic skiers need to be fed too.

Almost every athlete at some time in his career has experienced some form of sponsorship envy and I’m no different, but this was different. I couldn't help picturing how sweet it must be to be hooked up by a restaurant, and a good one at that. Sylvan probably gets extra everything on his breakfast order. It probably comes out in 5 minutes or less. I bet the cooks come out to say hi. Maybe he even eats in the kitchen......there I go again. In all seriousness, it was very cool to see another ITA athlete getting support for what he/she is doing, and especially to Sylvan after working out with him last fall at Ski Club Vail, getting to know him, and then keeping in touch throughout the season as we both broke onto the World Cup scene. Must be the breakfast.

Moab!

Last week I had a little R&R in Moab, Utah before a wedding in Park City. It was great to get back to a place I haven't been since high school and to remember how amazing the scenery is. Here are a couple of shots from the trip.

View of the Green River in Canyonlands National Park

A quick look down before heading to the top of the mountain

Pride Rock!

A better view from the top

A little trip to The Windows in Arches National Park

A stop at In-N-Out for a great re-entry back into society. Double-double, fries, all animal style!

Olympic Awesomeness

For the first time in my life I watched the Summer Olympics. Not because I don't like the Summer Games, but because I've always been skiing in the summer hemisphere during this time of the year. In 2008 was able to catch the amazing men's 4x100 relay final while boarding a plane to Chile, but other than that I've never really absorbed the Games while training in other countries. In 2004 I was in New Zealand, and only saw events that New Zealand competed in. This meant I watched a ton of women's riflery and men's field hockey, and without wanting to disparage the hard work those athletes put in, I wasn't as enthusiastic about the games as I could have been. So this year, not heading down South for skiing any time soon, I got the chance to really watch the Olympics.

It was awesome. I was a total technology shutout for the last two weeks, meaning that every night I sat down at 8pm to watch Bob Costas bring me the highlights from the day. Every morning I would allow myself a trip to ESPN.com, but never after 10am as the events would begin unfolding across the pond. Maybe my favorite article about the Olympics was from Bill Simmons, in which he gave his account of Super Saturday, and described what it was like to witness Jessica Ennis win the heptathlon and secure a gold medal for the home team:

"In the last few months, I was fortunate enough to witness a Stanley Cup clincher, an NBA title clincher and a Super Bowl–clinching comeback — actually, that last one was unlucky (for me), but whatever — and this was louder than any of those events. Eighty thousand people crammed into one of those old-school, Rose Bowl–type stadiums, with just about everyone pulling for one person. After the race started, Ennis jogged by our side and my section basically morphed into one deafening "COMEONJESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!""

Reading that send chills up my spine, because it relays the type of atmosphere that can't be captured on the best HDTV in the world. What I saw on TV was pretty damn amazing but to be there must have been incredible. For myself, watching these Olympics couldn't have come at a better time. I loved every second of watching the Games and the experience gave me a huge shot of passion to heal up and get back to 100%.

Finally, a HUGE shootout the ITA athletes competed these last two weeks, Kristin Hedstrom, Sarah Groff, and Lea Davison. I caught two of you on TV, it way to show up!