Sestriere, Italy – When Daron Rahlves joined the World Cup 12 years ago as a small but determined Californian with a thirst for adrenaline, it would have been outlandish to predict the kind of success he has achieved as a downhiller.
He has won most of the classic races: Bormio in Italy, Wengen in Switzerland, and the most coveted of all, Kitzbuehel in Austria. At Kitzbuehel, a gondola car carries his name, which is how the world’s most prestigious alpine race honors its legends.
Not only did his 5-foot-9 frame seem an impediment to success – most downhillers are tall and heavy, a body type that recruits gravity as an ally – but the thought of any American becoming a top-flight downhiller was difficult to envision in those days. American men had won only four World Cup downhills since the inception of the tour in 1967.
The U.S. now has 17 World Cup downhill wins, and Rahlves has nine of them.
Rahlves began this season, most likely his last, targeting the two career goals that have eluded him: winning the World Cup downhill title and a gold medal at the Olympics. He is all but mathematically eliminated from the former despite three wins this season, but he will be a favorite in Sunday’s downhill, the marquee skiing event of the Winter Games.
“I’m not really focused on the downhill title anymore,” Rahlves said last week in Chamonix, France, the final World Cup stop before the Turin Games. “Sestriere is where I want to smash it to pieces.”
He won this year at Beaver Creek, Bormio and Wengen. He was third at Kitzbuehel, a ho-hum result that would have been cause for jubilation a decade ago. But he has had mediocre results in the other four downhills, preventing him from challenging Austria’s Michael Walchhofer for the season title.
Official downhill training begins today on the exposed 2-mile track set on a mountain pass, unless the high winds being forecasted become too strong to run downhill safely.
“I have some skis I want to try out, some different models,” Rahlves said. “Every day of training is going to be really important, to get a lot of good feelings out of the hill, trying to find (the right) equipment.”
Unlike outspoken teammate Bode Miller, who is widely regarded as the best athlete on the tour, Rahlves brought more modest physical gifts to the tour and developed gradually, adding muscle to make up for his weight disadvantage and learning from experience.
“Daron is a self-made man,” U.S. head men’s coach Phil McNichol said. “Bode is not a self-made man. Daron has had to work, really hard. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that it’s been all fun and games for Bode, but it’s at a very different level than Daron. I see so much in him of someone I would want to be if I was an athlete.”
Rahlves went into the Salt Lake Olympics believing he was ready to win a medal, but he let that affect his emotions and his tactics. The result was a mistake in the downhill that caused him to shoot skyward crazily off a jump high on the course, dooming his chances of contending. He finished 16th, coming back six days later to finish eighth in the super-G.
“For sure I want to be the fastest man down the hill, but I can’t think about that,” Rahlves, 32, said. “I just need to have everything dialed in – boots, skis, everything figured out – go out there with a good feeling that day and put it all together. In Salt Lake I got too caught up in trying to win. You get too many things in your head instead of being really focused about the skiing.”
Rahlves has to be considered a medal contender in three events – he won a gold medal in super-G at the 2001 world championships and a silver in downhill at the 2005 worlds, where he also claimed a giant slalom bronze – but the downhill is his primary focus. Rahlves is calling Sunday’s race “the big one.” Bill Johnson (1984) and Tommy Moe (1994) are the only Americans with gold medals in Olympic downhills.
“Wengen and Bormio were the two best races I’ve had all year, just the way I felt,” Rahlves said. “I linked it up and was just so smooth, that’s what I’m looking for in Sestriere. The cleaner you ski, the faster you’re going to be.”
Rahlves still loves the risk and rush of competing against the world’s best at 75 mph, especially on the toughest courses, where he can take advantage of his technical superiority, experience and nerve. It’s the more tedious demands of the sport – especially the long periods away from home – that probably will cause him to retire after this season.
“I ski for the ultimate experience, putting it all together, feeling really good on skis and being unbeatable,” Rahlves said. “We’re trying to race the clock and be the fastest ones down. It comes down to pushing yourself to the ultimate challenge and raise your performance level where you take a lot of risks. There’s guys making mistakes and guys pulling stuff off and just getting away with it. That’s what’s cool about racing.”
