Tracks run downhill in skeleton racing, which seems appropriate given the direction of U.S. results since Jim Shea and Tristan Gale swept gold medals when the sport returned to the Winter Olympic program at Salt Lake City in 2002.
On top of the mountain then. On a downward spiral ever since.
The 2006 Olympic season for the U.S. skeleton team was wrecked by drama, dysfunction, accusations and scandal. And the buildup to the 2010 Vancouver Games might be even more troubling, considering none of the issues that derailed U.S. hopes four years ago exists today — replaced instead by a baffling string of disappointing results.
No U.S. skeleton racer has made it to a World Cup podium this season. Americans collected only three World Cup medals last season, two of those coming on a home track in Park City, Utah. The last time a U.S. slider won an international race was Feb. 1, 2008, when Breckenridge’s Katie Uhlaender capped her second World Cup overall championship with a victory at Konigssee, Germany.
If nothing else, it’s given the team plenty to think about during this Christmas break — with Olympic racing at the Whistler Sliding Center less than two months away.
“There’s some concerns,” said U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation CEO Darrin Steele. “I think the break will give the coaches and the skeleton athletes a chance to reflect on where they are and what it’s going to take to get back to where they’ve been before.
“It’s not new territory for them being on the podium. It just hasn’t happened this season or most of last season. There’s certainly some work to be done.”
And time is running short.
Eric Bernotas is the top American in the men’s World Cup standings, sitting in ninth place, two spots ahead of Zach Lund, who nearly made the 2002 Olympic team.
Lund did make the 2006 roster, only to be booted from the Turin Games hours before the opening ceremony in a doping scandal over a hair-restoration product — just one of many chapters in the story of Team Turmoil four winters ago.
