Not the Best Ever, But Almost

WHAT? NOOOOOO!!!

Good story on skiracing.com  Sounds like he wants to end it while in peak condition, and may have had some doubts about the grind of another season. With the timing, following his first time on snow after his knee scope, it does make me wonder if he still has lingering knee problems. I hope not. I agree, the man was an incredible force, and a tremendous competitor. One of the absolute best, for sure. Sad to see it come to a close. I wish him all the best.

What, no Killy?

Back then they didn't have Super G, and Killy won all three events at the Olympics in France, although one win was suspect because of the disqualification of Karl Schranz in the fog, but regardless, he totally dominated in his time.

Someone mentionded Kjus, but I would add Aamodt to my list of favorites.  Of course we will see how Bode's career plays out in ski racing history.

Sorry to see Hermann call it quits. Good luck to him in the future, I think he really loved what he did.  I remember him at the pre-olympic races at Snowbasin.  When the race was cancelled, the austrian coaches demanded that the team go to the gym.  Maier refused, & decided to go ski powder with the locals on his DH training skis.  As he started down under the Strawberry Gondola, he threw & stuck a huge Heli 360, it was pretty cool!
Thanks Hermann.
JF

My list includes Aamodt over Kjus.  Like Stenmark & Tomba in my view he was an innovator of technique, who took it to all disciplines.

 Quote:

My list always includes Pirmin.

JF

Maier is an absolute legend, you could tell a mile away it was his run watching the WC on TV - such a powerful skier.

You have to put Killy into this mix.  Yes he was in the early days of World Cup, and there were fewer disciplines to medal in.  It may take a while for anybody to take all the alpine racing gold in the same Olympics.

 These guys all have a certain drive that is so rare in any endeavor.  Maier, will be missed and leaves a huge opening in the sport for somebody.  Nature abhors a vacuum, ski racers all adore the idea of filling this one.

I love SG. Go inspect, and take one run, at speed, A lot to it, and nobody has ever skied it better than HM. We'll miss him, and he gave us a lot of great film! Thanks!

The "best of all time" is always a fun discussion, and based on criteria, you can support a number of them. I always weigh in on Killy's 1966-1967 season. Won 23 of the 30 races, and all five DH's. That was the first year of the overall WC. Travel was a lot more difficult in those days. He came very close to retiring afterwards, at the age of 24. He decided to race one more year, as the Olympics were in his backyard. And after the three golds, he retired. I think, before his 25th birthday. Short career. Dominant season, and dominant games the following year.

Killy did come back briefly for the short-lived Pro Dual Slalom Tour.  A friend of mine actually raced against him in the Dual.  In the starting gate my friend looked over and said to Killy "good luck."  Killy looked back and said "f**k you" and then smoked him in their race.

There's one French guy who doesn't surrender!!

I do wonder how long Killy would have extended his career if he had been born, say, 20 years later.

My surrender joke was in good fun...I know some history and remember the names Lafayette and Rochambeau. The USA and France should ALWAYS be friends.

Here's an excellent book review of Maier's The Run of My Life (scroll down the page).

My vote for best ever is Stenmark, without question. 86 WC wins, and 5 Olympic and World Championship golds. But what really gets me is is consistency. He won over a third of his WC starts, and was on the podium something close to two-thirds of the time. In addition to the three overall WC's, I think he won something like eight each in SL and GS.  I also think that his WC wins are close to even between GS and SL. Really incredible. I guess that you can debate the pro's and con's of not skiing SG or DH, the change in calculations for the overall WC, etc. But I doubt if there will ever be anybody close to his win percentages, and podium results, though, let alone the wins. But records are there to be broken.

I agree, without the accident, HM may well have piled on a number of more wins. 54 is pretty stupendous, regardless. I guess that Stenmark is my tech guy, and HM my speed guy. But my "one season" guy is Killy.

Very sad about Maier, but I can understand wanting to retire before completely breaking yourself.  I think that the few weeks of training he's had pointed out that there was some fear, which tends to lead to injury at the elite level in events like super-G.  Good on him for taking the reasoned way out.

If I had to rank the World Cup era men over the years (retired skiers only).... tough, very tough.

1. Ingemar Stenmark
What's not to like?  86 wins, amazing consistency, technical mastery and the epitome of cool.  He was robbed of the chance to compete in Sarajevo, which is a shame, as he would've given the Mahres a run for the money in the slalom.

2. Marc Girardelli 
I place him higher than Maier due to his incredible consistency and versatility: started as a speed skier, then went tech after a knee injury and staged his comeback with a dominant run in slalom in 1984-85.  Had incredible technique and discipline, was on the forefront of many major technical developments in modern ski racing.

3. Hermann Maier
"Mr. Super-G" had nerves of steel and an incredible feel for the snow.  Could hack through in slalom, but was always a speed demon.  A lot of "what if?" factor with the motorcycle injury.  I rank him below Girardelli because he didn't have to reinvent his technique as much over his career.

4. Jean Claude Killy
The original superman on skis, and the first superpower of the FIS World Cup.

5. Gustavo Thoeni
The dominant player, other than Stenmark, in the 1970s ski racing scene.  Calculated aggression with a bit more flair and gusto than Stenmark made Thoeni a bit less consistent but a lot more versatile.

6. Alberto Tomba
Showed that a big guy can ski the disco slalom as well as the nimble "stick figures."  Had an incredible snow feel, probably would've been a dominant super-G skier had he chosen to compete in said event beyond the 1988 season.  Probably the most dominant tech skier behind Stenmark.

7. Pirmin Zurbriggen
Overall consistency and workmanlike discipline brought a lot of success to Zubi, but he always lived somewhat in the shadow of his peers, Tomba and Girardelli.  But was a legitimate threat in any race he entered, and had the mental game down pat.  His DH run at Calgary in 1988 was so "loose-yet-precise" that it could be used as a textbook example of the discipline for years after.

8. Lasse Kjus
Norway's best: consistent, aggressive, media savvy and one of the "nice guys" of the tour.  Had a much longer career than many of his peers, and it helped that he had Aamodt as a training partner and rival from an early age.

9. Phil Mahre
Until the advent of Bode Miller, the best U.S. male to don a pair of boards.  Won overall World Cup titles, even after the advent of super-G and despite his refusal to race said event (he thought it was an unnecessary compromise to pander to the speed crowd).  Laid some of the groundwork for modern racing technique (e.g. the "White Pass turn").

10. Kjetil Andre Aamodt
See the entry on Kjus for the background here.

Honorable Mentions: Stephan Eberharter, Piero Gros, Günther Mader, Rudi Nierlich, Peter Müller, Rok Petrovic

Likely to Crack the Top 10 Upon Retirement (or force the expansion of the list to the top 15): Bode Miller, Aksel Lund Svindal, Benjamin Raich

If you want my quick rundown of the top women of the FIS World Cup era:

1. Annemarie Moser-Pröll
2. Janica Kostelic
3. Vreni Schneider
4. Rosi Mittermaier
5. Tamara McKinney
6. Nancy Greene
7. Petra Kronberger
8. Pernilla Wiberg
9. Erika Hess
10. Maria Walliser

Likely on the list after retirement: Lindsey Vonn, Anja Pårson

Great post, Songfta. Thanks for taking the time to write it. Maybe Girardelli should get extra points for putting up with his father for all of those years.

By the way, on the HM front, it sounds as if his knee surgery may not have worked out as hoped, and that it's not as stable as planned. I can't blame him one bit for putting and end to his career after what his body's been through. I haven't heard any confirmation, but it sounds like he got back on snow, the knee was problematic, and his quick decision and announcement followed.

A blue collar kinda guy who would not be denied.

Background: former ski racer for (Rowmark Ski Academy and Connecticut College - still occasionally dust off the boards for masters stuff, when time and budget permit), lifelong ski racing fan and relentless tech-head.  My coach and mentor there, Olle Larsson, really got me into studying the history of high-level racing and into really detailed technique analysis and diagnosis.  One of my other coaches there, Marjan Cernigoj, taught me a lot about finding speed, and he still coaches on the international level (currently the head coach of the Slovenian Ski Team).

(If you know Olle, he's retiring after the upcoming season - inevitable, kinda sad, but good that he'll finally get some time for himself and his family.)

Basically: I blame ski racing for making me the ski addict I am today. 

Agreed on Eberharter: underrated and truly a master of the speed events.  Walchhofer is up there in that regard, as well, as were Peter Müller and Franz Klammer - though the last two were one-discipline specialists.

Regarding Kjus' "media savvy" angle: he was one of the first racers to realize the value of working with the press and giving back to the industry via his clothing company.  He was one of the first racers to realize the power of the internet in terms of self-marketing, and was always quite open with reporters before and after races.  I think he really understood that, while all press is good in terms of getting our name out there, getting good press worked far, far better.