Nickerson takes his post-grad shot

Warner Nickerson is preparing to give it “The Old College Try.”

The Colby College grad spent all of last ski season in an effort to make the U.S. Ski Team and earn a slot at this season’s Winter Olympics.

For a college guy – now 27 in a sport where the median age is 26.7 – the road to team status is strewn with potholes and more than a few roadblocks. It is also – to take the analogy a touch too far – a twisting country road, not the fast track highway younger skiers get introduced to.Warner Nickerson is preparing to give it “The Old College Try.”

The Colby College grad spent all of last ski season in an effort to make the U.S. Ski Team and earn a slot at this season’s Winter Olympics.

For a college guy – now 27 in a sport where the median age is 26.7 – the road to team status is strewn with potholes and more than a few roadblocks. It is also – to take the analogy a touch too far – a twisting country road, not the fast track highway younger skiers get introduced to.

Nickerson is attempting to bull his way into the U.S. Ski Team’s well-known development pyramid right up there at the top, the Olympic Team.

He made headway last season but came up short by a whisker. He’s preparing to take another run at it and knows he’s about out of time.

“It was challenging,” he says of 2009, “but not harder than any other season. In some respects it was better: I didn’t get hurt I was healthy the whole season and got in a ton of races. I wasn’t in Europe a lot so it was less hectic.”

Nickerson says 2009 “… was fun. You do this long enough and you know so many people.” Enough people to make being a one-man team (two actually with friend and coach Sam Damon helping out) a bit more palatable. “We ended up working in with a bunch of random people. We worked with Stratton Mountain School quite a bit; with the (U.S.) Ski Team a couple of times. With Bode (Miller) a bit; with Thomas Erdhard a bit in Europe.” Basically everywhere and anywhere there was a group with a similar agenda.

The biggest problem for Nickerson – as it is for many – was and remains funding.

“I’d say the biggest problem is funding. Once you can get a certain amount then you can plan what you can do based on that funding, then it’s a matter of coming up with the best plan and spending it the most efficient way possible.”

Nickerson suggests that the option of coming back into skiing after college is a viable approach.

“It’s certainly do-able. Any ski racer out of college can continue and not do the conventional thing… not get a job in Boston.”

What’s more, he adds, the education can prove helpful, though in retrospect he thinks, “I should have taken more marketing classes.”

No matter how much funding gets raised, though, there is still the problem of qualifying for an Olympic spot, or even an A team spot.  Because of age he can’t qualify for the B-Team and that makes the criteria pretty basic. “It’s cut and dried,” says Nickerson, “top-30, or sorry.”

As in top 30 in the world. There is virtually no way to make the top 30 without racing World Cup, and there’s no way to make World Cup without the Ski Team, at least, not anymore. Nickerson attacked the Nor-Am circuit last season in hopes of locking up a guaranteed World Cup start by finishing first or second in a discipline. He was the top American on the overall list, in fifth behind four Canadians. And he was third in his preferred discipline of giant slalom, 30 points from reaching the goal.

That point gap makes reaching the Olympics this season nearly impossible, but not completely impossible.

“Look at (Jake) Zamansky,” says Nickerson. “He started scoring Cup points and then (the Ski Team) was much more interested in helping him and paid for him to go to World Champs.”

With the Nor-Am avenue closed down, Nickerson has to battle for one of the five quota slots (in World Cup) the ski team has for men’s giant slalom. He’s talked with head men’s coach Sasha Rearick and knows there will be some time trials set up this season, one at Soelden around the World Cup openers in October and another before the Olympics via Europa Cup.

“They have five spots (World Cup quota for men’s GS): Bode, Ted (Ligety), (Tim) Jitloff and Zamansky and one nation’s spot. Three of them are definitely filled. Bode in an X factor. … The real question is if he will show up.”

Assuming he does, and that is the indication that’s been floated out there, it leaves Nickerson as the seventh ranked guy shooting for the fifth spot. Even should he earn that spot he’d still face World Cup GS’s at Beaver Creek and Val d’Isere and have to parlay those into a top 30 ranking before the next time trial.

“It just has to be done I guess,” he says. “It’s good news they’re willing to open the door a little wider. The last two years they haven’t had any time trials for people not on the ski team.”

As unlikely as it might be, it’s not impossible and Nickerson encourages collegiate racers (and others) to pursue their dream.

“There certainly are avenues to do it without the backing of the national team. There are ways to get there without their support. Be innovative and find your way to get better. Focus on what makes you better.

“The Ski Team is a company. They look at things like a governing body should. … It’s a small door for older athletes and that’s worked for them in the past. It’s fine. It has attributes. But it is not the only way to go.”