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 While snow queen Lindsey Vonn ended a disappointing fortnight
with a solitary bronze medal, Olympic champion Ted Ligety won his
third successive giant slalom crown and rising star Mikaela Shiffrin
successfully defended her slalom title.
That gave the Americans a medal haul of five, capping two weeks of
thrills and spills on the slopes of Beaver Creek and Veil that
brought the sport of alpine skiing to a much wider audience in the
United States.
"It's been absolutely amazing... to be able to show Americans what
this sport is about," U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association president
Tiger Shaw told reporters as the world championships wound down.
"The penetration and exposure that a lot of people got through TV,
it captures their interest in our sport. And very important to us,
all the people that participate in skiing in the U.S. have been able
to really see what's happening here.
"They've had a real inside track and been able to get to know our
athletes much better and see incredible things happen on the hill,
especially with Mikaela doing so well and Ted winning."
The worlds, back on U.S. snow for the first time since 1999,
provided a much needed boost for the sport and the North American
ski industry, which have seen younger generations gravitate to
snowboarding and extreme skiing.
Television viewership worldwide is expected to exceed 800 million
over the fortnight with record ratings for ski racing in the United
States.
LATE MEDALS
Apart from the gold medals won by Shiffrin and Ligety, the U.S.
earned a silver, through Travis Ganong in the men's downhill, and
bronzes, from Vonn in the women's Super-G and Ligety in the
combined, during the first week of competition.
Shaw believes the overall team performance, watched by boisterous
home fans, can only inspire U.S. skiers of the future.
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"The importance of these events to us is enormous in terms of our
(young skier) pipeline," Shaw said. "We know for sure there were
seminal moments in the stands during these world championships.
"There were kids up there who said, 'I want to be like Lindsey, Ted,
Travis, Mikaela.' The Park City ski team came all the way over here
from Utah, a seven-hour drive. All of that makes a huge difference."
Shaw did concede, however, that the U.S. development pipeline faced
several challenges.
"We didn't have five in the top 30 for the women's slalom on
Saturday, fortunately we did in the men's giant slalom on Friday,"
he said. "I would love to have that ratio in every World Cup.
"We think that's a possibility. We work as well as we can with what
we have, for example, with the 17- to 23-year-olds. And we are
making significant changes to ensure we have more and more up-coming
kids who are younger than 17 now.
"Hopefully in about 10 years we are back here and they are winning
medals too and Ted and Lindsey will be on the sidelines watching
them."
(Editing by Gene Cherry)
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