Beaver Creek – After a heroic performance by husband Erik Schlopy that left him off the World Cup podium Saturday by the barest of margins, Summer Sanders said she had seen him happier only once before: last summer when she told him she was pregnant.
Sanders, who won two gold medals at the Barcelona Olympics in swimming, knew how hard Schlopy had worked to come back from the knee injury he suffered two years ago. She knew the injury happened just when he seemed primed to break into the top echelon of giant slalom racers, and how his confidence suffered last season as he struggled to return to the form he had when he was injured.
“Watching someone go through it is much different than going through it yourself,” said Sanders, tears trickling down her cheeks. “It’s far more emotional, and I get much more nervous for him. I just want to see him happy.
“I know what makes him happy, and that’s to have a great race.”
Schlopy had one in Saturday’s giant slalom. Despite breaking his left hand on a gate pole late in the first run, Schlopy finished fourth by one-hundredth of a second. Any faster and he would have joined teammates Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves on the podium.
“Being the third-best American and in fourth place, that’s something,” Schlopy said. “Where I am personally, I’m really excited because last year I struggled and had some issues with my confidence, coming back from injury. I’m using Bode’s quote: He says there’s two ways to ski fast; one is to be inspired, one is to get mad. I think this is a little bit of both.”
Schlopy married Sanders in July and is due to become a father in April, a sequence of events he calls his “life acceleration program.” The oldest member of the U.S. Ski Team (33), Schlopy never has won a World Cup or major championships race. Many say he’s had the technical ability but lacked the mental edge.
The highlight of his career bears out that assessment. Having finished the first run of the 2003 world championships GS in 23rd place, nearly two seconds off the pace, Schlopy felt no pressure in the second run and attacked. Turning in the best second run by far, Schlopy claimed the bronze medal and was only four-hundredths of a second behind Miller, who won.
“I know I can win a World Cup,” Schlopy said. “I think I can win the World Cup GS title. I won a bronze medal at the world championships, I was .04 behind, I know I can win a gold. If I can do that, then I can win an Olympic gold. There’s still a lot out there that I know I can do. I’m going to put everything into trying to accomplish it.”
Schlopy injured his left knee in the second race of the 2004 season. He had decent results early last season but then lost a ski going 70 mph in a super-G at Val Gardena, Italy, crashing into a fence. It wasn’t easy for him to shake it off.
“I think it started playing with my mind a little bit,” Schlopy said. “That door closed in my head, that intensity you need to have to ski with the world’s best. Fear, anxiety, just didn’t want to get hurt again – whatever it was, it crept back into my head and kind of played with me the rest of the season.”
Schlopy met Sanders on a blind date at the ski team’s New York gala fundraiser in 2003. Schlopy and Miller were looking for companions and called Miller’s agent, who also represents Sanders. The couple hit it off immediately.
“I think we both realized right away what we were up against,” Schlopy said, “and I mean that in a good way.”
Sanders backs up his story. “We knew immediately,” Sanders said. “I felt like I’d known him forever. It was a very strange feeling. We both weren’t looking for (involvement).”
Even as he starts a family, Schlopy isn’t ready to start life after ski racing. He says he’ll ski competitively as long as he’s healthy, enjoying it and can make a decent living.
“You show me a job where I can make a good living going 70 mph, travel around the world having fun and pretty much be my own boss,” Schlopy said. “I love ski racing, I love being an athlete, I love being my own boss. … The main reason I do it, besides the fact that it’s fun and it’s the best job I can think of, is that I still haven’t accomplished what I know I’m capable of accomplishing.”
John Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com.
About Erik Schlopy
Age: 33
Birthplace: Buffalo, N.Y.
Residence: Park City, Utah
Years on U.S. Ski Team: 11
U.S. titles: Seven
Medal: Bronze, 2003 world championships, giant slalom
World Cup highlights: Third in 2001 giant slalom season standings; two second-place GS finishes, 2001; eight career
top-five finishes
Olympic finishes: 14th in slalom, 2002; 34th in GS, 1994
