The World Cup According to Grande: Giuliano Razzoli, Mens Olympic Slalom Champion
Ted Ligety posted on his Facebook page, “I may not have had the best Olympics ever, but I at least I won as many medals as the Austrian Men’s Alpine Team.” I know Ted is making light of his situation and he needs to re-focus on the rest of the World Cup season so he can take home the Globe from Garmisch for his second GS title! But it also says volumes about the Austrian program and where they might be. And how nervous the guys are going to be. Hans Pum, Alpine Director, Toni Giger, Head Men’s Coach. These guys are under the gun. They moved a bunch of coaches to the Women’s side last year, and dumped some more altogether and they got nothing out of it from the Olympics. Even the vaunted slalom team came up short. I actually cannot believe that the Austrian machine got a grand total of ZERO men’s alpine medals. What could it be? Bad coaching? Bad atmosphere? Bad planning? Is it really bad? Do you evaluate your success as a program on one 3 week period in the middle of February? My answer is no, you do not. But you need to tweak your program for the next time around. You need to change up the way you train going in, and the starts you make prior to the BIG event. But further, if you fire everyone after a tough performance, who will remain to remember to change next time? And to adjust the program and to convince people who don’t recall? And to change and to be persuasive enough to make changes? Crisis usually causes an organization to change. My opinion is not to change staff, but to allow and encourage that same staff to change the way they operate. The Austrian program needs to analyze itself based on Olympic performance and World Cup performance (they have definitely fallen off on the high-end there too) but it only means they need to look inside themselves and figure out how to get better. Massive changes in staffing will take you nowhere.
Today, Giuliano Razzoli won the slalom Gold medal. He also won in Croatia this year. This type of hill is right in his wheelhouse. He is pretty big, VERY clean and lacks some fundamentals. So when the snow softens a little and the hills are flatter, he can compete for the win. He has very clean initiations and can win a lot of races. If he works on his upper body discipline and likely some core strength, he will be fast all of the time. I was telling someone today at home at Mission Ridge, I watched him ski a lot over the last few years and I would kind of blow him off in my head as someone who could not make the top 30 flip. But then, after a while, I started to see very smooth turns. And he did not look very fast. He was not going wild trying to ski fast. He looked slow. But he kept creeping into the flip. Then he was in the teens, then the top 15….and on and on. And now he is the Olympic Champion in slalom. One other cool thing about “Ratzo” is that he is not from the Alps Regions. He is from the Appenino Region. It is south of Parma, near La Spezia and Pisa. He can draw more attention from the Italian people into ski racing. This was Tomba’s special draw. Ratzo is not Tomba, but he can galvanize the different regions in Italy into being Italian ski racing fans. For now, I salute you, Giuliano Razzoli, Olympic Slalom Champion. Ivica Kostelic was second and Andre Mhyrer was third. Congratulations to them as well.
The Americans were shut-out again today in the tech events and I can tell you it feels bad when you are unable to contribute to the cause. It was a wonderful show and I give a big shout-out to all of them, the medalists and everyone else. The Sports Illustrated cover of the alpine medalists was especially touching for me. I felt happy, and proud, to have worked with them, to have known them for so long, and to see them grow into what they have become. They are very strong and strong-willed, hard working people. Congratulations to Bode, Lindsey, Julia and Andrew. Good luck the rest of the way as you hit the skies again to Kvitfjell, NOR and Crans Montana, SUI. Girls, please say hi to Chris Poletis when in Crans. He is one of us. And on they go from there to World Cup Finals in Garmisch; which sometimes is like being home when you have some time to go to the US Army base there and the Edelweiss. Those who do not make finals will be at Nor Am Finals in Waterville Valley, NH and Burke, VT and then to Nationals in Lake Placid. There is a travel story in here but it will have to wait until Monday as it deserves a day all its own.
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Greg “Grande” Needell grew up ski racing at Stratton Mountain,
Vermont. After graduating from SMS he skied for NCAA Division 1 St.
Lawrence University in Canton, NY where he was co-captain in 1986. Greg
returned to SMS to coach there for five years serving as the Head
Women’s Coach as well as the Head J2 Men’s Coach. He then moved to
Mission Ridge in Wenatchee, Washington in 1992 to become the Program
Director and Head Coach of the Mission Ridge Ski Club. In 1997, Greg
became the Head Coach at Mammoth Mountain, California.
In 2002 Needell was asked to join the U.S. Ski Team staff as a World
Cup SL and GS coach. From 2002 to 2008 Needell helped lead the U.S. Ski
Team Men to 43 wins, 105 podiums and 264 top ten finishes. Now at the
helm of Alpine Race Consulting, Needell offers his knowledge and
experience to clubs nationwide.
About the Author: Eric Williams
