Robbins Nest: Aerials coach flips over Bond flick

The new double-oh-seven (doppel-null-sieben?) film, Casino Royale, scores a double thumbs-up from U.S. aerials head coach (and card-carrying James Bond aficionado) Matt Christiansen. “It’s the best yet … by a long ways,” he said. “I’ve seen all the movies, got all the DVDs and this one has ’em all beaten big time. And so does Daniel Craig; he’s the best Bond, and I never thought I’d say that.” (He denies his previous favorite was George Lazenby.)

THE NEW DOUBLE-OH-SEVEN (doppel-null-sieben?) film, Casino Royale, scores a double thumbs-up from U.S. aerials head coach (and card-carrying James Bond aficionado) Matt Christiansen. “It’s the best yet … by a long ways,” he said. “I’ve seen all the movies, got all the DVDs and this one has ’em all beaten big time. And so does Daniel Craig; he’s the best Bond, and I never thought I’d say that.” (He denies his previous favorite was George Lazenby.)
    So, when U.S. aerialists — just two of ’em (Ryan St. Onge, Speedy Peterson) — arrived in China this week as the freestyle World Cup looks to get rebooted after the flying stop in Australia over Labor Day, Christiansen conceded he may do some Christmas shopping once the events are completed this weekend. “Yeah, I’ve got all the Bond DVDs … got ’em in China for 70 cents apiece,” he laughed.

The ongoing snow drought in central Europe is causing more changes in direction than your basic slalom course. Even cross-country races have been smacked and they have been held almost unfailingly despite low-snow, no-snow situations elsewhere. Until now.
    Apart from the unsuccessful attempt to relocate a pair of alpine super combined events to Colorado’s Beaver Creek or Aspen resorts, Exhibit A: Organizers in Italy’s Val d’Aosta, one of the more energetic in promoting their cross-country races each winter, put out a press release one day to say the World Cups sprint Dec. 8 in the Old Town section of Aosta and distance races Dec. 10 on a 2.5 km track in Cogne were “confirmed” by the appropriate organizers, authorities, officials and supporters. The next day came word the races had been scrubbed because of a lack of snow. U.S. skiers cut short their pre-Christmas World Cup swing and returned to the USA. Coach Pete Vordenberg said one appealing option: jump into the SuperTour races this weekend in Sun Valley, Idaho.

The official criminal investigation is over, Finnish authorities said this week, but Finnish anti-doping officials are continue to look into a bag fond in a roadside garbage container and containing hypodermic needles, tubes, vials and other potential doping items. It was found outside Kuusamo after the Nordic Opening weekend Nov. 24-26 where cross-country, jumping and nordic combined World Cup events were held. Blood tests and urine samples were taken during the weekend, officials said, along with DNA samples. “Everything points to a kind of cocktail that one can’t really use anywhere else except in sports,” commission chairman Timo Seppala told The Associated Press. Finland is still feeling repercussions from the doping scandal at the 2001 World Championships in Lahti plus another athlete banned in 2003 for doping.

Still on cross-country, Amy and Charlie Gunn — longtime citizen racers in the East — also know their way around alpine boards. So, when they headed to Colorado after Thanksgiving to attend a wedding, they caught two days of racing at the VISA Birds of Prey clambake, saw sometime neighbor Bode Miller (“We buy our carrots at Bode’s farm,” she said) win the downhill, made the wedding in Boulder and spent Sunday skiing at Keystone. And that’s when Amy turned from mild-mannered reporter to possible assassin.
    As they skied down a run at Keystone, she claims, a squirrel became disoriented “or something” as she bore down on him. Gunn kept her skis pointed forward, the four-legger collided with one of ’em and last was seen on its back on the track, quivering and shaking while Gunn made for the exit. “I … I … I don’t know what happened,” she said, looking downhearted when she found out famed mouthpiece Johnnie Cochran — too flamboyant and hey-look-at-me to be one of the Skiing Cochrans — wasn’t available to defend her because he’s still dead.

As for the Skiing Cochrans, there was a mini-family reunion (1972 Olympic slalom queen Barbara Ann wasn’t there) at Beaver Creek over the weekend. Jimmy (Bob’s son), Roger Brown (Marilyn’s son), Tim Kelley (Lindy’s son) raced in the slalom; it was Tim’s introduction to the World Cup and Roger’s third race, while Jimmy was 22nd amid the carnage from a second slalom run that caused eight DNFs.
    Jessica Kelley, Tim’s older sister and a B team skier, helped bring in Dad by jumping on the ’Net and booking a cheaper plane ticket when he found out Friday night Tim would be making his World Cup debut Sunday. Mom, a coach with the Mount Mansfield (Vt.) Ski and Snowboard Club (“Robby, my youngest, moved to the Mount Mansfield program last year, so I was alone,” Lindy reasoned, “and what better thing to do than go coach” — and still be in the mountains environment), already was in Colorado. She had been with the club team several days at Nakiska in the Canadian Rockies, then flew down to see Jess race in Aspen the previous weekend. Marilyn, too antsy to simply stand and watch, spent two days shoveling a
nd volunteering as a gatekeeper. Jessica, who had her best World Cup finish in Aspen and then won two Chevy Super Series NorAm giant slaloms at Winter Park, and the adults finally reconvened Monday at O’Hare in Chicago and all flew back to Vermont together.

And does Lindy Kelley, watching son Tim’s first World Cup race, remember her first World Cup? “Oh yeah. I was 16 or 17 and it was in Val d’Isere. I had to go to Montreal and fly alone to France. I was nervous. I was crying. And I got there and I hid in my room. They spoke French! I didn’t know French, so I stayed in my room. … December 1970.” A different world. She and Marilyn and Barbara Ann skied together on the World Cup over the next five years — “off and on,” more on as the years went along. There are lots of twosomes, brothers and sisters, but has anyone got another example of three members of the same family competing together on the World Cup? )And it was four at the 1974 World Championships because Bob raced, too.)

Thought for the nanosecond: Flannel sheets make any podium for Christmas gifts.