Swiss Skier Coach Keuttel wins Large Hill Championships

In the Large Hill Special Jump (Link Removed) Andreas Keuttel put it together to win his first comp in 2 years. Remarkable in this is the fact that he has been spending much of his time coaching teammate Simon Amman and that the two of them are their team.

This is quite in contrast to the powerhouse Austrian team who, as noted, were suprisingly left out of this events podium (they made up for this on Saturday winning the Team Competition). The swiss don't even hae enough skiers to field a team (they should have gotten together with the American Duo of Johnson and Fairall).

Lets tip our Hats by the way to Anders Johnson. He not only qualified top 50 for this event, but had his best finish - to my knowledge - to date on this level of competition, coming in 40th with a respectable jump of 114 meters! Anders and Nick Fairall (see my earlier post about Nick - Ski Flying) are part of the Project X ski jump development effort that is through shear force of will power bringing the US back into the international ski jumping arena in the mens category (fuller discussion USST's abandonment will follow in a later post).

Add this to the emergence from retirement of Todd Lodwick and the story is this. At some point it becomes the skier and not the coach who makes the magic happen. It is hard to say when and where this happens (perhaps from the start), but in these events normally, the effectiveness of the program makes much of the results happen. This effectiveness, of course, needs to transfer to the individuals confidence and abilities, and as they mature, like good wine, they are able to bring this from themselves as Keuttel and Lodwick have so amply demonstrated.

Athleticism needs to be nurtured and in the end, it stands on its own in full glory.

Congratulations to Keutel and all the skiers who participated in this years Nordic World Championships. This will be a year to be remembered for many years to come -- much for me because it has been the first that I have been able to see, on a regular basis, through the great work of the FIS and NBC Univeresal Sports in putting it out on the web.

I do hope that they don't start "geographically" restricting the ability to watch this through national licensing arrangements -- this is what (in the TV Only world) has made Nordic Skiing languish for so many years in North America.

Work this one out FIS! The sport depends upon it.