LEVI SLALOM REVIEW
Before I get into the races and performances in Levi, Finland this past weekend, I do think it is worth noting that I think FIS needs to start to change policies toward single event races at destinations that require a lot of travel. The cost of such an event in Levi is absolutely ridiculous for one slalom race. In a time where not one country on the globe is free from the economic pinch, it seems insane to continue to spread ourselves thin and travel for days to get to one start per gender. And to do it right, a team really needs to get up to the Arctic Circle days if not a week in advance. Once you get past very expensive air tickets and outrageous excess and overweight bag fees, once on the ground in Scandinavia you are in some very expensive and heavily taxed nations. I do not remember how expensive per person the Levi trip was in 2007 but I do know it was not cheap and we did everything we could to cut the cost including only racing 4 boys and sending 1 pool service man, 2 coaches (usually 4) and 1 physiotherapist. We also had a Doctor on the trip on his own dime. But a group of nine at a World Cup, for a major team? We would normally have over 20 people and sometimes in the neighborhood of 35 in a main event type race in central Europe. The other side of the coin is ecological. In these days of being more aware of our environmental impact than ever, I cannot begin to fathom the carbon footprint of an athlete who traveled all the way there from the USA or Canada and then crashed on the first run. It is not that athlete’s problem and they should not be thinking about issues like this. They need to go and perform. But it is the domain of FIS to look after the best interest of all member National Governing Bodies (NGB) as well as promoting the World Cup. And I support spreading the World Cup around and racing in many different nations. For instance, the Men’s World Cup goes to Bansko, Bulgaria this year. But there are three races there so it makes more sense.
WHAT I FIGURED OUT IN LEVI: WOMEN
I saw that Lindsey still has good speed in slalom and probably should have or at least could have won the race. Her mistake was huge and where she made it compounded the issue. But she was graceful in defeat and should gain confidence from that performance.
I saw that the other USA girls have some work to do to get up to speed but I do not think it will be that difficult to close the gap with some focused work on slalom. I also think the return of Resi Stiegler could help with team leadership and bring a positive attitude. Aspen is a totally different style hill than Levi and hopefully that will change the fortunes of our slalom team.
I didn’t get to see any video of the Canadian girls but it was nice to see Mitch Gagnon get in there again. Anna Goodman will just need to keep her head up and get through the mental side of getting her speed back from her ACL injury.
The German girls were extremely impressive as a group. The Garmisch girls (Susanne and Maria Riesch and Fanny Chmelar) were all stacked in the top ten. But Germany had nine girls in the second run! NINE! Most nations don’t start nine in a race. And go to the FIS site and look at the birth years of the girls from Germany who finished between 20 and 30. I am not going to name them all but they are all young.
Austria was solid and with three in the top ten and five in the second run doing well. I was a little disappointed in the Swedes. I thought they would do better, especially MPH and Therese Borssen. I also thought Frida Hansdottir would perform better. But it is early and time to move on to Aspen.
Levi did not reveal much on the women’s side that we didn’t already know, but those who went in with high expectations and failed now have to climb out of the tank and get ready to go again. And those who went in with those lofty thoughts and succeeded need to stay focused and train hard to keep up with those who want to knock them off the top.
THE MEN’S RACE
The Levi Black slope is not the toughest hill in the world. And visually it looks very easy to a World Cup male skier. And that is likely what is tricky about it, the lack of respect it gets from the guys. I have said before that it has two places on the hill that need some tactics, the main break-over onto the only pitch and then a decision of where to start to push for line coming off the pitch depending on the set. And from the video I saw, a lot of the guys were blindly charging with the thought that nothing but 110% attitude was necessary. Coupled with some slick patches or grippy patches, the hill often wins.
When you look at the race, you see a very unconventional top ten. Only four of the top seven ranked guys were in the top ten. Christian DeVille (ITA) went to 4th from 27. And Marc Gini (SUI), who seems to make a living on early season, flat slaloms, finished 9th from 23. Ondrej Bank (CZE), on a shoestring budget, continued to flash brilliance pushing into 13th from the 40 start position while his teammate Filip Trejbal went to 17 from 47. In short, there were a lot of big moves into the top 30 making it a surprising but exciting race.
I also learned that I will never doubt JB Grange again. Coming back from a major injury is often a very difficult task. You have to put in hours of physical work just to get back to normal. Then you have to train for days upon days to catch up to the rest of the field and where you might have left off. Then you need to find the speed to be able to compete. And finally, you have to cross that mental hurdle to be able to win races. JB seems to have taken care of that by the time the first slalom ended. He is truly a fantastic talent and seems to have improved on his tactical approach. It was a masterful race to watch. He broke the hill into segments in his attack and just executed about as flawlessly as possible.
As I mentioned in the previous post, I think the American boys have some positives to take from the experience in Levi. We now know that Will Brandenburg can compete at that level in slalom. We know that Colby Granstrom can also ski at that level once he realizes it is just another ski race and plays the game the way he knows he can. Trying to do too much never works. Ted looked uncomfortable or maybe lacked confidence in his set up. Even though it was only one race, the results back it up when you look at where Head ended up at the end of the day. Like I said, it is only one race, but I have been there before when a ski company gets a message sent at the beginning of the season like that. They mobilize testing and new skis start popping out of the factory. Don’t be surprised to see Head out there on snow working very hard to find a ski model that is working for everyone and a boot for Ted. There will be some time and energy devoted to this before the next slalom in Val d’Isere, guaranteed.
We also saw the Canadians have a very nice showing up there. Julien Cousineau knocked down another top ten, Spence, Biggs and White all qualified. That will give them all confidence moving forward into the December Europe swing.
Clearly the Austrians will look at their day as a failure. With Raich, Hirscher, Herbst and Matt all not in the second run with their head slalom coach setting; I don’t think they are going to be happy as a nation. Every race is a big deal in Austria and I am sure Mathias Berthold, the new head coach, had to answer some questions to the very alpine focused Austrian press corps. On the up-side, Pranger had himself an excellent day. But with Bechter and Hoerl hanging toward the back of the list, the whole trip became unacceptable by Austria standards.
The men’s race was quite a surprise throughout the top 30. But I will warn everyone tha
t this has happened before. It is very early in the season and the next slalom is not for another month. I have no doubt Grange will stay in the mix and I would expect normalcy to return to the finish order in Val d’Isere.
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Greg “Grande” Needell grew up ski racing at Stratton Mountain,
Vermont. After graduating from SMS he skied for NCAA Division 1 St.
Lawrence University in Canton, NY where he was co-captain in 1986. Greg
returned to SMS to coach there for five years serving as the Head
Women’s Coach as well as the Head J2 Men’s Coach. He then moved to
Mission Ridge in Wenatchee, Washington in 1992 to become the Program
Director and Head Coach of the Mission Ridge Ski Club. In 1997, Greg
became the Head Coach at Mammoth Mountain, California.
In 2002 Needell was asked to join the U.S. Ski Team staff as a World
Cup SL and GS coach. From 2002 to 2008 Needell helped lead the U.S. Ski
Team Men to 43 wins, 105 podiums and 264 top ten finishes. Now at the
helm of Alpine Race Consulting, Needell offers his knowledge and
experience to clubs nationwide.
About the Author: Pete Rugh
