World Cup Rewind: U.S. racers on top of the world

By Published On: March 17th, 2008Comments Off on World Cup Rewind: U.S. racers on top of the world


As history goes, the Alpine World Cup Finals in Bormio, Italy, were big. American skiers won a national record five World Cup titles, including both overall crowns. In the 41 years of World Cup competition having the same nation win both overall titles has happened nine times. The Swiss won three times in pretty quick succession in the mid 1980’s as three different women teamed with Pirmin Zurbriggen. The Austrians have accomplished the feat twice recently and once in the beginning of time with Gertrude Gabl and Karl Schranz in 1969. The tiny principality of Liechtenstein and the sister-brother act of Hanni and Andreas Wenzel took both titles in 1980. And now, the USA is on the list twice: 1983 and 2008.
    The class of 2008 did the ’83 team one better, adding three discipline titles instead of two. The rundown: Bode Miller won overall and combined. Lindsey Vonn won overall and downhill. Ted Ligety won giant slalom.
    It could easily have been more.
AS HISTORY GOES, the Alpine World Cup Finals in Bormio, Italy, were big. American skiers won a national record five World Cup titles, including both overall crowns. In the 41 years of World Cup competition having the same nation win both overall titles has happened nine times. The Swiss won three times in pretty quick succession in the mid 1980’s as three different women teamed with Pirmin Zurbriggen. The Austrians have accomplished the feat twice recently and once in the beginning of time with Gertrude Gabl and Karl Schranz in 1969. The tiny principality of Liechtenstein and the sister-brother act of Hanni and Andreas Wenzel took both titles in 1980. And now, the USA is on the list twice: 1983 and 2008.
    The class of 2008 did the ’83 team one better, adding three discipline titles instead of two. The rundown: Bode Miller won overall and combined. Lindsey Vonn won overall and downhill. Ted Ligety won giant slalom.
    It could easily have been more.
    Miller was morose to not get the last chance to also win the downhill title. That was the globe he was really chasing this season. He was five scant points behind with a race to go on a course he had already won on earlier in the season. But both (men’s and women’s) downhills at Bormio were canceled and he was robbed of the opportunity to showcase his formidable talents on a course he had absolutely owned in December.
    It was a long season — he skipped one race all year — of recovery and equipment experimentation. “He is picky, man,” said one member of Miller’s Team America who will remain unnamed. Once the downhill gear setup was right, Miller was unstoppable. After winning at Bormio he won Wengen and then Kitzbühel. He finished second in the official Hahnenkamm at Kitzbühel and managed seventh at Chamonix on a glider’s course and followed up with a second and first at Kvitfjell. He had gobbled up the point difference between himself and Didier Cuche in the standings lead and put his destiny in his own hands.     Or so he thought.
    Race organizers canceled the Bormio downhills quickly, mostly because there was no plan for alternatives, but the haste — the men’s race was canceled 15 minutes after its scheduled start — raised Miller’s ire. He won the generally more coveted overall trophy. He added six wins (three downhill, three combined) bringing his total to a U.S.-record 31 wins, eclipsing the previous mark of 25 set by Phil Mahre, and moved past Benjamin Raich to become the sixth-ranked World Cup race winner (among men) of all time this season. He won the combined trophy by employing tactics (read: not going all-out every run) and generally cemented his place among the greatest ski racers of all time. But he was bummed not to have won the one title he had set his sights on.
    By contrast, Lindsey Vonn could scarcely believe her good fortune, hard earned though it be.
    The two skiers started the season with the same goal: win the downhill title. Vonn won the opener at Lake Louise, and by the end of December she had four wins and a 100-point lead in the standings.
    She had won in horrendous conditions and perfect, using whichever pair of skis her rep put in front of her.
    With the downhill title wrapped at Whistler it became a chase for the overall title, one she hadn’t even considered a possibility early in the season and didn’t dare concern herself with until the DH title was in her pocket. When two gate races were canceled at Zwiesel the possibility began to sink in. “I had a pretty good lead, and then at Crans-Montana I definitely capitalized on that,” she said, reflecting her fifth DH win of the season and a third in combined. “But I was pretty nervous that Maria [Riesch] and Niki [Hosp] could catch up. When the downhill [at Bormio] was canceled I was definitely worried.”
She may have been worried but not much of anyone else was. “I skied well in the super G, which I hadn’t done all season and at that moment I thought it [the overall globe] was in my reach.”
    She finished second in the SG and in all likelihood could have skipped the final two races and still won the overall.
One who should have been worried was Didier Cuche. He won the downhill title when that race was canceled — the first for Switzerland since Franz Heinzer in 1993 — and could not have had a bigger lead in the SG standings without having that title collected as well.
    As undramatic as the DH title finishes were with the race cancellations, the men’s super-G was a statistical gold mine. Cuche needed to finish 15th or better and he could not be caught. He was 89 points ahead of Christoph Gruber and 99 ahead of Hannes Reichelt, meaning even if he didn’t finish, either Gruber or Reichelt would have to win. He hadn’t finished worse than 11th all season and no single man had won two super G’s so, statistically, the globe was in the delivery truck headed for his house.
    He did the tactic thing a little too well and Reichelt won the race. Three of the last four starters beat him, including teammate Daniel Albrecht who was radioed to hold back, and Cuche was pushed to 16th place, just out of the points in World Cup Finals. Reichelt won the race by a single hundredth of a second and the title by a single point in what will stand as the biggest come-from-behind title snare of all time.
    The women’s race went to Swiss Fabienne Suter. Like Reichelt, she became the only racer of her gender to win two super G’s this season, although in a testament to the closeness of the fight, her first win, at Sestriere, had been a tie. The real battle, though, was behind Suter. Vonn, thinking of the overall globe, skied without taking any risk, and was still second. Maria Riesch, fighting for the super G title, finished sixth and got her trophy. The other podium went to Alexandra Meissnitzer in her final career race. The 1999 overall champion had been injured in the downhill at Aspen in December and had not accomplished a podium finish all season.
    The GS was Ted Ligety’s time to shine and he did, though he provided plenty of reason for doubt.
    “I wouldn’t say I handled the pressure great first run. I just kind of skied a little too carefully," he said. He was in sixth, a half-second b
ehind first run leader Bode Miller who was taking revenge on the field with a balls to the wall attack. Ligety said being behind was probably to his advantage.
    “In the second run I knew I had to lay down the risk. I think I was in a pretty good position from the standpoint that I was behind and had to fight. If was ahead it would have been tough to stay ahead because I wouldn’t have had that same fight.”
    He followed his standard operating procedure and goofed around until he was shuffling into the starting gate, quoting “Flight of the Conchords,” with his physio and tech rep, keeping it childish, keeping it fun.
    And then it was all business and he launched the fastest second run of the day, took the lead and waited for the first-run leaders to take their shot.
    When they didn’t overtake him, he collected the crystal globe for the GS title, did the obligatory press meetings and photo shoots, then had his hair cut — for the first time in 16 months — into a mullet.
    The women’s slalom went to Marlies Schild over Veronika Zuzulova and Sarka Zahrobska with Hosp in fourth. That gave Schild her second straight SL crown.  
    Vonn, with the pressure finally punctured, had a blast, made the cut, and with a clean course put down the fastest second run of the day for 11th place. Those points put her well over the top for the overall title.
    On what would turn out to be the final day of competition, Manfred Moelgg finished sixth for a come-from-behind win of the men’s slalom title. Early season leader Jean-Baptiste Grange, who possessed a 120-point lead in late January, had a pox-filled second run and finished 16th — for no points. Winning the race was Reinfried Herbst while the rest of the podium came from late in the start order. Albrecht got second and World Junior champ Marcel Hirscher was third, for his second career Cup slalom podium in 12 starts.
    Of all the titles, women’s GS had been in the same hands since the beginning of the season making the final race at Bormio a mail-it-in affair. Denise Karbon had won five of the first six GS’s and iced the globe when the races at Zwiesel were blown off the face of the calendar. She coasted through the course at Bormio, finishing eighth (not insignificantly, a place behind Vonn) then kissed the globe and enjoyed the Italian limelight with slalom title winner Moelgg.
    Manfred’s sister Manuela was second in the race, sandwiched between Austrians Elisabeth Goergl and Kathrin Zettel.

The Globe count:
USA (5): men’s overall, GS and combined, Women’s overall and DH
ITA (2): Men’s SL and women’s GS
GER (2): women’s SG and combined
AUT (2): Men’s SG and women’s SL
SUI (1): men’s DH

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About the Author: Pete Rugh