McThoughts: In winter’s wake

Mr. GS collects the small globe by the skin of his teeth at World Cup Finals. GEPA/Wolfgang Grebien

Riding out the 2013-2014 season

Daylight Savings Time and sub-zero temperatures should not co-habitate. It’s just not right. Just one more sign the season is too long. Folks get injured late in the season. They’re too tired and the focus wanes.

“My motivation is just totally sapped; I’m beat up physically and pretty over it mentally,” said Ted Ligety at Nationals, where Tim Jitloff didn’t just dust him, he buried him. All due respect, Jit, but how does that make sense?

Thirty-plus World Cup races a season is a lot to endure. Especially if the big bonus checks aren’t coming in for winning races. Thirty different people won races last season in 78 races (between men and women). A total of 2,265 skiers finished in the top 30 of a Cup race without a winner’s paycheck.

The pre-season was chock full of promise, not the least of which came from Bode Miller’s camp. Every top-10 he delivered (and there were 13 of them, including the Olympics) was so appreciated. The kid from New Hampshire is now fully loaded into the role of dad, yet has never lost the international following. And, he closed the season by suggesting he’s open to sticking around for the 2018 Olympics, when he would be 41. Makes us smile thinking about the rate of records falling.

And Bode is just one quarter of the Big Four in American ski racing. Lindsey Vonn’s ill-fated comeback from injury was a sad and possibly unnecessary hit, but Ted Ligety added Olympic gold to support the Mr. GS moniker that accompanies the target on his back…

This is just a preview. Read all of “McThoughts” in Issue 11 of the digital magazine here.