Patience! Cost control starts with a culture shift off the fast track

By Published On: July 26th, 2021Comments Off on Patience! Cost control starts with a culture shift off the fast track

The cost of ski racing. Mention this topic in conversation with past ski racers and you get a lot of sighs … a throw-up-your-hands reaction, and an assertion that none of us could have pursued the sport with any real vigor at today’s expense. And then—because we did pursue it, and because none of us can help ourselves from wanting others to be able to—comes thoughtful analysis, suggestions, and potential solutions. 

In the face of the arms race so many youth sports face, one suggested remedy for ski racing is regulations: limiting the use of suits, the number of skis and race starts at various stages; limiting equipment design, à la NASCAR, and training seasons, à la the NFL.

Unfortunately, more rules usually mean more ways to get around them. (Hello, cycling!) Moving the needle back to center on the sanity meter to keep the sport accessible likely depends more on restoring the sensibilities of a rugged, fun, community- and family-based outdoor sport. 

These are things that feel sustainable and achievable, like staying local as long as possible, helping each other with equipment and lodging, pitching in to run races, recognizing and supporting local talent, carpooling, crock-potting, couch-surfing, etc. Central to this approach is embracing a concept that is 100% free, yet incredibly difficult to sell: patience.  

Guidance + confidence = patience

“I am a firm believer that a kid from a small program can make it without breaking the bank,” says USST alum, ski parent and part-time coach Kyle Wieche. “It involves talent and hard work, but most importantly patience and confidence in doing your own program, your own way.” 

The confidence in that equation relies on good guidance. It takes an educated and disciplined approach to hold back when the default is to spend, early and often, on travel, equipment, racing and the mythically critical “days on snow” that will differentiate kids from their competition as young as possible. It is no surprise many top racers rely on a committed parent or coach throughout their careers. Steady guidance to spend wisely on the things that matter — when they matter — can keep more kids meaningfully engaged and also instill the confidence needed to settle in for the long haul. 

“It’s a culture that can be built,” says Wieche. He points to the freeride culture that is, in many programs, built around fun, challenge and social engagement, and closely reflects what ski racing at its best can be. 

Patience is a long-term play

By now, we’re all familiar with the vagaries of outcome-based youth sports cultures that confer early advantage to kids with resources or physically advanced development. By the time talent, hard work and natural physical development close the gap, many athletes have been forced out, or “deflected,” completing a cycle that fulfills the prophecies of early selection while shortchanging the sport. The deflection rate is especially dramatic in an already expensive sport like ski racing. Keeping more kids involved, through that gauntlet of early selection and to the point of natural selection depends on ratcheting back the spending frenzy. 

How do we do that? Patience, from the bottom up and the top down.

Slowing the roll to broaden the base

Olympic gold and silver medalist Phil Mahre believes parents contribute to the problem by succumbing to the notion that their athlete needs “everything in the book” when it comes to equipment, ski camps, racing and travel, while programs contribute by pushing kids too early to be fully invested in skiing at the expense of their athletic development.

“Kids need to be kids and should play several sports in their youth to round out their physical abilities,” says Mahre, who played football and pole vaulted in high school, while waterskiing and riding motocross. “When athletes move into their prime at the age of mid-20s, it hardly matters what age you start to focus seriously on your sport. Imagine chasing a dream from the age of five and knowing it possibly won’t materialize for 20 years?” 

That long runway reality, highlighted by so many older athletes and seasoned coaches, reinforces that early greatness doesn’t amount to much of anything.

“I don’t care if your kid is crushing it at U14, because it just doesn’t matter,” says Wieche who, throughout his own career and his 10 years coaching, observed that success at that age rarely continues unfettered. Rather, success will often ebb and flow or peak and burnout. 

Norway’s ski federation famously downplays rankings through U16, fostering a culture that prioritizes athletic and technical skills along with a love for the sport over results. 

Last season’s COVID restrictions offered a similar atmosphere here, as noted by Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadow Ski Team Director and USST alum Bill Hudson: “Especially at younger ages, we saw incredible development. Everybody could take a breath, get a bunch of training and worry less about racing.”

Preaching patience: from the top, please

For older athletes, the national team has the ultimate power to set and influence the tone. Historically patience is not part of the message. Investing heavily in young talent is the siren song of the NGB where age-based selection criteria heavily favor the youngest athletes and push out the very level of athletes that fill out the ranks of the strongest ski nations.

A snapshot of top national ski teams shows more than 20% of the U.S. men’s team is U19, whereas other national team rosters progressively bulk up with athletes age 20-24, a generation largely dismissed as “development” material in the U.S. system. Of the 52 men on the Swiss National team, none are younger than YOB 2001, which is also the point of entry on Norway’s team. Women’s teams trend slightly younger, with men’s and women’s national team rosters gaining heft on either side of the U21 border, right where the USST criteria shuns newcomers. The most compelling success stories of last season — Isabella Wright and Paula Moltzan — had to beat the door down to get in the system and back in the system, respectively. Thankfully, the USST breached their own age barriers to give them a chance.

Helping prime candidates reach their prime

The U.S. does have many athletes in the ages that populate other national team rosters. Former U.S. Ski Team downhiller and current FIS coach Chad Fleischer says, “One of the biggest issues we face as a skiing nation is the void our brightest and best athletes enter upon graduating high school. Fleischer describes it as a “graveyard of ski racers from age 19-23” who need support to stay in the sport.

Fleischer points to the World Cup stats that show very few athletes 21-24 years of age scoring in slalom, as well as the average age of podium-scoring athletes at age 27. “The reality of this sport is that we do not see athletes hitting their prime skiing years until they get to be 23 years of age or older,” says Fleischer. “We are working from an old model where many skiers were on the USST by age 16-18 and, if you weren’t, you simply skied for college. The sport has changed but our programming needs have not.” 

These athletes, many of whom would qualify for larger national teams, are in PG programs, on NCAA rosters and on independent teams. Keeping a critical mass of them engaged need not be the financial responsibility of the national team. Indeed, European teams have an army of development athletes supported regionally. However, retaining and engaging these athletes does rely on the national team showing them, through direct outreach and general communication, that they matter, and fill a vital gap in the development system. This engagement could include the much discussed (but yet-to-be realized) development projects with top college athletes, as well as clear opportunities for dynamic advancement at any age, from any program.

Managing the message

The youth-centric messaging makes patience feel like a futile cause. Hudson describes a familiar scenario to program directors across the country: “Typically, you lay out a sensible plan for first year FIS, but then it’s hard to stick with it because the kids feel pressure to chase points.” When the USST selects athletes at a young age, very early in their total development trajectory, “it doesn’t matter what we do,” says Hudson. “Kids see that and it’s hard to disagree [with chasing points].”  

When it comes to allocating resources effectively, there is a long-standing debate between centralized national development versus project-based regional development. Jon Nolting, former Sports Education Director at USSS and current Associate Executive Director of Steamboat Spring Winter Sports Club, describes some economic realities of the issue: “Too many named team members at young ages that still can develop well with club and regional support make it such that the national team with its limited resources can’t afford to welcome in enough other deserving athletes for these opportunities without sacrificing the quality.” 

That limitation further diminishes our pool of potential elite athletes. Nolting, like others, applauds selecting athletes for higher level races and training opportunities. “But then those athletes should go right back into the mixing bowl until they’ve clearly emerged ahead of the rest.” 

Patience and the bottom line

When Fleisher and his American Downhiller buddy, AJ Kitt, share their concerns and ideas on the issue, “Our big takeaway,” says Fleischer, “is keep it simple: intensity over volume on snow, and it all matters — physical training, mental training, on-snow training, equipment, quality coaching.” It takes time for all that to come together.  

Mark Smith is the patron saint of patience on hill and off. Having competed and coached at the club, academy, collegiate and national-team levels, Smith consistently advocates for less focus on quantity and more on quality, especially regarding fundamental athletic and skills development. “The reality is that plenty of athletes emerge without the same amount of time on snow,” says Smith. “They do it by being strong and athletic, and when they are on snow they make it count.” 

In seeing the success of Moltzan and Wright last season, and the way the U.S. Ski Team encouraged and supported Erik Arvidsson’s spectacular return, Smith says, “I’m hopeful that our national team will follow other nations in letting older athletes emerge. You could call them outliers, but maybe there are a lot more outliers.” 

And maybe, instead of making it the exception, patience could be the rule. 

For all but a very few prodigies, who will find their way to the top in any development model, this is an expensive sport that requires a long glide path. The challenges are even greater in a country as geographically large and varied as the U.S.

But we’re the U.S.A., flush with talent, resources, strong ski clubs and communities, and the world’s only high-level collegiate racing circuit. With effective management of resources starting at the top, that prioritize a culture of long-term development and collaboration, we may find we have all the talent and riches we need.  

And finally, cue the Guns ‘n Roses … “All we need is just a little patience.” 

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About the Author: Edie Thys Morgan

Former U.S. Ski Team downhill racer Edie Thys Morgan started her writing career at Ski Racing with the column Racer eX. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, Chan, and their RacerNext boys.