Robbins Nest: 10 moments to remember

Before thoughts of the past season completely vaporize, here are a couple of thoughts from a card-carrying listophile: Top 10 (sometime multiple) moments from Winter ’07:
10. Steven Nyman’s downhill victory in Val Gardena just a coupla weeks after his first World Cup podium, finishing third in the Visa Birds of Prey DH at Beaver Creek.
9. Ski jumper Adam Malysz’ resurrection from the (career) dead, starting in mid-February. He laid down the longest jump in each round to win gold in the normal-hill jumping at worlds in Sapporo, then torched March with six wins in the final two weeks to capture his fourth World Cup crown.
BEFORE THOUGHTS OF the past season completely vaporize, here are a couple of thoughts from a card-carrying listophile: Top 10 (sometime multiple) moments from Winter ’07:
10. Steven Nyman’s downhill victory in Val Gardena just a coupla weeks after his first World Cup podium, finishing third in the Visa Birds of Prey DH at Beaver Creek.
9. Ski jumper Adam Malysz’ resurrection from the (career) dead, starting in mid-February. He laid down the longest jump in each round to win gold in the normal-hill jumping at worlds in Sapporo, then torched March with six wins in the final two weeks to capture his fourth World Cup crown.
8. Yanks 1-2-4 in super combined in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria. Julia Mancuso for the win in her breakout season, Lindsey Kildow in second place and Resi Stiegler in fourth after producing the second-fastest slalom run to miss the podium by two-tenths of a second.
7. The bounce-back by moguls skier Nate Roberts, who was devastated when he didn’t make the Olympic team in ’06, even though he was the reigning world champion. “We didn’t know through the summer whether he’d be back … and maybe he didn’t either,” said one U.S. freestyle insider. But Roberts recharged his mental batteries in summer, rededicated himself to skiing in fall, and — in a no-nonsense approach — won two World Cup events in winter. He also took command of ensuring young bumps runners got some strong mentoring as they tried to move up to the World Cup.
6. Sprint podiae (isn’t that the correct plural of the Latin podium?) for Randall, Koos. Andy Newell clawed out the first U.S. cross-country podium in 23 years just after the 2006 Olympics. Kikkan Randall took third on an icy track in Rybinsk, Russia, and a week later, Torin Koos grabbed third place in Otepaeae, Estonia, with Newell fourth. Those were HUGE results for the U.S. langlauf tribe. Randall’s was the first top three by a U.S. woman in the 26 seasons of the cross-country World Cup.
5. Alpine superstar Anja Paerson’s epic response to pressure, winning three gold medals at the World Championships in Sweden. What’s Swedish for Awesome!
4. Mancuso’s run for alpine’s overall title. From springtime hip surgery to uncertainty when she started skiing regularly in November to her first World Cup win in December, through three more World Cup wins and a handful of podium visits, and let’s not overlook five consecutive top threes in January (her super combined silver at worlds doesn’t count in the World Cup tally). She ran out of gas at the end, but what a winter! Talent never was a question; it was only a matter of when-not-if Mancuso would emerge. 2007 was when.
3. Kildow’s two silver medals at worlds, plus three more World Cup triumphs. It wasn’t the disappointment of the 2005 worlds, not the DH training crash at the 2006 Olympics that set the stage for her success this season; instead, Kildow points to a nasty spill early in the 2003 season — eerily recalled in the footage of her ’06 Olympic wreck — at Lake Louise. “It made me more committed … more professional. It made me want to succeed,” she said.
2. Bill Demong’s silver from worlds. Nordic combined has been around the Olympics and worlds since Day One in 1924. Johnny Spillane got the first medal for an American when he won the sprint at ’03 worlds in Italy. Demong found the fire in the last 100 meters March 3 in Sapporo to outleg Finland’s Anssi Koivuranta for second place. (In the next two weekends, he won in Lahti, Finland, and closed with a podium at Holmenkollen in Oslo. Sweet!)
1. “Speedy” and his historic, snowy Hurricane. In the last decade, Utah’s Deer Valley Resort has made itself the premier venue in freestyle skiing. Jeret “Speedy” Peterson couldn’t land his Hurricane — the toughest jump in aerials with five twists and three flips — at the Olympics, but he shook off a snowstorm on the night of Jan. 11 and stuck his landing, giving him world records for most points on a jump (140.38) and for two jumps (268.70). The records were pretty cool, but having mom at the base of the landing hill was gold-medal cool, too.

NUPTIAL NOTES: They’ve set the date but haven’t set the site — U.S. cross-country coach Pete Vordenberg, a two-time Olympian in his racing days, and longtime galpal Barb Jones, a 2002 Olympian from Dartmouth, will be married Sept. 22 in <fill in the blank>. Even GPS couldn’t get you closer because they’re still mulling where in the mountain west to start their wedded bliss. … Lindsey Kildow, another two-time Olympian, and Thomas Vonn are finalizing their furniture purchases and haven’t had time to set a date or site. Wedding planning is “much worse” than Olympic or World Cup racing, she said with a grin — and a grimace. … The two most important words in a marriage aren’t “I do” — I’ve found they’re “Yes, dear”…

Julie Parisien, one of four youngsters and one of the newest members of the U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, has just delivered her own kiddo No. 4, son William Patrick Nuce.

"DEBSTRONG" UPDATE: Speaking of Hall of Fame members, here’s another honor for 1984 Olympic GS champ Debbie Armstrong — first Olympian and former U.S. Ski Team athlete on the Professional Ski Instructors Association’s so-called alpine team (nee demo team). “It’s great because it enables me to stay in skiing,” she said this week from her home in Taos, New Mexico, also noting, “my boots are off for the season and I’m back into flip-flops.” She’s an ambassador for Taos and also an instructor. “I want people to realize this (the alpine team) is a great opportunity — and, personally, it gives me the opportunity to give back to my sport”…

Just for the record, although he didn’t have a top three this season, Andy Newell did himself proud, anyway. He was fourth, a whisker behind Koos, in Otepaeae and he was the lone non-Scandinavian in the top nine sprinters (seven Norwegians and a Swede) in the final World Cup points. … Felix Gottwald has retired after 15 World Cup seasons; the Austrian leaves an Alaska-size hole. He came out of 12th place to win the Olympic sprint a year ago; apart from team medals, he had four individual Olympic medals and four individual worlds medals plus 20 World Cup wins and another 35 top-threes.