McKee's McThoughts: Anybody up for a ski race?!

By Published On: November 8th, 2006Comments Off on McKee's McThoughts: Anybody up for a ski race?!

I don't know about other folks, but I'm jonesin' for some ski racing.
    We've had a few snowflakes in this part of Vermont and that seems to be the signal for the juices to start flowing. Sort of the reverse of the spring sap flow. I can read the signs. The snowblower is still stored in the shed, but the leaves are mostly down. The racing season must be real close.I DON'T KNOW about other folks, but I'm jonesin' for some ski racing.
    We've had a few snowflakes in this part of Vermont and that seems to be the signal for the juices to start flowing. Sort of the reverse of the spring sap flow. I can read the signs. The snowblower is still stored in the shed, but the leaves are mostly down. The racing season must be real close.
    It's an exciting time of season. I get through it by putting together some fantasy skiing leagues and clearing the computer decks to accept the coming season and all those detail things — not the snowblower though, some things are best left to the last minute — but until the racing starts there's a little annoying nibbling at the corner of the soul. Maybe I should sharpen my edges again, because Lord knows that early man-made snow can pack pretty hard.
    Having the World Cup races at Sölden canceled really didn't matter. The glacier races are scheduled so far in front of everything else they don't seem real anyway. Like the September freestyle events they have held in Australia, they signal something, but not the start of the season. The season gets going when it's back-to-back weekends with downhills and slaloms, super G's, GS's and combineds coming at you so fast you can hardly keep track.
    I want to know they're ripping through gates. I want to see some kid I never heard of is suddenly as fast as Anja Paerson. I want to get some damned adrenalin pumping.
    What I look forward to most is the emergence of new talent. As is the custom after an Olympic season, there have been some retirements. Even the venerable Austrian squad has had a few veterans hang up the racing boards. The Austrians' seven-woman gate team averages a shade over 21 years of age. That's amazing to me from a country where ski racing heroes are so revered. This team is the age of a college squad, likely younger than some. The U.S. women's gate group is just as young. I like that. It signals another turn of the wheel, the beginning of another cycle.
    And that is the essence of life. It comes, it goes, it changes. It's most often good.
    Like most things, the sport of ski racing faces some challenges. Melting glaciers for example. Scheduling which puts the World Championships in the middle of the season for another. But the cycle of it is as wondrous as any sport. Greatness can come from anywhere at any time. There's a parcel of potential greatness — young potential — out there more anxious than I to get it going. And I'm jonesin' for it. They got to be going crazy.
    The snowblower can stay parked in the shed until I need it. But for the sake of mental health, let's get the racing under way.


Senior editor Hank McKee hails from Duxbury, Vermont, a town, he says, with more dogs on the census than people. Look for McKee's McThoughts regularly on skiracing.com all season. Reach Hank via e-mail at hmckee@skiracing.com.

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About the Author: Pete Rugh