Schleper feeling good about down time

For the first time in 10 years on the U.S. Ski Team, Sarah Schleper is taking the winter off. Schleper, 27, tore her left ACL, MCL and meniscus last season in a crash during a giant slalom in Norway after the Torino Olympics, where she took the best result for U.S. women in slalom with a 10th-place finish. Following surgery in the spring, the Vail resident announced her intention to take a year off of racing.

FOR THE FIRST TIME in 10 years on the U.S. Ski Team, Sarah Schleper is taking the winter off.
    Schleper, 27, tore her left ACL, MCL and meniscus last season in a crash during a giant slalom in Norway after the Torino Olympics, where she took the best result for U.S. women in slalom with a 10th-place finish.
    Following surgery in the spring, the Vail resident announced her intention to take a year off of racing. As of this week, she hasn’t changed her mind. While the rest of the U.S. alpiners are at the height of their preseason training in Chile, Schleper is in Venice Beach, California, surfing, running on the beach and enjoying life.
    “It’s been kind of nice,” Schleper said Thursday. “My body appreciates not lifting and doing all that stuff.”
    Recovery is old hat to Schleper, who has suffered from back problems for the past six years and had surgery on her right leg after breaking it in 1999. She had two back surgeries last year, including one in November that knocked her out of the first leg of the World Cup season. But she bounced back six weeks after her operation to finish in the top 15 before entering her third Olympics. This season, however, the ski team veteran doesn’t want to rush any recuperating.
    “All the other stuff I pushed too much. I tried to get back too soon,” she said. “Right now, my knee feels good. My back feels good. Now that I can give it some time, I hope it mends up.”
    Schleper is living with teammate Lauren Ross, who is in a fresher stage of recovery following an accident in August while training in New Zealand, where she too tore ligaments in her knee.
    Schleper said she’ll probably stay in California for a few more weeks before heading home to Colorado and coaching at a Winter Park camp in November for Erich Sailer’s Buck Hill tech team.
    “I’m excited to coach a little bit,” Schleper said. “I’ll start training a little then, too.”
    The only racing Schleper sees on her near horizon is possibly at U.S. nationals in March, provided she has enough FIS points carry over from last season to qualify.
    “I’m just contested out right now,” she said.
    Otherwise, Schleper’s winter plans include a lot of freeskiing at Vail and possibly a family heli-ski trip to Canada with her father and brothers, who are all avid skiers.
    While she admitted it would be easy to extend the relaxed, no-commitment lifestyle beyond this season, Schleper said she plans to return to World Cup racing for 2007-08.
    “How else am I going to make a living? That’s what I wanted to do,” she said. “It’s either that or get a job. And I don’t want to do that.”