Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Sports summary


"Ski to Live" clinic is coming

Former national mogul team racer and big mountain extreme skier Kristen Ulmer will conduct a three-day "Ski to Live" ski and snowboard program March 8-10, 2012 hosted by Ketchum's Zenergy Health Club & Spa in partnership with the Sun Valley Wellness Institute.

Calling itself "a unique and empowering ski program," Ulmer's three-day clinic is for male and female participants, ages 12 and older. It is designed for skiers, snowboarders and telemarkers of intermediate to pro abilities.

Space is limited. The save-money early bird clinic rate of $575 expires Jan. 1, 2012. After that, the cost is $625. To reserve a spot, call Zenergy at 725-0595 ext. 141 or email Yvette at  HYPERLINK "mailto:yhubbard@thunderspring.com" yhubbard@thunderspring.com. Visit zenergyatthunderspring.com or kristenulmer.com.

SVSEF Nordic racers travel to Black Mountain

Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation cross-country ski racers will be in action starting New Year's Day for the 2012 U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships hosted by the Chisholm Ski Club at Black Mountain in Rumford, Maine.

Despite mild temperatures, the Rumford site is using an array of 14 snow guns to prepare trails for the Jan. 2-8 competition. Black Mountain has supplemented its fleet of six snow guns with eight new, high capacity guns from Techno Alpine, SMI, Lanko and Johnson Control. The area is hosting the national championships for the second straight year. Organizers faced extreme weather challenges last year, too.

Races are: Freestyle sprints on Monday, Jan. 2; individual start freestyle 15-kilometer and 10k races Wednesday, Jan. 4; mass start classical 30k and 20k races Friday, Jan. 6; and classical sprints Sunday, Jan. 8. Visit uscrosscountryskichampionships2012.org for the Web site.

Roger Mankus high on the Leadville honor roll

Ketchum's Roger Mankus is a Hall of Famer on the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race honor roll. Mankus is tied for second place all time on the list of Leadville Trail 100 bikers with 10 or more finishes under 12 hours. Mankus has 16 such finishes since the event started in 1994 in Colorado. The record is 17. Mankus was 37 when he finished his first Leadville

Trail 100 in 1994 with a time of 11.29:33, for 86th place. This past Aug. 13, the 54-year-old Mankus placed 83rd in the Men's 50-59 class with a time of 10:50.08, good for 739th overall.

Meet Jonna Mendes in Friday's autograph session

The Sun Valley Ski Academy has announced a special free autograph signing with Olympian Jonna Mendes on Friday, Dec. 30 from 2:30-4:30 p.m. at River Run Lodge. In October, the 32-year-old from the Lake Tahoe area was named director of recruiting for the Sun Valley Ski Academy. The snow sports academy is a partnership between the Community School of Sun Valley and the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation.

A native of Santa Cruz, Calif., Mendes spent 10 years with the U.S. Ski Team before retiring from international ski racing competition in May 2006. She was a two-time Olympian (Nagano 1998 and Salt Lake City 2002). Mendes won the World Championship bronze medal in super giant slalom at St. Moritz, Switzerland in 2003. She captured four U.S. national championship titles—two in downhill and two in giant slalom.

Mendes and husband Will O'Toole, with their 16-month-old son, Declan, are new residents of the Sun Valley area.

Fisher to host fundraiser in Boise

U.S. Ski Team alpine ski racer Erik Fisher, 26, of Middleton will host a fundraising event called "An Examination of the Downhill—the Original Extreme Sport," Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012 at 6 p.m. at the Egyptian Theatre in Boise. The event will include a downhill skiing documentary, silent auction and autographs. Tickets are $15, available at egyptiantheatre.net. Growing up, Fisher raced at Boise's Bogus Basin Ski Area and also for Rowmark Ski Academy in Utah.

Write to Rocky K-2

After last week's story about the 77th birthday of Ronald Coleman on Dec. 22, better known locally as Rocky K-2, several people contacted the Express to find out Rocky's current address so they could send a birthday note or card of greetings.

His address is: Ronald Coleman, Woodhams Manor, 3097 Pruneridge Ave., Santa Clark, CA 95150.

Rocky's sister, Janet Bell, 90, said that she and Rocky had a nice day on Dec. 22. They went out to lunch, visited a historical house and returned to Janet's house for birthday cake and ice cream. She said Rocky was overwhelmed by the greetings he had already received from his friends in Sun Valley.

World Cup picks up again in Italy, Austria

The 2011-12 Audi FIS World Cup resumes this week—men running their annual downhill at Bormio, Italy on Thursday, Dec. 29 and the women tackling giant slalom and slalom Dec. 28-29 at Lienz, Austria.

Last week's technical races in Europe ushered both the men and women into a brief holiday break.

On Tuesday, Dec. 20, Austrian Marlies Schild took the wire-to-wire win for her 30th career World Cup slalom win.

World Cup overall women's leader Lindsey Vonn, 27, of Vail, Colo. finished eighth and carried a 554-324 point lead in the overall standings over Schild into the holiday break.

Vonn said, "I didn't ski as aggressively as I wanted to on the first run, but it was a solid run without any big mistakes. I was happy to be in there for a second run. Slalom is easier now, I feel really comfortable."

Last winter, Vonn's best World Cup slalom finishes were sixth and eighth in the first two races, then she DNFd four straight slaloms in Europe to hurt her overall bid. She ended up second to Maria Riesch of Germany by a margin of three points, 1,728 to 1,725.

Meanwhile, reigning World Cup overall men's champion Ivica Kostelic of Croatia regained the World Cup slalom lead by winning a gnarly night slalom by a mere .07 seconds at Flachau, Aust. last Wednesday.

Here are the top World Cup standings and leading Americans after the holiday:

Men: 1—Marcel Hirscher (Aust.) 425 points. 2—Aksel Lund Svindal (Nor.) 416. 3—Ted Ligety (USA) 385. 4—Beat Feux (Switz.) 360. 5—Ivica Kostelic (Cro.) 329. 7—Bode Miller (USA) 298.

Women: 1—Lindsey Vonn (USA) 554 points. 2—Marlies Schild (Aust.) 324. 3—Viktoria Rebensburg (Germ.) 286. 4—Maria Hoefl-Riesch (Germ.) 271. 5—Elisabeth Goergl (Aust.) 269. 6—Anna Fenninger (Aust.) 268. 8 (tie)—Julia Mancuso (USA) 201.




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