Strategy aside, all bode's well for stocked US team
The overriding impression leaving the World Alpine Championships in Bormio, Italy, is that the United States has one terrific ski team with more depth than it has enjoyed for many years -- if ever -- but that it has a long way to go to close the gap with the Austrians.
Perhaps that is neither a realistic nor particularly important goal. After all, Austria cuts ski racers from its team who could compete with the bulk of World Cup regulars. The Austrians accumulate the best ski racers in the country by operating a nationwide training system that creates racers from the Pop Warner age on up.
So, by the time an Austrian wears the red and black of the national team in competition, you can bet he or she has already waged a ferociously competitive campaign just to be in camp.
Just how much the US gained from its years of training with the Austrians is hard to say, but it seems probable that as much advantage went to the Americans when Atomic skis -- the Austrian racing skis of choice -- opened its doors for US speedsters such as Bode Miller, Daron Rahlves, and Bryon Friedman.
The US went into the Worlds looking for eight medals, a number that would have bettered by 25 percent its haul at St. Moritz last year. And eight were realistically within reach.
In fact, given the surprise giant slalom bronze by Rahlves, and the three unfinished runs in the Nations Team event, the US might have won more than eight. Instead, the US had to settle for six medals; the Austrians collected 11.
"Right now we're already having meetings to begin planning for next year," says US Ski Association president Bill Marolt, alluding to the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy. "Obviously, we're pretty optimistic about how we're going to go into them."
Indeed, not since 1984 has the US had so much reason to hope for a very decent Olympic medal count from its Alpine skiers. Add the snowboard and freestyle team and, well . . .
But of course, until the battles are waged on the snow, all is talk and fantasy.
The Bormio championships started with a bang Jan. 29 as Miller won the super-G on the Bormio course. The next day, Julie Mancuso followed up with a super-G bronze on the Santa Caterina course.
On Feb. 5, the US had its historic day when Miller and Rahlves took gold and silver, respectively, in the downhill for the team's best finish in an Alpine championship race. It's worth noting that these two had the very same finish in the World Cup downhill at Beaver Creek, Colo., two months earlier.
Rahlves, the 32-year-old veteran from Truckee, Calif., was as pleased as any ski racer could be to earn a silver medal in championship competition. But there was a wistful tone in his voice as he later described how he had always been the No. 2 to Austria's Stephan Eberharter, who retired at the end of last season.
"I always wanted to be the best downhiller in the world," said Rahlves. "But now I'm No. 2 to Bode."
Three days later, Mancuso was back on the podium with a bronze medal in the giant slalom, somewhat of a surprise that mitigated the disappointment at Lindsey Kildow's downhill race that Monday.
Despite her youth -- she'll turn 21 in October -- much was expected from Kildow at the championships because she had six podiums this year to become the US women's dominant racer. At a loss to explain her ninth- and two fourth-place finishes, and feeling the full weight of her failure to medal, Kildow said in resignation: "I thought this would be my year. I guess next year will have to be."
The next surprise medal came Feb. 9 when Rahlves took a bronze in the giant slalom -- his best finish in the discipline. Afterward, with his GS dialed in, he said he might consider making a run at the overall World Cup next year.
Despite two golds in Bormio, Miller remains something of an enigma. He has a kind of free-floating dissatisfaction, which erupts with regularity and has a disquieting effect on the team, especially its younger members.
Miller is clearly the greatest US skier of his generation -- and could someday lay claim to history. If his numbers keep improving, it will clearly be "Move over, Phil Mahre" time. In terms of championship skiing -- with five medals in his case -- he has already surpassed Mahre, who retired after his Olympic gold medal in 1984.
But where US Ski Team head coach Phil McNichol and Miller don't see eye to eye is in strategy. Miller, whose unorthodox style of skiing straight at gates, then demanding his skis to do almost unnatural contortions to make power turns, sees strategy as wimpish.
The great perception is that he swings for the fences every time at bat, which includes all World Cup races -- speed and technical. In terms of Miller's stated aim of winning the overall World Cup title this year (he leads Austria's Ben Raich 1,093 points to 998), McNichol is convinced he could win it easily if he skied more strategically -- finishing to accumulate points rather than trying to blow the doors off the rest of the world.
"Of course he could win the overall," says McNichol. "Could he make it easier for himself by laying back a little bit and finishing more races? Of course he could."
To Miller, such strategy is anathema to the way he has skied since flying down the icy steeps of Cannon as a 12-year-old. He won't hear such talk, and the final race of the championships was a case in point.
Skiing in the final heat of the Nations Team slalom, Miller took a straight line into the first gate on the course. He missed it and was disqualified, drawing a 9-point deduction for the US team. Had Miller, who had won the Team super-G, finished anywhere in the top eight, the US would have been on the podium, rather than finishing fourth.
Since Mancuso and Kildow flamed out in 9-point disqualifications, it may be unfair to stick the entire blame on Miller, but, as McNichol would say to ears unwilling to listen: "Yuh, he's the greatest. But he could win even more if he didn't make it so hard on himself."
