Is Bode Miller a product of US Ski Team Development?

I'm sort of curious as to what others say. I think, like the Mahers, he is
just extremely talented. The US teams just don't seem to have the
consistency or the talent top to bottom of the Austrians or the Swiss.
What's wrong with the development program?

jvwalker51 writes:

I'm sort of curious as to what others say. I think, like the Mahers, he is
just extremely talented. The US teams just don't seem to have the
consistency or the talent top to bottom of the Austrians or the Swiss.
What's wrong with the development program?

I think maybe you wanna consider going back and really looking
closer at some recent results. The Austrians still have the edge,
but not by as much as you seem to think...and the Swiss? Don't
think so. They barely showed up last season.

--
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::
Mary Malmros
Some days you're the windshield,
Other days you're the bug.

jvwalker51 wrote:
I'm sort of curious as to what others say. I think, like the Mahers, he is
just extremely talented. The US teams just don't seem to have the
consistency or the talent top to bottom of the Austrians or the Swiss.
What's wrong with the development program?

First, like Phil and Steve Mahre, Miller is extremely talented - talent
is the base you develop from. Anyone who achieve success at the top
level combined talent with desire with effort to developed their skills.
That says nothing about the USSA development efforts, pro or con.

The US Ski Team development program is bigger than the WC, Europa cup,
and C team; a development program discussion has to include the junior
levels; so, yes, Miller is a product of USSA developmental racing, even
before moving to the C team. He was a recognized junior from his early
days; his name cropped up in race results regularly, at each J level
(_Ski Racing_ publishes results for races all over the country) and even
we on the west coast were aware of him before age 15. When he took all
the east coast finals years ago, skiing on K2 Fours everyone in the
country (well almost everyone) was a-buz at 1) the audacity of the kid
going against coaches' advice and racing on a recreational ski, and 2)
the audacity of the kid winning all the races, often by enormous (in ski
race terms) margins.

IMO there are at least two things hindering US racing. One is the well
recognized problem of not having real population density in skiing
regions, as opposed to the alpine countries. Euro kids get cheering
crowds like US kids only see in high school football games, so there's
more opportunity AND more incentive - a hard combination to combat. The
second, seldom discussed hinderance, is that the promising Euro kids get
early international experience seldom afforded to US kids, although
there is a push to get more US kids to europe earlier in their career.

lal_truckee wrote in
:

IMO there are at least two things hindering US racing. One is the well
recognized problem of not having real population density in skiing
regions, as opposed to the alpine countries. Euro kids get cheering
crowds like US kids only see in high school football games, so there's
more opportunity AND more incentive - a hard combination to combat.


Amen to that. The only cheering I heard when I was racing in high school
was from gatekeepers. And they were generally parents from the hosting
school's team. Just too many things competing for talented people in the
US. Soccer, football, and baseball get kids when they are really young.
Sure, if I have kids, they will start skiing before they can walk, but
that is not true in all familys.


--
Chester Bullock,
Tenxible Solutions - Tangible, Flexible
Website Hosting, Design and Marketing
http://www.tenxible.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do you really own your domain name? Find out
with our free domain name research report.
http://www.tenxible.com

Chester Bullock wrote:

lal_truckee wrote in
:

IMO there are at least two things hindering US racing. One is the well
recognized problem of not having real population density in skiing
regions, as opposed to the alpine countries. Euro kids get cheering
crowds like US kids only see in high school football games, so there's
more opportunity AND more incentive - a hard combination to combat.


Amen to that. The only cheering I heard when I was racing in high school
was from gatekeepers. And they were generally parents from the hosting
school's team. Just too many things competing for talented people in the
US. Soccer, football, and baseball get kids when they are really young.
Sure, if I have kids, they will start skiing before they can walk, but
that is not true in all familys.


Did I hear correctly that Tyler (?) Hamilton who did well in the Tour de
France (despite cracking his collar bone in a crash on the first day)
had been an elite ski racer ?