How to save XC?

Thanks to meterologist Scott B for this one:

http://tinyurl.com/4zjx4

I think that the sugar daddy I speak of would give this support.
Basically, I just see a millionaire behind both Lance and Greg and
consider that a possibly vital missing link. It's most important, as
you say, before the big win. It's the key to development success. It's
not the money as reward angle, it's the money from a believer angle.

I note (for a 3rd time) that Pete's recent article about the Germans
says they are fewer than top US skiers but they they're fully
supported, and then all pushed like crazy, let the chips fall where
they may.

Now we may never get the infrastructure without a history of winning or
even XC appreciation, but to break our one Great Winter Hope on thru is
going to require that at least that one skier gets all those things.
And that will require the sugar daddy. (Or mommy!)

--JP

On 15 Feb 2005 05:39:28 -0800, wrote:

I think that the sugar daddy I speak of would give this support.
Basically, I just see a millionaire behind both Lance

Who was behind Armstrong?

JFT

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Thom Weisel.

Not the same as Mengoni but in the neighborhood.

32 degrees wrote:
Jay, do you take paypal?
I'm sending you $50,000
JK


Of course I take PayPal. They don't call me "eBay Jay" for nothing...

Jay Tegeder
"Keep training, lycra never lies!" JT
p.s. go to www.skinnyski.com and click on race results. Go to the last
set of pictures for the 35K. Check out the skier wearing bib number
2366. Tell me if you think he needs to lose weight...

Jay,

I thought you were coming up shy on your 50k club reports. What
happened this year ? This core of yours happened before our snow
failure.

Still doing the call for the Birkie sprints this year ?

Dell

wrote:
32 degrees wrote:
Jay, do you take paypal?
I'm sending you $50,000
JK


Of course I take PayPal. They don't call me "eBay Jay" for nothing...

Jay Tegeder
"Keep training, lycra never lies!" JT
p.s. go to www.skinnyski.com and click on race results. Go to the
last
set of pictures for the 35K. Check out the skier wearing bib number
2366. Tell me if you think he needs to lose weight...

wrote:

I note (for a 3rd time) that Pete's recent article about the Germans
says they are fewer than top US skiers but they they're fully
supported, and then all pushed like crazy, let the chips fall where
they may.

And the chips won=B4t fall down too low when a top-skier has a "safety
net" in the form of a career within the military, the police, the coast
guard or the customs. Or when the higher education system is such that
a would-be top skier can get a quality degree even when he dedicates
most of his years between 18 and 24 to skiing.

I don=B4t know whether either of these two aspects of the German success
formula can be copied in the U.S. - the college athlete system doesn=B4t
appear to be quite the same - but the German recipe of gathering all XC
wisdom and resources in biathlon, combined and XC together to help each
discipline probably could.

Of course, you=B4ll never be able to copy the German method of first
winning a sizeable share of TV spectators by achieving some
international success and then using the ensuing bigger chunks of
sponsorship money to achieve more success...


Anders

wrote:

In the meantime we need good solid ski culture more than money. What
gets the average joes and janes out there is the cultural values. If
you can sell people on going out and having fun all year round and
call
it XC and training for it then we win. Sell people on hanging out in
the woods with picnic stuff and bota bags. You just have to get them
picturing it and it's a winner.

This is limited to Finland and therefore no real answer to your
question, but purely as infotainment or whatever:

To the extent that we can talk of a XC boom or renaissance here - and
the sports store industry does talk about one - I=B4d state that there
are three reasons behind it:

1=2E The Lahti debacle, which perhaps quite unexpectedly caused a kind of
counter-reaction oe created a protest movement on the grassroot level:
"We are Finns, we=B4ll go on skiing no matter what, it doesn=B4thave any
bearing on *my* skiing what the idiots among the elites do etc"

2=2E The "no hassle, no esoteric knowledge necessary" grip tape, the
instant "no iron, no scraping, no squinting at the wax manual" glide
waxes etc, which tremendously lowered the threshold to start skiing and
to go out once you=B4d started - and which produced happy faces in the
tracks in place of the thousands of frustrated people muttering "I=B4ll
*never* ski again!"

3=2E The "first ever recrational national ski team member" gimmick:
untold amount of succesful publicity - for both skiing in general and
the national team - that came with the great idea of taking a popular
40-ish actor/comedian and having him train (or "train") with the team
with a personal goal of racing the Finlandia.
The various steps (getting sworn in, attending a camp or a race, on
a glacier in the Alps) were presented to the media and the whole thing,
incorporating personal technique lessons "from the head coach" was
featured as a part of a weekly "fitness" TV show - as well as in a web
site with a training program and diary etc. Afterwards it became
available as a "Crazy about skiing"-VHS or -DVD.
The success was so phenomenal that it resulted in a sequel where the
goal is in a skating marathon.
(I know that Finland is so much more of a "one-audience monoculture"
than even the "XC potential segment" of the U.S., and that the same
success couldn=B4t be duplicated even with Kiefer Sutherland and Ben
Stiller in tandem, but with the amount of sheer marketing genius that
you have...)



Anders

So do you guys really think that having a well supported race team and/or
champion will "save XC" in the US? I thought we were talking about saving
the sport as a popular sport that sustains an industry of shops and ski
trails. I don't think the skiing public is affected by race results. They
are affected by having a fun, easy to access sport that they can do for a
variety of reasons - family time, personal time, fitness, recreation, etc.

I don't see Lance Armstrong having had any affect at all on the bike buying
and/or riding public. I don't see a successful us XC ski team affecting the
overall viability of the XC ski industry at all. Just MHO, of course, but
it seems the discussion has focused on racing, and I don't think that's the
important factor. It's negligable. Weather/climate is 1000000X more
important. Accessiblity and "fun" is 1000000x more important.

Cam