Ligety is 33. Where are the Marcus Mariota, Jameis Winston, Dak Prescott, Jared Goff of the U.S. ski racers? We've got Shiffrin, then who?
That would be a good question for Tiger Shaw, and Chip Knight. The USST has been fumbling development for a long time. They seem to have a much better plan now, but it will take time. And you don't know until you see how it works out.
BTW, MS has been incredibly great for US skiing, and at the same time has been a real problem. Giving a generation of parents and kids a reality check about the fact that she is a once a lifetime skier has been a struggle. It's completely messed up expectations. The amount of time and energy involved among coaches and program directors to deal with this is enormous. You could have the best U16 in the world, literally, but Mikaela was on the WC in her first FIS season. So, why is my daughter not ready for the WC when she his he FIS ranks? Seriously. It happens.
There are a lot of very strong up and comers. But they are young, will not be scoring on the WC for some time, and need to be developed the right way. Don't be looking of WC podiums. There are younger kids who stack up VERY well against their age group peers in the world. They kill it in the big international competitions,
One.....Sam Morse. last year's Junior Worlds DH Champ. Sam is the real deal, and they are not going to rush him. They do not want him just skiing on the World Cup. They want him winning. He is 20. Another is River Radamus. On the female side, Breezy Johnson s the most visible. There are another half dozen....all very young. My favorite bet is recovering from an ACL, Nellie Rose Talbot. Love that name.
There are older birth years were we simply have nobody in the system. All gone. There as a stretch when this was completely mismanaged. And no fun for the kids who were trying. That can't happen again. We used to rush them too soon. Did MS, and Mancuso have to start on the WC at 15? Did not work for others. WE have a friend who was the toped ranked skier in the country in ALL FOUR events at about 16. The USST sent him to race Europa Cups at 17. It was a disaster for many reasons. First of all 17 year olds who are skiing better than 22-23 year olds who they are supposed to be teammate with is a bad recipe. Not cozy. He quit the sport. Now a great coach, knowing how kids should be handled.
A number of good minds working on this. There will be a big turnover of USST staff their spring, I believe. This is job 1B for the USST. Job 1A is raising more money.
This is going to be an ugly few years soon. LV will retire, and right now, who knows how she stacks up. Mancuso is done. Resi is probably done after this season. And topped out. You have MS, and others on the rise. Ligety is a step away from retirement. Coudunsky is not quite there, and my bet is that he'll retire soon. Tommy Ford? Often injured. Nyman? Oldest guy on the team. New dad. Is it time? Ganong? With a couple of changes, he could be just exceptional. Like frequent podiums. AW? pretty much in the twilight. Not very consistent. I'm going off the top of my head. Probably missing somebody.
At any rate, the cupboard will be bare, and the things to watch, to be encouraged is how the younger guys and girls do relative to their age group peers. And we might have a couple just rocket ahead.
Not sure if this fits with this thread, BTW.
Guess it might have to do with questions about whether Ligety will adapt to 30M skis faster than others. I would say a resounding NO. Hopefully his back is good. Reports are that it is, but backs are tricky. Hopefully the new skis will be easier on his body. When he had the high breakthrough on the 35M skis, no doubt he worked on them earlier and as much or more than others. There was serious concern that he would not be able to replicate his arc to arc fluid skiing. And he really could not.....skis too big for the curse sets. BUT, he looked a lot better than most others. The reason? He had much better skis than anybody else. Much. Took others a long time to catch up. Some ski companies never did. Maybe they'll have more luck with the new skis.
Oh well.....
