The World Cup According to Grande: The Olympics are over, what happens now?
The Olympics are over, what do the skiers do now?
First, congratulations to all the medal winners over the past few weeks. It was exciting to watch and anticipate and react. For me it was great to see the athletes I had known for so long and worked with for 7 years, come up big with the biggest haul of alpine medals ever. And to have Sports Illustrated delivered to my door and see Andrew, Lindsey, Bode and Julia on the cover sporting their medals, it just made me so proud to know them. But now what happens? Lindsey has a few globes to lock up. The ladies hit the road to Crans Montana, SUI and compete in Super Kombi, Downhill and Super G. Lindsey has the SG globe locked up with a 220 point lead over Fabienne Suter (SUI) with 2 races left. There are 2 DH races left and Lindsey leads that race too with a 129 point lead. It will be very difficult for Maria Riesch to overtake her unless Lindsey doesn’t finish races. And even if that happens, Maria needs a 2nd and a 3rd or better with 2 DNFs from Linds to take the globe away. Lindsey should also be able to take down the Kombi and Overall globes this year. So, arrival day is March 2nd in Crans-Montana and today is the 28th of February. That is an overnight flight to Zurich or Munich and a drive to the Sion area so I would think they need to get on their way. I would also think they have to go into Munich so they can come out of Munich to come home for Nationals at Lake Placid. They need to drop-off cars at Audi. They are finishing up the season in Garmisch, just 45 minutes or so from Munich.
The Men need to get to Norway by March 3rd so I am sure they are well on their way too. When the GS finally comes around at the Finals, Ted Ligety will be wearing the red leader’s bib and will be trying to secure his second GS globe in 3 seasons. The scoring scenarios are many with a few guys in the running. I ran through a few of them prior to the Olympics in the blog entitled, “The World Cup Season as it Stands.” They will also head to Garmisch, then Ingolstadt (Audi Headquarters) and Munich. Someone will likely have to take the cargo van to the storage garage in the Innsbruck area to drop off all the gates, spin bikes, etc. for summer storage. Then to Munich for one last pizza at Il Mistero in Hallbermoos near the airport or one more Grill Teller at the Weihenstephan Brewery in Freising and of course a beer to wash it down from the “Oldest Brewery in the World.” Then it’s a night in the comfy beds at the Moevenpick near the airport and on the plane. The World Cup Finals end on the 14th, they will fly out on the 15th and maybe even pick up the NorAm Finals in Vermont and New Hampshire. If not, they could have an extra day to do the Audi drop-off and storage chores. They do not need to be in Lake Placid until the 18th so it might be nice to grab a breather, make sure everything is organized, and fly out on the 16th. Either way, buttoning up the program in the spring in Europe is usually an understaffed puzzle to put together.
So I promised those of you who read yesterday’s blog that I would tell a story about post Olympic travel. As Torino 2006 was coming to a close, we were scheduled to go to Korea and Japan for 4 tech races. Two GS starts in Yong Pyong, South Korea and two slalom starts in Shiga-Kogen, Japan. So we were trying to figure out how to save money on luggage as our luggage allowance on the direct flights to Korea from Munich was very small. And at the time we had a very good relationship with United Airlines in general but even more so with Munich Station. At any rate, the big problem was that United only could fly to Seoul from Munich THROUGH the USA. And on the back-end of the Asia tour, the Finals were in Are, Sweden, far to the north near Ostersund. It is not athletically sound to send the athletes around the globe that direction and most of the staff needed to accompany them, etc. So the chore fell to me and one other traveling companion, to escort some 28 bags on United. We got in the cargo and left the Olympic Village in Sestriere after the night slalom, at about 11 PM. We arrived in Munich at 5 AM and began getting ready for check-in. The Itinerary read: Munich, Chicago, San Francisco (a short overnight), Tokyo, Seoul…Grand Hyatt in Seoul, 6 hour bus ride to Yong Pyong, 2 GS races, 6 hour bus ride back to Seoul, fly Tokyo, 5 hour ride to Shiga-Kogen, some training and 2 slalom races. A bus back to Tokyo, overnight there. And now this was the fun part. I had to complete my round trip to Munich and add a round-trip to Ostersund. So I flew BACK along the same route to Munich. Then to Stockholm (had to change terminals there with 28 bags) and on to Ostersund. After Finals I did nab a direct flight to Seattle from Copenhagen and then up to Anchorage for Nationals.
It was not a lot of fun, but it did yield a GS win for Ted in Yong Pyong on a tremendous, late afternoon come-back on a course that I had set. It was Ted’s first World Cup win. As well, it gave me 100k status on United which gave me the opportunity to fly first class and business class for about a year and a half. The win and the upgrades made the trip well worth it.
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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
