A question of history: Has American alpine ski racing ever been stronger?

When Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn swept the alpine skiing World Cup overall championships two weeks ago, cementing their titles in the heart of Europe, they did something that had only been done once before by American ski racers.

In 1983, when Miller was 5 and Vonn was still 19 months from being born, Phil Mahre and Tamara McKinney achieved the same feat — an American World Cup sweep — to lead an otherwise slightly-above-average collection of U.S. racers.

This year, in addition to their overall titles, Miller took the super-combined crown and Vonn dominated the downhill standings to win the coveted crystal globe. Combined with Ted Ligety’s giant slalom championship, the Americans won five of the 12 available World Cup titles. No other nation had more than two.

However, in the Nations Cup, which rewards a country’s depth, the U.S. finished fourth, one place worse than its 1983 showing. Sparked by individual glory, the inevitable debate is lively among old-school racing insiders.

Is right now the high point in American ski racing history?

It was a question posed to McKinney, now a Realtor in Lake Tahoe, in an e-mail early last week. She wrote back: “It is great to see the U.S. skiers doing so well.” On the next line, she wrote: “It sounds as though you need to talk to a ski historian.”

Her response represented one of the many credible opinions on the matter, as surveyed over the past two weeks. Jesse Hunt provided another.

A two-time Junior Ski Racer of the Year in 1983 and ’84, Hunt now oversees the U.S. alpine program, hiring coaches and helping to mold the national team. When asked the same question as McKinney, he disagreed. “I’d like to think it is” the height of American ski racing, he said, adding: “It’s been building over the years.”

The ironic part of the argument comes when the two sides list their reasons. Each cites depth.

“There aren’t a lot of races where we don’t have a shot at putting racers on the podium,” Hunt said, validating a conscious effort by the American federation to build a versatile winner.

“Maybe if you dug into the details more you’d find some devil in it,” countered Quantum Sports Club guru and self-described ski racing “junky” John Leffler, a Colorado coach of 33 years who has sent a dozen racers to the national team.

He acknowledges the power of the U.S. speed program right now — in stern contrast to what it was in the Mahre/McKinney era, when Americans scored most of their points in technical events — but he scoffs at the notion of across-the-board strength.

“Our girls slalom is abominable,” he said. “There was a World Cup slalom this year and not one American girl got a second run, and Germany had six. Germany supports ski racing a lot, but there aren’t a lot of ski racers there, at least not compared to what we have in the U.S.”

“We don’t have three or four girls in the top 20 of a GS,” Leffler continued, “we have one, maybe. And it’s the same in slalom.

“I don’t mean to be a naysayer, but it would be a misstatement to say we’re at the zenith of our performances and that we have the best team we’ve ever had.”

<b>Can they even be compared?</b>
Former World Cup downhiller Steve Porino isn’t sure a winning debate exists. “These are apple and orange comparisons, unfortunately,” he said, referring to the ways in which the scoring has changed (the “paper” combined race no longer exists, while the super G and super-combined have been added to the Cup docket.)

Porino, a respected ski racing analyst for NBC, among others, did offer his opinion on a debate within the debate. Individually, he believes it’s Miller and Vonn over Mahre and McKinney, no question. The current champs are far more versatile than the former champs were, he said.

Because of that star power, the racers behind Miller and Vonn are easy to overlook. Yet two are Olympic champions (Ligety and Julia Mancuso, who finished fifth and seventh in their respective overall standings this year), two others have won World Cup races (downhillers Steve Nyman and Marco Sullivan) and still others have stood on Cup podiums.

Even on the feeder levels, Americans are achieving rare feats. A number of U.S. skiers won events on the Europa Cup this winter, one step below the World Cup.

“Typically it’s a challenge for us to even get on the podium at that level,” said Hunt. American skiers also captured nine of the 12 NorAm Cup titles (though they continue to struggle internationally on the junior level).

In finish corrals at World Cup events, some of the younger American stars began seeing treatment they hadn’t been afforded in the past. “It’s interesting,” said Doug Haney, the team’s press officer, who shadows the U.S. skiers in the corrals after their runs. “You never used to see athletes from other countries asking our guys or our girls, ‘Hey, you were really fast. How’d you do it? How’d you pick that line?’ It’s the same with other teams’ coaches.”

“When our racers are on course,” Haney added, “it’s just as loud — seriously, just as loud — as when one of the hometown European racers are on course. And there are fans everywhere with stars and stripes painted on their faces.”

<b>The common denominator</b>
The quarter-century gap between record-setting seasons seems to discourage a link between the two. But a link does exist in the form of Bill Marolt.

Marolt ran the U.S. alpine program when it shined in the early 1980s, and after a 12-year hiatus, he took over a bottom feeder as U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association CEO in 1996. Since then he’s led the American contingent back to its place among the world’s elite, culminating in this year’s historic run. The connection is not lost on those who have seen Marolt’s effect up close.

Sean Ramsden, an NCAA giant slalom champion at the University of Colorado when Marolt was the school’s athletic director in the ’90s, remembers a night when Marolt had the entire team over for dinner. Ramsden walked away with a telling impression, one which remains today.

“He just demands excellence,” said Ramsden, now the executive director at Team Summit. “Not even winning, just old-fashioned, give-your-best-effort excellence. He’s the reason I think the U.S. has done so well.”

True to form, even when Bode Miller caught flak from the CEO for his partying ways in 2006, Marolt defended him the following winter after a downhill victory at Beaver Creek.

“The thing you’re always gonna get with him is his best effort,” Marolt said.

Not coincidentally, Marolt said the same thing about Mahre in 1983.

<i>Devon O’Neil is a freelance writer living in Breckenridge.</i>