Robbins Nest: On snow woes, wedding bells, Bahrke beans

While the American West and much of the Northeast have been savoring huge (and nearly relentless) snow dumps this winter, Eastern Europe is struggling. The nordic World Junior Championships in Poland were split. Instead of everything (including the Under-23 cross-country championships) being held Feb. 3-10 in Szczyrk, it was all pushed back to Feb. 21-28 … and this week it was divvied up so x-c races go to Malles, Italy, and the jumping and nordic combined competitions will be in Zakopane …
WHILE THE American West and much of the Northeast have been savoring huge (and nearly relentless) snow dumps this winter, Eastern Europe is struggling. The nordic World Junior Championships in Poland were split. Instead of everything (including the Under-23 cross-country championships) being held Feb. 3-10 in Szczyrk, it was all pushed back to Feb. 21-28 … and this week it was divvied up so x-c races go to Malles, Italy, and the jumping and nordic combined competitions will be in Zakopane …

A show of hands, please, from those who have noticed the well-orchestrated plan by Canadian ski officials to keep the 2010 Olympic alpine venues semi-shrouded in ignorance, i.e., World Cup races this month but none next season. The women will run their customary two downhills and a super-G at Lake Louise while the men get their regular DH/SG lineup. So, there will be little opportunity for other nations to get more than a whisper of familiarity with the Oh-ten speed run at Whistler until they arrive shortly before the Games …

SOCIAL NOTE: Kikkan Randall, the unicycle-riding Alaskan dynamo, gets married in May to Canadian Jeff Ellis. Her wedding colors will be pink and platinum . Maybe she’s figuring 2010 will have the golden theme …

Todd Lodwick holds the U.S. mark for most nordic combined World Cup wins (six) and finished fourth in the overall points three times. But Bill Demong, who bagged his third victory this winter, has topped Lodwick. Going into this weekend’s resumption of combined World Cup play in Liberec, Czech Republic, he’s got five podiums for the winter and he’s second in the points with nine comps remaining. Since the World Cup began with the 1984 season, no American has finished higher than fourth. Lodwick went to four Olympics; Demong should reach his fourth in 2010 …

PODIUM PRODUCTION: Just in case you missed it, and it’s easy to overlook with Lindsey Vonn’s sizzling downhill success and since the retirement of Daron Rahlves: a U.S. racer has been on the podium of every men’s downhill this season. For the record: Lake Louise — Marco Sullivan, second for the first podium of his career; Beaver Creek — Steven Nyman, second; Val Gardena — Scott Macartney, third; Wengen and Bormio — Bode Miller, first; Hahnenkamm in Kitzbühel Miller — second; Chamonix — Sullivan, first …

Good News: Ivan Babikov, who moved from Russia to Canada in 2001, was granted his Canadian citizenship. Bad News: With paperwork delays, he wasn’t able to race for his new homeland during late January’s cross-country World Cups in Canmore and isn’t expected to until next season. Small worry there, though, because Babikov, who has been one of the dominant USSA SuperTour skiers in recent years, is most concerned about racing as a Canadian in 2010 …

Speaking of the Games of Vancouver, it was interesting to note that as the International Olympic Committee was shooting down a petition (again) to include women’s ski jumping on the Oh-ten Games, it also was issuing an appeal to register for the 4th IOC World Conference on Women and Sport March 8-10 in Jordan …

BAHRKE BEANS?: Shannon Bahrke may not be competing this season, but she was one of the loudest foghorns, blaring verbal support for her U.S. Ski Team mates Feb. 1-2 during the Visa Freestyle International at Deer Valley. She tore ligaments in her left knee in Tignes, France, in December during training for the season-opening moguls contest; in 2004 she tore ligaments in her right knee. “I thought I became a ‘real moguls skier’ when I tore my first ACL,” she chirped in a phone call. “Now, though, I’m really a moguls skier. I’ve got bionic knees.”… she’s also got a promising coffee business in the works. She and her boyfriend have formed Silver Bean Coffee, a reference to her moguls silver medal from the 2002 Olympics. They’re not doing their own roasting — yet — as they get started with pre-roasted beans, but eventually being their own roasters is in the biz plan …

They remain a force, or perhaps twin forces, but Oesterreichers Hermann Maier and Renate Goetschl — with 99 World Cup victories between them (he: 53; she: 46) seem to be flexing less muscle this season. Goetschl has won an eye-popping 10 races in Cortina, Italy, but she had just one podium in this latest visit – snagging third place in the second super-G. That was the one re-rebooted after being snowed out in Aspen and then weathered-out again on the Friday leading into Cortina’s weekend speed races.
“I cannot be always the winner,” Goetschl, 32, said. She has four podiums this winter, but no wins. “I’m going to have to change something.” Goetschl, with her ice queen demeanor of laser-like focus (remind anyone of Katja Seizinger’s “zone”?), also is on the women’s all-time podium. Annemarie Moser-Proell won 62 and Vreni Schneider collared 55 wins. Maier is second among men, trailing only the untouchable Ingemar Stenmark, who won 86 races …

Putting my years of altar boy training and Sister Jean Marie’s Latin 101 tutelage aside, isn’t  podia the correct plural of podium?…

A ROSE (or valley) BY ANY OTHER NAME: Let the record show two things: (a) Callaghan Valley, the wilderness area about 12 miles south of Whistler Mountain that has been converted into the nordic ski venue for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, has been renamed Whistler Olympic Park. (b) The first cross-country skier onto the loops was neither 2002 Olympic gold medalist Beckie Scott nor Sara Renner, who teamed with Scott for the 2006 Olympic team sprint silver medal, nor Olympic sprint champ Chandra Crawford. It was Liam Espedido, a 5-year-old who was the first skier on course for the inaugural Coast Cup No. 1 …