ChileMass
Active member
OK - another off-season thread to keep your head in the game:
I grew up racing, so most of my skiing idols were racers, and we're talking a while ago. At the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, Jean-Claude Killy won gold in all 3 disciplines, and he was THE MAN. He was on TV 24/7, even here in the States, and he was a god. I was 8 years old and all us little racers wanted to be just like him until we found out he skied on 225 cm Head 360s which weighed about 10 lbs apiece!
In the '70s, I used to root for the crazy Canadian downhill squad (Ken Read, Steve Podborski, etc), who would either win or crash spectacularly every week. Every racer in my high school wanted to be Franz Klammer after his insanely out of control downhill win in 1976.
After, I was really into the Mahre Bros in the '80s, and the American womens' team was really good back then, too (Tamara McKinney, etc).
In the '90s-'00s, Hermann Maier is just too much. Coming back from the motorcycle injury to win the World Cup is nothing short of amazing. But, I'm really glad the American racers did well during that time, too (Picabo, Tommy Moe, etc). Nowadays, of course, I watch Bode, but he disappointed big-time in Torino.
Someday I want to go to Europe and watch an FIS downhill, ring a cowbell and get hammered on Warsteiner for a week. I'd do just about anything to someday see the Hahnenkamm downhill in person.
Who were/are your winter sports idols?
I grew up racing, so most of my skiing idols were racers, and we're talking a while ago. At the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, Jean-Claude Killy won gold in all 3 disciplines, and he was THE MAN. He was on TV 24/7, even here in the States, and he was a god. I was 8 years old and all us little racers wanted to be just like him until we found out he skied on 225 cm Head 360s which weighed about 10 lbs apiece!
In the '70s, I used to root for the crazy Canadian downhill squad (Ken Read, Steve Podborski, etc), who would either win or crash spectacularly every week. Every racer in my high school wanted to be Franz Klammer after his insanely out of control downhill win in 1976.
After, I was really into the Mahre Bros in the '80s, and the American womens' team was really good back then, too (Tamara McKinney, etc).
In the '90s-'00s, Hermann Maier is just too much. Coming back from the motorcycle injury to win the World Cup is nothing short of amazing. But, I'm really glad the American racers did well during that time, too (Picabo, Tommy Moe, etc). Nowadays, of course, I watch Bode, but he disappointed big-time in Torino.
Someday I want to go to Europe and watch an FIS downhill, ring a cowbell and get hammered on Warsteiner for a week. I'd do just about anything to someday see the Hahnenkamm downhill in person.
Who were/are your winter sports idols?
