International Roundup: Snow, contests, books, teams, drugs, fundingWinter has now arrived in Colorado, where Colorado Ski Country USA is reporting that the I-70 corridor ‘seems to have been hit the hardest.’ According to the trade group’s release, Breckenridge is has 24 inches of new snow on the mountain while its neighbors Copper Mountain and Keystone are reporting 18 inches and 17 inches respectively. Colorado resorts are in competition to be the first to open this month (for Colorado Ski Country’s complete listing of resort opening dates and ongoing race updates, log onto www.coloradoski.com.

Meanwhile Skiracing.com will be looking to recognize the first ski coach to drill a gate in on-snow club training in Colorado; if you or your coach is the first, send us a digital photo and a description of the day and we’ll try to recognize the accomplishment (e-mail us here).

THIS WEEK’S NEWS:

Readers can now pre-order copies of the English translation of Hermann Maier’s autobiography, which was co-written by Maier’s former manager Knut Okresek. Video of Maier’s legendary 1998 crash at the Olympic downhill in Nagano is available here.

The Italian ski team is the first to announce its starters for the season-opening alpine World Cups, which are coming up on October 22-23. If you speak Italian, or think you can figure it out anyway, read the announcement here. (Skiracing.com doesn’t speak Italian, but we can tell you that coaches report Manfred Moelgg aggravated muscles in the area of his lower back and glutes in training this summer.)

According to the Los Angeles Times, Dave McCoy is relinquishing his interest in Mammoth Mountain to a luxury hotel mogul named Barry S. Sternlicht.

Max Rauffer of Germany announced his retirement on Tuesday. “Training for many years and the strong stresses of the races left their mark,” said the downhiller, who won his first World Cup at at Val Gardena in December. “Achievement sport on highest level for me is no longer possible.” Rauffer’s retirement comes only weeks after that of his teammate Florian Eckert.

The political wrangling surrounding the Olympic Winter Games in Torino continues. IOC president Jacques Rogge is lending his support to efforts to bring some predictability to the Games’ doping policy.

News is also developing about preparations for the Paralympic Games.

This is grassroots.

Until recently, the U.S. portion of the NorAm calendar wasn’t available. Now the early season men’s NorAm races have been scheduled for Keystone on November 28 – December 1st.

The provincial government of Alberta has earmarked $600,000 Canadian ($509,000 U.S.) for the Ski Jumping Training Centre at the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. More here.

The British alpine ski team met the press last week. Billed as the best-qualified Olympic team ever (and this from the nation that invented ski racing), the British team is ready for Torino, according to the Scotsman. (The Natives story, though shorter, has pictures.)

The deadline for registering as a USSA member is fast approaching.

According to this, former U.S. Ski Team coach Bob Harkin has found an interesting new line of work.

The Swiss ski team recently made an official announcement about the premature end of its contract with Marie-Theres Nadig, one of the only women coaching at the alpine World Cup level from 1999 to 2004. The country’s national association, Swiss-ski, ‘makes a point of thanking Maite Nadig for her great engagement as a coach, wishes her good luck and hopes she’ll remain faithful to the Swiss ski’ said the team’s announcement.

Skiracing.com recently reported that Greg Johnson of the Beaver Creek race department will serve as technical delegate at this year’s race in Kitzbuehel. Now skiracing.com has caught up with Johnson. “The whole thing is still staggering to me personally because there are so many other great FIS TD’s in the US that do such an amazing job every year,” says the long-time Birds of Prey chief of course.