Meet Resi

The same guy?

It's not news to ski racing fans that Bode Miller is one of the featured athletes on ABC's new show The Superstars, which began airing this week.
What may be a surprise however, is that this guy:

And this guy:


Are the same person.
While Miller crushed the competition, including Terrell Owens, on the uphill biking portion of the challenge, he looked like a complete chump as he tried to run along the 1.1-mile course. Chalk it up to serious lactic acid buildup or to some partying the night before (Miller admitted after to losing his lunch in the bushes) but Miller did not look like one of the world's finest athletes, to say the least.
This is, mind you, the same guy who recovered from the near-horrendous crash (pictured above, Youtube here) during the 2006 Torino Olympics.

Skiing or not?
For all those still wondering if Miller will compete in this year's World Cup or the Vancouver Games, you'll have to wait and see. A recent blog post on Universal Sports says he's still unsure:

"Coming off of last season, I’m not very happy to be around the World Cup or Olympic scene right now. I'm just not happy when I'm there. I need some time away, which I have this summer.
I'll definitely be skiing somewhere next season, I just haven’t made any final decisions about the World Cup. I'll probably take some fun ski trips, go ski powder, maybe do some small races here and there -- who knows."

WCN is back

Hi folks and sorry for the hiatus. Since I spent much of the 2009 season writing for the U.S. Ski Team (and Snowboard Team) I took leave of World Cup Notes for, well, a job that paid.
Now that seems to be over and the team has entered its perennial financial meltdown, so my position is on hold.
Why not keep all you fans up to speed in the interim. There is much to report.
That will all come in future stories, guest columns and insider reports for the lead into the 2010 season, an Olympic one at that.

Spotlight on: Lara Gut

In case you haven't noticed, Lara Gut is something of a phenom.
The 17-year-old Swiss racer has raced in eight World Cups and in three of them, she's been in the top five. She was third in the downhill at St. Mortitz last year - her first World Cup DH start ever - and she came in third despite crashing through the finish line.
To start the season this year, she came in fifth in Soelden, which was her third World Cup giant slalom and the first in which she qualified for a second run.
Most of her success comes in the speed events. In January of last year she won four Europa Cups in a row at Caspoggio, Italy.
After Soelden though, who knows what she's capable of. Skiing like that could make her an overall contender.
To put her age in perspective, last year she was a second year J2. This year, she's a J1.

Here's the link to Gut's debut downhill where she crashes and still gets third.

Also, check out her journal (if you read German) on her Web site here.