Judd's Olympic Notes: U.S. skiers likely "best in world"

It used to sound laughable.

"Best in the world!"

For years, that official U.S. ski team slogan has appeared on letterhead, at the end of news releases and, in some fashionably understated ways, even on ski team garb.

But for many years, as Bode Miller was going through puberty and Daron Rahlves was about as reliable as a '68 Karman Ghia, the claim was quaintly optimistic at best — an outright fabrication at worst.

Don't look now, but the U.S. ski team quietly has grown into its own mantra.

With the clock ticking toward two months to Turin, American alpine skiers — barring a torn ACL or two — are poised to make perhaps their biggest splash at an Olympic Games.

We know that's saying something, given past Olympic brilliance by the Mahre brothers and Picabo Street and flash-in-the-pan brilliance by Bill Johnson, Debbie Armstrong, Dianne Roffe-Steinrotter, Tommy Moe, et al. And we realize that predicting medals for U.S. skiers holds the same egg-on-face potential as accurately forecasting snow in Seattle.

But this past weekend's dual North American World Cup stops proved, beyond doubt, that the world of potential long riding around in red, white and blue ski team duffel bags is being realized.

At Beaver Creek, Colo., Rahlves and Miller recovered from embarrassing super giant slalom mistakes to finish 1-2 in the downhill, repeating their unprecedented finish from a year go, in reverse order. They repeated the feat in the giant slalom — Rahlves' first-ever GS podium. Rahlves and Miller stand 1-2 in overall World Cup standings as the men's circuit, just heating up, jets to Val d'Isere, France, later this week.

At the same time, American phenom Lindsey Kildow, 21, of Vail, Colo. — our pick from more than a year ago for at least one medal in Turin — won one of two downhills at Lake Louise, Alberta, finishing fifth in the other.

America's three brightest alpine stars thus shone as expected. But even more encouraging were breakout performances of some of the lesser-known: Rising star Ted Ligety of Park City, Utah, grabbed his first World Cup podium Friday, finishing third in the slalom — a race that saw Cashmere's Tom Rothrock finish 16th. And veteran gate-crasher Erik Schlopy — probably better known these days as Mr. Summer Sanders than for his World Cup prowess — was .01 of a second from the podium in the Beaver Creek GS, where he finished fourth.

Meanwhile, World Cup rookie Stacey Cook of Truckee, Calif., posted top-10 finishes in both Lake Louise downhills. And another Tahoe charger, Julia Mancuso, finished fifth in the first. Austrians reestablished some normalcy by sweeping Sunday's Super G, but five American women placed in the top 15, including a career-best 10th-place finish by Bellevue's Libby Ludlow, who continues to improve after a knee injury last season.

What's it all mean? The U.S. ski team, which, after this weekend's women's races in Aspen heads off on a long Euro road trip all the way to the Olympics, will arrive in Turin with something it has never really had — not a couple of wild-card medal threats, but a handful of solid medal favorites.

Time for inevitable catastrophe warning

It happens every other year, right around the time the torch starts making its way toward the host nation.

An official International Olympic Committee delegation visits the site of the pending Games, issuing one last warning to local organizers: Get it together, put the pedal to the medal, keep your budget-cutting hands off that budget — or face utter and complete disaster.

This time around the predictor of impending doom wasn't just an IOC hack, but an IOC hack/Olympic luminary — none other than Jean Claude Killy (yes, that Jean Claude).

Any further delays in housing, transportation systems and airport construction could mean "catastrophe," Killy said last week, as the IOC wrapped up its final visit to Turin. "In terms of the seven years it takes to work on hosting the Games, the opening ceremony is now only a moment away," added Killy, head of the IOC coordination commission.

Lingering concerns: a conflict between the IOC and Italian law over illegal doping, lodging shortages and, especially, transportation between the "ice" sports in the city of Turin, and "snow" sports in nearby Alps villages, which could require bus commutes of four hours or more one way, even if weather cooperates.

Clearly, some valid worries. But "catastrophe"?

Trust us: If the Olympics were ever going to crumble into a heap of incompetent malaise, it would have happened in Athens, which had all the right disaster ingredients, plus a couple wild-card additives, sitting right there on the counter next to the mixer.

Long track, the short course

If the U.S. is to come anywhere close to its record 34-medal haul from Salt Lake City, look to long-track speedskaters to lead the charge.

Shani Davis is far from the only U.S. medal threat. He's not even the only U.S. skater approaching or setting world records. Teammate Chad Hedrick, another in a growing line of converts from inline skating, won two silver medals in the fourth long-track World Cup in the Netherlands last week. His latest, in the 10,000 meters, came as he finished only three-tenths of a second behind Dutch winner Carl Verheijen, who set a world record in the event.

Hedrick is ranked second in the world in men's 5,000/10,000 meters. The long-track World Cup moves later this week to Turin, for an important Games warmup on the Olympic oval.

Ron Judd: 206-464-8280 or at rjudd@seattletimes.com.