SKIER CROSS IS BREAKING BIG
It's the Warped Tour on snow, and the main organizer says to would-be competitors, "If you think you have what it takes, bring it!"
The former "Ski Tour," which was a big purse skiercross event, has merged with Jeep King of the Mountain sponsors, and it's a whole new series. The four events of the Ski Tour are now narrowed down to three comps: Telluride, Co., Dec. 15-16; Squaw Valley, Ca. Feb. 9-10; and the finals at Sun Valley, Id.; March 15-16.
There are open qualifications in Telluride, with cash awards down to 16th place, and four new Jeeps to be given away to the series champions at the final stop (to find out how to get into the qualifying rounds, contact Michael Friedberg at: mike@eclipsetv.net.
The series is no longer men only; a woman's contest has been added. And, it's no longer skiers only. Snowboardcross and halfpipe comps have been added, along with lots of bands and stages for them to perform upon, just like the Warped Tour, where skateboard athletes have become secondary.
But the main event is skiercross. Remember, Jeep KOTM grabbed mountain bike supercross as soon as the event was added to the Olympic lineup for the 2008 Beijing Games. Snowboardcross made its debut in Turin's 2006 Olympics, for both men and women. Both JKOTM and the International Olympic Committee realize that there's big bucks to be made from signing on with a hip and popular X Games sport.
The new series will drop the Ski Tour's Y-cross format, where a Y-shaped start narrows so that everyone rubs for the lead; in favor of the start style sanctioned by the IOC. JKOTM's stated goal is to become the main qualifying tour for the Olympic cross sports, both summer and winter.
With more comps in each stop, the prize money has been lowered from Ski Tour's top purse of $25,000. It's now down to $15,000, with one less stop. That doesn't sit well with some ski cross athletes. Last year's Ski Tour champ, former U. S. ski team racer Casey Puckett, says in his blog that he had a chance at $170,000 in prize money with eight U. S. races. Now, there are only four big events, with only a $85,000 cash award, which means even a podium champion would have to win every race to earn that money. Puckett is changing his plans in hopes of earning more of a living from ski cross; he will now compete in FIS World Cups in Europe for the first time.
Of course, the JKOTM series is not the only big skiercross contest. There's the X Games, of course, and a new event at Deer Valley on February 2, 2008.
Skiercross is motocross on skis, with a touch of hockey thrown in. Four racers at a time (six in the X Games) jam and slam to pull ahead of each other, skiing over jumps and around berms. Spectacular crashes are commonplace.
For more info, email: bskinner@ussa.org