Top Five Fridays: December 6, 2024
Love it or hate it, the Beijing Big Air has one of the most iconic backdrops in all of skiing. More on the results from last weekends competition below! Image: FIS Snowboarding on Facebook
#1: FIS World Cup Alpine Updates - Shiffrin’s Story Takes an Unexpected Twist in Killington:
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the December 6, 2024 edition! This week the vibe around the office feels a little bit different as we finally found ourselves joining in on the fun that is ski season. After experiencing warm weather and drought-like conditions for most of the fall, Mother Nature finally decided to turn on the snow guns in our region, giving us one of the best opening weeks in recent memory. If Jeff and Bob come off a little extra chipper in this week’s video report, well, that might just be why. As for the ski news itself, we’ve got plenty to talk about, starting with coverage from last week’s FIS Alpine races in Killington where things didn’t exactly go as planned.
As you know, the World Cup storyline we’ve been following and hyping all fall has been Shiffrin’s quest to earn her 100th win at Killington. Ahead of the slalom races in Levi she had 97 wins, meaning she would need to win three of her next four races to pull off the storybook feat. Two races and two wins later, Shiffrin came into Killington needing to win just one of two races to pull it off. It felt as though the story had already been written, all Shiffrin had to do was show up. As it turns out though, fate had a different storyline in mind. Rather than telling a tale of triumph, it decided that this would be a tale of tragedy.
Kicking off the weekend in Killington was a giant slalom race, the second of the season for the women’s circuit. Looking back, in the first race of the season, Shiffrin had won the first run of the giant slalom in Soelden before weather rolled in, deteriorating the course and leaving Shiffrin battling insurmountable conditions for her second run. Ultimately, she fell to fifth in that race. Likely emboldened by her first run success in Soelden, as well as her quest for 100, Shiffrin got off to a hot start in Killington, winning the first run of the GS race. On run two, all Shiffrin had to do was maintain her .34 second lead in order to guarantee an eruption from the home crowd, secure her 100th career win, and create a moment that would go down in the history books. And then, the unthinkable happened.
Coming into the home stretch of the race, just as she crossed the third and final checkpoint, Shiffrin got out of rhythm, ultimately causing her to crash into a gate and then into the fencing. When all was said and done, not only did Shiffrin just barely missing pulling off a once in a lifetime feat, but she also ended up with a puncture to her abdomen and severe muscle damage which would cause her to sit out both the next day’s slalom race, as well as the upcoming races in Beaver Creek, CO. While it’s tough to say when she might be back, the good news is that she will certainly be back this season, and hopefully not too long from now. For now, all we can do is wait and wish her a speedy recovery.
As for Shiffrin’s teammates? Well, Sunday’s slalom event ended up being pretty forgettable for the U.S. team, so we’ll skip right over that, but Saturday’s giant slalom brought plenty of success. Despite Shiffrin’s crash, the U.S. Team was incredibly well represented in the standings, with Paula Moltzan taking 5th and Nina O’Brien finishing right behind her in 6th. Tied for 13th place was U.S. athlete Katie Hensien, while Elisabeth Bocock finished in 23rd. All things considered, it remained a successful day for the team as a whole. From here, they’ll travel to Beaver Creek for a Downhill and a Super G race next weekend, as this weekend’s races at Mont Tremblant were cancelled due to a lack of snow.
Before rounding out this highlight, we do want to quickly hit on a few things. First, as a quick reminder, the men’s circuit was off this past week, but is in Colorado this weekend for the Birds of Prey races, where we’ll have our eyes on Bryce Bennett and Ryan Cochran as they take on the first Downhill of the season this afternoon. Also on the men’s side of the sport, we’d be remiss not to mention the fact that after much anticipation and hype, it was announced this week that Marcel Hirscher had a very unfortunate crash in training, resulting in a torn ACL. He will not be competing in this season after all. Still, his storied return did clear the way for another legend of the sport in Lindsey Vonn, who plans to compete in her first FIS races since retiring this weekend, at the FIS Fall Festival at Copper Mountain, CO. As always, you can expect us to report back in a week with an update regarding her performance.
#2: FIS World Cup Freeskiing Updates: Athletes Continue to Defy Physics in Beijing:
Up next in our coverage of FIS World Cup news, is a recap of the World Cup Big Air event that was just held in Beijing last weekend. If you caught our coverage of Big Air Chur earlier this year, then you already know that we’re pretty high on this discipline within freeskiing. While the rotations themselves can be dizzying to watch, it’s also becoming the most progressive discipline as athletes are being forced to try tricks that have never been done in order to stand out amongst their peers. Nowhere has that ever been more obvious than in this latest event in Beijing.
Unfortunately, complete coverage of the event remains difficult to come by, but thankfully both Newschoolers.com and DownDays.eu do an excellent job of sharing trick by trick coverage. Between the two, it’s interesting to see the different takes on both the FIS judges as well as trick names, so we recommend giving both a read to get an idea of how the community is reacting to this type of progression. For our part though, we just want to call out a few of the specific tricks and athletes that impressed us the most.
On the men’s side of the event, arguably the most innovative trick of the day came to us once again, by way of U.S. athlete Troy Podmilsak who also blew our minds in Beijing. This time, he did an iteration of his unique Berco flip in which he reduced his 1080 rotation to just a 900. To put the mind boggling nature of this trick into perspective, here’s the description from Downdays writer Scott Naismith, “the trick is a left flat 360 japan to right d-spin/underflip/flatspin 720 lead japan block to 540.” Yeah. Good luck imagining that one. Unfortunately though, T-Pod’s first effort wasn’t landed cleanly and his second attempt at the trick lacked the amplitude required to put him on a podium, relegating him to a 10th place finish.
Beyond this trick that shouldn’t exist, the rest of the men’s field also stepped up with a barrage of never been done tricks (NBD), including a switch left triple 1260 bring-back 1080 lead mute from Kim Gubser which took him to the bottom of the landing. While that earned a respectable score of 89.75, it wasn’t enough to overcome a low score in run one, ultimately earning him a 7th place finish. At the end of the day though, it proved to be a strategic pairing of NBD tricks alongside high amplitude and rotation tricks that impressed the judges the most. As such, it was Tormod Frostad who took home first, pairing a massive right carving triple cork 1920 safety grab in his first run (91.00), with a never been done switch right tail butter double bio 1440 safety (92.00). That balance of ability to throw both the massive rotation tricks alongside lower rotation tricks featuring a high degree of difficulty, risk, and creativity look to be the winning combination this season, and we suspect athletes are working the formula into their plans for the next big air event of the year in Klagenfurt, Austria.
Before rounding out this highlight, we also want to make sure to give a huge shoutout to the women’s field, which also blew us away at the Beijing event. If you haven’t checked in on the state of women’s big air recently, brace yourself before you do: the tricks they’re throwing are insane. Case in point: the winner of the women’s field was Tess Ledeux, who paired a switch left double cork 1440 safety in run 1, with a left double cork 1260 high mute in run 2. While Tess’s strong tricks completed back to back resulted in a gold medal, several other athletes managed to put down at least one incredible run. Take for instance Mathilde Gremaud, who landed a flawless nose butter double cork 1260 in her second run, earning a score of 94.25 for the highest score of the day. Unfortunately, she dragged her hands on the landing of her other two runs, resulting in a 4th place finish. Sarah Hoefflin also deserves a shoutout this week, as she put down a left double cork 1080 japan, becoming the first woman to land a double cork 1080 all four ways in competition. Ultimately, her combined efforts secured a second place finish.
All in all, the Beijing Big Air event proved to be another incredible display of athleticism, giving physicists around the world something to ponder as the rules of science are being rewritten right before our very eyes. While they’re busy studying that, World Cup freeski athletes will be in Secret Garden, China for a halfpipe event. You can preview that event here.
#3: After Three Significant Avalanches This Week, it’s Time for a Quick Reminder:
Moving on from FIS news, we want to take a moment to share a trio of articles which indicate to us that it’s time to put out our annual avalanche reminder. This week, in Colorado, two major avalanches were triggered that made headlines for notable reasons. The first of those two happened on Tuesday in Berthoud Pass, where a skier reportedly triggered and was caught in a serious avalanche. Luckily, they were able to get themselves out of the debris, but incurred injuries that left them unable to exit the area on their own. As a result, Grand County Search and Rescue (GCSAR) was called in to rescue the skier.
The other avalanche that occurred in Colorado this week happened on an in-bounds, but closed portion of Steamboat Springs. In a post made on Facebook by the resort’s ski patrol, the avalanche is being called the largest in-bounds slide in the resort’s history. While the avalanche wasn’t triggered by humans and there were no injuries resulting from it, ski patrol took the opportunity to remind the public that closed areas of the resort are closed for a reason. It’s still early in the year, and while there might be snow, the mountain isn’t always safe and ready for ski traffic. Their message is simple: ski in-bounds, and they’ll open terrain as soon as it’s safe.
The third avalanche that happened this week didn’t happen in Colorado at all. In fact, it happened approximately 2,200 miles east of Steamboat Springs. That is, it happened right here in New England, at the both notorious and beloved Tuckerman’s Ravine. There, a video was shared by the Mountain Washington Avalanche Center showing a snowboarder dropping into what’s known as Chicken Rock Gully when an avalanche occurs above him just after making his first cutback. While not massive in size, it’s clear to see how getting caught in even a small avalanche could have dragged the snowboarder into the exposed rocks, resulting in significant injuries.
All of this leads to a message we try to share once a year: avalanche danger is very real, and it can happen when and where you least expect it. At this time of year, it’s easy to think that there isn’t enough snow for an avalanche to occur, but oftentimes this is exactly when avalanches happen. With a lack of a base, the surface snow has less below it to bond to, which can lead to riskier avalanche conditions than you might expect. Here on the East Coast, avalanches generally aren’t top of mind, but in areas with exposure - such as New Hampshire’s White Mountains, the Adirondack Mountains in New York, or even right here at Stowe - avalanche conditions can and do exist. So, with all of that in mind, we simply want to remind all of our readers to please, please be safe this season, and always keep avalanche danger in mind as you explore this winter.
#4: X Games Taps Former Olympic Freestyle Skier, NFL Player, and Tech CEO Jeremy Bloom to Guide Them into a New Era:
After a career that's included World Cup podiums, Olympic Podiums, NFL contracts, and overseeing a business acquisition, Jeremy Bloom is bringing his unique resume to the X Games, where he's just been made the new CEO of the organization. Image: Jeremy Bloom on Facebook
Now that we’ve got that heavy reminder out of the way, let’s wrap things up on a more upbeat note, with a story coming to us by way of the X Games. As you know, massive news broke over the summer as the X Games announced plans to become the X Games League (XGL). While countless questions remain in regards to the details of this new format, the long and short of it is that the X Games will transform itself into a cross-disciplinary, teams based league, in which rosters will compete in multiple events per season. Again, there are plenty of questions as to how this will all work, but we now know two things for sure: that the new league format will begin next year, and that Jeremy Bloom will be the CEO of the company.
This week, it was announced that Colorado tech-entrepreneur, former NFL player, and 12 time World Cup winning freestyle skier Jeremy Bloom has been chosen as the new CEO of the X Games.
Now, there’s a lot to digest with that sentence, so we’re going to let it stand alone. Give it a second read if you have to. Once you’re done, we think you’ll agree with this simple statement: Jeremy Bloom is uniquely qualified to lead the X Games.
To get an understanding of why we make this claim, let’s take a closer look at Bloom’s credentials. Born in 1982, he began competing in FIS World Cup moguls events in 2000, at the age of 18. Over the course of his career, he racked up 26 podium finishes, including 12 wins, 2 Olympic appearances, 3 World Cup titles, and is a 3 time FIS World Champion. During the course of his career, he also temporarily held the record for most consecutive wins, with six. Here’s the catch though: throughout it all, Bloom was living a double life. In addition to being such a prolific skier that he’s now in the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, he was also a standout wide receiver for the University of Colorado. Without diving too deeply into his football statistics, just know that he was good enough to be drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2006, before being traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then, in 2009, he retired from both football and skiing, opting to become the CEO of B2B tech startup Integrate. In that role, Bloom helped steer the company for 12 years before it was acquired by Audax Private Equity. After the acquisition, Audax decided to keep him on as CEO until his recent decision to depart for this new opportunity.
Now let’s take a look at the X Games side of the story.
At this pivotal moment in its journey, the X Games is trying to do a lot of things. In some ways, it’s taking on the role of a startup, as it attempts to introduce a brand new concept to the world. Doing such takes vision, courage, and almost certainly some amount of setbacks as they look to blaze an entirely new path. That’s a lot like entrepreneurship. The X Games is also trying to be a sports league, where increased media accessibility leads to increased viewership and engagement, and therefore increased salaries for athletes. That sounds like the NFL. And of course, they’re also trying to remain true to their action sports roots, noting that it’s a different category of sport and athlete, and so their style of presentation will have to differ from peer leagues. That sounds like the type of expertise a former Olympic level freestyle skier might have.
Now, with both sides of the story in mind, can you see why we say that Jeremy Bloom seems uniquely qualified for the job? While the verdict is still out in regards to what this new era of the X Games brings, it seems like they continue to make smart, strategic moves that have us feeling excited about what’s to come. To learn more, check out the report from the Aspen Times.
#5: And Now, Your Edits of the Week: It Might be Alex Hall’s World, and We All Just Live in it: Presenting, “Ash,” a MAGMA Film:
*** Warning: Soundtrack Contains Some Cussing ***