World Cup Speed Skiing Makes its U.S. Debut

About 60 of the world’s fastest skiers are scheduled to compete this week in the U.S. debut of World Cup Speed Skiing.

The competition runs Thursday through Saturday at Willamette Pass Ski area, about 70 miles southeast of Eugene.

“They’re up there training today,” Dick Bonebrake, the ski area’s marketing manager, said Tuesday. “They’ve hit about 95 m.p.h. and they’re just warming up.”

C. J. Mueller of Breckenridge, Colo., and Kirsten Culver of Salt Lake City head the 10-member U.S. Ski Assn. Team as it takes on competitors from around the world.

Mueller, who’s been clocked at 136 m.p.h., holds the fastest time ever recorded by an American skier. The world speed record of 139 m.p.h. is held by Michael Prufer of France.

Speed skiing is a World Cup event sanctioned by the International Ski Federation. It has been granted demonstration sport status for the 1992 Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France.

As its name implies, competitors in the sport are concerned only with speed. They try to pass through a 100-meter-long “speed trap” in the shortest time. Photo-electric beams at each end of the speed trap help clock their speed.

Because they don’t have to come out of a crouched “tuck” to change directions, speed skiers travel much faster than downhill racers. Downhillers hit speeds of about 80 m.p.h., whereas speed skiers had to be clocked at 110 m.p.h. to automatically qualify for the World Cup event.