McKee's McThoughts: Gambling can be addictive

General rule of thumb: Be at least as protective of your athletes at World Championships as at World Cup.
    The field for the super G races was — doubtlessly — among the most talented and experienced ever.  Doesn’t matter, rule stands.
    In the only other sport to this knowledge as weather dependent as skiing — sailing — wind is good. Not so much for ski races.
    So good call on suspending the start of play a little while. Weather happens.
GENERAL RULE OF THUMB: Be at least as protective of your athletes at World Championships as at World Cup.
    The field for the super G races was — doubtlessly — among the most talented and experienced ever.  Doesn’t matter, rule stands.
    In the only other sport to this knowledge as weather dependent as skiing — sailing — wind is good. Not so much for ski races.
    So good call on suspending the start of play a little while. Weather happens.
    Add our thanks to the thanks that the Are course crews have publicly received from many of the athletes. Their thanks mean more than ours, but here it is anyway.
    One good thing about the three days of weather delays: we learned the Austrian guys kill time by playing Texas hold ’em. That’s the card game that inundates the cable channels. Poker is a great game, and thanks to the television coverage, it has been reborn. Reborn as solid basic poker without wildcards and weird house rules. How about that, television doing something good.
    But just McThink about playing poker with World Cup downhillers.
    Exactly! These are guys who know a bit about managing risk, guys who spend their days looking for the edge of their abilities. Wonder who bluffs most?
    What a good thing for Italy Patrick Staudacher winning the World Championship of super G was. The team is bankrupt, the coaches reportedly going without pay. The country is in an uproar over uncontrolled hooliganism and the death of a cop because of it. And perhaps the most unlikely guy, Staudacher, wins the title. Provides a reason to celebrate. Italy recently celebrated the soccer World Cup title, too,  so the Italians got that going for them. And then I get an e-mail video clip of an Italian police car and it’s a Lamborghini. I stopped feeling sorry for them. In this global age, it’s important to get a sense of what makes our neighbors tick.
    The Austrians did get a medal in the event, from the last guy to make the team. Seems the coaches know something about risk as well as the athletes. Wonder if they get to play poker, too. There were complaints about how the seeding of the super G works. Fritz Strobl, who started 20th and won the silver medal, said the draw wasn’t fair, adding “We are puppets of the FIS.”
    He might have that backward.
    Congratulations also to Anja Paerson. If you were a gentleman, Anja, we’d slap ya on the back and say something like: “You old war horse.” Then laugh and pump your hand enthusiastically. It’s probably better for you doing the gracious lady thing. You are something of a wonder, though. Thanks.
    Still unconvinced of global warming? Punching up the FIS site for results provides a list of 20 events encompassing 64 races. Forty-four of those races said either “cancelled” or “check changes.” That’s 68 percent. And we wonder why corporations are reluctant to invest in ski racing?
    Both the United States and Austria are using training runs for the downhill to select the men’s squads for these next races. In the first trainer for Austria, Gruber wins, Maier and Walchhofer are 4-5 and three racers looking for the last spot are 9-10-12, five-hundredths apart. Sounds like a coin flip to me. For the U.S. team, using the training to fill the final combined spot … Bode 26 … Sully 45, Lanning 46, Ligety 50 and Macartney 54. … Did we slip into a time warp here? Those sound like numbers from 1991.
    Did we have a USA House in 1991? Did they play poker there?