ADVENTURE SPORTS BY WINA STURGEON 6/30
IT'S ON! SKI RACE AT SNOWBASIN JULY 4TH!
It's only a ten gate race, but it's your chance for bragging rights.
Snowbasin says, "It's not the Olympics or a World Cup, just a chance to have fun and brag that you skied (or snowboarded) at the 'Basin on July 4th, 2008." The 2008 Firecracker race will be a short hike from the top of the Needles gondola, in Middle Bowl Cirque. It will be a modified GS course, similar to a NASTAR race.
And it will be fun! The $25 entry fee includes a gondola pass, plus a bragging rights T-Shirt and an entry in the drawing for great prizes, like a summer season pass or dinner for two at The Around the World Chef Series (yummy gourmet with ambiance) and other goodies. Because of the drawing, you don't even have to win the race to win something.
There will be live music and barbecue on the Plaza during and after the race. The race begins at 10:00. No start sheet, the early bird gets the clean course. The course will be set by Masters Racer and Snowbasin Race Department head, Stew Marsh.
Sign up at the Ticket Window of the Grizzly Center (on the side of the Plaza) from 8:30 a.m. until 9:30, or sign up by phone: call 801-620-1000.
OLYMPIC SWIMMING TRIALS FLOODED OUT
Last week's Olympic trials in Omaha, to select the U. S. team that will swim at the Beijing Games, was halted by a tornado and flood. The severe storm killed two people in Nebraska, while hundreds of swimmers took shelter in the hallways of the Qwest Center near the Omaha's downtown area. Wind gusts hit 100 miles an hour, blowing down trees and knocking out power to over 100,000 people.
When the trials resumed after the storm, the fastest swimmer was, to no one's surprise, Michael Phelps. Nearly every swimmer wore Speedo's controversial LZR Racer full body swimsuit.
Meanwhile, Japan has told its swimmers: damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! Despite three domestic swimwear companies sponsorship of the country's Olympic swimmers, Japan's Olympic Committee has given its swimmers permission to wear the British made Speedo suit. In the Japanese Olympic trials, 17 new national records were set. Out of those swimmers, 16 were wearing the LZR Racer.
TOUR DE FRANCE FEUD GETS WORSE
First, ASO, the uber-powerful group that is buying up all the big bike races in Europe. arbitrarily banned the Astana team from the Tour de France; some say because non-French team members Levi Leipheimer (USA) and Alberto Contador (Spain) were certain to win.
Next, the international governing body of cycling, UCI, removed its sanction from the Tour and warned riders that they risked being banned from the Beijing Olympics if they ride in a non-sanctioned race. Tour organizers did not give in, threatening UCI's oversight of the sport.
Now UCI has said it will not help with doping tests during the race. This is at a time when riders will be tested for human growth hormone for the first time ever. HGH does not register on tests after 72 hours.
ASO has gotten the cooperation of countries where it owns prestigious races. The French Anti-Doping Agency will conduct increased random tests before the race, which begins July 5 and ends July 27. It is also working with Switzerland's World Anti-Doping Agency, and the Italian Olympic Committee.
TOUR WINNER FOUND GUILTY OF DOPING
American Floyd Landis has lost his appeal against doping charges after spending as much as three million dollars on his defense.
Landis, who won the 2006 Tour in a dramatic come-from-behind victory towards the end of the three-week race, was accused of a positive for testosterone, and banned from cycling for two years. Landis is 32.
The U. S. Anti Doping Agency, which prosecuted Landis for the appeal, agreed with the cyclist that the French lab which conducted the tests was sloppy and made numerous errors, but that did not discredit Landis' positive test.
Landis has been ordered to pay $100,000 for the cost of the appeal prosecution. His two-year ban will be up in January of 2009.