Around the Web: From Bode to Tomba to Vonn

According to Bode’s Blog on the Universalsports.com page, he ‘has kind of shifted’ his focus to winning the slalom at World Championships. He has won in the other four disciplines and would become the first person to win in all five. “So that would be a really cool thing to do,” he writes.

Although some media are reporting this focus change as a done deal, he says much depends on the outcome of World Cup races in January.

Lots of good information in there, including the low down on the whole boot debacle at Zagreb and other stuff to digest. www.universalsports.com.

Check out the nice set of photos from Anchorage News photographer Bill Roth on the frigid conditions at the 2009 US Cross Country championships at AND.com.
According to Bode’s Blog on the Universalsports.com page, he ‘has kind of shifted’ his focus to winning the slalom at World Championships. He has won in the other four disciplines and would become the first person to win in all five. “So that would be a really cool thing to do,” he writes.

Although some media are reporting this focus change as a done deal, he says much depends on the outcome of World Cup races in January.

Lots of good information in there, including the low down on the whole boot debacle at Zagreb and other stuff to digest. www.universalsports.com. … complete link is: https://www.universalsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=12760&DB_OEM_ID=23000&ATCLID=3644859

Check out the nice set of photos from Anchorage News photographer Bill Roth on the frigid conditions at the 2009 US Cross Country championships at AND.com… complete link is: https://www.adn.com/photos/v-gallery/story/641949.html

Britain’s Chemmy Alcott’s recovery has been coming along according to BBC. She is training hard until the pain gets to be too much and then backs off. She estimates she’s at about 40percent and still looking to make it back in time for World Championships.

Speaking of Worlds, Feb. 2-19 for the alpine skiers at Val d’Isere, the official website: valdisere2009.org is reporting the French women’s team has been getting some training on the Solaise courses and the men’s squad on the Bellevarde. The two slopes face each other with the village inbetween. Both slopes have been reported to be “challenging.”

Blick’s Carl Schoenenberger reports on the degree of training Lara Gut undergoes, maintaining her sense of humor through it all. “A good ski racer does not fall from the sky,” he says. “Hard training is everyday life.”

Congratulations for Erik Guay. … He’s a new papa. According to a report in the Star penned by Randy Starkman (along with a nice piece on Jan Hudec coming back at Wengen on the same track he was injured on a year ago) Guay’s fiancée Karen Sherris recently gave birth to a girl, Logan Elizabeth.

Skionline.ch is reporting the father of Andrej Jerman, winner of the second training run at Wengen and second in the first this week, died last week of a heart attack while at Marbior. … Our condolences of course. One kind of senses a Brett Favre moment could be approaching this weekend.

Alberto Tomba reportedly was punched by a Russian tourist. Tomba told the daily newspaper Quotidiano Nazionale the incident happened in Pragelato north of Torino. The Russian’s car wouldn’t start and Tomba asked for clearance. The Russian kicked Tomba’s car and then punched him when he protested.

Der Standard of Austria says Hermann Maier is concerned not only with a painful back situation but also with a foot. “I must deal carefully and consciously with my body,” the paper’s website quotes the second leading World Cup winner of all time. Maier may well sit out the World Championship downhill it reports.

A L’Equipe interview with Jean Baptiste Grange quotes the World Cup’s top slalom competitor saying he is taking “more and more pleasure” from racing downhill, particularly at Wengen, this weekend’s stop. “But I will really take some when I get results.” Grange says DH training runs “should be taken with calm.”

The official Swiss Ski team site is proudly talking about the Europa Cup combined result at Caspoggio Jan. 12. Nadja Kamer won with Jessica Puenchera tied for second with Austrian Margaret Altacher.

Sun Media reports Russian born cross country skier Ivan Babikov is glad to have become a Canadian citizen and is looking forward to the World Cups at Whistler Olympic Parks this weekend. “Legs are going to be tired,” he said after discussing the difficulties of the track. “It was a big step for my family,” he says of moving to Canada with his mother in 2003. “Life is better. I’m really proud to be Canadian.”

In a report seen on the Denver Post website, Lindsey Vonn explained she switched to a serrated edge ski (“it’s like a steak knife, as opposed to a butter knife,” she says) for the second run of slalom at Maribor. She survived the first run in 18th, but moved to fourth in the second run, the next to fastest run of the day.

She also made a point to say how dangerously sharp the new edges are.