U.S. Team a Challenge for Marolt

Bill Marolt is familiar with both skiing and success.

So, with America’s ski racers seemingly going the way of the buffalo, what better way to avert near-extinction than to turn to the man who helped transform the Buffaloes into one of the nation’s top athletic programs.

Marolt, athletic director at the University of Colorado for 12 years, became president and chief executive officer of U.S. Skiing last summer, and he has come up with a “strategic five-year plan” to revitalize the U.S. team by no later than the 2002 Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City.

But first, why would he leave a job overseeing Bill McCartney and then Rick Neuheisel to take on the financial and administrative headaches of an organization that is trying once again to play catch-up with Europe.

“We had a lot of success, and I was still excited about a good part of the program [at Colorado],” he said this week from Park City, Utah. “But when you work in a position over a period of time, there are aspects that aren’t as challenging as you would like. This opportunity with U.S. Skiing presented itself, and I think there are a lot of things I can bring to it in terms of leadership and background and experience.”

Marolt, a competitor on this country’s 1964 Olympic team, was U.S. Alpine director in 1978-84, and in his last season before going to Colorado, Americans won five medals at the Sarajevo Winter Games: golds by Bill Johnson, Phil Mahre and Debbie Armstrong, and silvers by Steve Mahre and Christin Cooper, with a fourth place by Tamara McKinney adding to the luster.

Can this showing be repeated?

“That ’84 team was phenomenal,” Marolt said. “We had a lot of unbelievable athletes. That becomes our challenge: to try to find kids of that quality and attain that same result level. I know that we are going to set very high standards for all of our teams between now and 2002. If we can accelerate our development and push ourselves, I think we can have great success again.”

Actually, 1994 wasn’t a bad Olympic year, either, but of the three Alpine medalists at Lillehammer, Diann Roffe-Steinrotter has retired, Tommy Moe still hasn’t completely recovered from a knee injury and Picabo Street is on crutches because of an injured knee of her own.

“Picabo’s injury [in training last month] clearly was a blow,” Marolt said. “It’s hard for her and for the team. She was a high-profile personality. There’s a hollow spot on the tour this year, and it’s too bad. But there’s also an opportunity for some of our other women to step up and take over her leadership role. I’m still optimistic about our speed teams.”

Marolt said Street’s recent fund-raising event at Sun Valley, Idaho, was “terrific” and “a financial success,” but there’s still a long way to go before U.S. Skiing can restore its recent budget cuts.

“It is essential that we establish and maintain a sound economic footing,” he said. “We’ll look at those programs where we’re currently having success and fund those on a priority basis and make sure we don’t lose ground there--with our elite men’s and women’s downhill teams, our Nordic combined athletes and our freestyle skiers, as well as our very good snowboarding team.

“In areas where we’re not very good, we’ll look hard at ways to improve but, rather than be all things to all sports, focus on the areas where we can really have some success.”

The opening ceremony of the next Winter Olympics at Nagano, Japan, is little more than a year away, on Feb. 7, 1998, and Street, at least, hopes by then to have regained the form that won her the last two World Cup downhill titles. She also plans to race in the 1999 World Alpine Ski Championships at Vail, Colo., but not stick around for 2002--Marolt’s target date for achieving all his goals.

Before that, however, U.S. Skiing must concern itself with the current World Cup season, which ends for Alpine racers with the finals March 12-16 at Vail, and next month’s world championships in the three primary ski disciplines--Alpine, Nordic and freestyle--plus snowboarding.

“There are a lot of good things happening, especially here in the United States, over the next six years that are attractive to television and to corporate America,” Marolt said, “and I think this will benefit us.”

In 1984, Marolt caused some unhappiness by setting standards that his racers must meet to make the Olympic team, leaving some berths unfilled if there were no skiers with the requisite ability. He will have his Alpine coaches follow the same procedure for the world championships Feb. 2-16 at Sestriere, Italy.

“We have set criteria, and it’s clearly stated we won’t necessarily fill quotas just because they’re there,” he said.

Although Marolt is working with a three-year contract, he said, “My goal is to stay through 2002. If things are going great, and I feel good about it, I’ll stay beyond. If they’re not, then. . . .”

Skiing Notes

The U.S. Winter Transplant Games will be held Jan. 29-Feb. 2 at Mammoth mountain. The Olympic-style competition is open to recipients of life-saving organ transplants of all types and is sponsored by the National Kidney Foundation. Details: (800) 622-9010.