OCR Text |
Show EDMS CI The cancellation of the Park City slaloms of last season robbed Park City race fans of the opportunity to witness history. The introduction of shorter shaped skis ("carvers" to the Europeans) defined the whole slalom season. Those who had been quick to adopt the new-skis new-skis had the gamble pay off. Those who clung to the tried and true found themselves them-selves scrambling to catch up. By midseason virtually all slalom skiers had made the switch, but many latecomers then had to learn the subtleties sub-tleties of changing technique, as often as not in competition. Now, w ith a full offseason off-season to refine technique, older skiers hav e either abandoned hope aab retired (a la Thomas Stangassinger, 35, of Austria) or have adapted. Those who w ant to read betw een these lines will notice some skiers who came on late last season and some who inexplicably faded. In some cases the former w ere late to adapt, the latter, early. But that is far too simplistic. Where it all shakes out this year should be easier to figure. The playing field, at least, has been leveled by the w idespread ide-spread use of the carvers, but it is still a new playing field. Women's slalom In women's slalom Spela Pretnar, 28, of Slovenia, and Frenchwoman Christelle Pascal-Saioni, 27, easily led the season-long season-long field. Pretnar gathered four wins and had no slalom result worse than 10th. Pascal-Saioni had just one win, but five podium (top-three) placings and nothing worse than sev enth. They split the opening open-ing win. in a rare tie in the opener held at Copper Mountain after the Park City cancellation. can-cellation. Neither of these women are particularly par-ticularly young by World Cup skiing standards, stan-dards, but both w ere quick to adopt the new technology. Spela Pretnar When healthy Pretnar 's progression curve has been steady and unwavering in its march toward the top of the slalom heap. Her career w as set b?"k drastically drastical-ly by a broken leg prior to the ' season sea-son costing her the better part of two seasons. She has made that up and more. Li 1 Christelle Pascal-Saioni Since her marriage to teammate Christof after the 1 996-97 season, ;he progression progres-sion of Pascal-Saioni of Nice. France, has been astonishing. She had five World Cup scoring results prior to the w edding, scattered over three seasons Then five more results over the '99 season. sea-son. Last year she scored 12 times, and nine of those were top-five results. 'J . j Anja Paerson Swede Anja Paerson is young (19) and will definitely bear w atching this season. sea-son. Although she was only 1 Ith at Copper, she had no slalom finish worse than fifth thereafter. She has changed ski companies for the upcoming season, going w ith Salomon. tin v ws .. n II inne rune do Kite Norw egian Trine Putte Bakke, 26. of Trondheim, finished last season fourth in slalom. A gifted athlete w ith remarkable remark-able balance and body control, Bakke faded after mid-season. She had podi-ums podi-ums in her first two starts and collected a win on the tough, steep course at Manbor, Slovenia, but was no better than 1 2th after Jan. 9. How well she will rebound to start the 2000-01 season is a big question. Kristina Koznick Also i question mark is American Knstina Koznick, 25, of Eden Praine, Minn. She was reluctant, at first, to move to the shorter skis and it cost her early last season. This w as compounded by a decision to stretch her repertoire into giant slalom, leaving less time to concentrate on any major technique change. She had one top finish prior to February but collected two wins and a second in the final three slaloms of the season. There is also the matter of her leaving her national team in favor of an individual approach to the World Cup after a fallmg-out w ith team officials. It is no coincidence she w as angry during that final stretch of the season w hen she w on. The individual approach has been done successfully, but it has also failed miserably for other skicrs.The biggest w orry, from this v iew, is if she can get mad enough to win. Another to watch is Austrian Sabine Eggcr. 23, of Globasmtz. who has a history his-tory of early season prow ess and has seen some success at Park City. CZD Janica Kostelic We would also be remiss to not mention young Janica Kostelic, 19. of Zagreb, the Croatian w ondcr w ho started last season as a ball of fire. By mid-Dccembcr mid-Dccembcr of last season she led the World Cup slalom standings. But she was cut down by a devastating injury, virtually blow ing apart her knee in an training accident some people, ironically, ironical-ly, link to her use of short can ing skis. She is reporting that she has recovered, but she does not ,..,,. Ceaunaed om Vr-ft Olworldcup lot cal.n |