Are: McNichol seeks answers, not excuses

U.S. Ski Team head men’s coach Phil McNichol said Saturday night that he’s not looking for excuses but instead for answers after his team failed to earn a single medal at these World Championships.
ARE, Sweden — U.S. Ski Team head men’s coach Phil McNichol said Saturday night that he’s not looking for excuses but instead for answers after his team failed to earn a single medal at these World Championships.
    The bitter end came Saturday when three of the four U.S. racers in the slalom failed to advance to the second run, a group including a reigning gold medalist in Ted Ligety and a former World Cup overall champion and multiple World Championships medalist in Bode Miller.
    “We just didn’t get it done, and today was an atrocious way to end the championships. We’ll get over it,” McNichol said.
    The U.S. men are probably just glad these worlds are over, period. American men had won at least one medal in the past three World Championships, rebounding from an 0-fer performance at home in Vail in 1999. Ted Ligety finished the closest to the medal stand in Are with a fourth in the giant slalom. On Saturday, Ligety, Miller and Jimmy Cochran all skied out in the slalom.    
    The only U.S. racer who didn’t, Tim Jitloff, said his teammates were just skiing aggressively, which is the only way to win at ski racing’s highest level
    “I don’t think people should be bummed,” Jitloff said. “We have a group of guys who are coming up and are already here who are going to be big. We’re going to be good, you just have to keep a little faith.”
    Ligety and Miller have already proven to be world-class racers, but they and their teammates were snakebit in Sweden. Still, their coach was trying to focus on the bright side Saturday night.  
    “You can always pull something good out of a day. We had good splits, we had good intensity, we had great intentions and decent execution. But again, you’ve gotta finish,” McNichol said of the slalom, in which nearly 50 racers DNFed. “Granted, it was a high attrition rate, but …
     “It was really unfortunate to come so close and struggle like we did in this championship. It’s going to take me a while to compress everything.”
    The men’s speed team will look to rebound next weekend in Garmisch, Germany. McNichol said Miller, who tweaked a knee in the slalom, will travel there and plans to race.
    “His knee is definitely sore. He exacerbated an old injury,” McNichol said. “He just needs to rest it and he’ll be good. He’s going to Garmisch, and we have a new doc coming in there so we’ll obviously look at that beforehand. I’m encouraged it won’t be anything than the week break he needs.”