Part of what makes Killington work as a race venue is the trail, Superstar, ends at the bottom. Access and getting out is very easy. No lifts, not that much walking on snow. You could actually watch from the access road.
Don’t think Superstar would be appropriate for a men’s gs race. It’s not exactly Adelboden. I’d love to see Killington increase the length of that final pitch, but moving dirt, then a lift, never happens.
That's why I'd suggest Superstar for a 2xSL men's event. The trail would work well for that, and while not the most technical SL venue around it would be perfectly fine.
But realistically, I just don’t see the US supporting lots of races. Mikaela is helping a lot right now, and youth racing and the families are a big part of the crowds. It’s hard enough to get people who ski and sort of watch racing, to go 35min away to watch a race. I’ve got family who’ve never been to Killington wcup, and have worked as gatekeepers in junior racing in the past.
Yes, there's the "no local folks who are competitive" aspect that can be a spanner in the works. Part of the blame can be placed on the USST PR operation: they push the big names like Shiffrin when they're the "it" skiers but when there isn't a name that's racking up podiums and wins it's crickets.
The U.S. media likes stars, especially when the sport isn't common in school or on a playground. The media can kinda wing it when dealing with a star of a fringe sport because the stars have
gravitas. But when there isn't a clear-cut world-beating super skier the coverage isn't great. Consistent top-15 finishes won't make for a name known around the dinner table.
Yes, the X-Games bring a different subset of winter sports culture to Aspen - one that probably rankles the "furs and martinis" set that Aspen is known to harbor. But they come for the show and for the stars of these events. Shaun White became a household name via the X-Games and NBC Sports ran with it. The X-Games are custom made for TV coverage - much like parallel races are being marketed right now - and they get eyes on screens.
Alpine ski racing is certainly at a crossroads. The racing is super exciting but also super sanitized these days. Race courses are "playpenned" with enough A and B netting to prevent spectacular crashes. The speed skiers will soon all be mandated to wear airbags for crash protection. The courses like the Hahnenkamm and Lauberhornrennen are constantly altered to make things less dangerous because the equipment is so much faster than it once was. And the racers are far more dialed in technically. Sure, there are outliers like Bode but they're just that: outside the current norm. Most of the athletes are super sound in terms of technique and the differences between winning and 20th are so minute that it takes a trained eye to tell where speed was gained or lost.
I admit that what drew me to alpine racing were characters like the Mahre brothers, Tamara McKinney, Marc Girardelli, Stenmark, Bill Johnson, and Franz Klammer. In the case of those last two, they brought personality to the mix -
mach Schau! What they did was compelling and exciting. These days there aren't as many of these types. Picabo was one, Hermann Maier was another, Bode and Mancuso carried the torch into more current times. Now we have Mikaela who is a precision skier who is only really exciting when she makes a big error in an event where she's typically unflappable. There are
prima donna characters like HK, for sure, but mostly these athletes are dialed in and heavily media trained so it's more clinical.
Sure, I'm still
super interested in following these athletes' exploits but it's less approachable to the common viewer. I try to make it more palatable when I'm reporting for SkiTalk, for sure, but I also try not to oversimplify. That said, the audience here already has familiarity with the sport. The average U.S. TV viewer doesn't, and now there are fewer opportunities to get that exposure.
I know that Eliasch wants to see the sport grow, not only in terms of participation but even in simple awareness. It's a big challenge here in the U.S. and A.