Are: Team event poses coaching challenge

U.S. coaches are sorting out their options for who will race Sunday in the team event.

ARE, Sweden — U.S. coaches are sorting out their options for who will race Sunday in the team event. The eight-part race, introduced at the 2005 worlds in Bormio, Italy, has two men and two women running downhill and then racing slalom. Teams may choose up to six athletes, up to three men and three women, to compete. A skier does not have to compete in both stages of the competition. The U.S. Ski Team was fourth in Bormio.
    “The speed specialists have left — it’s too costly to keep an athlete an extra week just for the one event, so that makes things a little difficult,” men’s head coach Phil McNichol said. He and women’s head coach Patrick Riml will finalize their selections Saturday.
    With Bode Miller and Lindsey Kildow expected to race in the slaloms, both are candidates — on paper — to race in the team event. What the athletes and coaches have in mind may be a different story. Ted Ligety and Resi Stiegler could chip in. The biggest hole to fill might be that second speed spot on the men’s side, with Steven Nyman, Marco Sullivan and Scott Macartney apparently unavailable. Julia Mancuso also was not expected to compete in the team event.

Thursday is a day off for some slalom skiers at the World Championships, but an intense work day for others as the first slalom qualification race is scheduled. The race, similar to the giant slalom qualifier held earlier in the week, is designed to improve the logistics of the slalom race by reducing the immense field of entries. Organizers said 189 racers had registered for the slalom, so the top 50 skiers in the World Cup Start List — which tracks results from the previous 365 days — will be admitted and the top 25 qualifiers will go into Saturday’s men’s slalom.
    Four U.S. men are scheduled to race — Olympic combined gold medalist Ted Ligety, who was fourth Wednesday in the GS; Bode Miller, Jimmy Cochran and World Cup rookie Tim Jitloff, who was 18th in the GS, his first worlds event.
    Jitloff, because he’s outside the top 50 in that World Cup Start List, must qualify. He runs No. 7 in the field of 87 skiers chasing 25 start slots for the slalom.).