Summer Roundup: ESPY awards, USST staff, TOROC drug tests, AK nordic

Summer Roundup: ESPY awards, USST staff, TOROC drug tests, AK nordicBode Miller and Hannah Teter are among the candidates for this year’s ESPY Awards. Teter, a snowboarding world championship medalist, is one of the candidates for Best Female Action Sports Athlete(click here to vote) while Miller is nominated in the Best Male Athlete category (click here to vote), where the competition includes Lance Armstrong, who has won the award the previous two years.

The upcoming Olympics in Torino will see an increased number of drug tests as the International Olympic Committee continues to tighten the screws on cheating. A Sunday press release from the IOC had medical director Patrick Schamasch announcing a 45-percent increase in the number of tests over the number done in Salt Lake in 2002. According to Reuters, there will be 1,200 tests in Torino.

The U.S. Ski Team is at home now, spending most of July on dryland exercise and media commitments. In August, teams will depart for on-snow camps in New Zealand. There have been several changes to the teams’ staff. On the women’s side, some servicemen have departed and have been replaced. The team’s head coach, Patrick Riml, also hired coaches Frank Keble, John Hale, Katrin Rearick and Eric Harlow for various positions. On the men’s team, the esteemed Europa Cup coach Thomas Erhard has departed for other opportunities, according to head coach Phil McNichol. His position will be filled by Sasha Rearick, who was with the World Cup tech team last season and the Europa Cup team before that. Filling Rearick’s place on the World Cup will be Tom Sell, from Gould Academy. Rewk Patten and Andrew Cesati are also filling coaching roles; Patten was formerly at Crested Butte, and Cesati was a serviceman with the men’s team.

An article at the Anchorage Daily News website notices that the U.S. Ski Team’s nordic squad for 2005-2006 does not include any Alaskans, and explores what this might mean for the upcoming Olympics (the last Olympic nordic team included four Alaskans, according to the story).

In a press release at their website, Burke Mountain announced a major capital improvement plan. The Vermont resort is home to Burke Mountain Academy, one of the nation’s premier ski academies supplying the U.S. Ski Team with athletes and staff. The mountain, which is owned by the academy, is for sale. Last month a Vermont newspaper identified the Florida-based Ginn Company as a potential buyer. A Ginn Company spokesman declined to speak about the matter in a July 1 telephone call by Ski Racing.

The FIS has released a statement regarding last winter’s in-competition urine tests of French cross-country skier Vincent Vittoz. In this unusual case, Vittoz himself disclosed the adverse analytical finding for his first sample but was later vindicated when the second sample proved negative. Because of that, there was no doping case for Vittoz.

Fritz Wagnerburger, the 19-year president of the German ski federation, has stepped down. He is replaced by Alfons Hoermann. ‘Under Fritz Wagnerburger, the German federation became one of the most successful sport federations of the world, both in terms of sports and economically”, said Hoermann, who made Wagnerburger an honorary president. ‘It must be our common goal to continue this successful work in the coming years.’

Last month, two Steamboat racers were named Colorado Ski Country’s All-Star Athletes of the Year. Drew Roberts (now with the U.S. Ski Team’s alpine squad) and Eliza Outtrim (a freestyle mogulist) received the awards. ‘Drew is a leader in the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club and many of the athletes look up to him and admire him’ said Darlene Nolting, the Rocky Mountain Division competition and division manager. ‘He is an exemplary role model for young athletes.’ Meanwhile Outtrim, who also made the U.S. Ski Team, overcame knee surgery two seasons ago to finish second in the Grand Prix NorAm standings. ‘She is always striving to be the best and has an extremely positive attitude’ said Garth Hager, the head freestyle coach at Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club.