‘Crossing Over

In the world of ski racing, there is no scarier course than the Streif, the almost-two-mile-long strip of snow and ice that makes up the Hahnenkamm downhill in Kitzbühel, Austria. Seconds from the start, racers fly almost 200 feet over the Mausefalle (mousetrap), a cliff just five degrees shy of vertical. When they land, they must overcome the G-forces and make a hard left turn. Or end up in the safety netting.

In its 69-year history, the Hahnenkamm has been won by ski racing's men of steel: Toni Sailer, Jean-Claude Killy, Franz Klammer, Hermann Maier, Daron Rahlves.

"Nothing touches the Hahnenkamm as far as anxiety and risk factor," says Rahlves who won a shortened version in 2003 and has stood on the Hahnenkamm downhill podium four other times. "You respect the hill, but you're there to take charge. When I was in the gate, I never had any doubts."

Now Rahlves, who retired from the alpine World Cup in 2006, has found something scarier: Ski cross, the mano-a-mano race that resembles motocross on snow.

"There's more nerves for me in the gate of a ski cross race because there's a lot more pressure right out of the gate to perform and be really quick," he says. "If you're in the back, you have to deal with a lot tougher run than you would if you're up front doing your own thing."

Ski cross will make its Olympic debut in 2010, and 35-year-old Rahlves, as well as former U.S. Ski Team teammates Casey Puckett, 36, and Jake Fiala, 33, hope to win some Olympic hardware.

Puckett, a four-time Olympian, retired from alpine racing in 2002 and is currently ranked third on the ski cross World Cup circuit. He's also won the ski cross title at the Winter X Games twice. Rahlves-who competed in three Olympics, won 12 World Cup races and one World Championship title - has only raced two ski cross World Cups - finishing fourth and fifth - since he took up the sport in 2007, but he won the 2008 Winter X Games title. Fiala won ski cross silver at the Winter X Games in 2007.

Not bad for three guys in their 30s, two who call themselves dads (Rahlves and Puckett) and one who's about to be married (Fiala).

So what is it about this sport that brought these guys out of retirement? While they admit the Olympics are a motivating factor, it's more the fact that they're having fun. Like kids trying to beat their buddies to the bottom of the hill all over again.

Ski cross competition was initially introduced at the first Winter X Games in 1997. Six years later, the FIS sanctioned it and integrated into the freestyle category of skiing (not alpine). In late-November 2006 - after the success of boardercross in the 2006 Olympics - the IOC decided to include ski cross in the program of the 2010 Winter Olympics as a way to "modernize the Winter Olympics," reads the IOC's press release announcing ski cross's Olympic debut, and "arouse great interest among young people."

Inspired by motocross, ski cross pits four to six skiers against each other on a course that resembles a terrain park, with rollers, banked turns, tabletops and jumps. Speeds approach 20 meters per second, or 45 miles per hour (as opposed to downhill, where racers regularly top 60 mph).

Ski cross racers first qualify for the main event by racing alone down the course. Based on their qualifying time, they are placed in heats with four other competitors (the Winter X Games feature six-person heats). Each heat is a single elimination format with only the first two racers across the line advancing to the next round (three in the Winter X Games). The races continue until there are only four (or six) competitors left. These four compete in the final round.

And herein lies the thrill of the sport for both the competitors and spectators. Unlike alpine racing, where there is only one person on course at a time, with ski cross "you know who comes through the finish line first, there's no question," says Fiala.

And with the top racers competing in three rounds before making it to the final, stamina is key.

Fiala first tried ski cross in 2005. "I had a back injury and a bad [alpine] season and I got home and there were the Gravity Games at Copper," he says. "So I did that and got third and kind of got hooked on it."

Puckett, who first tried ski cross at the 2003 Winter X Games in his hometown of Aspen, won the Gravity Games in 2005 and convinced Fiala to keep at it.

For his own part, Puckett - the 2004 and 2007 Winter X Games champion - says he did ski cross for four years "as a hobby," but once it was made an Olympic event, he became more serious.

Rahlves also took up ski cross after retiring from alpine racing "for fun and to have a little competition and to play around." But he found ski cross was a different animal than alpine racing: "It's bump and grind, rubbing elbows, crashing." Indeed. He crashed more than he finished in 2007.

So if the U.S.'s most successful downhill racer can't immediately win at ski cross, what does it take?

First and foremost, it does take ski-racing skills. Asked if he would choose ski cross over alpine racing if he could start his career over again, Rahlves said he wouldn't have changed his path. "You can't just step in at 12 years old and ski ski cross," he says. "You have to have the race background. You don't see anybody coming up without a race background and being competitive in this sport."

"A lot the same fundamentals you need to learn as an alpine racer you need in ski cross," adds U.S. ski cross coach Tyler Shepherd, a former U.S. Ski Team alpine racer who turned to ski cross after completing his All-America ski racing career for the University of Colorado.

With three (or five) other skiers on course, tactics also come in to play, which Rahlves learned after his 2007 season.

"There are really good skiers on the course, but it changes things," Rahlves explains. "It throws your game off. It's tough when you're behind somebody and anticipating what they're going to do. You have to almost see through them."

The start is also key. The fastest skier out of the starting gates gets the "hole shot," meaning that racer is in front going into the first turn. According to FIS rules, the starter says, "Enter the start gate," 30 seconds before the heat. The next command is "Skier's ready!" followed by "Attention!" Then the gates open.

"It's a reaction time," says Fiala. "In alpine, you get a countdown, but the countdown is always the same. You don't have to worry about the start in alpine at all. It just comes naturally, and you're focusing on the rest of the course. In ski cross, [the start is]a lot of your race."

If they get a bad start and miss the hole shot, it becomes a strategy game. During course inspection, Rahlves, Puckett, and Fiala discuss different scenarios with Shepherd.  "We'll discuss different lines in a section that might work," says Shepherd. "As soon as you're out of the gate, you're playing all those scenarios. You learn on the fly. Guys can crash and you can move forward and be lucky."

As Puckett says on his blog, "A recipe for success in Skier Cross is one part power, one part ski racing skills, half part strategy, and three parts luck."

Rahlves agrees that a certain amount of luck is involved, but adds, "You tend to almost make your own luck. If you're good out of the start, and you're a good skier, then you have a good chance."

Rahlves admits that the start is his weakest link and practices on a starting gate built at Sugar Bowl, his home mountain in California's Lake Tahoe region. The current World Cup leaders Tomas Kraus from the Czech Republic and Lars Lewen from Sweden are "the best starters around," says Rahlves.

Rahlves, however, seems to be the best at passing his competitors in the air. After tough starts in his heats at the latest World Cup in Lake Placid, he moved into first in the consolation final while in the air over some rollers. Last year at Winter X Games, he moved from fourth to third in the semis by flying farther over the last jump. Check out the video on his website.

As for the Olympics, Rahlves, Puckett, and Fiala are all motivated by another chance to earn a medal, although Rahlves emphasizes that he's not doing ski cross "just for that." In three separate Winter Olympic Games, Rahlves' best finish was seventh in super G at the 1998 Olympics. Puckett also scored a seventh - in slalom - in 1994 Games. Fiala topped out at 19^th in combined at the 2002 Olympics.

"I'm doing it because I enjoy it," Rahlves adds. "But [the Olympics is] something on the horizon and something that's going to be really important for me to get ready for next year."

Shepherd though is more to the point. "My priority from day one was Olympic gold, to make that happen," he says, then adds, "And these three have shown that they're the best."

Peggy Shinn is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.

Tags: Casey Puckett, Daron Rahlves , Freestyle Skiing, Jake Fiala, Peggy Shinn, Ski Cross, Vancouver 2010