The World Cup According to Grande: The Women will finish up tomorrow. Jules and Lins hit the tabloid media

The girls are fighting?

I think it’s an amazing thing, when the regular media gets its hooks into good-looking minor sport celebrities like Lindsey and Julia. The MSN.Com home page had “A Tearful day for Julia.” And “Vonn’s crash deals blow to angry Mancuso.” And “Ski Stars were already in spat.”

Well boys and girls, it is time for a calmer, more reasonable approach to this kind of tabloid reporting. First of all, while very rare in GS, it is not unheard of to flag a racer off the course when the racer in front of her crashes. Julia knows this as well as anyone. She has been in it long enough. It is a safety issue, plain and simple. And if she should not have been flagged, well that happens too. Because the race crew is erring on the side of safety. Not just the safety of the girl in the fence but the worker who might be helping her, those who might be working on the course and the racer who was flagged.  Today, Lindsey Vonn started 17th and Julia was scheduled to start 18. At number 16, the start interval was likely decreased, as usual. So Julia left the start before Lindsey crossed the finish line. Lins crashed near the bottom, the jury felt there was a potential safety issue and Julia was flagged. The problem with this, and the reason that Julia was angry, is that the visibility continued to worsen and the track got slower with falling snow and from getting beat up by more racers.  And after watching the run on TV I would say Jules was also pissed for a couple of other reasons. One is that the jury did not have to have her flagged based on where Lins was laying down. That was an inexperienced move to flag her. Safer, yes…but still a panicky move. AND, Julia felt she was having a good run and you never want to toss a run like that. There is also a panic issue when you go around getting ready quickly. There is a lot of stress in that situation and the start people needed to take that seriously. Last, she had the added fatigue of having just run almost the full length of the GS in an Olympic race. The re-run is never where you want to be.

Nonetheless, Julia was very calm and level in her interview with Steve Porino. She was analytical and was ready to accept what had happened as something that “does happen.”  She also expressed that originally she was not allowed to take the snowmobile back to the start above a certain point. At the Olympic Games this is unacceptable. They should have had a chopper ready to go if the snowmobile could not go all the way up. She apparently convinced them to take her up but it should not be an issue. This likely cost her a few more start positions and anyone who has ever raced at that level knows it means a lot.

Then the next line on the page was: “Ski Stars were already in Spat.” That one is my favorite. Julia and Lindsey have been in a “spat” since 1997. They didn’t even know each other but you know who’s out there, and they have been battling in one form or another for most of their lives. They actually don’t know any different. Lindsey being consistently fast, Julia stealing the big show. Then Lindsey racking up World Cup wins and globes and Julia fading to the background. Then Julia put the pressure back on in Whistler. But this has gone on since they were tiny kids, through their days on the “D Team,” on to World Juniors and on and on and on. It’s not a spat, it’s a rivalry. Always has been.

All in all, I think Jules did a great job getting it done after the fiasco had taken place and it was time for her to go again. What else do we have to say about it? Two attractive women battling it out….no wonder tabloidism has taken over.

On top of all that, the second run has been put off until tomorrow.  So Liz Goergl needs to live like the old days. When Olympic GS was always contested over 2 days and the leader needed to sleep on the lead. So do Tiana Barioz and Katrin Zettel. I would think that the girls lurking a little further back have the advantage at this point. Tina Maze for sure will make a run at it. I think Olympic medals are available all the way back to Julia. She will have a much better start number than the leaders and if she lays down a great run, the pressure could take over. Put the big number up on the board and who knows?

I would look for a step up from Tessa Worley (FRA) and Kati Hoelzl (GER) on this second run.

Best of luck to Jules and Sarah!

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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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