Are: Notebook: Kwame, Kildow, kings … and Bode

The “Snow Leopard” is showing his teeth. Unfortunately, not on the slopes.
ARE, Sweden — The “Snow Leopard” is showing his teeth. Unfortunately, not on the slopes.
    Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong finished 66th in the giant slalom qualification race on Monday — a slow but exciting run for the 31-year-old Ghanaian who learned to ski only two years ago.
    “I have to go back to the drawing board and change my style,” said Nkrumah-Acheampong, who was the last finisher and 1 minute, 17.19 seconds off the leading pace, failing to qualify for Wednesday’s main event.
    Nkrumah-Acheampong was angry at racing in front of few spectators.
    “Whether you fall or whatever, you want to come down and hear some people cheering, and now there’s just one guy,” he said.
    Nkrumah-Acheampong criticized the International Ski Federation, which introduced a qualifying phase for the first time at the World Championships to reduce a field that had grown unwieldy for TV broadcasters.
    While the FIS had announced a qualifying phase for the giant slalom in advance, the FIS unexpectedly introduced a similar qualifying race for the slalom this week, after teams had already arrived.
    According to FIS rules, the jury can announce a qualification race on short notice. But many small teams said their friends and relatives were now due to arrive too late to see them race.
    Nkrumah-Acheampong said he intended to withdraw from the slalom in protest.
    Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety told WCSN.com he’d like to see more skiers from small nations competing at the worlds.
    “These racers from various countries show up just for the chance to compete against the best,” said Ligety, who traveled with Nkrumah-Acheampong in Ghana last summer on a promotional tour. “It brings a different dynamic to the race that World Cups don’t have because it’s always the same 60 guys.
    “They’ve been working at qualifying for these events for years, so why shut them down on the eve of the race just because it’s going to take an extra hour first run?”
    There were 101 starters in Monday’s qualification race. Only the fastest 25 advanced to the final.
    LOVESICK: Lindsey Kildow won’t get near her fiance Thomas Vonn these days.
    “He’s got the flu. He’s quarantined,” said Kildow, who earned silver in the super G and downhill here. “He’s been in his room pretty much for three days. I went and got him some microwaveable meals. He didn’t want to come to the team dinners and get everyone sick.
    “I just left him some delivery stuff at the door. I saw him for a bit yesterday. We were standing 10 feet [3 meters] apart. Everyone thought we were fighting.”
    Kildow says condo roommate Stacey Cook is a great pal but can’t replace Vonn, who is sequestered in a sponsor’s apartment.
    “I was really lonely. I had Stacey to hang out in my room, but of course it’s not the same,” Kildow said. “I hope he gets better soon.”
    ROYAL TREATMENT: Not only did Anja Paerson become the first skier to win World Championships titles in all five alpine skiing events — completing the set with downhill victory on Sunday — but also she had the record-setting medal looped around her neck by Queen Silvia of Sweden.
    King Carl XVI Gustaf and the queen — who made two previous visits for nothing after races were wiped out because of bad weather — got lucky on their third trip, witnessing Paerson win her seventh World Championships gold medal.
    “To have the royal family support me and come for my race was incredible,” Paerson said. “I was very proud to win this in front of them and to get the gold medal from the queen was very nice.”
    FEAR FACTOR: The usually impassive Bode Miller admits he feels fear more often as he gets older.
    “The fear comes in when you know you’re in a position where you could hurt yourself, or kill yourself, and you know that you have less chance of successfully coming out alive or intact,” Miller said. “It’s one of those things where as an older racer you’re often in conflict with yourself. Because in a way, I’ve already proved myself to myself a lot of different times.”
    The 29-year-old came to Are as the defending champion in both the downhill and super G but finished 24th and seventh in those races, respectively.
    Miller said testing his mettle is one of the reasons he loves the sport.
    “As a younger racer, you do it all the time because you’re young and you love to do it. As an older racer, you definitely see the end of your career, and you’ve seen so many guys do it and break themselves.”
    The speed events at World Championships are usually toned down because many skiers who enter are not World Cup competitors and have a lot less experience.
    The Olympia downhill course was a lot tougher at last year’s World Cup Finals, when the jumps were made bigger and the angles at which racers approached the jumps were trickier.
    “A lot of the time you’re not really afraid. A lot of the downhills don’t cause fear because you’re able to really execute the whole course as aggressively as you can,” Miller said. “On the bottom of the course you’re much more likely to be afraid than at the top because at the top you have all your faculties about you and you’re 100 percent physically.”

— Erica Bulman, The Associated Press