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Muleski

Muleski

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Correct, beat me to it. She is from Incline Village, NV. May have been born at the hospital in Truckee

I have it on pretty good intel that she was born in the Truckee hospital. HaHa. Great post ^^^^.

It would be great if she has a strong year, and scores some WC points. The USST is probably not real interested in that happening.

Brit coach, huh? I wonder if he's working under Mauro Pini? Pini is a serious big time coach.

They don't appear to be screwing around with this. I love it.
 
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ScotsSkier

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I have it on pretty good intel that she was born in the Truckee hospital. HaHa. Great post ^^^^.

It would be great if she has a strong year, and scores some WC points. The USST is probably not real interested in that happening.

Brit coach, huh? I wonder if he's working under Mauro Pini? Pini is a serious big time coach.

They don't appear to be screwing around with this. I love it.

Correction, Nick Ward is her fitness coach! ogsmile
 
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Muleski

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Yep, it's really great.
Nature Valley had been a long time, BIG, sponsor and they decided not to renew. So Clif Bar jumped in and began a sponsor of the entire organization. The energy food sponsor?

Now prior to that, they had become helmet sponsors for a number of skiers: Travis, Nyman,Stacy Cook, Lila, and I think a couple of younger ones. Those are individual deals. I have no idea what Travis might be paid. Local guy, legit WC threat....

They also became helmet sponsors for some of the Canadians. Dustin Cook, maybe Mitch? I don't know if they are a team sponsor for CAST.

But yeah....they are all in. I'm excited about the LL team, but even without that, they have really stepped up. Now, I also think it is smart business for them. We go through a LOT of them!

Good stuff!
 
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Muleski

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Phil and I plan on attending Beyond the Gold tonight. Think its worthwhile to ask the question about USST decisions and private sponsors like this?
https://forum.pugski.com/threads/beyond-the-gold-winning-traits-of-olympic-athletes.6669/

I agree, nothing wrong with raising the question about how the team is nominated, how it's funding, and a bot sponsor stepping up to put together an entire support team for one athlete who was dropped......having scored WC points before, dropped at age 22.

What not? Nobody who will be there has any "swing" to do a thing, but they should be recording questions.

Another question is will it look strange if we have a number of independent skiers, not on the USST, representing the USA in Korea?

This does have to do with the Olympics, right?
 

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I agree w/@Muleski about what to expect when asking the questions. I had a senior policy position in State Gov't for 7 years and I know first hand that representatives from a sponsoring agency, governmental or private, e.g. US Ski/FIS etc., are going to be very circumspect in their answers. In fact, I would be surprised if you get a satisfactory answer, but asking the questions at the right level and with the right tone sends a strong signal to both US Ski and others, e.g. donors, about things that are festering and need to be resolved. If you do get a chance to ask any q's, please let us know how it goes. Have fun.
 

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Its not my desire to ruffle feathers, but I wonder if anyone will react or respond to a simple question about USST Selection process and the recent announcement of Clif's sponsorship of Lila.
 
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Muleski

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Its not my desire to ruffle feathers, but I wonder if anyone will react or respond to a simple question about USST Selection process and the recent announcement of Clif's sponsorship of Lila.

Those are good questions. Not being antagonistic at all. They are questions that most fans are confused by.

Heck one of our family friends was congratulated on his son "skiing on the US ski team." Well, dad explained that his son was NOT on the team, but was in a uniform at a recent World Cup. He didn't get into the fact that this is all self funded by them. The friend, who is a life long skier in a town loaded with ski racers looked at him like he was cross eyed.

And asked....."How can he be good enough to be racing on the World Cup, and maybe in the Olympics, but not good enough to be ON the USST?"

So, yeah, how does this nomination, criteria, etc. work.?

With respect to Lila, all fair game. She's a local. So......she's only 22, she has scored WC points, she was recovering from an injury. She still has big aspirations. So, it just seems weird that she was dropped. Now she is racing the next two days hoping to do well in a NorAm in Loveland, to qualify for Kilington.

Is it odd that one of the USST's biggest sponsors has created a team to help her continue, and make it back to the USST? That looks like an odd use of sponsorship {Though I personally LOVE the whole thing!}.

I think any of that stuff, asked in the nice, smart, respectful way that you will is just fine.

Being a hard sell and a bit of a cynic, I would not expect much in response. But there is value in posing the questions.

Go for it!
 
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Muleski

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I don't race, but i am a technical skiing video junkie.

Hadn't noticed, HaHa!

It is a great video! Consider this....word is that she is skiing significantly better than a year ago. Her free skiing and drilling apparently is really precise, and strong. All good.

This will be fun to watch, I hope!
 

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44677CBF-C3AC-404B-A13B-FD8DF734B54F.jpeg
 

Tricia

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Phil and I plan on attending Beyond the Gold tonight. Think its worthwhile to ask the question about USST decisions and private sponsors like this?
https://forum.pugski.com/threads/beyond-the-gold-winning-traits-of-olympic-athletes.6669/

Yes. At least they will know it is on our minds and an area of concern.

I agree, nothing wrong with raising the question about how the team is nominated, how it's funding, and a bot sponsor stepping up to put together an entire support team for one athlete who was dropped......having scored WC points before, dropped at age 22.

What not? Nobody who will be there has any "swing" to do a thing, but they should be recording questions.

Another question is will it look strange if we have a number of independent skiers, not on the USST, representing the USA in Korea?

This does have to do with the Olympics, right?

I agree w/@Muleski about what to expect when asking the questions. I had a senior policy position in State Gov't for 7 years and I know first hand that representatives from a sponsoring agency, governmental or private, e.g. US Ski/FIS etc., are going to be very circumspect in their answers. In fact, I would be surprised if you get a satisfactory answer, but asking the questions at the right level and with the right tone sends a strong signal to both US Ski and others, e.g. donors, about things that are festering and need to be resolved. If you do get a chance to ask any q's, please let us know how it goes. Have fun.
I should have asked about spots on the team that are taken by "no longer competitive" athletes where up and comers are missing a spot, but I missed that opportunity.
The answer was as suspected:
 
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Muleski

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Good question.

Weak, predictable "non response." He's got a nice voice, does the MC role. He was a real short leash, IME, in terms of what he'll get into.

This is nothing new. The team has cringed in the past when various athletes and coaches have been interviewed.

If you watch coaches interviewed these days, they stay in a familiar box.

Good of you to ask. More people need to ask.

This whole subject of funding is always danced around. You want to close the gap? Get better at fundraising, partnerships and development. This is a non profit. It's very seriously not "rocket surgery." Is it easy? Not at all. Maybe they need more horsepower there?

Building a strong endowment is a smart longer term solution. Building an endowment, while concurrently meeting current needs is more of a challenge. Not impossible.

Makes one wonder just how engaged the board was when former CEO Marolt was banking those $250K performance bonuses.
What was the criteria for them?

Much to fix. LOVE Ciff Bar doing all that they are.

Go Lila!!

Tom Kelly needs to lose the hat, IMO.
 

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Paula and Lila {and Resi} all trained together with MS when their schedules allowed, when Brandon Dyksterhouse was the head W's tech coach. Paula and Lila made some big gains, specifically when MS was injured. That is when they scored WC points. I think it was a cause for celebration. A few did not. Let's just say that the person who now holds that title as the head women's tech coach, and his assistant, and a dedicated physio now work with just one athlete.

Sorry to snip this quote from the greater reply (which made many excellent points), but it reminds me of arguments made about Tina Maze and how other Slovenians, Stuhec most especially, emerged almost immediately once the resources devoted to Tina were spread out. Do ski federations have it backwards? They devote the most resources to the athletes who need it least, and hamstring the athletes who need it most? I understand that national teams are able to leverage the presence of star athletes to bring in greater revenue, but I wonder if there is a balance to be found somewhere that doesn't starve the system. Why do athletes like Schiffrin, Vonn need the total support of a national federation?
 

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Those girls training with ski coach Mange Andersson? I know Resi has worked with him last season and perhaps this too? He’s a friend of a relative to the family.
 
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Tricia

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Takeaways from the evening:
While talking about some of the individual athletes there were a few that were skimmed over, while others were "featured"
Because Julia Mancuso is a local favorite, he talked about her hip issues and that she's feeling stronger, currently training at Copper, having good days and bad days with her hip.
IMHO, if they were smart, they'd start connecting the dots between these two local skiers, and have Julia pass the baton to "her local favorite up and comer". That could go a long way to Lila and the teams success.
There was a ton of talk about the Team effort. When one person wins, they all win, yet some of the back stories we know would seem to prove otherwise.


RE: Tom Kelly, I've seen him at several events. He is a good MC and has a nice voice to listen to, so it was engaging to listen to his thoughts, but its got a different twist in my mind because I know a little of the reality.
 

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