Breckenridge teenager Katie Hartman isn’t amused when freeriders tease ski racers like her for wearing Spandex.
“The freeriders are always making fun of us about our outfits,” said Hartman, who has taken her speed suit to Austria for next week’s world juniors championships. “What gets me so bummed is that it’s like, ‘I’d like to see you strap on a pair of 210s, go 80 mph down a hill and do jumps at the same time.’
“There needs to be a mutual respect.”
Winter Park’s Tracie Kroneberger has heard the same jibes from jibbers and their ilk.
Kroneberger competes this weekend in the prestigious Topolino children’s races in Italy.
“People look at us and say, ‘They’re wearing Spandex; it’s cold,’ and, ‘It’s not that hard a sport; you just go around the gates,”‘ Kroneberger said. “I think ski racing is something that takes a lot of time, and there’s about 400 different parts and pieces you have to put together to be at the top.”
Hartman, 18, and Kroneberger, 14, are two of the top Colorado racers in the USSA alpine development pipeline. Hartman is the only Coloradan on the 14-member U.S. team for junior worlds. Kroneberger is the only Coloradan on the six-member Topolino team, and the first from Winter Park.
We all know some people shouldn’t wear Spandex, but Hartman and Kroneberger wear it proudly.
A post on the website of Ski Racing magazine recently highlighted what it called a “disturbing trend” of declining USSA membership after age 12, but USSA officials and others say it’s nothing new.
“It’s not a trend at all,” USSA competition director Walt Evans said. “In any sport, or music, or dance, we see the population of young people crest between 11 and 13 years old. In alpine skiing, our crest is around 12 years old for both genders. Then they start to specialize.”
Some presumably drop out when they realize they don’t have Olympic potential after all. My 12-year-old son just wrote an essay for school saying he wants to play in the NFL and the NBA. And make the Hall of Fame in both sports.
Evans said USSA’s overall youth membership in alpine racing is increasing 2 to 3 percent per year – not sensational growth, but not a decline, either.
“There’s a natural attrition of participants as they get older and kids pursue their passions,” said Aldo Radamus, executive director of Ski & Snowboard Club Vail. “That consumes more and more of their time, and they’re not able to do as many different activities. That’s natural.”
Born and raised in Breckenridge, Hartman began skiing when she was 17 months old, started racing when she was 4 or 5 and got serious about it when she was 10.
“It is one of the most amazing sports just because there’s so much involved,” Hartman said. “I train every day just to do a one-minute course. You spend your life training for that one minute that can change your career.”
World juniors is an important identifier of emerging talent. Ski Club Vail’s Lindsey Kildow competed in her first of five world juniors in 2000 when she was 15, winning a medal in 2003 and two in 2004. Julia Mancuso won five gold medals at world juniors. Ted Ligety won a slalom silver medal in 2004 and became an Olympic champion two years later. Steve Nyman won two medals in 2002; now he’s a winner on the World Cup.
“I’m really excited to go to world juniors,” Hartman said. “It’s been my goal since I became an FIS racer, to ski over there and race against some of the top juniors.”
Kroneberger grew up in Littleton but moved to Winter Park with her family when she was in second grade. For her, speed thrills.
“That’s amazing,” Kroneberger said. “In downhill and super-G, it’s like, ‘I went faster than a car can go down the highway.”‘
Sometimes it seems as if the Europeans who run the sport are determined to kill it. Somehow it holds its own despite their myopia and the hype arrayed behind newer disciplines and events.
“Ski racing is never going to die,” Hartman said. “It’s something everyone craves to do, to go that fast down a mountain. Knifing a turn, there’s no feeling like it.”
