Are: U.S. men gear back up for delayed DH

It may not exactly be called the blues, but the gray, socked-in weather certainly ruined the mood of the U.S. men’s downhill racers Saturday after the showcase event was postponed.
ARE, Sweden — It may not exactly be called the blues, but the gray, socked-in weather certainly ruined the mood of the U.S. men’s downhill racers Saturday after the showcase event was postponed.
     Phil McNichol, U.S. men’s head coach, said cancellations always are a challenge because you ramp up and then back off and have to re-prepare.
    “Moods follow the weather. It’s not just my guys, look at everyone,” he said.
    “It was a very foggy atmosphere and demeanor on the hill today [Saturday]. You’re ready to go and then you look up when you get to the top, off the first chair, and you see the upper sections socked in and you are like, ‘ehh.’ ”
    While the setback is an issue, McNichol said, at the end of the day it’s not a major impact.
    “When the weather and light are low, it makes it a much more challenging environment to race and ski in. You have to toughen up,” he said.
    The head coach said the speed guys spent part of Saturday doing physical work to stay active, such as time spinning on the bike and playing games, such as volleyball.
    The delay was probably “OK” for downhill defending world champion Bode Miller, McNichol said, because “he’s the guy that typically doesn’t rest often.” Miller skipped a downhill training run on Friday to rest. On Thursday, Miller finished sixth in the super combi, where he clocked the fastest time in the downhill portion of the event.
    U.S. team member Marco Sullivan is still slated to race the downhill as well. Sullivan had to sit out of the super G on Tuesday because of a strained muscle in his chest.
    “He’s doing better. I can’t say he’s 100 percent recovered, but there are no signs of difficulties to the muscle strain he had,” McNichol said.
    Delaying the men’s downhill also resulted in a logistical nightmare. McNichol said they are working to change plane tickets because Sunday is a scheduled travel day for the men’s downhillers.
    “We’re trying to get the team home for a rest before coming back for their last push in Europe. They’ve been over here since the first of the year,” he said.
    “Currently, in the world we live in we don’t have free ticket changes and ease of access with airlines. Everything is cost prohibitive in that regard. Flights are quite full because of movement in and out for the World Championships.”
    During the men’s team captains meeting Saturday night, McNichol asked what the schedule would be if the men’s downhill was postponed again on Sunday.
    “I can’t tell you now. There would be many, many issues and we would have to have an emergency group meeting to work that out,” said Guenter Hujara, FIS men’s race referee.
    “If they were to, hypothetically, cancel the GS qualifying day and insert the downhill on Monday, then that would require a drastic change in ticketing,” McNichol said after the meeting.
    The postponement of the men’s downhill was the third race delay in a week because of weather. The men’s super G was delayed twice.
    So how does the veteran head coach view the weather situation so far in this World Championships?
    “My expectations were that we would have a weather challenge here. It is extremely unstable weather in February and we knew that going in it,” McNichol said.
    “We had hoped for something else, but we’ve actually been fortunate during the super combi with the sun, though it was very cold.”

Men’s slalom qualifications announced
    Hujara also announced Saturday at the team captains meeting that there would be a qualification race for the men’s slalom, which is set for next Saturday.
    The slalom qualification will be Thursday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., local time. Thursday was a scheduled reserve day.
    The top 50 skiers in the World Cup Start List — rankings based on World Cup results over the last 365 days — who enter will qualify automatically for the final. The rest will go through qualifying, with the best 25 advancing to the final — meaning a maximum of 75 skiers will be entered for the gold medal race.
    Hujara said 180 skiers were on the preliminary entrance list. ''Even 150 is too many,'' Hujara said.
    “It is my dream that eventually we will only have 30 racers in the final, to make it a more quality race,” he said.
    McNichol said the slalom qualification was a surprise, but that it shouldn’t impact the U.S. team for the event — Bode Miller, Ted Ligety, Jimmy Cochran and Tim Jitloff.
    The men’s giant slalom also has a qualification race scheduled for Monday.