Mergers, Not Results, May Be Good News

Maxi-mergers and mini-results are what’s happening in American skiing as the new year starts its precipitous run into the unknown.

For recreational skiers, perhaps the biggest news in 1996 came in the shape of parabolic skis, which gained increasing acceptance for their easy-going nature. But almost equally important was the widespread consolidation among ski resorts, a trend that could produce future economic benefits in both the board rooms and on the slopes.

On the competitive scene, this past year began with the sport’s two most intriguing personalities riding a wave of success and ended with them battling major injuries.

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Picabo Street followed her victory in the World Alpine Ski Championships at Sierra Nevada, Spain, last February with her second consecutive World Cup downhill title, but now needs crutches to get around. Her “good bud,” as she calls Alberto Tomba, won gold medals in both the slalom and giant slalom at Sierra Nevada, but is still hampered by his injured knee and wrist.

Tomba, 30, who finished second in his first World Cup slalom this season while racing with a bandaged wrist, had planned a curtailed schedule, anyway. However, Street’s serious knee injury, suffered during downhill training Dec. 4 at Vail, Colo., leaves the U.S. ski team without any realistic hope of winning either a World Cup race or a medal in the 1997 world championships next month at Sestriere, Italy.

With the next Winter Olympics slightly more than a year away, U.S. Skiing, which administers the various competition programs, is operating on a budget that was slashed by more than $1 million to $14.6 million when Bill Marolt took over as the organization’s new president and CEO last summer.

Marolt, a former racer and U.S. Alpine director and more recently athletic director at the University of Colorado, said at the time: “We’ve had cuts in all disciplines, but it really affected Alpine, because we had to reduce funding for virtually everybody below the A-team level.

“We’re taking a step backward now, but in the long run it will allow us to move ahead aggressively, with a solid financial foundation.”

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Finances were also the dominant theme for ski resorts, which have been undergoing a merger mania that shows no signs of easing.

The latest deal, subject to Justice Department approval, brings Keystone, Breckenridge and Arapahoe Basin under the control of Vail Resorts, Inc., which already owns Vail, Beaver Creek and Arrowhead in Colorado.

Other transactions last year included Booth Creek Inc.’s acquisition of Bear Mountain, Northstar-at-Tahoe, Sierra-at-Tahoe, Cranmore, N.H., and Waterville Valley, N.H., and American Skiing Co.’s addition of four ski areas in Vermont and New Hampshire to the three it already owned in New England.

Additionally, Intrawest of Vancouver, B.C., owner of five major resorts in Canada and the Eastern U.S., acquired a partial interest in Mammoth Mountain and substantial real estate holdings in Mammoth Lakes.

Skiing Notes

The only encouraging U.S. results from last weekend’s Alpine World Cup racing were a pair of 19th places--by former C-team member Tasha Nelson, 22, in Saturday’s women’s slalom at Semmering, Austria, and Chad Fleischer in Sunday’s men’s downhill at Bormio, Italy. Fleischer turns 25 on Saturday. . . . Racing resumes in Slovenia with a women’s slalom and giant slalom Friday and Saturday at Maribor, and a men’s slalom and giant slalom Sunday and Monday at Kranjska Gora.

The World Pro Tour will get off to a delayed start this weekend at Les Deux Alpes, France. The 11 scheduled stops include Snow Summit on Feb. 7-9. . . . German racer Martin Fiala won the second event of the Jeep King of the Mountain Downhill Series at Vail, Colo., but the U.S. duo of Bill Johnson and Doug Lewis leads the team standings with 110 points, 10 more than Germany. Taped highlights of the race will be shown on Channel 2 at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

The Freestyle World Cup circuit moves to North America this month with competition at Mont Tremblant in Quebec next Tuesday through Jan. 9; at Lake Placid, N.Y., Jan. 11-13; at Whistler/Blackcomb in British Columbia, Jan. 17-19, and at Breckenridge, Colo., Jan. 23-26. . . . The California Cup begins a three-weekend run Saturday and Sunday at Snow Summit. The top eight men and top four women in the series, open to everyone, will win a free trip to Squaw Valley for the finals.

The second round of the Four Hills holiday ski-jumping tournament will be held today at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Dieter Thoma of Germany won the opener at Oberstdorf, with Kristian Brenden of Norway second and Andreas Goldberger of Austria third. The other jumps will be in Austria, Saturday at Innsbruck and Monday at Bischofshofen. . . . Todd Lodwick of Steamboat Springs, Colo., finished third in the Nordic Combined World Cup one-man sprint relay--a ski jump plus a 7.5-kilometer cross-country ski race--Sunday at Oberwiesenthal, Germany.