Ski Racing - Snippets
Image: Snowkings.
Snippets of strange facts, oddities and curiosities from the ski racing world...
(If you know of any others then
email them
to us.)
Following his success at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Nagano, where he grabbed double gold in the Super-G and Giant Slalom,
Hermann Maier aka 'the Herminator' was invited onto primetime American TV as a guest on Jay Leno's Tonight Show on the NBC
channel.
Also on the show with him that night ? None other than fellow Austrian Arnie 'the Terminator' Schwarzenegger.
Cue 30 minutes of hilarious gags regarding Lederhosen and Apfelstrudel.
In 2001 the great Austrian was starting to completely dominate the FIS World Cup, having just won
the Overall, Downhill, Giant Slalom and Super G titles for the 2nd year in a row, leaving only the Slalom
and Combined titles for the rest of the skiers to fight it out for ! However, in the summer of 2001 he was involved
in a near fatal crash on his motorbike, such were the extents of the inuries that he nearly had to have one of his legs
amputated. The doctors managed to save it though and he underwent a complete reconstruction of the leg.
The ski-mad Central-European media thought he was lucky to walk again, none considered that he might actually try to
race again, but 18 months later he raced again at Adelboden. Incredibly, just 2 weeks later he scorched to victory
in the Super G on his home soil in Kitzbuhel. But that wasn't the end of this amazing comeback - the following season, his
first full one since the horrific accident, he claimed both the Overall and Super-G titles, and was also
named winner of the Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year. Think of that next time you hear a footballer
complaining about a broken metatarsal.
See what we've done there, you know with the old Wonder Stuff song title ? Oh well, we'll get out coats.
Anyway, this refers to Lindsey Vonn's victory at Val d'Isere back in 2005.
The French resort, working with some locals farmers and a cheese company, thought it would be good for their profile to
offer a cow as part of the winner's prize. Not expecting anyone to call their bluff and actually take up the offer, imagine
their surprise when Vonn accepted it and refused to exchange it for euros ! The cow, named Olympe, was taken to Kirchberg in
Austria where the USA ski team had been based during the ski season and is looked after by one of Vonn's friends. Needless to
say, Val d'Isere didn't make the offer again.
When the Herminator announced his retirement in October 2009 just before the start of the ski season
even the British sports media (normally totally uninterested in snowsports) reported it. But obviously
not as interested as the Austrians... the town of Flachau renamed it's main square after him and
held a massive party which thousands of people attended, including some local alpine celebs such as
Niki Lauda, Ralf Schumacher, Karl Schranz and Kristian Ghedina. There were also video messages
from Roger Federer, Mike Doohan and Austrian President Heinz Fischer. It was an emotional day
for one of the most exciting skiers the sport has ever produced and, top man that he is, he rounded
things off in his own special way - offering a free round at the bar for every single person there !
America's Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn upset the applecart back in her homeland by scooping an award
usually reserved for the countrys most popular sports (basketball, american football, baseball, tennis, apple-pie eating etc).
Vonn was named as the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, becoming the first skier to win the
prestigious award since it was started back in 1931, and wiped the floor with the opposition like she had done
on the slopes, receiving more than double the votes of the nearest contender.
The Crazy Canucks was the nickname given to group of Canadian ski racers who burst onto the world scene in the
1970's and 80's and became famous for their fast, risky and often reckless style of skiing. The members of the group
were Dave Irwin, Dave Murray, Steve Podborski and Ken Read. Their risky style produced not only plenty of dramatic
falls but also plenty of success - the group earning more than 100 top 10 World Cup finishes between 1978 and 1984.
Journalist Serge Lange lays claim to coining the phrase after watching Dave Irwin fall in a race, and the nickname stuck with the
rest of the Canadian skiers after that.
The Crazy Canucks are amongst the best loved sportsmen in Canada and a film based on them was made in 2004.
The winners of Kitzbuhel's Hahnenkamm races not only receive the trophies, prestige, World Cup points and prize money,
they also have gondola cabins named after them on the town's ski lift system.
A red bib is given to the skier who leads the various FIS World Cup standings, a bit like the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.
So when they next race they can easily be identified from the rest by being the only skier racing in red.
Having won 3 gold medals at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina, and followed it up with the same feat
two years later at the World Championships in Bad Gastein, the Austrian legend's mother famously declared that
"Toni has enough medals now. It's time he started making money". And make money he did. But not just through the channels
normally associated with retired skiers such opening a hotel or starting a clothing business. He did those as well, but Toni
was a bit different to the rest and also forged a successful career as a singer and actor. Classic Euro-films from the 60's
such as Ski Fever, The Blue from the Sky, The Lucky Strike, 12 Girls and 1 Man, and er, Lost Treasure of the Incas may well have
bypassed British film-goers but were popular around Europe and even in the Far East, all adding to the Sailer coffers
and the Sailer legend.
The White Circus is the nickname that's been given to the FIS World Cup tour as it's skiers and accompanying coaches, technicians,
media and fans sweep around the world from ski resort to ski resort as the race calendar gets ticked off.
Keywords
: famous ski racing stories and tales
: interesting facts from professional FIS skiing world cup calendar races
You are here:
1988 : Hermann Maier : When Herminator met Terminator 
2005 : Lindsey Vonn : The Prize of a Cow
Crazy Canucks : Canadian Legends 
Red Bib : World Cup Leader