Hujara: "Lucky" that coach's fall wasn't disastrous

nyone who saw – or will see in the future when it’s broadcast Dec. 10 by NBC — the television coverage of the downhill will see the body sliding across the course just in front of Bode Miller on his winning run down the Birds of Prey downhill course.
    For the TV audiences in particular, and Bode Miller fans even moreso, it was a scary moment. The person slid across just as the guys in the TV production truck switched cameras, and though that may not be the way the final cut comes out, that’s the way the crowd at the bottom saw the action on the Jumbotron: Bode’s on course going good, and then a body tumbles across the screen. Not a totally uncommon view for Miller fans, who have seen their share of their hero off course.
ANYONE WHO SAW — or will see in the future when it’s broadcast Dec. 10 by NBC — the televison coverage of the downhill will see the body sliding across the course just in front of Bode Miller on his winning run down the Birds of Prey downhill course.
    For the TV audiences in particular, and Bode Miller fans even moreso, it was a scary moment. The person slid across just as the guys in the TV production truck switched cameras, and though that may not be the way the final cut comes out, that’s the way the crowd at the bottom saw the action on the Jumbotron: Bode’s on course going good, and then a body tumbles across the screen. Not a totally uncommon view for Miller fans, who have seen their share of their hero off course.
    Then the real Bode Miller came into the center of the shot, skiing just fine, and somehow not losing his concentration. “As I was coming across the traverse out of the Talon Turn, I had kind of a rough transition and got pretty back and that’s a really key turn for me to set up for that whole pitch. And that was where the guy slipped out right as I was glancing in that direction.”
    Miller, knowing he had a good run going and believing the carcass would be out of the way by the time he got there, just kept going, and it’s good that he did, as he stormed to the victory to extend the American streak in the BOP downhill to three years.
    “We were very lucky today,” race referee and the FIS men’s tour boss Guenter Hujara told the team captains meeting assemblage. “You all saw what happened. Now you should understand why we are so strict with our accredidations.”
    A coach — Hujara said, “This was not a rookie coach” — was standing on a platform with a good vantage point above the course. He dropped his start list, and afraid it might blow onto the course and cause a distraction, jumped to get it. His boots did not gain purchase and the slide began.
    “It is a legal and insurance question,” Hujara said.
    To be on the course during a race, even coaches need an armband or a bib. They are all assigned through Hujara, and in one manner or another they are all signed for. A head coach for a larger team, Hujara said, will typically pick up a group of armbands depending on team size, and sign for them. That makes him — or her — responsible for the actions of anyone wearing their armbands. If someone without an armband causes a crash on a World Cup course, they are responsible for any legal costs, including lawsuits.
    “The armband says [the wearer] knows how to behave on a World Cup course,” Hujara said.
    Hujara says he does, in fact, have nightmares about on-course crashes. No matter how much preparation is done, accidents, he said, will happen. He recalled an accident with Russian Tatiana Lebedeva, who crashed in training for the World Championships with Herald Schoenhaar in 1996. “Schoenhaar was one of the greatest U.S. coaches ever. He knew what to do and what not to do. When Dorfmeister was involved in an accident last season, that course worker, he was a section leader.
    “Do you know how lucky we were with [T.J.] Lanning — [who crashed into the fences during the super combined downhill at Beaver Creek the day before the downhill]?” Hujara asked.
    Hujara said Lanning went over the first set of fencing, or B-netting, and was three meters up the four-meter high A-netting. His skis cut a swath three meters long. “He hit the net exactly where two sections met,” Hujara said, so it was double anchored with ropes.”
    “This is why I brought this up, used it, at the captains meeting. It shows that no matter how much you do, you can always need more,” Hujara said.