U.S. alpine men open gym doors to media

The U.S. Alpine Men’s Ski Team hosted the media July 9 at their new home, the Center of Excellence in Park City, Utah. Marco Sullivan, Erik Fisher and Andrew Weibrecht worked out on the gym floor as photographers filmed and snapped away. Following the workout Ted Ligety, Steven Nyman and Tim Jitloff, all working their way back from injuries, joined the group to be photographed and interviewed by representatives of the country’s media outlets.  Head coach Sasha Rearick was also on hand to offer his thoughts on the upcoming season. 

Of course, most of the focus was on the upcoming Vancouver Olympics and defending combined gold medalist Ligety, who has spent the summer rehabbing his right knee following an injury sustained at the U.S. Alpine Championships in March.
The U.S. Alpine Men’s Ski Team hosted the media July 9 at their new home, the Center of Excellence in Park City, Utah. Marco Sullivan, Erik Fisher and Andrew Weibrecht worked out on the gym floor as photographers filmed and snapped away. Following the workout Ted Ligety, Steven Nyman and Tim Jitloff, all working their way back from injuries, joined the group to be photographed and interviewed by representatives of the country’s media outlets.  Head coach Sasha Rearick was also on hand to offer his thoughts on the upcoming season. 

Of course, most of the focus was on the upcoming Vancouver Olympics and defending combined gold medalist Ligety, who has spent the summer rehabbing his right knee following an injury sustained at the U.S. Alpine Championships in March. Luckily the injury (damage to the medial collateral and posterior cruciate ligaments and some bone bruises) did not require surgery. 

Ligety was one of the first team members to take full advantage of the new center, which is located in his hometown. He wasted no time breaking in the building’s aquatic rehab area, which boasts an underwater treadmill, resistance pool and hot and cold recovery tubs.

“I’m slowly starting to be able to do the stuff I want to do,” said Ligety. “The last couple weeks I’ve been able to get more into the strength side of things, before I was just doing rehab. I can’t do hardcore jumps or anything, but it’s getting stronger for sure.”

Ligety will get his first bit of post-injury, on-snow training in New Zealand starting July 26, before late-summer camps with the team back in New Zealand and in Chile.

“My goals is to be able to start skiing gates by the end of the camps, and getting into it a little more,” said Ligety. “I think it’s going to be a big progression between the time I get on snow before I’m actually jumping and in gates and getting after it.”

Ligety also weighed in his recent pay cut, a whopping fifty percent slice handed down from his ski provider, French-based Rossignol.

“It’s tough, we all understand the crappy economic situation, but its kind of tough to swallow when they ask you to take that big of a cut,” said Ligety. “They just told us that otherwise they wouldn’t be able to go on as a company if we didn’t take these cuts.”

It has been reported that Ligety’s teammate Lindsey Vonn, who has ridden Rossignol skis to two consecutive World Cup overall tittles, has yet to renew her contract with the struggling ski maker through the Vancouver Games. Ligety himself considered a change in light of such an economic blow.

“I think had, I been healthy, I would have tested other skis, but we got the news late and I was injured so I couldn’t really do much about it,” said Ligety.  “After next year I’ll test skis and figure it out from there.”

Idaho native and founder of his own new online classifieds site Skodeo.com, Fisher was recently named to the USSA’s A squad, a step that ensures the 24-year-old full team funding and more favorable World Cup starting positions as he hopes to make his first Olympic team.

“Getting on the A-Team was definitely a big goal because it means I ended up top 30 in the world (downhill) and I’ll get better starting positions and more possibilities at making a run at the podium, so in that sense it’s a big deal,” said Fisher.

Fisher has turned to the new center to continue rehabbing the left knee he injured during the 2008 season.

“I’ve been trying to increase the strength in my bad leg, to get it caught up with my right knee, that’s a big goal,” said Fisher.

For head coach Rearick, it’s all about performing as a team.  He saw what he knew his squad was capable of last season in the Val Gardena downhill, in which five U.S. men finished in the top ten. “We’ve definitely gone back to that day and that time period to see what went right in our racing, training and recuperation scheduled,” said Rearick. “We’re going to try to recapture that kind of peak performance at the Olympics for sure.”

Rearick says the Whistler courses and predicted snow conditions are right up his guys’ alley. “It’s more of a true downhill course, it might not have the jumps these guys like but they will definitely be comfortable and be able to make a run at the podium,” he said.

Rearick added that an Olympic venue so close to home brings additional benefits and challenges. “We want our guys to feed off the presence of their families and friends, but we want to be careful and allow them to be able to get away from all the excitement and concentrate on what they are there to do.” The teams housing arraignments will offer both a family reception building and secluded lodging for the athletes to have the best chance to relax and prepare.