Top Five Fridays: February 2, 2024
Lead Image: It's the time of year again! The X Games are back, and in their second year under new ownership, some positive tweaks have been made to the scheduled events. Image: X Games on Facebook
#1: FIS World Cup Alpine Update - While Shiffrin Sidelined With Knee Injury, Jacqueline Wiles Claims a Podium:
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the February 2, 2024 edition! This week we have another triple header of competition news as we bring you the highlights from FIS World Cup action, followed by a recap of the X Games (as previously promised), and coverage of the first stop from this year’s Freeride World Tour. Then, just like last week, we’ll round things out with an interesting story straight from our home state of Vermont. This week, that highlight’s a look back at the saga that unfolded at Jay Peak recently, although from an angle that we haven’t heard before: the story of Bill Stenger’s involvement. We’ll get to that in just a second, but for now, let’s start with a recap of the latest in alpine action.
First things first, let’s start with the biggest, most unfortunate news from the week: Mikaela Shiffrin is currently sidelined with a knee injury. If you’ll recall, in last week’s report we mentioned that action had already gotten underway in Cortina, with a downhill race occuring earlier that day. In our coverage, we highlighted the three way tie for third, but neglected to mention the fact that Shiffrin didn’t finish the race. Being so close to press time, what we didn’t realize is that Shiffrin didn’t simply miss a gate or ski out - she actually suffered a pretty dramatic looking crash. The good news, fortunately, is that Shiffrin avoided any major injuries in the crash, meaning no torn ligaments or broken bones. The bad news though, is that she didn’t escape entirely unscathed. Instead, it’s being reported that she sprained her MCL, which is coupled with a bone bruise that she picked up in Levi on the same knee. As such, she sat out this week’s races and has yet to announce when she’ll be able to return to the circuit. In the meantime, her competitors are beginning to catch up to her in the overall standings. Obviously this immediately becomes the story to watch this season as we wait with bated breath to see when and if Shiffrin returns this season.
Of course even when the GOAT goes down, the show must go on, and the women’s team did exactly that this week. After the initial downhill race in Cortina, there was a second downhill race, followed by a super g. Between the two, the downhill race was undoubtedly the highlight as it proved to be the race in which a third member of the U.S. Women’s Ski Team made an FIS World Cup Podium this season, as Jacqueline Wiles put up a career best 2nd place result. Also finishing in the points for the women’s team in that race were Lauren Macuga in 23rd, and Keely Cashman in 24th. From there, things in Cortina began to mellow out as the next day’s super g race only resulted in Lauren Macuga earning points with her 15th place finish. Once things wrapped up in Cortina, the circuit moved on to Kronplatz, Italy for a giant slalom on Wednesday. There, Paula Moltzan took 11th while AJ Hurt took home 27th. Looking ahead, this week’s races in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany have already been canceled due to warm weather. As such, Shiffrin will have another week to attempt to heal before the next round of races are scheduled for Soldeu, Andorra on February 10 - 11. You can preview those races here.
Speaking of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, it turns out that for once the timing of weather events played out in favor of the men this week as that venue successfully hosted two super g races. In the first of those races, Ryan Cochran-Siegle led the way for Team America, finishing in 10th, followed by River Radamus in 17th, and Wiley Maple in 26th. In the second of the two super g races, the top Americans flipped, with River Radamus finishing in 8th, followed by RCS in 10th, Sam Morse in 23rd, Jared Goldberg in 28th, and Bryce Bennett in 29th. Once again, it was yet another race in which the Americans simply packed the points. Looking ahead, the two downhill races scheduled for Chamonix this week have already been canceled, although it looks like race organizers are still holding out hope for hosting a slalom race at the venue on Sunday. Should that race fail to come to fruition, the next races for the men will be in Bansko, Bulgaria from February 10-11. As per usual, we’ll be back next week to recap what we can!
#2: The 2024 X Games is a Wrap, and This Years New Events Were a Hit:
Moving right along, to our second competitive recap of the week, we’re excited to bring you coverage from this year’s X Games! In its second year under new ownership, the X Games proved yet again that by focusing on their core disciplines and events, it will continue to be a world class event. Overall, aside from the live feed’s occasional awkward moments and the chat box overlay that moved way too fast to read, the presentation of this year’s games remained at a high level. The commentary, judging, course builds, production quality - all of it was on par for what we’ve come to expect from this annual event.
To be fair, with a total of 9(!) skiing events between both male and female, there are far more contests and tricks than we could possibly cover in what’s supposed to be a weekly highlight reel of the news. For full breakdowns of each event, we recommend cruising over to Newschoolers.com, where they’ve done an amazing job of breaking down not only each event, but most of the highlights from each run within each event. Their coverage is truly incredible.
For our part, we thought it would simply be fun to call attention to some of the new events in this iteration of the games, as well as some of our favorite tricks. As such, let’s start by talking about the game of SLVSH that was held. We’ll be honest: we have some mixed feelings about this one. As you know, we’re huge fans of SLVSH here on Top 5 Fridays, and we absolutely love that it’s been incorporated into the X Games this year. But, it also proved to be a bit too bulky of a format to squeeze into a one hour time slot. Historically, when the game is played, it can take several hours to complete. In this iteration, athletes were given an hour in a small rail garden which ultimately limited their arsenal of tricks. At the end of the hour, the rider with the least amount of letters won. Unfortunately, this didn’t work out super well as it felt like the games ended prematurely. That said, as James Woods pointed out towards the end of the broadcast, this year was all about proving the concept. Ultimately we hope that the takeaway from this year’s event is that SLVSH offers good entertainment value, but if it’s to be included in the X Games, the event needs to be both longer and offer more features. But for now, it’s a start.
The other event that was new to the games this year was the first ever women’s Ski Knuckle Huck. Ever since its introduction, Knuckle Huck has been must-see TV, with the best skiers in the world throwing some of the most creative and fun to watch tricks of the entire weekend. Until this year though, there’s always been one thing missing: a women’s division. Thankfully, that changed. As for our review, we’ll once again be honest: this felt like another proof of concept. Within the event itself, there was a wide range of abilities and approaches to the knuckle, compounded by uncertainty regarding what the judges were looking for. Without throwing any shade, on one end of the spectrum were athletes doing low amplitude nose butter 5’s and 360 hand drags. On the other end of the spectrum, where Rell Harwood and Olivia Asselin reside, were a number of absolutely insane, massive knuckle tricks. Huge zero spins, nollie/nose butter 7’s, insanely large flat spin 5’s. While the range of tricks being thrown in this event was quite large, the tricks that were at the top end of the event were downright jaw dropping. All in all, we loved what we saw in this one, and there’s no doubt in our minds that women’s Knuckle Huck can, and should, be a staple of the X Games moving forward.
Finally, while we don’t want to dive too deeply into it here, we have to say that the men’s Knuckle Huck might’ve been the most entertaining event to watch, yet again. Every year this event gets crazier and crazier, with athletes somehow finding ways to add rotations to their knuckle tricks, as well as unique ways to use the knuckle itself. From backflip to backflip combos, to Henrik’s double that seemingly skimmed the crest of the knuckle, this event proved yet again to be one well worth watching. Once again, for full coverage of this year’s games, we recommend checking out the recaps over on Newschoolers.com, or the X Games website itself.
#3: The 2024 Freeride World Tour is Officially Underway! Here’s What Went Down Last Week in Verbier:
In other competitive news this week, the 2024 Freeride World Tour finally kicked off! This year, the tour got started in Verbier, Switzerland, after the Baqueira Beret venue in Spain was canceled at the last minute. Interestingly, this is the first instance we’re aware of in which the FWT didn’t simply cancel an event, but actually relocated it, possibly a sign of the FIS’s involvement with the sport. Regardless, when the athletes took to the face of the Petit Bec, conditions were pretty amazing, thanks to a fresh coating of snow.
With the sudden shift in venue, riders were forced to quickly relocate and inspect the new venue on short notice. Still, the hurried nature of the event didn’t result in any downtick in performance as both the men and women’s divisions were going absolutely massive. To put it bluntly, the story of the first stop on this year’s tour was, “near misses.” In the men’s field in particular, a number of athletes were putting together absolutely amazing runs, only to crash at some point before they could finish. One feature in particular, a cliff band with an excellent takeoff, multiple trajectory options, and a seemingly steep landing, proved to be the achilles heel of many riders. While the top riders of the day certainly earned their results, as Max Hitzig, Finn Bilous, and Kristofer Turdell (who earned first through third, respectively), the real story of the day might’ve been buried in the no score (NS) section of the results. In those not receiving points, we witnessed a number of insane runs from athletes who will likely be challenging the podium all year long. Marcus Goguen for instance, had put together a run featuring two flawless 360’s and a flat spin 3, before ultimately front punching on the landing of a massive backflip. Also getting our attention in this event was rookie WeiTien Ho out of Canada. In his run, Ho put together by far the most creative line of the day, mixing technical skiing with bold maneuvers, highlighted by a massive rock ride onto a lily pad double. If that sounds confusing, we don’t blame you - you should definitely watch the highlight. Unfortunately though, Ho ultimately succumbed to the snow as he went huge on a 360 and found his weight just a hair too forward to survive.
All in all, it was an amazing event to kick off the season, and it leaves us hungry for more action from this year’s tour. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait a little longer than initially expected as the Ordino Arcalís stop of the tour has been canceled due to poor snow conditions. As such, the next event is scheduled for Kicking Horse, from February 13-19th. To preview that event, and to relive this week’s event in Verbier, check out the Freeride World Tour’s official website.
#4: Nearly 8 Years Later, New Yorker Magazine Shares a New Side of the Jay Peak EB-5 Scandal:
Looking back at Jay Peak’s iconic tram, and base lodges. Image: Jay Peak on Facebook
Finally, we’re rounding out this week with a story from the New Yorker that covers the fraud fiasco at Jay Peak that dominated headlines when the SEC seized the resort in 2016. We’ve told and retold the story many times here on Chairlift Chat, so in order to spare those who are well acquainted with a lengthy rehashing of the immense amount of details, we’ll simply say this: at the time, Jay Peak was being run by two men: Bill Stenger and Ariel Quiros. These two were ultimately found guilty of crimes related to an EB-5 scandal, a program which allowed U.S. businesses to secure funds from international investors, who in exchange were given the opportunity to earn a U.S. green card.
When news of the scandal broke, one of the things that immediately caught people off guard was the fact that Bill Stenger was accused of committing such a dishonest crime. Quiros, sure. He was an import/export business man from Miami who simply owned a condo at Jay Peak before purchasing it. It was easy to imagine someone of his nature committing elaborate fraud. But for many, it was much harder to believe that Stenger knowingly played a role in the crime. Afterall, Stenger was a long time Jay Peak local, having taken on the role of general manager way back in 1984. Still, when all was said and done, Stenger was ultimately found guilty for falsifying documents and was sentenced to 18 months in prison - of which he ultimately served 9.
Still, despite the verdict, the story has never sat particularly well with people who wondered how and why Stenger got wrapped up in such a crime. That is, until this New Yorker piece came out. With this story, we finally have some answers to lingering questions in the form of details. The reasons Stenger got involved with Quiros in the first place (so he could find a buyer for the resort when its previous owner suddenly died), or how Stenger somehow didn’t know about Quiro’s embezzlement of funds (Quiros’s former son-in-law was handling the books for the project at the bank he worked at). All told, there are way more details in this story than we have time for here, but if you’re someone who’s had lingering questions about Stenger’s involvement in the scandal, you’ll definitely want to give it a read. We won’t go so far as to say that it absolves him, but it at least paints a sensible picture that makes it all make sense. To give the story a read in full, click here.