Robbins Nest: Bahrke doesn't forget how to win

How exuberant, joyful and downright happy was “Sparky” Bahrke to snatch her first World Cup win in almost four years last Saturday at Mont Gabriel? So tickled she left her skis at the base lodge after the awards ceremony and doping control, and had to hustle back after dark to retrieve them.
HOW EXUBERANT, JOYFUL and downright happy was “Sparky” Bahrke to snatch her first World Cup win in almost four years last Saturday at Mont Gabriel? So tickled she left her skis at the base lodge after the awards ceremony and doping control, and had to hustle back after dark to retrieve them.
    She won by a hundredth of a point over Swedish veteran Sara Kjellin. “We’re sitting in doping control,” she laughed, “and I hadn’t seen the results, and when I did, it was ‘Oh my God, point-oh-one. All right. I’ll take it.’ Sara was laughing. She was stoked to be on the podium. We’re all happy for each other. We’re glad to have the season get going.”
    And what’s a season like without the spectre of Kari Traa, the highly decorated Norwegian mega-champion who dominated for several years before retiring last spring? “It was weird. It’s very different — we were all in separate hotels, but without Kari it was even more different. She was such a big part of the sport for so long.”
    Helluva way to start the week. Polly-Jo Clark, tireless director of the U.S. freestyle program, was checking her e-mails Monday as she waited in the predawn for the coffee to warm. Oops — e-mail from FIS freestyle director Joe Johnson saying the World Championships, originally set for Jan. 23-28 in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, became another casualty of the snow drought in mittel Europe. The championships were pushed back to March 8-11.
    By the end of the day, the Nature Valley Freestyle Challenge, originally ticketed for Lake Placid next week, had been shifted to Deer Valley as the back end of a day-night doubleheader Thursday at Bob Wheaton’s luxe playpen which hosted the 2002 Olympic freestyle contests and ’03 worlds …
    That ups the ante a bit for the Chevrolet Freestyle International, this week’s World Cup events at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, site of the 2002 Olympic freestyle competitions as well as the 2003 World Championships … and, of course, a regular World Cup stop for most of the past decade. And, the Nature Valley Challenge Jan. 18-20 in Lake Placid, which already is a reduced event, having passed along one of its two aerials contests to Deer Valley …

So, is Roger Brown the first World Cup skier to use the word “epiphany” in the finish area of a World Cup race? Let’s go to the tape from the slalom at the Visa Birds of Prey in Beaver Creek, Colorado, a month ago. Asked what he takes away from his third World Cup start, Brown, a Dartmouth graduate, replied: “I had a sort of epiphany in my slalom skiing a couple of weeks ago where I was watching guys like Jim [Cochran] and Ted [Ligety], and trying to ski like that — really angulated and my feet were a little wider, and I realized this is not the way I ski…”

Sad note: Ivar Formo, just 55 and one of Norway’s galaxy of Olympic and World Championships gold medalists, died after Christmas when he apparently fell through the ice a lake north of Oslo after — or possibly while — skiing. His body was recovered. Formo was the 50 km champion in 1976 in Seefeld, venue for the cross-country races above Innsbruck. Among his other successes in those pre-World Cup days: Olympic bronze in the 1972 Olympic 15 km in Sapporo, relay silver at the ’72 and ’76 Winter Games and relay bronze at the 1974 worlds in Falun and ’78 in Lahti.

Soundbites: Kaylin Richardson on her finish area reaction to her first World Cup top 10 — “I totally geeked out”…men’s alpine chief Phil McNichol on the slalom in rainy Adelboden — “I knew it was gonna be crummy when I was standing in the finish area before the race and I was under an umbrella”…Kris Freeman, after winning a classic technique race to open cross-country nationals and discussing the next day’s skate race: “This year, my skating’s been stronger than my classic.” (He snared his eighth U.S. title the next day by more than 45 seconds)…

Hall of Fame: The U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame is in Ishpeming, Michigan, not exactly Main Street USA. To get more mileage out of its inductions, hall president Tom West and Snowsport Industries America’s Dave Ingemie devised a plan to induct the Class of ’06 at the SIA clambake Jan. 24 in Las Vegas. The industry’s largest get-together will shine a big spotlight on the newest inductees: Olympic moguls champion Jonny Moseley, former World Cup multi-champ and aerials and combined world champion Trace Worthington, and ex-worlds slalom medalist Julie Parisien.

Hall of Shame: How could the Red Sox let Trot Nixon go like that? Yeah, he’s been injured but you don’t toss a warrior like that in the dustbin so cavalierly. Talk (which the Sawks certainly don’t) about family values…

Alpine women’s head coach Patrick Riml and wife Jodi called her Raina James (Raina from “queen” and James from Jodi’s dad); Riml stayed home through the holidays awaiting the arrival; Raina was born Saturday, Mom and golden child came home Sunday and Riml left Monday for Zauchensee, Austria, and this weekend’s races. “She came out crying and with a full head of hair — she’s got all of Patrick’s features … well, except for (his heavy beard),” Mom said. “She’s beautiful, of course, and she’s already holding her head up; she’s very strong. I think she may be a downhiller,” Mom laughed.

Baconquest ’07: Hopping onto the podium for great bacon is the Snow Park Restaurant at Utah’s Deer Valley Resort. Not only tasty by itself but in the grilled cheese samwich, too. And … AND, that’s genuine crispy bacon, not faux bacon, in the salad toppings. Double yum!…