“Mikaela Shiffrin opens up on recent race struggles.”

Yes, we ran that headline. Let’s clarify something.

Mikaela’s fine. She DNF’d in two races in a row, so some might think the sky is falling. Take a deep breath and remain calm, all.

The first DNF was in a super-G in difficult conditions on Sunday, Jan. 21, in Cortina, Italy. Lindsey Vonn, among many, had trouble with the wind on Sunday. Vonn’s only got 28 career World Cup wins in super-G, so if she’s having problems, well, Shiffrin, with only eight career starts in the discipline, was likely to have issues, too.

That it was her first DNF in speed in 14 starts is actually pretty remarkable. Going into the way-back machine, Vonn DNF’d in two of her first three World Cup speed starts — in Lake Louise, Alberta, no less — in December 2001, and her career turned out pretty decently.

Shiffrin then didn’t finish in giant slalom on Tuesday, Jan. 23, in Kronplatz, Italy. Because it’s a GS, there’s more worry, but it was her first DNF in that discipline in nearly two years — March, 20, 2016, to be precise — so, maybe, not.

Between her two DNFs, Shiffrin has gone 2-5-6-1-1-4-5-1-6-5-2-1-3-1 in GS. She’s entitled to a DNF once in a while. We’ll schedule her next one for 2020.

Another consideration is that with a condensed World Cup schedule to accommodate travel to Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Shiffrin’s addition of speed, she’s been doing a lot of racing.

Shiffrin’s had seven World Cup races just this calendar year, and 13 starts in just a little over a month, dating back to Courcheval, France, on Dec. 19, 2017. When an athlete is going at that pace, there will be a clunker or two.

It’s noteworthy that Shiffrin is not racing in Thursday, Jan. 25’s combined in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Given Shiffrin’s increasing skills in speed, one would consider having her ski somewhat cautiously in the super-G, staying within 1 second, and then have her mop the field in slalom.

It seems like Team Shiffrin has decided that rest is a good idea. After the combi, there’s GS and slalom this weekend.

Next week is speed in Garmisch, Germany. We’ll go under the assumption that Shiffrin does her business in this weekend’s tech, skips Germany to rest and heads off to South Korea for the Olympics.

All will be fine.

On the other hand

If you want to be worried about something, then we give you the U.S. Men’s Ski Team.

At the beginning of the season, we wrote in this space about how this season could be viewed as the glass half-full or half empty.

It be empty.

The men’s field has competed in 26 of 37 scheduled World Cup races, and the Americans have no podiums.

Nothing. Nada. The inside of a doughnut hole.

This isn’t like saying the U.S. Team is in trouble after the Birds of Prey stop in Beaver Creek during the first weekend of December. Twenty-six races aren’t a small sample size.

Where to start?

• Travis Ganong did his ACL in late December in Bormio, Italy, and is done for the year. But, he really wasn’t skiing well before the injury. His best finish this season was 16th in super-G in Lake Louise.

• Steven Nyman’s knee, injured at Garmisch last season, hobbled his return to snow this year. At 36, the clock is ticking.

• Andrew Weibrecht has finished 21st in super-Gs in Lake Louise and Beaver Creek. Yes, he does have a penchant for popping Olympic medals — bronze in 2010 and silver in 2014, but he doesn’t have a top 10 finish dating back to March 13, 2016.

• Bryce Bennett, 25, has been a nice story with two top 10s in the combined, but when that’s the highlight, it’s a sign of how the Americans are having tough times.

• You hope the magic returns for Ted Ligety, the defending Olympic champion in GS, but the results aren’t there. He’s gone 7-16-5-DNF in the four GS races of the season.

Don’t worry about Mikaela. Worry about this.

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934, cfreud@vaildaily.com and @cfreud.

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CALGARY — Eagle-Vail’s Chris Del Bosco is officially a three-time Olympian.

It doesn’t get old. Del Bosco got his official invitation from the Canadian Ski Cross Team on Monday, Jan. 22.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Del Bosco said on Wednesday, Jan. 24, from Calgary International Airport in Alberta. “I’m just so busy, focusing on each race. I knew the selection date was there, but it doesn’t settle in. I’m super happy where I am. Competing at the top for that long is pretty cool.”

Del Bosco, in fact, has now qualified for the Olympics every time the sport has been contested — 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, 2014 in Sochi, Russia, and now Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Stops and starts

The road to South Korea was more challenging than expected. But Del Bosco, 35, is no stranger to assorted adversity. He was on his way to a spot on the U.S. Ski Team when addiction struggles derailed his career.

His father, Armando, aka Del, is dual citizen, so Del Bosco got a second chance with the Canadians and the then new sport of ski cross, where racers, four at a time, ski down a course filled with assorted obstacles.

In February 2017, in Idre Fjall, Sweden, Del Bosco had an awkward landing during a race and knew he wasn’t 100 percent. His first MRI was inconclusive. He finished the season, which was capped by a second-place finish at Blue Mountain, Ontario.

After the season, his second MRI and ensuing surgery in April showed that he had all but torn the root attachment of the meniscus of his left knee. He was meant to be out six months.

And, naturally he was back on his mountain-bike, his summer hobby, by August.

He wasn’t on snow until November, which made it all the more surprising that he won the World Cup opener in Val Thorens, France, on Dec. 7, 2017.

With that sort of momentum, he was hoping to carry that into the rest of the condensed December schedule. The World Cup the next day in Val Thorens was canceled, as were the finals in Arosa, Italy, on Dec. 13. Just days later, Del Bosco had only one day of training at Montafon, Austria, and did not make it out of qualification. In Innichen, Italy, the final stop of the December swing, Del Bosco had the misfortune of being on the wrong side of a last second pass during the first round.

January has been kinder to Del Bosco. Back in Idre Fjall, he was eighth, and he took sixth last weekend in Nakiska, Alberta.

“I’m skiing well. The speed is where I want to be,” Del Bosco said. “The results have been tough this year. There are a lot of different guys on the podium. There’s a lot of depth. It’s not easy.”

Preparing for Pyeongchang

It isn’t easy, but Del Bosco has had quite the career with 10 World Cup wins, 26 podiums, a win at the 2011 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships and two X Games gold medals.

Del Bosco was fourth in at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, crashing in spectacular fashion while attempting to pass into the gold-medal spot just before the finish line.

In Sochi in 2014, he didn’t make it out of the first round.

He’s skied the Olympic course back in 2016, finishing 15th, while being what he said was about “60 percent” at the time with a back injury. While he expects organizers have made changes to the course, particularly the start, he said, “It suits me. It’s open. It has big jumps, lots of features. It’s right up my alley.”

Del Bosco was returning to Whistler, British Columbia, on Wednesday for a minicamp before heading to Pyeongchang. The competition is Wednesday, Feb. 21, in South Korea or Tuesday, Feb. 20, in the United States, so he’s not rushing over for the Opening Ceremonies.

There will be three days of training for the athletes to get used to the venue, and then Del Bosco chases his dream.

“It would be huge, for sure,” he said. It’s one of those things that you dream about growing up, being an Olympic gold medalist. I was close in Vancouver. I had bad luck in Sochi. Hopefully, the third time’s a charm.”

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934, cfreud@vaildaily.com and @cfreud.

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NAKISKA, Alberta — Waiting is the hardest part.

Canada’s Chris Del Bosco, who has dual citizenship and grew up in Eagle-Vail, finished sixth in Saturday, Jan. 20’s World Cup ski cross event in Nakiska, Alberta, in the final event of the discipline before the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The Canadian Freestyle Team will announce its Olympic selection on Monday, Jan. 22.

Del Bosco won the season-opening World Cup in Val Thorens, France, on Dec. 7, 2017 and has two top 10- finishes as well this season — Saturday and an eighth-place finish in Idre Fjall, Sweden, on Sunday, Jan. 14.

Del Bosco seemed pleased with his result on Saturday.

“The first run was a pretty good battle but every run today was a tough race,” he said Del Bosco. “I’m happy to ski four heats again and it’s always a good day when you can at least make it to the small final and it’s really nice to be at home after being on the road all year. The skiing is there, so I’m happy with that. We’ll do a little training camp to fine tune some stuff and get fired up for the Games.”

While Del Bosco seemed upbeat about his prospects for a third trip to the Olympics, nothing is guaranteed until Team Canada makes its announcement.

Del Bosco has 10 World Cup wins, 26 podiums, a 2011 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships gold and 2 X Games wins on his resume. Perhaps, more importantly, Del Bosco (177 points) is the second-ranked Canadian in the world this season, only behind Kevin Drury (218).

Where as the U.S. Ski Team, for example, guarantees four spots per discipline, the Canadian Freestyle Team picks the best athletes, regardless of discipline, ski cross, moguls, aerials, park and pipe, which makes it harder to predict whom the team will select.

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934, cfreud@vaildaily.com and @cfreud.

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Aw, heck, that Lindsey Vonn had to come out and say something.

She dared to open her mouth about politics — in essence saying that she’s going to be representing the people of the United States, and not President Donald Trump.

How dare she infuse politics into the Olympics?

That certainly justifies people writing her to tell that they hope she breaks her neck, as reported by The New York Daily News.

But getting back to politics and the Olympics, we’re pretty sure Lindsey didn’t start this. So here’s little history how politics aren’t exactly new to the quadrennial event.

Berlin, 1936

By his actions, Jesse Owens tells Adoph Hitler to shove it where the sun don’t shine by winning four gold medals, laying waste to the host nation’s notion of Aryan supremacy.

Owens’ performance is the most obvious tale of the 1936 Olympics being a political vehicle. Here are some other “fun” facts about the Berlin Games.

• We all remember the boycotts of 1980 and 1984, but the United States nearly boycotted in 1936 because of Hitler’s regime. This went so far that Germany put Jewish members on its Olympic squad, only to remove them once the U.S. Olympic Team’s boat had sailed for Berlin.

• Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, both Jewish-Americans, were originally set to run in the 4-by-400 relay, but were removed from the team. There is no official record of why this happened, but the U.S. Olympic Committee honored both in 1998 — Stoller, posthumously — a tacit admission that they were removed to appease Hitler.

• After Berlin, the Summer Games were headed to Tokyo for 1940. Had not World War II started, it’s not a leap that the Japanese Empire would have used the Olympics similarly.

But, darn that Lindsey Vonn.

Protests in the 1950s and ’60s and worse …

• The Soviet Union first competed in the Games in 1952 in Helsinki, and of course, the USSR/Russia never used sport for propaganda (ahem, doping and Sochi 2014).

The 1956 Games in Melbourne, Australia, coincided with the Soviets putting down the Hungarian uprising, and that translated into the water polo semifinals, known as the “Blood in the Water” match. Hungary defeated the USSR, 4-0, but the match was called before time ran out to maintain order. In a game of physical combat more than actual water polo, the most notorious punch came from Soviet Valentin Propkow slugging Hungarian Ervin Zador.

The latter left the pool with blood pouring from a gash above his eye.

• Also in 1956, the People’s Republic of China begins a 28-year boycott of the Games because the International Olympic Committee allows Taiwan to compete.

• The 1968 Mexico City games are best known for the black power salute of Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos with Australian Peter Norman also on the podium. Smith and Carlos were protesting America’s well-documented civil rights issues, and got banned from the Olympics for life for their trouble.

But no one seems to remember Czechoslovakia’s Vera Caslavska. An accomplished gymnast in multiple Olympics, she turns her head down during the playing of the Soviet anthem to protest the USSR’s invasion of her home country that year. She is banned from international competition.

• In 1972, when the Games return to Germany for the first time since World War II, nine Israeli athletes are taken hostage and murdered by members of a Palestinian terror group.

But what Vonn said was bad.

Boycotts and ‘Miracle on Ice’

• The world does not rotate around the United States, people. The first major boycott came in 1976 when 29 nations — 25 from Africa — walked to protest New Zealand’s rugby squad playing in South Africa, a violation of the United Nations’ sanctions due to Apartheid.

South Africa was absent from the Olympics from 1964-1994 because of the policy. And, quite frankly, using politics — in this instance to ban a nation with an unconscionable racial policy — is fine. Politics in sports can be a tool for good, and, perhaps, a dramatic aid as well as we’ll see.

• Soviet tanks roll into Afghanistan in 1979, and American President Jimmy Carter tries to get the Russians to withdraw by threatening to boycott the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow.

The Soviets say nyet to Carter, but, after considering a boycott of the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, attend those Games.

And that sets up “Miracle on Ice.” Yes, the miracle is American college kids beating Soviet professionals, but so much of that game was within a political context — the wholesome American boys against the godless robotic communists.

• Since the U.S. boycotts the Games in Moscow in 1980, the Soviets return the favor in 1984 in Los Angeles. And, yes, we almost had a boycott of Seoul in 1988 because the then-Communist countries did not recognize South Korea.

But Lindsey should keep politics out of the Olympics.

And how we watch

Of late, the Olympics have become settings for authoritarian regimes. Can anyone say Sochi 2014? There’s a reason Beijing has hosted the 2008 Summer Games and the 2022 Winter Games. The Chinese government doesn’t have to justify the expenditures to anyone as there is no dissent.

Now before we start feeling too good about ourselves, let’s remember how we’ve watched the Olympics during the last 30 years or so — in bleeping tape delay.

While mercifully, NBC will be doing live coverage from South Korea, it’s worth noting how the games were covered.

There’s always been the “up close and personal” segment where we learn about a medal contender whose family member has died in a tragic combine accident during the last six months, apparently an Olympic requirement.

And then we see nothing but American athletes, the broadcast capped by the American gold-medalist with tears in his or her eyes, as he or she sings the national anthem.

That’s not jingoistic or anything. That’s not a calculated ploy on NBC’s part to play into our political mindset to make us watch more.

But Lindsey Vonn should just shut her trap.

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934, cfreud@vaildaily.com and @cfreud.

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VAL THORENS, France — Here comes the boom.

That was the expression used by Chris Del Bosco’s ski pals on freeskiing days in Vail as they were growing up. Everyone knew Del Bosco was going to do something bigger, faster or riskier.

Now 35, Del Bosco can still bring the boom, as he notched his 10th career World Cup win during the season opener at Val Thorens, France, on Thursday, Dec. 7.

“Today was a good day! Man I love racing,” Del Bosco posted on Facebook. “The @stoeckli_1935’s were running, managed to battle through the rounds and take the win in @val_thorens! Couldn’t have done it without the hard work and support from the whole Canada Ski Cross Alpine Canada Alpine team. Can’t wait for the next one on Saturday.”

While any World Cup win is big, it’s Olympic qualifying season with Pyeongchang, South Korea, approaching in February. Coming off an injury-marred 2016-17 season, and with ski cross’ compressed December schedule looming — there are four more World Cups before Christmas — Del Bosco, a two time Olympian, wants to get on a roll to qualify for a third time.

Knee surgery

As Del Bosco was growing up here, he seemed destined for success with the U.S. Ski Team, before his substance abuse got him booted from the squad. After much trial and travail, he found a home in the world of ski cross, racing where four or six athletes simultaneously go down a course littered with obstacles. With his father, Armando, a dual citizen of both the United States and Canada, Chris got a second chance with the Canadian Ski Cross Team, and has flourished.

A two-time X Games champion with a 2011 FIS Alpine World Freestyle Ski Championships ski cross gold medal, Del Bosco has done just about everything there is to do in the sport with two exceptions.

He wants an Olympic medal and World Cup ski cross season title.

Del Bosco made the big final, the final four, during the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, crashing while attempting to win the race in the final stretch. In 2014, he didn’t make it out of the first heat.

Del Bosco has been second in the points four times during his career, most recently the 2015-16 season. His 2016-17 season was marred by a knee injury. After finishing 12th in the standings, Del Bosco got his knee scoped, and the damage was worse than originally thought.

Despite a forecast that he wouldn’t be ready until October, Del Bosco was on a mountain bike — his summer sport of choice — in August.

He had limited snow training this season, but seems ready to go.

“I was injured halfway through last season but I rode it to the end and had surgery when it was all over,” Del Bosco told fis-ski.com. “So I only got back on snow three weeks ago and just got back up to speed quick. But I like doing it like that. I knew I’d be ready, and I was.”

Winning every heat

Despite what he thought was a rough two days of training, Del Bosco won every heat on Thursday. In the final, he did not get the hole shot, the lead out of the start.

However, he ran down France’s Arnaud Bolaventa over some rollers and then did what he does best — use his big body to cruise and block out the Frenchman from a pass.

“Once I was in the race, from that first run, I was feeling good,” Del Bosco said to fis-ski.com. “It’s tough being out front here, you’ve gotta protect your lines and that affects your exit speeds out of the turns, but I just kept battling and got the win. I’m super stoked.”

And it certainly can’t hurt Del Bosco in his quest to make the Canadian Olympic Team for a third time. The Canadian Freestyle Ski Team does not guarantee every discipline (aerials, moguls and ski cross) a specific number of spots. Canada takes the best performers, regardless of specialization, so it’s a scramble for all athletes, including Del Bosco, to prove their bonafides before the selections are made in late January.

Val Thorens holds another World Cup ski cross on Saturday, Dec. 9, before the tour heads to Switzerland next week.

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934, cfreud@vaildaily.com and @cfreud.

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BEAVER CREEK — It is safe to say that Austria’s Marcel Hirscher has recovered from his offseason broken-ankle injury.

The six-time defending World Cup champion, in only his second race back this season, won the Birds of Prey giant slalom with a combined time of 2 minutes, 37.30 seconds, topping Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen (2:38.18) and Germany’s Stefan Luitz (2:38.33) on Sunday, Dec. 3.

“Especially in the second run, when you are so pumped and there is so much adrenaline, (the ankle) doesn’t hurt,” Hirscher said. “It is completely free of pain. I didn’t think about it.”

In the process, Hirscher stared down Ted Ligety in their rivalry. Ligety was second after first run and Hirscher third. The Austrian surged to his sixth win at Beaver Creek and 46th World Cup victory, while Ligety fell to seventh.

History repeating itself?

Hirscher served notice that he was in fine form with the third-fastest run of the morning. On the other hand, he was also third after one run during the Levi, Finland, slalom last month.

He finished 17th in that race, his first since the ankle injury.

“This was, for sure, my mistake. I skied not real good in my second run,” Hirscher said about Finland. “But today, I thought about it. Let’s go for it. Let’s give it a try. Let’s see what is possible. But (it was) so unexpected to win.”

Perhaps to Hirscher, but not to the rest of the field.

“I’m not surprised,” Kristoffersen said, who was sitting right next Hirscher during the post-race news conference.

The second run was a masterpiece, particularly up top. The field struggled with Russi’s Ride and the Goshawk and Screech Owl jumps, but Hirscher hammered that section, gaining 0.11 seconds of the field to that point — Ligety and Luitz still had to race.

Hirscher followed the traditional game plan of a Beaver Creek GS — take the speed from the top and keep it going in the flats. The numbers on the scoreboard were green and getting bigger.

Ironically, his one bobble came on Red Tail, where victory slipped through his grasp during the 2015 FIS World Alpine Ski Championship slalom.

Back in 2015, Hirscher had the gold in his grasp and skied off course there, for an improbable DNF. That would have been his third gold and fourth medal at the 2015 Championships.

On Sunday, he corrected course and roared into the finish area for the 23rd GS win of his career.

With the victory on Sunday, Hirscher served notice that he is back in the hunt for an unprecedented seventh consecutive World Cup championship. And, as usual, he downplayed his chances.

“I’m here, so it is possible, for sure,” Hirscher said. “Just in mathematics, the chances are not the best ones. I want to go for it. I want to compete as good as possible in each race.”

Kristoffersen rallies for second

Kristoffersen made it three Norwegian podiums in as many days. More of a slalom specialist — 14 of his 15 World Cup wins are slaloms — this was a good result for the 23-year-old.

“I think the skiing is looking really good,” Kristoffersen said. “For me personally, (Birds of Prey is) not the best hill for my type of body and being one of the lighter skiers. It’s difficult because of the flats. The skiing is really good and I’m super happy to be second today.”

Kristoffersen was eighth and 1.07 seconds behind Luitz after the first run. His second run was the second fastest of the afternoon’s proceedings.

“If I do the two best runs of my life and I’m fifth, I have to be happy,” Kristoffersen said. “Of course, it’s more fun to be on the podium and winning. But I just have to keep improving and get closer to Marcel in GS and try to beat him as many times as possible in the slalom.”

Kristoffersen did win five slaloms last season, but Hirscher still won the globe, 735-575.

Luitz makes podium

The last time Luitz raced GS here at Birds of Prey in 2015, he was second after the first run — behind Hirscher — but struggled in his second and fell to 22nd.

So, one could forgive him if he wasn’t particularly comfortable after winning Sunday’s morning run.

“Today with the lead, I tried not to do the same,” Luitz said. “… You have so much time (until) the (next) start, it’s a little different when you have so much time. You have to stay focused. I think I handled it well.”

This is Luitz’ fifth GS World Cup podium, and his first since a third-place finish in Garmisch, Germany, on Jan. 29 of last winter.

“Starting the season with a GS podium is just amazing,” he said.

The men’s World Cup heads to Europe for the rest of the season.

The first stop is next weekend in Val d’Isere, France, for GS and slalom.

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934, cfreud@vaildaily.com and @cfreud.

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BEAVER CREEK — The conspiracy theory that surrounded the cancellation of the season-opening World Cup giant slalom in Soelden, Austria, back in October is mercifully over.

With Austria’s Marcel Hirscher, his chief rival in giant slalom, out with a broken ankle, Ted Ligety tweeted, “Seems odd to have a race canceled at 6:45 a.m. in Austria when their biggest star is temporarily out.”

Twitter exploded.

“That was a joke,” Ligety said. “(Hirscher) didn’t really have a good sense of humor about that.”

The world can rest easy now as Ligety met the media on Thursday, Nov. 30, in Beaver Creek Village as he gears up for Friday, Dec. 1’s Birds of Prey super-G and Sunday, Dec. 3’s giant slalom.

A lot has changed for the Park City, Utah, native in the two years since Birds of Prey was held last. Ligety’s a father — his son, Jax, missed the news conference as he was napping.

The International Ski Federation FIS has changed the rules again on GS skis. And Ligety is coming off knee (2015-16 season) and back (206-17) injuries.

And, oh yeah, he’s defending his Olympic gold in GS in February.

The health report

The U.S. Ski Team is getting younger these days. Jax Ligety is one of four newborns traveling with the squad.

“It’s the U.S. Daycare Team,” Dad joked.

No laughing matter is Ligety’s health.

“This is actually the first time in a couple of years that I’ve actually felt healthy,” Ligety said. “Back and knee injuries are totally different. Knees are more deep into the rehab process. The back is more meaningful as far as getting surgery.”

And his health gets its first test this weekend. Ligety, 33, is the face of the U.S. Men’s Skiing Team with 25 career World Cup wins — 24 in giant slalom — five FIS Alpine World Ski Championships gold medals and two Olympic golds.

Six of those World Cup wins have come here at Beaver Creek. The last of his Worlds gold medals was at the Championships in 2015 on Birds of Prey via a dramatic duel with Hirscher.

Yet, his last win came in Soelden in 2015. Before he did his knee, he was a shocking DNF during the 2015 Birds of Prey GS.

That said, Hirscher’s also coming off an injury, so maybe their rivalry is back to square one?

“It’s hard to say,” Ligety said. “Marcel and myself are back from injuries. Who knows? I think Marcel will be fast. (France’s Alexis) Pinturault will be fast. There will be a lot of other guys who will be fast. Hopefully, I’m among those guys.”

Good vibes?

Since Sunday is the first GS race of the season, it’s also the first time for the new FIS giant-slalom rules to go into competition.

The ski radius has been changed from 35 to 30 meters and the new length of the skis is 193 centimeters. In English, they’re shorter and have more curve, the latter being an important in the ability to turn.

Remembering previous episodes of “Ted Ligety’s Rants against FIS,” he was fuming about the move to a radius of 35 meters as the 2012-13 season approached.

So, he’s happy with the new regulations.

As for the Olympics, Ligety says the best way to prepare is competing on the World Cup on a weekly basis, like facing the pressure to win on home snow this weekend.

And, let’s face it, the guy has a good record in South Korea.

“The last time I skied there was 12 years ago and that was my first World Cup win,” he said.

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934, cfreud@vaildaily.com and @cfreud.

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