Speed jumps: Why fast skis matter, and how the U.S. team got 'em

By Published On: September 30th, 2003Comments Off on Speed jumps: Why fast skis matter, and how the U.S. team got 'em

Speed jumps: Why fast skis matter, and how the U.S. team got ’emFast skis are the stuff of myths, lore and superstition. Seemingly the products of black magic, fast skis inexplicably materialize, and just as mysteriously disappear once their karma has been exhausted. But while magical, elusive and (for most of us) nearly impossible to obtain, fast skis definitely exist and most certainly matter.

Take, for just one example, a women’s World Cup super G last year in Innsbruck, Austria. The racer who finished 29th was less than two seconds behind the winner. In last year’s world championship giant slalom race at St. Moritz, Switzerland, only 0.04 seconds separated the gold medal from the bronze. In speed events at St. Moritz, as in those at Beaver Creek, Colorado — at both venues, the top portion of the course is flatter than Kansas — the outcomes of races are largely determined in the first 30 seconds, even before racers break out of their tucks.

So it’s no wonder that the search for fast skis consumes many dollars and endless hours of labor. Many racers wouldn’t think twice if offered a Faustian arrangement guaranteeing the fastest skis on the circuit. “Damn Austrians” could well be the ski racing sequel to “Damn Yankees.”

Fast skis are not just the subjects of fantasy. Last year’s World Cup overall and downhill winner, Austrian Stephan Eberharter, used just one pair of downhill skis all season. Daron Rahlves, the American skier who was the runner-up in the 2003 downhill standings, hit the mother lode of fast skis when he won back to back races at Kvitfjell, Norway, in March of 2000 and proceeded to race on those skis until they were reduced to hairy shreds several years later. U.S. speed star Doug Lewis jealously guarded his bronze medal skis from the 1985 World Championships at Bormio, Italy. Bill Johnson’s “Red Sleds,” on which he won the 1984 Olympic gold medal in downhill at Sarajevo, were legendary. And Johnny Spillane skated to a gold medal on a pair of secret-weapon skis at last year’s world championships (see story, below). As Rahlves says, “You just pray to get those skis that are rocket ships.”

Prayer may help, but racers and tech reps will be the first to admit that the pilot is the primary key to success, followed by the hours of preparation that go into every pair of skis before they even hit the downhill track. Nonetheless, the quest for the fastest skis is a year-round endeavor, involving untold hours of base preparation, waxing, more waxing, testing, testing and more testing.

NOT CREATED EQUAL

Tom Parks, Fischer USA’s director of alpine competition promotion, noted that all skis are not created equal. And this is true even with skis from the same manufacturer. “The base material comes in rolls and then is cut to fit the skis,” explained Parks. “Despite coming from the same company and being made of the same material, some rolls are faster than others.”

Other factors affecting the speed of a particular pair of skis are hard to identify. “Maybe there are differences in the wood,” offered Rahlves.

“The wood core is common to all speed skis,” Parks said, “but the types of wood will differ, composites will differ, along with the density of the metal layering. All these factors will affect speed.”

Once the ski is assembled, the factory test teams identify the fastest skis on multiple trips down the speed track and, according to Parks, “If the three ingredients of base, grind and service preparation come together, you’ll get the magic skis that go like an SOB.”

Not just any Hans Mogul can waltz into the manufacturing plant and pull out a pair of factory tested speed skis. Willi Wiltz, longtime USST serviceman and now Rahlves’ private technician, said, “No one is going to get the best skis until the world knows who you are. If you’re not in the top 10, you’re a piece of s—.” In fact, getting fast skis involves overcoming a persistent “Catch-22” problem — you can’t get fast skis unless you are the best and you can’t be the best without fast skis.

Over the past few years, U.S. racers such as Rahlves (Atomic), Bode Miller (Rossignol), and Kirsten Clark (Fischer) have let the world know just who they are by achieving international rankings in the top five. And to the victors go the spoils — the key to the kingdom of hand-picked skis. And to the remainder of the U.S. team go their high-speed hand-me-downs.

It was not ever thus. As recently as 2000, Rahlves called the chances of getting fast skis “a crap shoot,” and he still bristles at what he considers a slight by the Atomic test team at the 2003 world championship super G, when nationalism trumped altruism. Rahlves is convinced that the test teams withheld information that the older skis with thin edges, which Eberharter and Hermann Maier rode to gold and silver, were running the fastest. “It’s tough; they want Austria to be good,” Rahlves said. “But I’m now getting good support, and they’re treating Willi well.”

FAST SKIS FOR TEAM USA

This turn-around in the support by the manufacturers did not come by chance or by rankings alone. After years of inconsistent service and, at times, strained relationships with the factories, the USST took the initiative.

“After the 1998 Olympics the U.S. team took over service responsibility,” said Alan Ashley, vice president of athletics for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. “We made the commitment to provide our servicemen more opportunity to go to the factories and establish relationships; we allotted more time and resources for testing; we hired personnel to help coordinate service from the factories.”

And to further boost the U.S. effort, money still talks. “The Austrians used to be taken care of first,” said Eduardo Guzman, race director for Atomic USA, “but now there is an awareness of taking care of other markets, and the U.S. market is so influential around the world.”

In the case of Rahlves, being number two in the world in downhill also helps. He gets second pick behind the top-ranked Eberharter. After the Atomic test team identified a number of fast skis, Wiltz made the trip to Altenmark, Austria, and hand picked 16 pairs of downhill skis and nearly as many pairs for super G. “I looked through tons of skis,” said Wiltz. “I’m mainly checking flex and consistency of the base. We’ll test these skis against those from last year, which we know ran well.”

And then the real work begins. Wiltz brings the skis back to his home in California and starts compiling layer upon layer of conditioning wax to each pair of skis, which Wiltz affectionately calls “layers of love.”

“Each ski has its own personality,” Wiltz said. “The base has to become shiny with no bumps or hairs, and then it’s time for Daron to ski the piss out of them. The ski has to get broken down a bit by skiing on it for two or three days, and then — BOOM — they take off and then you can tell the difference.”

‘SKIING IN’ THE SPEED

That happened this summer in New Zealand, over the course of the last three weeks of August. Said Rahlves, “Now I’ll free ski and put on the miles. I can’t wait. Willi will set up a glide track and monitor all the variables like timed sections of training. It’s not really a science, just a lot of hard work. I get to know each pair of skis and get psyched when I see the numbers. I know they’re going to run.”

In a change from the previous four seasons, Wiltz and the private technicians for Bode Miller and Kirsten Clark will now be paid by the factories instead of the USST. That’s good news for the athletes, provided they are able to maintain the servicemen who have been so instrumental in their success. Said Rahlves, “They offered me a factory serviceman, but I told them I wanted Willi and that’s the way it’s going to be. Willi works his heart out for me.”

Speaking on behalf of the USST, Ashley said, “This move
will give them (the servicemen) more access to the factory and their test teams. This is an awesome commitment and will bring the greatest visibility for the skis.”

Rahlves has every intention of doing his part to that end. “We want to be the best in the world.” He paused and then added, “I just love to see that shiny, black base — fast skis rule the world.”

International relations: Key to fast nordic skis

The U.S. Ski Team turned the nordic world upside down at the FIS Nordic World Championships in February of 2003 at Val di Fiemme, Italy. Kris Freeman finished fourth in the 15km classic, nearly matching Bill Koch’s third-place finish in 1983, the best-ever world championship result for an American cross-country skier. And then Carl Swenson, 32, scorched the 50km freestyle track to place fifth.

But the Yanks still had one more bullet, and this one was golden. Johnny Spillane came from fourth after the jumping portion of the nordic combined sprint to blister the cross country track and win the first-ever nordic world championship gold for the U.S. team.

Did this have anything to do with fast skis? As they say in the upper Midwest, the cradle of U.S. nordic skiing, You betcha.

“The role of fast skis has gone higher and higher,” said U.S. nordic director Luke Bodensteiner. “Johnny made up time on the leaders on every downhill. You could just see the speed of the skis.”

On the eve of the combined sprint — in a cloak-and-dagger scene right out of a B movie –the Fischer rep came to the Americans with a new pair of cross-country skis. They looked like any other skis but, according to Bodensteiner, the tech rep told him he would never see a faster pair. There’s always some risk in racing on untested skis, but the U.S. team technicians had established good relationships with Fischer and had complete trust.

The techs spent many late-night hours prepping the skis, and by the time Spillane clicked into them the following morning, he knew he was on something special. “It was awesome,” he said. “Everything just came together — I was feeling good and I knew my skis were like rockets.”

The surge in U.S. nordic results actually began about three years ago when the combined technician at the time, Rob Powers, brought the combined and cross-country team technicians and coaches together to work in harmony. “We doubled our resources,” said Bodensteiner. “We can’t match the 40 technicians that travel with the Norwegian team, but we had seven techs at the world’s — more than double what we’ve had in the past.”

Spillane explained that while raw downhill speed is important, it’s not the first priority for the U.S. team technicians when they’re in Europe picking out skis to be tested during the summer. “Flex is most important — how it feels on the snow,” he said. “Then the glide (speed) would be the next priority, which is largely determined by the grind, and finally the wax. The textures are so dialed in, waxing is pretty uniform, but getting the right grind is the tough part.”

Bodensteiner was not particularly surprised to see the Fischer rep at the waxroom door bearing gifts for Spillane. “At the world championships we were on the top of the list with Fischer,” said Bodensteiner. “It doesn’t matter where you’re from, but where you finish. Cross-country ski manufacturers are very international. It’s all about relationships.”

With diplomats such as Freeman, Swenson and Spillane leading the way, there’s no doubt the U.S. team’s international relations will continue to improve.

— Bill McCollom

Bill Johnson and the legend of the Red Sleds

The brash, cocky American Bill Johnson was coming off a season, 1982-83, in which he won the Europa Cup downhill title. This boded well for 1983-84, a season that would include the Olympics in Sarajevo.

In prepping a new quiver of Atomic skis for the season, Johnson’s technician, Blake Lewis, knew he had hit gold. The skis just seemed to ooze speed. In testing against a known fast pair of skis from the previous season, Lewis identified the fastest of this group, but it wasn’t until the Wengen World Cup race in January 1984 that the Red Sleds — the nickname given the skis by Atomic — really took off.

“I was given a new wax from Toko, which nobody else was willing to try,” said Lewis, “but I thought I’d give it a shot — it couldn’t hurt. The rest is history.” Johnson went on to win the Wengen race despite a mistake at the bottom. “I was hassled by the Europeans, but I never told them how I mixed the wax,” said Lewis, as the season progressed and Johnson continued to rack up wins, becoming the favorite for gold in the Olympic downhill.

The course at Sarajevo was tailor-made for Johnson and his Red Sleds. Gliding was at a premium over the moderate terrain and Johnson was the glide master. His teammate, Doug Lewis, noted, “Bill’s skis were fast — one second faster than anyone else on a 10-second test track — but Bill had an incredible touch. He seemed to feather his way down in order to carry speed. And he was mentally strong.”

With the skis kept in a locked room to guard against sabotage, Lewis knew the conditions were optimal. Just as he had throughout training, with the gold medal on the line Johnson flattened his skis on the snow to the point that they were swimming, gathered speed and hung on. Thundering over the bottom flats and jumps, Johnson almost caught edges twice at the bottom of the course, but stopped the clock just ahead of Peter Mueller from Switzerland to take the gold medal.

To this day Lewis, is mum about his secret combination of wax and base prep. As for the Red Sleds, they were junked after delaminating the following year.

— Bill McCollom

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About the Author: Pete Rugh