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Skiing News - September 2006
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Friday, 29 September 2006
Vancouver, BC – The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) passed another major milestone today as it officially launched its search for the designer of the o
fficial Olympic and Paralympic Games mascot(s).
Artists from around the world now have the opportunity of a lifetime: to design a mascot(s) that will achieve worldwide fame while also achieving a defining professional accomplishment. The mascot(s) will feature prominently in hundreds of Games communications and materials from advertising and publications to websites and merchandise. The mascot(s) will also act as the ‘real-life’ ambassador for the Games, appearing in animated films and at various events around the country and during the Games.
“The Vancouver 2010 Winter Games mascot(s) will be among the most recognizable and colourful personalities of Canada’s Games and will embody our nation’s culture and values,” said VANOC Chief Executive Officer John Furlong. “They will become cherished icons – especially for children – and symbols of our Games, our country, and our moment on the world stage. We don’t know who will design the mascot(s), but we’re looking … and we’re looking for the very best!”
All Canadians have the opportunity to engage in the mascot(s) development program, through information and surveys posted to the popular vancouver2010.com website. Furlong enthusiastically encouraged citizens from across the country to speak up and be heard: “Each and every Canadian will have an opinion on the mascot(s) once they are produced, so we want people to start thinking about it and discussing it now. What best represents Canada as the host of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games? We want to know!”
Design applicants can find the Request for Proposal (RFP) on a specially created section of the Vancouver 2010 website: vancouver2010.com/mascot.
Wednesday, 27 September 2006
This year's Marmot Extreme Skiing and Snowboarding Comp wrapped up yesterday with several explosive performances from male and female categories in their respective sports.
In the female category in s nowboarding, Maria Kuzma put out a pair of consistent runs to finish first with 38.8 points. She managed to get a 17.8 in her first run to lead by just two points over Ann Paterson. In her second run, Kuzma finally left the opposition behind by leading by almost 8 points with a score of 21, while Paterson came in closest with only a 13.8.
Meanwhile, in the male category, Robbie Walsh stepped up from a second-place finish in his first run to get a total of 53 points. In his first run, Willie Beggs edged Walsh with 29 points. But when the second round came, Beggs dropped to 8th place with 15.4 while Walsh improved his performance with a 27.4 to secure his victory.
In the skiing comp, another Kuzma captured the crown in the female category. Janina Kuzma finished with a 58.4 but almost lost her chance of winning the competition when she dropped several points in the second run. She scored an impressive 32.8 in her first run, but only had 25.6 in the second run to trail Tess Pirie who had 28.6. Fortunately for Kuzma, her first run score was enough to give her a comfortable lead for the win.
Geoff Small, on the other hand, finished first in the male category. He managed to gather a total of 80.8 points to edge Hamish Acland who settled for a second-place finish. Acland led by a very narrow margin in the first run when he scored a 39.8 against Small’s 39.2. But Small bounced back in the second run where he got a 41.6 while Acland only had a 30.2.
More information is available at www.mtruapehu.com/extremecomp.
Tuesday, 26 September 2006
PARK CITY, Utah (Sept. 25) - Former Olympic aerials silver medalist and two-time World Championships medalist Joe Pack (Park City, UT) and 2003 World Cup moguls champion Travis Cabral (South Lake Tahoe, CA) have r
etired from World Cup competition, the U.S. Ski Team said Monday.
"It's time to do something else," Pack said. "I've had a good, long, fun run and I've got no regrets about retiring. It's been a blast."
Pack, a ski jumper while growing up in southern New Hampshire, was silver medalist at the 2002 Winter Games in front of his family and hometown fans and friends when the event was held at Deer Valley Resort.
He rebounded from a knee injury, which kept him out of the 1998 Olympics, to earn the bronze medal in aerials at the 1999 World Championships in Meiringen, Switzerland. In 2001, he was bronze medalist again when the Worlds were held in Whistler, B.C. Pack also won three World Cup events and is a two-time U.S. champion.
Cabral, who turned 23 Saturday, was the 2003 World Cup champion when he won three World Cup contests. He remains the youngest U.S. moguls national champion in history, having won the moguls title when he was 15 in 1999. In 2004, he swept the U.S. moguls and dual moguls titles.
U.S. Head Coach Jeff Wintersteen said they represent "a big loss. They've been outstanding role models and it's been an outstanding run but nothing goes on forever, so now we have to rebuild...and we are.
"Joe's been a real team leader over the last three or four years as we rebuilt the aerials program after the 2002 Olympics. He's been the de facto team captain...and he's doing a great job with FLY [Freestyle Lives Year-round, a Park City aerials club], so he's still helping lead," Wintersteen said.
"Travis is an extraordinarily talented athlete," the coach added. "His personality, his humor - he's a tough one to replace; he was always in the mix and part of the core of what, for quite a while, was the best men's moguls team in the world. We'll miss 'em, but we obviously wish both of them the best."
This article was originally posted at the US Ski Team's website at www.usskiteam.com.
Tuesday, 26 September 2006
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (Sept. 25) - An expanded program, fresh coaching staff and an all-new approach to training is propelling the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team toward completion of another successful training camp in t
he 1932 and 1980 Olympic Village.
"This camp is all about training hard, doing a lot of intensity and a lot of intervals," said two-time Olympian Andrew Johnson (Greensboro, VT). "In a two-week block, we'll do between 16 and 18 interval sessions and a couple of time trials. This is a slight variation on what we've done the last few years, it's a little more intensity, but it's also a little more controlled and monitored more closely, so it's less risky."
The training design, built by Head Coach Pete Vordenberg, Sprint Coach Chris Grover and the newest addition to the U.S. staff, Justin Wadsworth, a three-time Olympian turned World Cup coach, is focused on individual programs for each athlete. To do this, the team adapted the methods of Norwegian Jan Helgerud, who is world renown for his research on distance versus intensity training.
"Basically, we're going to use the intensity to build capacity through interval blocks," said Wadsworth, who used Helgerud's methods to help train 2002 Canadian Olympic gold medalist and wife Beckie Scott. "We developed some training methodology from his studies that he even thought was pretty cool.In my career, I probably over trained a little bit, but I've always thought that I did the best I could with technique, and I feel like I really want to help the athletes with any of that and I'm really fired up to do it."
At the helm was Vordenberg, a two-time Olympian, who stepped up from World Cup coach to head coaching in the spring then promptly re-signed Grover and sought out Wadsworth, then hired development coaches Matt Whitcomb and Pat Casey to lead the pipeline.
The key is "Good staff," said Vordenberg. "The guys who I hired, I'm so happy with because we can take care of everybody as they need to be taken care. That's what makes it possible. Every camp, I've said the same thing and that is, so far, it (the team) looks really good. I started saying that in May and now I'm saying that in September. The summer has flown passed and every camp, I've said we're looking awesome."
With nearly the entire national team in Lake Placid, coaches and athletes took full advantage of the varied, "low altitude" terrain. Two-time Olympian Kris Freeman (Andover, NH) centered on putting in the Adirondack miles, while Johnson and sprinters Torin Koos (Leavenworth, WA), Chris Cook (Rhinelander, WI) and Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, VT), who last season nailed the first American World Cup podium since 1983, focused mostly on interval training.
"Lake Placid is definitely ideal for what we need to do," said Vordenberg, "we wouldn't come here if it wasn't good for what we need to do. The athletes need good steep uphills and rolling ski-like terrain and there's a lot of that around here." He also added that being able to sleep, work out and eat at the Olympic Training Center makes the training so much easier for the athletes.
Johnson, who grew up in neighboring Vermont agreed, "Lake Placid provides the perfect setting for the kind of ‘good pain' we're after. As a little kid we used to come over here and hike around the mountains so it's like home in a way. Plus, fall is a great time of the year to be training here, the views are always good, and strange as it may sound, it's nice to be in some rain and colder weather."
Next stop for the U.S. Cross Country Team is a Sports Science camp slated for mid October in Park City, Utah.
This article was originally posted at the US Ski Team's website at www.usskiteam.com.
The detail of Lars Flora and Andrew Johnson's photo is courtesy of ussa.smugmug.com.
Friday, 22 September 2006
Aspen Skiing Co. takes a bold move and is making an advertising campaign to raise environmental awareness among its customers. Scott Condon of the Aspen Times reported yesterday on the said move by Skico.
While this move is contrary to the findings of a research group five years ago, Skico says that times have changed. The research firm Z Group said in 2001 that while the company should not, "reduce its commitment to environmental responsibility," its value of does not lie in its marketing contribution. Skico meanwhile said that much has changed in five years. More visitors now take in consideration environmental sustainability when choosing a travel destination.
Read more of Condon’s news at www.aspentimes.com. Use the account details at www.bugmenot.com to access the news without registering at Aspen Times.
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