JEEP KING OF THE MOUNTAIN FINALS
Sun Valley, March 14-16 is the final stop on the growing skicross circuit, and this time, Jeep King of the Mountain has a lot to prove. The series lost a lot of cred' in the past two events, only partially due to weather; mostly because Jeep's KOTM concentrated more on the TV show of the event than the race course or the athletes. But Jeep got ripped a new one by athletes and coaches, and learned a lesson from being sternly schooled.
Circuit 'cross ski tech and coach Jeff Sadis reports:
"I know the course at Sun Valley is gong to be significantly more challenging. At Telluride, we didn't have enough snow to work with, and at Squaw, they had too much snow, and they didn't have time to build the course. I think they are going to work doubly hard at Sun Valley to make sure the course is perfect.
I think, considering the Telluride and Squaw races were not up to the athlete's and organizer's expectations, that everybody's going to work to make sure Sun Valley is a good event.
Training starts a week from this Wednesday (March 5). The comp is Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I've started preparing the skis, the equipment is all ready to go. The majority of the top ski and boarder cross athletes will be there, as well as jibbers like Simon Dumont, who do slopestyle. My athletes will be Biche Rudigoz; Margaret Thorpe, who is coming back from a broken hand and fractured shin, she's amazingly tough; Lynn Ott, who is dealing with a sprained ankle and bone brusing; Tanner Dardin, nursing a sore knee; Cody Smith, coming off a bruised hip and bruised kidney, he's day-to-day, I don't know for sure if he will race. They are all pretty banged up this time of year. I may also be helping two French athletes, but that's not decided yet.
I know the organizers are working with coaches and athletes on making sure the event is a good one, but I've been too busy with my athletes to get involved. My biggest concern right now is just making sure everybody's healthy and happy, making sure everybody's head is in the right place."
Heading into the finals, the top three men and women are:
1.) Tomas Kraus
2.) Casey Puckett
3.) Michael Schmid
1.) Ophelie David
2.) Sasa Faric
3.) Magdalena Jonsson
ASW will have a full report on the event from Jeff in the March 17th issue.