Q&A with USSA President Bill Marolt

Bill Marolt earlier this month completed overseeing his 11th competitive season at the helm of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association as president and CEO.
    Marolt, 63, has been involved with ski racing in some form for 40 years, first as a young racer growing up in Aspen, Colorado, who went on to win three U.S. alpine titles in the 1960s. He was a tremendously successful coach on the NCAA and national team levels before transitioning into the management side of athletics, first as the athletic director at the University of Colorado before he returned to USSA in 1996.
    Ski Racing’s Hank McKee talked with Marolt recently on a wide range of topics.
BILL MAROLT earlier this month completed overseeing his 11th competitive season at the helm of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association as president and CEO.
    Marolt, 63, has been involved with ski racing in some form for 40 years, first as a young racer growing up in Aspen, Colorado, who went on to win three U.S. alpine titles in the 1960s. He was a tremendously successful coach on the NCAA and national team levels before transitioning into the management side of athletics, first as the athletic director at the University of Colorado before he returned to USSA in 1996.
    Ski Racing’s Hank McKee talked with Marolt recently on a wide range of topics.

Ski Racing: You’ve been in ski racing in one way or another forever — well, not forever, but for 40 years.
Bill Marolt: Pretty damn close. Yeah, when you’re 63 it’s pretty close to 40, pretty close to forever.

SR: You’ve done a lot of different things — competitor, coach, alpine team director. All of those things take a little different set of skills. To your mind, which was more difficult to master?
BM: As I look back at my career — as you say, I was a competitor, I was coach and slowly I evolved into the administrative side. After I was the head ski coach at [the University of] Colorado I became the alpine program director, then I went back to Colorado as the AD [athletic director]. I think those 12 years I spent as the AD were a critical time in my career because that’s where I really learned about leadership. And I really learned about kind of the business side of this. So when I came back in as the president/CEO, I had the broad background — understanding the athletic side from the athletes’ point of view, the coaches’ side from the coaches and athletes’ point of view. Then I was able to take on a role in a totally different environment than I was used to. The first two or three years of that [as AD at Colorado] were a real challenge for me, a new experience. Once I figured out what needed to be done we had another great 12-year run at CU.
    When the opportunity presented itself to come back to the ski team it was just an ideal opportunity for me because I could take my total skill set and apply it to this organization. It’s been a challenge, but it hasn’t been frustrating, which sometimes can happen in organizations like this where your real key base in what really happens, what makes the organization run, is really volunteer-based. We work with 400 clubs around the country and that’s where our base of kids, coaches, officials, donors, that’s where everything comes from, so you have to have the ability to work with the top where it’s really a professional sports organization, and integrate that off the bottom, which is a volunteer association and sometimes that can be frustrating. On balance, it’s a challenge for me, but it hasn’t been frustrating because I understand that. And I think my background and all the things I’ve done have given me a good overview and understanding of what I need to do and have to do to make this thing work. So for me, the last 11 years have really been fun and enjoyable. There have been times when it’s been difficult, but it’s been a real rewarding experience for me.

SR: There have been a lot of changes in the sport over that time. To your mind, what would be most significant changes?
BM: I think the biggest change is the evolution or everything that we do. On the athletic side in the preparation. You see so much more being done now in the science end, sports medicine, preparation, just the basic service that we provide to the athlete, that has evolved to such a level that 15 years ago we wouldn’t have envisioned where we are with that today.
Technique has changed and a lot of that is just because of the evolution of the equipment, the skis, boots, bindings, that whole combination allows the athlete to do so much more than we could do [and] that presents a whole set of challenges with technique, with the way we coach and so forth. We’ve evolved to such a level, which is true in any sport, but in skiing it’s been absolutely amazing, It’s not just in alpine, it’s across the board in all our sports. It’s nordic, freestyle, snowboarding. I think those are the things where you really see things changing so fast to the extent that we can provide the service but it remains a challenge to us. By that I mean coaching, physical training, nutrition, psychological training, just the whole gamut of support has increased exponentially, and that’s where I see the big change.

SR: This season was fabulously successful really. The best women’s results in decades, Bode [Miller’s] title, 12 wins, medals, best nordic results in ages with [Bill] Demong getting a silver at worlds, the freestyle team did pretty good considering the retirements. Are you satisfied?
BM: You’re always trying to get better, always striving to do a better job, but I think as you look at what we were able to do in a post-Olympic year — as you suggest, there are always a lot of changes, internal changes, for instance, Alan [USSA Vice President Ashley] left. Alan was a tremendously successful leader, and starting with him, if you look across the whole company at coaches, athletes, there’s always an uncertainty after an Olympic Games, but I think the transition from ‘05-06 to ‘06-07 we did a good job with and I think the results speak to it.
    As you said, we had good results across the board whether it was alpine, nordic, freestyle or snowboard. In freestyle we had tremendous changes, there were a lot of retirements. Still, we were able to put together a good staff and see some good results from athletes that did stay and from kids coming up. In snowboarding we continue to get better, and in nordic. We made a clear commitment to our nordic programs, particularly cross-country a year ago and I think you saw the result of that with our sprinters and with Bill Demong’s silver medal in the world championships. We’re getting great leadership there from Luke Bodensteiner, and I think we’ll continue to build our nordic combined and cross-country programs. We’re really excited about where they’re going and we’re excited about the results we got this year.
    On the alpine side, we had another really good year especially on the women’s side. We had great results from literally the whole team, clearly from Julia [Mancuso] and Lindsey [Kildow], Resi Stiegler did a really good job … In the individual title our women ended up in a really good position to challenge the Austrians as we go forward. On the men’s side, again, a really good season, if you see wh
at we saw in the early season and basically right on through. We probably didn’t hit some goals in the World Championships, but other than that it was a very good year without question, so to kind of summarize, athletically it was really a good year and that provides us a platform from which we can jump into the next three years getting ready for Vancouver.

SR: You’re good. Well done. (chuckling)
SR: OK, America’s best ski racers have always been kind of firebrands. I’m thinking Spider Sabich, Tyler Palmer, the Mahres were on their own program, Cindy Nelson, Christin Cooper, Picabo Street certainly, Kristina Koznick, Tamara McKinney, Billy Johnson, Tommy Moe maybe even a young Bill Marolt. None of these fit into a team mold. They all had an anti-establishment streak. Now, of course there’s Bode. With this in mind, what is the ideal ski team athlete?
BM: It’s the age-old question of when you try to create a team in an individual sport. Everything we do in the sport physically, you know, going through preparation, looking for all the services that I just talked about, traveling, training, we need to do in some sort of a team atmosphere, simply because that’s the most efficient way to do it. From the standpoint of athlete management we can only have a certain-sized staff and based on that size we have to manage athletes as much as we can in a team situation. Clearly you are going to have characters and you talked about some of them going back, I don't know, probably to the 1930’s or 40’s for all I know. We had characters when I was on the team, and clearly we’ve had them and we will continue to have them because great stars and performers, first of all, are bright, and second of all, they have strong wills because that’s what makes them good. What makes them good is their mental focus and mental toughness. So we have to manage that. It is up to us as leaders and mangers to figure out the best way to do it and to be efficient, and we believe working as a team is the most efficient way to do it. We accommodate the individual needs within that.

SR: Is there a blueprint, or is it something that’s always in flux?
BM: I think if we had support where we knew that every event was going to be at a certain place at a certain time, then I think you can have a blueprint. But in this one, and we really got it this year with the snow problems and the weather challenges, we just have to be prepared to change and adapt at a moment’s notice … so to the extent that we had a plan and you try to create that blueprint, yes, you’re always going for the ideal. But realistically you’ve got to be able to adapt and adjust as you go along and I don’t see that changing. At the same time, we strive for a management and leadership structure which gives continuity and consistency.

SR: And results?
BM: And that should manifest itself in results, a good point, you’re exactly right. The goal is to put athletes at the top of the podium, that’s what we’re trying to do. And I think sometimes we can get caught up in a lot of detail. When you boil it all down it’s all about putting somebody at the top of the podium.

SR: Is it more difficult to organize the coaches and the teams, or the board of directors?
BM: You know what, it’s an interesting position because you have to be able to manage up and you have to be able to mange down. And I like doing both. We really do have a wonderful organization. Volunteers and those people on those boards are a fantastic group of people. They’re supportive of what we’re doing, they’re fun and enjoyable to work with, and what really makes it cool … remember that any of the people that serve as volunteers on committees or board members do it because they have a passion for it. They do it because they like what we do. When you have that sort of passion and are able to deliver a good, focused direction so we can evaluate what we’re doing and where we’re going, then you get great support. And the same on the other side. When you’re working with the staff at Park City and you’re working with coaches and athletes, you try to do the same thing: provide a great direction and program. If you can do all those things you keep everybody moving in a positive, focused direction and that’s what we’re trying to do and I think we’re getting better and better at it. Our ultimate goal is, as you say, let’s figure a way to have a perfect blueprint and that’s a real challenge.

SR: It's been pointed out to us that there really is a culture of alcohol that goes with ski racing. The example is beer being commonly available at team captain’s meetings, and wine is commonly on the dinner table throughout Europe. The team instigated a drinking policy after Torino. Three-part question — did the policy work, will it change, and did you ever consider zero tolerance?
BM: The whole question is one of behavior and how behavior impacts on the image we’re trying to portray as international sportsmen. As we try to help in the growth of our sports, it’s important how we handle ourselves. What we do, what we say, is important. Earlier in this conversation I talked about the volunteers and the parents at the local level. What they want to see is good programs going up the pipeline, they want to see that their children are going to be in programs which are well managed and accountable and responsible, so that is what we’re trying to do.
We’re going to provide leadership and put in place policy that we think will help us to do that, help us manage ourselves. To create the environment that we want and need to the extent that we're going to go in that direction. We will have policy. No policy is ever iron clad. But it has to be able to provide our coaches and athletes — and staff — with direction so that we are putting our best foot forward out in the public domain.

SR: Any theories on how ski racing can increase television coverage?
BM: That’s one of those old, old questions that I’ve been asking myself now for years. I think there are some obvious answers and I think it has to be up to us. We always have a tendency to say it’s the FIS [International Ski Federation] or the USOC [U.S. Olympic Committee] or IOC [International Olympic Committee], but we are the FIS and the USOC and IOC so it is up to us to be part of the solution.
    I think the initial things we have to do is look at formats. Do our formats make the most sense? We have to look at field size. Do we have the right number of competitors? We have to look at venues. Are we going to the right places so we’re in venues that are recognizable, that have name recognition. And most of all, are we going to places where we give ourselves the best opportunity to have the events when they’re scheduled on the time and date. We talked about having to be so flexible, but let’s reduce those times, eliminate them to the extent that we can. So, shorter season, less venues, look at our formats and field sizes … these are all things we have to look at doing if we want to create an interest in and knowledge of what we do. Our sport, and a lot of sports, people don’t want to spend a lot of time sitting in front of television so you’ve got to be able to present it in a short, concise, hard-hitting way.

SR: Aspen. What was it like when you were a teenager?
BM: So amazing. When I grew up in Aspen it was still a small little mining town. I graduated from high school in ’61. My graduating class was 19 kids. And so the size of the
town might have been 1,000 or 1,200 people, I don’t remember, but it was just a great place to grow up. Everybody knew everybody. In high school you got to do everything. Whether it was athletics, or being in the school play or playing in the school band or being on the debate team. Whatever it was, you could do everything. At a big high school you can’t do that kind of stuff. So for me growing up in Aspen was a dream childhood. I had wonderful parents and it was a great community. The first time I made the ski team and went to the World Championships in 1962, the town of Aspen all threw fives and tens and 20s and 50s in the hat and sent me to Europe for the winter so that’s the kind of place it was. It was just a great place, and it continues to be a great place today. I still love going there, still love the spirit of the town and they still support World Cup ski racing.