ASPEN — Now it starts getting really interesting for Casey Puckett.
What started as a lark (racing skiercross in the Winter X Games) and developed into a quest (using skiercross as a ticket to his fifth Olympics) now takes Puckett back to Europe and the FIS World Cup.
Puckett will be there when skiercross makes its debut on the World Cup freestyle circuit next month with two events in France and one in Austria. Then, after a break for the Winter X Games in Aspen, Puckett will compete in the first American World Cup skiercross event at Utah’s Deer Valley resort Feb. 2.
“I’m extremely excited,” said Puckett, who grew up in Crested Butte and lives in Aspen. “I love what I’m doing.”
Puckett made it to four Olympics as an alpine racer, his first at age 19. If he makes it to the 2010 Vancouver Games, where skiercross fortuitously makes its Olympic debut, he will be 37. As long as he stays healthy, he’s pretty much a lock, along with former World Cup great Daron Rahlves, who is in the second season of his second career.
“It doesn’t look like a lot of guys are going to be coming out of (alpine) World Cup racing over the next couple of years,” said Puckett’s brother Chris, also a former alpine World Cup racer. “There isn’t anyone else of the Americans, besides Daron, who can compete with him. I guess Jake Fiala, here and there. Between Jake, Daron and Casey, I don’t see a bunch of other guys who can make that team.”
Puckett believed his competitive career ended at the 2002 Salt Lake Games, where he raced in the combined.
“I got into coaching to give back and help along some of the kids who were racing here in Aspen,” Puckett said. “I was taking that head-on. But there’s always these events that come through Aspen, you look out there and go, ‘Huh, that’d be kind of fun.’ ”
The 24 Hours of Aspen looked like fun in December 2002, so Puckett entered it — and won. The woman who won the 24 Hours that year, Aleisha Cline of Canada, had done some skiercross and encouraged Puckett to give it a try.
“She said, ‘You’d love skiercross, you should try it,’ ” Puckett said. “I said, ‘Nah, that’s for young kids, it’s not for me.’ ”
She was persistent, and the Winter X Games were in his hometown, so he figured it couldn’t hurt to give it a try a few weeks later. He says he probably wouldn’t have done it if the X Games weren’t in Aspen.
“The first race, the first heat, I was hooked,” Puckett said. “Hooked for good, because it was just so much fun, stepping into the gate with five other guys. The energy and the excitement of it appealed to me.”
Puckett quickly became the best skiercross racer in America. Last year he won five of eight races but damaged cartilage in his right knee at the X Games. He continued to compete on The Ski Tour but had microfracture surgery in April.
“It feels good,” Puckett said after forerunning a woman’s World Cup downhill on Ajax earlier this month. “It feels somewhat tender, as it would after a microfracture, but it’s holding up fine. Doing these runs at 85 mph, it feels great.”
Puckett said skiercross is easier on the knees than alpine racing would be. In skiercross, racers tend to get in a semi-tuck and ride the contour of the course.
“In skiercross, you’re not dropping your knee in quite as much, not making the kind of turns you’re making in alpine,” Puckett said. “When you turn, you’re on a bank, so you don’t have to create the angles you need to in alpine.”
Puckett was glad to see Rahlves join the circuit because it brought added credibility to skiercross. Rahlves failed to make the podium last season, but he rectified that on Dec. 15 in Telluride, finishing second in the first Jeep King of the Mountain event of the season. Puckett finished fifth but was the No. 2 American.
“I was hard to beat, and I’m going to be hard to beat every time,” Puckett said. “It’s a difficult sport to win, because there’s so many things that can happen, but I can say with confidence I am a favorite to win every time. There’s a lot of factors involved: The start, the gliding, how are you in traffic. I’m very competitive.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
