Korbel American Ski Classic Legends: By The Numbers

All that glitters at Golden Peak during the 30th Anniversary Korbel American Ski Classic this week may not all be gold, but there’s a pretty good chance that if it’s not, it will be either be silver or bronze as the 2012 Volvo Legends of Skiing field comes complete with numerous Olympic and World Championships medals, along with a significant number of career World Cup victories.

Running the numbers, the 40 men and women Legends have accounted for a total of 18 Olympic medals, 36 World Championships medals, 9 World Cup Overall titles and 210 individual World Cup wins.

Sharing top honors for the Olympic medal count are Italy’s Isolde Kostner and Germany’s Christa Kinshofer, each with 3.  Legend of Honor inductee Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg tops the list of World Championships medals with 11.

Girardelli, on the podium in Vail at the 1989 World Alpine Ski Championships following his Gold Medal finish in the Downhill.

L-R, Schneider, McKinney, Oertli at the 1989 World Alpine Ski Championships on the podium for the Women's Combined 

Of the 36 World Championships medals, 5 of them came in Vail and Beaver Creek during the 1989 Championships, courtesy of Tamara McKinney (gold in Combined and bronze in Slalom), Brigitte Oertli (bronze in Combined) and Girardelli (gold in Combined and bronze in Slalom).

Girardelli also claims top honors in terms of number of career World Cup individual wins with 46, a mark that puts him in fourth position in terms of all-time total World Cup victories.  His 11-win 1984-85 season ranks third all-time in individual victories in a single season.

And, as one would expect, Girardelli also brings the most World Cup Overall crowns to the 30th anniversary Korbel American Ski Classic with 5, a record that is still unmatched on the men’s side of the World Cup.  He also tops the list for World Cup discipline titles with 6.

The Legends officially kicked off the racing action at the 2012 Korbel California American Ski Classic yesterday with the Volvo Legends Giant Slalom.

In addition, the Legends also serve as team captains for the Korbel Ford Cup celebrity team races on today and tomorrow.  Originally conceived by Austrian legend Pepi Gramshammer, the Legends component was added to the Korbel American Ski Classic schedule in 1983.
   

See you at the races!

Read More

Ski & Snowboard Club Vail win Conway Cup at Korbel American Ski Classic

Photo (C) Jim Heath

Just a stone’s throw away from their headquarters east of Golden Peak, the team representing Ski & Snowboard Club Vail climbed to the top step of the podium at Wednesday as the four-member team took top honors in the third annual Conway Cup community team race, presented by Korbel.

Comprised of former U.S. Ski Team member and coach Dan Stripp, Tiffany Hoversten, Emmy Hoyt and Euginnia Manseau, shifted into overdrive in the Conway Cup finals, outpointing the three other teams in the dual format.  Hoversten serves as CFO and Business Manager for SSCV, while Hoyt is Development Manager and Manseau serves as Director of Member and Clubhouse Services.

“We had another wonderful day of racing in the Conway Cup, presented by Korbel, offered Michael Imhof, Vice President of Sales and Operations for the Vail Valley Foundation.  “We are extremely appreciative of Korbel’s desire to have a community race component for the Korbel American Ski Classic and it’s exciting to see the team from Ski & Snowboard Club Vail move on to the Korbel Ford Cup competition later this week.  This race is a wonderful way to annually celebrate Dan within an event that he loved.”

By virtue of their win, the team earned a spot in the Korbel Ford Cup celebrity team race on Friday and Saturday in conjunction with the 30th anniversary Korbel American Ski Classic.  En route to the win, Team SSCV bested the runner-up team from Edwards Excavating, while Team The George, last year’s winners, placed third in the final standings.

Team Edwards Excavating was comprised of Jed Schuetze, Kevin Hendricksen, Claes Holm and Ted Johnson, while Team The George included Johnny Kemp, Julia Littman, Laura Littman and Lauren Arnold.

The Conway Cup is named and run in memory of Dan Conway, a great friend to ski racing at all levels throughout the Vail Valley, who passed away in May 2009.  Through his position as Director of Racing for Vail and Vail Resorts, he played a key role in all competitions held on Vail and Beaver Creek Mountains, from World Cup and World Championships to NASTAR, including the annual Korbel American Ski Classic.

Big thanks goes out to everyone who participated! It was a beautiful day for racing and we are excited to see more of you throughout the event.

Read More

The Birth Of The Korbel American Ski Classic

Celebrating anniversaries has a tendency to turn us into helpless romantics. Celebrating significant anniversaries has a tendency to turn us into historians.

So, as the Korbel American Ski Classic to celebrates its 30th birthday this week at Vail Mountain’s Golden Peak, it is indeed fitting to turn a backwards glance to 1981 and the inaugural Jerry Ford Celebrity Cup in Beaver Creek…the place where it all began.

What started out as a winter counterpart to former President Gerald R. Ford’s successful Jerry Ford Invitational Golf Tournament, has evolved into the nation’s longest-running annual pro/am celebrity ski event.

“This will be a reunion of the Olympic stars of the past,” explained President Ford, “but it will be more than that. Like our golf tournament in the summer, this will be a gathering of friends. I’m looking forward to having some of our national political leadership participating and good friends from many other professions.”

During the inaugural three-day event, the first ski event ever hosted at the newly-opened Beaver Creek Resort, former Olympic skiers captained five-member teams of amateur racers, while also competing for a prize purse of $15,000 in the Legends of Skiing. The event, contested on Haymeadow, raised $115,000 for the Vail Valley Medical Center.

Dick & Miggs Durrance

The inaugural pro/am title went to the team captained by former U.S. Ski Team star Kiki Cutter, the first American to ever win a World Cup race, and Dick Durrance, a member of the 1936 U.S. Olympic Team. The members also included Mike Faessler, whose father owned the Sonnenalp Lodge in Vail; Bob Dorf, the then Ski School Director at Beaver Creek; Henrik Bull, the San Francisco-based architect whose firm designed Beaver Creek’s Spruce Saddle Restaurant; and Hal Bruno, Political Director for ABC News. Former U.S. Ski Team standout Susie Corrock took home top honors…and the cash…in the Legends event.

“It’s a great race to watch,” offered Corrock, “because there is a lot of good spirit. You can see plenty of superb skiing, but it’s also fun to watch how the amateurs react in the starting gate. Some of them are racing for the first time and they get so serious.”

Beaver Creek in 1981 was obviously a much different time and place as well, featuring high hopes and the infamous inflatable tennis bubble for a base lodge. Sports Illustrated offered that the resort would be the last new ski area ever built in the U.S. The ski area offered 560 acres of skiing and 3,300 vertical feet, serviced by seven chairlifts. Beaver Creek Village was beginning to take shape, while several private residences and duplexes were also starting to emerge, including President Ford’s new home on Elk Track.

The years have come and gone, but the Korbel American Ski Classic remains unchanged. This “gathering of good friends” that President Ford envisioned with the Jerry Ford Celebrity Cup in 1981 is still the same 30 years later and fun is still the main ingredient.

No doubt President Ford’s trademark grin is a little broader this week. Happy birthday American Ski Classic…long may you run. See you at the races!

Read More