The World Cup According to Grande: Random Notes

Entering three more days of training at Mt. Hood this week, I noticed a few pieces of information in the news that I thought interesting enough to comment.

The first is the World Cup Dreams Foundation. Their fundraiser is taking place at Mt. Hood this week and they need to raise money for all the athletes that are on the National Team but less than fully funded. There will be great skiers there to ski with or just have dinner with, along with former Men’s Team Head Coach Phil McNichol. It is a great event with a specific cause. If you are into it you should check it out. It’s one of the few events where you might actually ski with and meet the person you are helping with donations.

The second is a piece of news from Canada. That the Canadians lost all of their equipment in a warehouse fire at Heathrow Airport in London as they were storing it to ship to New Zealand. It sounds like ski equipment, computers and timing equipment were involved at a value of 150k. But I have a question that was not really answered in the article. Why was the stuff in England? Why not Calgary? Or Vancouver? London-Heathrow? Really? Who flies through that mess of an airport anyway? It is a well-known piece of anecdotal fact that more ski racers have lost equipment in London-Heathrow than any other airport on earth. But regardless, they are in a tough spot. They have to be in New Zealand next week running a camp. And without the equipment that was in the fire that might not be impossible, but certainly not at the level they would like it to be and are used to. I am sure that some of the guys have some equipment issues to sort out which will be very difficult without a timer.

The third piece I saw was about Maria Riesch doing a signing at the Milka factory in Austria. The photo accompanying her story had a large group of kids clamoring for her autograph and her mugging for the camera. It’s a nice article and I am glad there is skiing news in mid-summer. But it shows you the difference between Europe and North America when it comes to skiing. In the middle of July, in 95 degree heat, a female ski star is signing autographs in the front of a huge audience. Think about it.  As a related story, Lindsey Vonn was placed in the Austria walk of fame or street of champions. With footprints and handprints in cement, she will be immortalized. We are talking about Franz Klammer, Nikki Lauda, Arnold Schwartzenegger and 150 others. The list also includes Bode. It is just awe inspiring how good she is and how much respect she has garnered over there. Austria loves her like she was their own. Again, it just strikes me how different we are from Austrians, Swiss and other alpine loving nations. For them, it’s the NFL at least, maybe the NFL and MLB rolled into one?

And the last piece is about Bode. He has signed his athlete agreement with the ski team. And I think this is significant. That little piece of paper is bothersome. The athletes tend to bristle at signing it; they tend to hold back on turning it in sometimes. Like it is the last piece of independence they can hold from the ski team. But the information in the article that is most interesting to me is that he was the first to turn it in. He got it done and got it done early. It makes you tend to think he is still in it. Maybe his health is coming around. He finally got some time off. Maybe his child gave him new perspective. I know it did for me when my son was born. But I digress, it is great that he has signed and it will be great to hear things once he finally joins with the team on snow, whenever that might be. Sasha’s comments notwithstanding, he has not skied yet and no one said that a plane ticket has been bought for him.  Regardless, I hope he skis again this year and I am sure if he does, he will be competitive. The only last thing I will add is that signing the agreement does not mean he will compete. Only that if he does, he will work within the team structure and rules.

Come to Hood and go skiing!

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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.

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