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(Published February 1, 2002)
THE WHITE CIRCUS GOES TO THE BIG TOP...
Lake Tahoe has plenty to cheer about in 2002, with six local skiing athletes headed to the Olympics. Squaw Valley's Shannon Bahrke and Jonny Moseley will represent the mogul side of the team, with Moseley defending his gold medal. On the South Shore, freestyle hopefuls took a hit, when none of our current World Cup stars were named to the Olympic squad.
Running into a slew of bad luck, Travis Cabral fell victim, literally, to an off-balance landing in a recent competition, which left the Sierra-at-Tahoe athlete bruised and battered. Heavenly's Chris Hernandez damaged his remaining 'good' knee, trading his Olympic hopes for surgery and a few months of rehab.
"I blew out my ACL and Dr. Orr did surgery a couple weeks ago. But I'm up and moving and feeling pretty good now - I started physical therapy just three days after surgery. So things are moving along pretty well," Hernandez explains with his typical good nature.
Rounding out the freestyle short list, Travis Ramos' exclusion from the Olympic squad created a storm of local controversy, when US Ski Team coaches strayed from their selection criteria. Although qualified, the 22 year-old skier from Sierra-at-Tahoe was passed over in favor of teammate, Evan Dybvig, based on stronger current World Cup performance.
On the plus side, Jonny Moseley clinched his long shot spot with a recent World Cup win. "I knew it was gonna be a dogfight," he said of the strict selection process. "I've said it all along, it was gonna take a win for me to go to the Olympics and I hoped I could do just that. It's a shame not everyone could go, because down to the sixth or seventh guy they're awesome. This is easily the most talented team I've been on..."
From the World Cup's alpine side - known cryptically as "The White Circus" - Tahoe's north shore is providing another three athletes. Again from Squaw Valley, two new names are slated for their first Olympic experience.
Marco Sullivan has parlayed his first World Cup season into spots on both the super-G and prestigious downhill squads. At age 21, Marco caused a few ripples in the ski racing world when he had the highest American placing in the early season downhill at Val D'Isere, Italy.
Home for a little R 'n R before heading to Salt Lake City, Sullivan recently said, "I'll for sure be racing the speed events, and they may plug me into the combined. I won't know that until just before it happens. And even though I've got World Cup points in downhill, I'd have to say that I've been skiing super-G better this year."
And while her fellow Olympians have been home lounging around or making turns at their favorite Tahoe resort, Julia Mancuso opted to remain in Europe for the last World Cup races before the Winter Games.
At the slight age of 17, Mancuso already has valuable points in every event save giant slalom. With a mass exodus home for much of the World Cup roster, Julia made the chess move to race a downhill in Are, Sweden. The strategy paid off - she improved her World Cup status with a 28th place finish over the weekend. Taking Olympic excitement to a personal level, Mancuso celebrates her 18th birthday the day after the opening ceremonies.
Rounding out the north shore Olympians is speedster Daron Rahlves of Truckee. The current World Champion in super-G and a veteran of the Nagano Games, Rahlves is one of our nation's top medal contenders. Like most of his team, Daron opted out of the weekend's men's downhill at St. Moritz, in favor of relaxing at his home resort of Sugar Bowl.
Daron says, "With Nagano, I knew it would be a huge event, but I was blown away by how big it actually was. But I think Salt Lake will be bigger than Japan - it's hard to imagine, but representing your country and also being here at home...that's huge."
The last 'Tahoe' Olympian is Jonna Mendes of South Lake Tahoe. A graduate of Heavenly's junior race foundation, Jonna is another two-time Olympian. At Nagano, she (much like Julia Mancuso this year) was sent to simply experience a "big event." Still, in 1998 at age 18, Jonna placed a respectable 14th in Combined and 17th in downhill.
"I know that after four more years of skiing, I'm just more capable," says Jonna. "I feel like I can really tap into all this experience and just let it fly."
Still sponsored by Heavenly ski resort, Mendes' friendly personality has made her the pride of South Lake Tahoe. At a recent send-off party for the athlete, she said, "Only my immediate family has ever seen me ski race, but for the Olympics, pretty much all my relatives will be there. I'm totally excited that if they only ever have one chance to see me race in person, it's at the Olympic Games."
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