With just 2 months to the first Alpine World Cup races in Solden, Austria and less than 6 months to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver /Whistler – National Alpine Teams from around the world are stepping up their training sessions in preparation for the upcoming season. Home glaciers, snowfields and southern hemisphere training are being utilized to find improvements in techniques and equipment. For some athletes it’s a return to snow after recovering from last winter’s injuries.
Most of the European teams are wrapping up their summer glacier training and getting ready to head to the Southern Hemisphere for some winter conditions. The U.S. team has recently wrapped up a training session in New Zealand and will be in South America soon.
Typically teams head to New Zealand and Australia for technical (SL & GS) training, and to Chile and Argentina for the speed discipline (SGS & DH) training.
The worldwide economic downturn has greatly affected all National teams and equipment suppliers. Many National team members must now pay out of their own pocket for a portion of their training. Some ski companies are forced to cut their service staff and have had mandatory racer salary cuts in order to manage through this financial crisis that has hit the ski world hard. With these changes look for several athletes to switch equipment this year (can you say Lindsey Vonn to Head?)
Sad news in the ski world this week as one of the greatest heroes of modern ski racing Toni Sailer, the first competitor to win all three alpine ski events at the 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo Olympics, has died at the age of 73 after a long illness. Auf Geht’s Toni!
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