ASPEN Colorado – The good news about Aspen was the condition of the course. Natural snow helped, but the organizers did a fine job and Ajax’s Ruthies run terrain, which rolls, dives and challenges, did the rest. The result was two of the finer women’s races seen at this venerable resort in years.

Aspen did a terrific job improving their finish area, locating the diamond screen and the like. Unfortunately for Aspen and ski competition, the event unfolded before a paucity of spectators. The lack of fan interest is not due to the lack of  U.S. ski teams stars. With Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso, the team has two of the finest in the sport. Between them they are easily among the best alpine competitors in the nation’s history.

To this observer, the shortage of fan support is related to the unwillingness of the sanctioning bodies, in this case USSA and the FIS, to find a way to fund the marketing of alpine World Cup skiing. Today any promotional monies must come from the already overburdened organizers who must absorb the cost of preparing the race course, hotels, meals, prize money, etc. In the United States, if not the world, this business model is broken. Determining a new business model will take vision and a major effort on the part of USSA and the FIS if top level alpine racing is to survive in the United States.

Racing once again, Resi Stiegler’s return to racing brings cheers and tears

Who could not have been moved by the success of Resi Stiegler, running her first race, save one, in over three years. The full of life, Jackson, Wyo. native, has spent the past three seasons recovering and rehabbing from injuries, some horrific, demonstrated to all at Aspen that she still has that light touch and balance. Having trained five days of slalom – none full length – since her last crash which shattered the inside of her femur and smashed her tibia plateau, the girl with the yard wide smile and boundless energy, overcame at least one demon by starting the race.  Two runs later she had finished 25th.

After years of racing injury free, recently Resi has wrecked so often and so badly that she has nightmares about crashing. She told Pat Graham, an AP reporter, “Some days are super bad and I can’t even ski.” She is undergoing counseling to help her regain her confidence. In the Aspen finish area, Stiegler was breathing heavily but the smile was there, bigger than ever. Hers was a performance to remember and enjoy, not because it was the greatest skiing but because it showed how a great athlete can dig deep in the face of adversity.

Not so enjoyable

As enjoyable as Stiegler’s performance was, and as nice as it was to see Lindsey Vonn get to the finish here with a journeyman eighth place effort in the slalom, the rest of the U.S. tech girls performed…well, drably. In case you haven’t noticed, the women’s tech program seems close to spinning into a vacuous black hole.

Take out the results of the team’s two superstars (Mancuso and Vonn) and their teammates on the tech side are plainly not progressing the way they should be given the funding and opportunity provided by Park City.

In one case, my remarks are unfair. Sarah Schleper, the mom who roars at the start wand, can still put together two solid runs. Sarah who has had a solid career, she has been banging gates for the U.S. for 14 years and could well be in her last season.

Beyond Sarah it gets bereft. Point results are just not happening, and given the level of the USSA program, they should be. Take a look at the resurgent German women’s team. Four years ago they had two folks scoring major results, Maria Riesch and Katrin Hoelzl. Three years later they are putting nine – yes that is right – nine racers into the top 30 in slalom.

Every team has its cycles, but the U.S. program is not getting tech athletes to the level of performance they are capable of. In fairness, women’s head coach Alex Hoedlmoser has just taken over the top job, but he needs to act quickly before the women’s tech team spins so far off the top thirty/fifteen dynamic that they wallow in the 40’s and 50’s for the next decade. There are talented racers with the capability of striking both top 30 and top 15 finishes. However, they don’t seem to be responding in their current situation. Hoedlmoser and USSA can ill afford to be satisfied with the status quo. Rebuilding takes years and while the team has two of the best women racers on the planet, we best use them to our advantage. Otherwise things will be drab for some years to come.  G. B. Jr