McKee's McThoughts: Of princes and blue-collar folk

The name rolls off the tongue and deserves addition to the McThoughts All-Name Team: Prince Hubertus Von Hohenlohe, Mexico's finest.
    Von Hohenlohe broke his leg and will miss the alpine World Championships. A shame he won’t be able to complete the cycle. His first World Championship was at Schladming 25 years ago.
    There are characters in all sports, those who feed the core of the sport with their presence. Skiing has its full share. Von Hohenlohe is one of those characters. His ski racing career has centered on World Championships and Olympic competitions. He's not the first and hopefully won't be the last to take that route. It takes perseverance and no small amount of change.

THE NAME ROLLS OFF the tongue and deserves addition to the McThoughts All-Name Team: Prince Hubertus Von Hohenlohe, Mexico's finest.
    Von Hohenlohe broke his leg and will miss the alpine World Championships. A shame he won’t be able to complete the cycle. His first World Championship was at Schladming 25 years ago.
    There are characters in all sports, those who feed the core of the sport with their presence. Skiing has its full share. Von Hohenlohe is one of those characters. His ski racing career has centered on World Championships and Olympic competitions. He's not the first and hopefully won't be the last to take that route. It takes perseverance and no small amount of change.
    Story goes he is the son of German Alfonso von Hohenlohe and Ira Van Furstenberg, was born in Mexico City, and plays the socialite circles like his guitar. He's a descendent of the House of Hohenlohe, which is to say, he has peerage.
    While he has never threatened for a medal, he has participated to the fullest. Here are hopes for a speedy and complete recovery. At 48, he isn't likely to make a comeback, but that has been said about him before.
    Is there a better race on the World Cup schedule than the Schladming night slalom? I think not.
    One reason to really like World Cup ski racing is that the spectator — live or in some sort of video capture — sees the best of the world. This will not be completely true of the upcoming Super Bowl. This season, you may see the best quarterback in the world, but you will not see the best running back, and perhaps not the best receiver, or the best cover-two cornerback. That is the bane of team sports. But in ski racing, if they hold a downhill, the best in the world all play, same for slalom.
    Then there are the hills, the playing fields, and the stadiums of the World Cup. These are fabulous athletic sites. Some, of course, better than others, but few would argue Schladming doesn't belong on the short list of great slalom hills. It is steep, nasty, and more importantly, it is a good test. The bonus is walking distance from town. Imagine having the world’s best at anything doing their thing in the park downtown. Small wonder 50,000 attend every year; though it is perplexing they seem to delight in torturing each other with the thick acrid smoke of flares. Suppose it does lend a sense of community, though.
    I haven't been to Schladming, but it seems, despite what the tourism officials say, like a blue-collar town. Mining of limestone built the village. These days, Schladming has a considerable amount of culture to offer, thanks in part to the Bureau for Cultural Matters. But workmen planted the village roots and the families are still there. The race is held at night so the working people can attend. There is just a touch of NASCAR at the Schladming slalom.
    It is missing around much of the World Cup this hint of the commoner – a little bit of boisterous, a whole bunch passion.
    Not a very high percentage of people around the world actually play football, either, but 90.7 million watched the last Super Bowl. Lots of people drive cars, but very few have gone over 200 mph. There are also lots of people who ski, but there were just a dozen skiers within two seconds of Benjamin Raich at Schladming. And 50,000 there to watch.
    That's a lot of people. Enough to bring some serious money into Schladming to boost the local economy, help pay for a bureau of culture chief. But folks, 50,000 are small potatoes. According to Steve Porino while commentating the race, 1.7 to 1.8 million Austrians annually watch the race on television, about 22 percent of the population. NASCAR would love to pull 22 percent of the U.S. population.
    Methinks a bit of boisterous passion is a good thing, but wonder if we are in danger of losing it.
    Skiing is sport now, not transportation; recreation, not a way to get the groceries home. It's for those with leisure time. Once was, a European racer often came from the farm, and some still do: Renate Goetschl for instance, and Fritz Strobl. But it seems fewer come from the barns than use to.
    It must have been fun for so many to watch the kid from the barn so thoroughly better a prince.