Robbins Nest: Battle of the energy drinks

It would have been hard to miss the message: When Julia Mancuso ripped down the Oreiller-Killy speed track in Val d’Isere on Dec. 19, photos the next day had her headgear sponsor spotlighted perfectly. As she blazed toward her first World Cup win, her helmet proclaimed: Rip It.
    The next day, of course, as Chapter 2 in the saga of dueling energy drinks (and don’t each of them have a perfect Exhibit A for their product?) as Lindsey Kildow shredded the O-K run for her victory with Mancuso in second place. Kildow’s sponsor, of course, is Red Bull. Wonderful podium shot: Red Bull in the middle and Rip It right alongside …

SCROOGES, EVERY ONE: A lump of coal in the stocking of the IOC for its intransigence in snubbing women’s ski jumping for the oh-ten Games in Vancouver. “Not developed?” And how “developed’ are women’s bobsled and skeleton? Humbug, IOC!

    It would have been hard to miss the message: When Julia Mancuso ripped down the Oreiller-Killy speed track in Val d’Isere on Dec. 19, photos the next day had her headgear sponsor spotlighted perfectly. As she blazed toward her first World Cup win, her helmet proclaimed: Rip It.
    The next day, of course, as Chapter 2 in the saga of dueling energy drinks (and don’t each of them have a perfect Exhibit A for their product?) as Lindsey Kildow shredded the O-K run for her victory with Mancuso in second place. Kildow’s sponsor, of course, is Red Bull. Wonderful podium shot: Red Bull in the middle and Rip It right alongside …
    “Pretty cool? We’re helping both companies,” Kildow said as she reflected on the coincidence. “These have been two good days for the energy drinks.”

    A lot of moving parts came into play for Mancuso, the Olympic giant slalom queen, to snatch her first victory. Her hip — operated on in April — wasn’t bothering her; her Rossignols were ready to roll (as were Kildow’s); she watched video and smoothed out a couple of wrinkles from her lone training run … and ex-boy toy Steven Nyman — who won his own first race 72 hours earlier — exhorted her to kinda play “Can you top this?” and win her own race.
    “Steven inspired me,” Mancuso said. “I called to congratulate him and he told me, ‘Just be dynamic and ski like you know you can.’ I thought it was pretty sweet and then I began to think. ‘Hmmm, he can do it — so can I.’ It’s all about being dynamic — and I was dynamic.”

    A bonus to Nyman’s downhill win Dec. 16 is it answered one recidivist question: Nyman prefers “Steven” to “Steve.” And the second question, of course: No, he and Mancuso no longer are dating, but each of them confirm they’re still good friends and talk by cell phone, text message or swap e-mails regularly.
    The local German-language paper in Alta Badia (remember, this region used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the locals have deep Deutsche roots), after Nyman’s win ran a headline reading: Nyman der Flyman.

    The best sound bite from the historic World Cup podiums parade by U.S. alpiners: Women’s speed coach Alex Hoedlmoser on Julia Mancuso’s rocket ride to her first World Cup triumph, taking the first of two DHs in Val d’Isere — “It was like she had the devil on her back.”

    Great factoid: Mancuso’s first win came in her 151st World Cup race, Nyman’s came in his 31st (kudos to SR and New York Times scribe Nate Vinton).

    While Bode and Steven have received appropriate mountains of media play for their outstanding speed performances early in this World Championships season, let’s not overlook the return of Marco Sullivan. The two-time Olympian from Squaw Valley lost two years of World Cup racing when he turned into a Jell-O brain, trying a pirouette off the final jump at the bottom of Beaver Creek’s Birds of Prey during training Dec. 4, 2003, tearing ligaments in his left knee. He made the ’06 Olympics squad but didn’t get to race, but he’s back to form and focus this season, highlighted by Saturday’s fourth in the Val Gardena downhill — one-hundredth of a second off his first World Cup podium.
    “Yeah, that was dumb,” he says repeatedly in referring to his Birds-brained spin three years ago, “and I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve thought about it. I don’t think I’ve missed too many days when I didn’t.” But it’s also ancient history. Sullivan doesn’t dwell on it, except to learn from it.

    We like press poobah John Dakin’s mea culpa about providing Swiss Army-style, multi-use knives for journalists at the Visa Birds of Prey clambake earlier this month. “It worked so well before, we’re re-arming the media.” In the 1990s, pre-Birds (which hosted its first races in December 1997), Dakin’s media gift was a similar mega-use Swiss-type pig-sticker. Dakes no longer runs with scissors, but other lessons sometimes take longer to learn.   

    Confused about what the “hurricane start” in nordic combined is like? Two words; organized chaos. Two more: fire drill. Imagine the old image of monkeys tumbling out of a barrel. To start the cross-country race after the ski-jumping phase, athletes are given distance handicaps behind the jump leader … and, on the signal, everyone starts together. Check out this video of the start in a World Cup-B comp recently at Utah’s Soldier Hollow, provided by Chris Peroni from SoHo’s buildings and grounds crew.

    Look for some excitement Jan. 3-7 during the U.S. cross-country title races at Michigan Tech. Places in the World Championships Feb. 22-March 4 in Sapporo, Japan, will be on the line. Sprinter Kikkan Randall — well, we can’t label her that way because she also won the 5 km skate and 10 km classic technique titles last year — has a lock on one spot, but she’ll need some company. Caitlin Compton and Laura Valaas have dominated the $130,000 SuperTour races heading toward nationals and would appear to have a good shot at earning a ticket to Japan. On the men’s side, Olympians James Southam and Lars Flora plus defending men’s champ Dave Chamberlain will be in the mix to get there, too.

    Leif Zimmermann made the 2006 Olympic team but it’s a bummer how the mononucleosis that derailed him in the spring is lingering. He was expecting – as were U.S. coaches — to see him make a move this season toward a spot on the World Cup. But, as he says now (and said during the summer), “I can’t do anything until I get healthy. I have to be patient.”

    If I get one wish for Christmas: that Daron Rahlves and Brett Favre come back for one more year … always room for quality athletes who are quality individuals in the Robbins Nest. If I grow up, I want to be like either one of ’em.

    They may not be the best Christmas gift, but flannel sheets must be on the all-time podium for holiday gifts.

    More food for thought: never a bad time for the crispy bacon at the Mount Washington Hotel, the big bunkhouse that goes with New Hampshire’s Bretton Woods resort.