Unexcused Absences World Ski Championships Recap - he said

World Ski Championships Recap – he said

by Kent 20 Feb 2015

It’s been a crazy two weeks of competition and festivities, plus another ten days of work leading up to the events, and we finally have a chance to take a deep breath and look back at the highlights of our experience.

A bit of background; Vail and Beaver Creek bid on and won the rights to host the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships (WSC – held every two years) over four years ago. The level of complexity to pull this off was staggering – from February 2 to 15 our resort hosted close to 500 athletes from 68 nations, plus around 1,200 international journalists and broadcasters, plus guests from all over the world, with everything put together by a dedicated paid staff and about 2,200 volunteers. Vail constructed a giant stage and awards plaza plus a qualifying race course and stadium, and Beaver Creek built two downhill courses, a massive finish stadium, and three giant temporary structures holding the broadcast facilities, the “poor” VIP tent, and a two-story Gold/Platinum VIP building.

The massive finish stadium at Beaver Creek

We spent the week leading up to the Championships working on the hill with both the professional race crew and as part of the volunteer Talon Crew, hanging A-net, shoveling, raking, setting up B-net, shoveling, anchoring A-net, shoveling, sideslipping, and did I mention shoveling? Some Italians (Andrea, Nicola, and Alessio), who thought it would be fun to fly a third of the way around the world to volunteer for the WSC, taught us how to say “shovel the snow” in Italian – “spalare la neve!”

Setting up ‘A’ net

Once the races started, our daily schedule was insane; wake up at 5 so we could load the chairlift at 6:30am, then attend the morning meeting at the mid-mountain lodge, followed by a full day’s work until about 4pm – lots of shoveling snow, or “spalare la neve”, or “pelleter la neige” (French), or “schaufeln den schnee” (German – we had a bunch of Germans and Austrians on our crew). Then it was time to visit the Beer Tent (excuse me, the “International Cultural Center”), usually followed by a festive dinner in Beaver Creek Village (the Coyote Cafe, or Blue Moose Pizza, or the Dusty Boot Saloon), although sometimes we went to Championship Plaza in Vail for the awards presentation and a free concert, and then home to bed by 9pm. Repeat (almost) daily.

An early, snowy morning with a bunch of other volunteers – I’m the one in the red/white/blue jacket

The good news is that we did have some days off to enjoy the races as spectators. In particular we got to see the Men’s Downhill, where the USA’s own Travis Ganong skied to a somewhat surprising second place, with Steve Nyman just off the podium in fourth place by a mere 3 hundredths of a second. The crowds were amazing, at least by US standards; the stadium sat 3,500, and another six thousand or so were in the two VIP areas or standing on the hillside above the finish line. The energy was breathtaking.

A downhill racer flies above the crowd

VIP areas (left), stadium (center), and overflow crowds (foreground)

Red Tail stadium filled to capacity

We got to see Ted Ligety come from 5th place after the first run and absolutely kill his second run to win the Giant Slalom WSC title for a record third time in a row. We also watched Eagle-Vail’s own Mikaela Shiffrin give everyone a scare in the Slalom. She was fastest the first run by about a quarter second, but after the first two intervals on the second run had ceded all that advantage and more back to her nemesis, Frida Hansdotter of Sweden, only to kick on the overdrive at the final pitch into the stadium and win the race by a third of a second. Needless to say the 10,000 fans in attendance went absolutely bonkers.

Slopeside crowds gathered to watch Mikaela Shiffrin

The organizers also put on a daily free concert in Vail, with some pretty big-name acts. We (OK, I) had hoped to see KC and the Sunshine Band, but we had a better offer of dinner with friends at the Gore Range Brewery that night. We did get to see both Philip Philips and the amazing Barenaked Ladies, who finished up a rockin’-good program with a killer cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love”.

Barenaked Ladies in concert

Some other highlights of the fortnight:

Meeting a whole bunch of fun new people on the Talon Crew, many from half-way around the world – in particular our new Italian friends and Manfred from Bavaria;
Attending the big press party thanks to our new friend Jacques, who works for the TV broadcast folks, and who also gave us a tour of the TV production facilities;
Getting our picture in the Denver Post (this is deep in the archives, it may take a minute or more to load) while we were shoveling Golden Eagle Jump during a snowstorm (alternate link here);
Meeting (and taking a selfie with) Michael Williams, who was 100% of the Jamaican Ski Team, and getting two coveted JST baseball caps;
Travis Ganong (USA) taking an unexpected Silver in the Men’s Downhill, and then us winning his race bib (#22) in the raffle during the end-of-event volunteer party;
Watching the women race from our on-course station at Golden Eagle Jump (normal World Cup events at Beaver Creek are only for the men);
Being given tickets to the Silver VIP tent by a special friend;
Another special friend getting me into the Lech-Zurs private party room where we feasted on Austrian food and beer;
The excitement of hearing dozens of different languages spoken all around us on the hill (by the coaches and racers) and in the village (by visitors and guests);
Being surrounded by the world’s best skiers – everywhere we looked on the slopes were world-class racers skiing around on their days off;
The shared experience of hard work and hard play with our fellow Talon Crew workers;
Witnessing one of the most sublime race performances of all time, Ted Ligety’s second run of the GS (or watch the Austrian broadcast here);
I never asked his name, but I likely rode up the Centennial chairlift with legendary Norwegian ski racer Kjetil André Aamodt, who was in town for the races and to be inducted into Vail’s International Ski Racing Hall of Fame – we chatted about living in the Vail Valley and he said he was thinking of moving here to coach ski racing;
Seeing all the racers and coaches from all the countries not normally associated with ski racing, countries like Monaco, Malta, Macedonia, and Montenegro;
The final party for the volunteers, where we won not only Travis’ race bib #22 as described earlier, but also a downhill race gate panel and a giant 2015 banner that had hung in the finish stadium.

Us with the entire Jamaican Ski Team

We capped the event with an amazing experience the last day of the races. Heather had her favorite ski school clients in town that weekend, so she was busy working with them. I was not scheduled to work, so I was standing beside the Men’s Slalom course to watch from up close. Just before the races started, Heather texted me that her clients were taking her to the Platinum VIP building as their guests to watch the race, and they might have an extra ticket and was I interested in joining them? (Um, yeah…)

A few minutes later I got the word to join the party, so I skied down and Heather met me with a spare ticket and I walked into the plush confines of the very important people’s gathering, where I was escorted to… Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper’s table. Apparently Heather’s ski school clients are tight with the Governor, so tight that he was staying at their house over the weekend.

Platinum VIP building with Gov Hickenlooper (left, facing camera) and Heather (right foreground)

So I got to both “hob” and “knob” in the big leagues during the Men’s Slalom Finals. The big bonus was that an unheralded Frenchman, Jean-Baptiste Grange, won the Gold in a thrilling race a half second in front of the favored Felix Neureuther of Germany. Since I love all things French, it was exciting to see. And speaking of all things French…

“Coach’s Corner” at Golden Eagle Jump

During the women’s GS midway through the Championships, we were on course at our usual station at Golden Eagle jump, surrounded by a couple dozen coaches. Heather asked the French women’s coach if he would be interested in trading his awesome Colmar French Ski Team parka for my not-so-awesome J. Lindeberg 2015 shell. Amazingly, he said yes, but only after the final women’s race Saturday. Background; I have been coveting the French Ski Team jackets since our first World Cup race back in late 2009.

Me with my prized French Ski Team jacket

So Saturday found me desperately looking around the race course, the finish area, and Beaver Creek Village for this coach. I had no luck all day long, and had given up and had just sat down with a friend in a cafe in the Village, when the coach walked right by not 5 feet away! I jumped up and followed (ok, stalked) him back to his hotel, and asked as graciously as possible, “excusez-moi de vous déranger, voulez-vous échanger votre veste de ski?” (sorry to bother you, would you like to trade your ski jacket?). “Bah oui” (surely!). So right there on the spot he takes off his most awesome Colmar French Ski Team parka (why an Italian clothing company supplies the French Ski Team is a question for another day) and gives it to me in exchange for my 2015 jacket. He was in a hurry and I never got his name, but he made me one very happy boy.

So now the races are over, and the thousand-strong TV crew have packed up their gear, and the foreigners have mostly gone back home, and things are pretty much back to normal here at Beaver Creek, and we’re frankly more than a bit sad; the build-up and the races were amazing. Working at this event was everything we could have ever hoped for, times ten. So Vail and Beaver Creek, let’s get started with a bid for the 2025 World Ski Championships.