SKIING / CHRIS DUFRESNE : Parisien Has a Supporter in McKinney

Tamara McKinney, the greatest U.S. women’s skier ever, has not mailed the letter she wrote to Julie Parisien, perhaps the greatest U.S. skier since.

She will mail it someday. She is not sure when.

Sadly, McKinney and Parisien share more than similar gifts for slalom racing.

McKinney, winner of 18 World Cup races before her retirement in 1990, has kept a respectful distance since late December, when Parisien’s brother, Jean-Paul, was killed in a hit-and-run car accident in Maine.

McKinney’s letter to Parisien remains sealed and confidential.

From afar, but with emotional interest, McKinney has watched Parisien struggle through the World Cup season, understanding perhaps as no one else how the memory of a brother’s death lingers.

McKinney, the youngest of eight children, lost two brothers to tragic deaths.

“I wanted to talk with her,” McKinney said via phone this week from a ski shop in Tahoe City. “I just didn’t want to be one of the many, many people I’m sure she heard from. I wanted to let a little time go by and give her support. When it’s early on, it’s so fresh that it’s hard to get a positive out of it. Because it’s all like a nightmare. Maybe I can help. But it’s so personal for everyone. I want to respect her time so she can find a way to deal with it herself.”

Maybe the time has come to mail that letter.

Parisien, fighting through a season of skiing disappointments and grief, finally broke through at the World Alpine Ski Championships this week when she won a silver medal in the slalom.

Maybe this will mark the first step back for Parisien, who began the season as the world’s top-ranked slalom skier. But after winning the opening tour event at Park City, she has not finished higher than fourth in a World Cup event.

Typical of Parisien, she was not totally satisfied with second place.

She wanted to win the gold for Jean-Paul.

“I’m skiing not just for myself,” she told reporters afterward. “I’m living my life with my brother and for my brother. I know he’s up there saying, ‘Come on, you can do better than that.’ ”

After Parisien’s disappointing fourth-place finish at the Olympic Games at Albertville, Jean-Paul told her she could avenge the loss with a gold medal at the World Championships.

Germany’s Karin Buder denied Parisien the chance with a sizzling second run of 42.36 seconds to take the gold.

“I’m really happy with my silver medal, but I feel that I have let him down in a way by not getting the gold,” Parisien said.

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More McKinney: She will be at Snow Summit Friday to promote Jimmie Huega’s Mazda Ski Express, to be held March 7 at the Big Bear resort.

The Ski Express raises more than $1 million annually for the Jimmie Huega Center, a medical facility for victims of multiple sclerosis.

Huega, a bronze medalist in the slalom at the 1964 Olympic Games, was found to have MS in 1970.

The Ski Express series began in 1985, when a group of skiers, including Jean-Claude Killy, Phil Mahre, Billy Kidd and Stein Eriksen, combined in 18 consecutive hours to ski more than one million vertical feet at Mt. Alyeska, Alaska, raising more than $250,000 for the Huega Center.

Now in its eighth season, the tour makes 28 stops a season in 18 states.

After McKinney retired from World Cup competition, Huega asked her to become a spokesperson for the tour.

“Jimmie Huega was a hero of mine when I was a child,” McKinney said. “I have a lot of respect for what Jimmie has done with his life. When he had the original marathon in Alaska, back in ‘85, I just thought it was an amazing thing. I thought I’d love to help him.”

McKinney, 30, got the chance when a serious knee injury in October of 1989 effectively ended her racing career.

The public is invited to field three-person teams for the charity event at Snow Summit. Each team needs to raise a minimum of $1,000 in sponsorship to enter.

The teams will ski a four-hour stint in the morning and a giant slalom in the afternoon. Winners will be determined by total vertical feet skied, performance in the slalom and money raised for the event. The winning team at Snow Summit advances to the national finals in Vail, Colo., April 7-11.

Of the competitors, McKinney said: “They race as hard as they can until their legs are tired, then at the end of that four-hour marathon, having to go back out and race in the gates, they are just beginning to experience the fatigue that someone with MS feels every day just to get out of bed.”

For details about putting a team together, contact Guy Winters at (619) 744-3717.

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Picabo, who are you?

That’s what the international press was dying to know after Picabo Street, America’s greatest name in skiing, pulled a major surprise when she won a silver medal in combined at the World Championships.

Street became the first U.S. skier to win a medal at the championships since 1989 when Tamara McKinney won a gold in combined.

“What is this Picabo?” an international journalist asked.

Street, in her first year on the World Cup circuit, is from Sun Valley, Ida.

She explained that her name, Picabo, is derived from an Indian word meaning shining water.

“So you’re an Indian?” a journalist asked?

“Well, no,” Picabo replied.

The reporters were relieved to learn that Picabo’s last name, Street, is derived from the word street.

Skiing Notes

This week’s storms are adding fresh snow to already deep bases in the local mountains. Mt. Baldy reported 30 new inches at higher elevations Tuesday. Mt. Waterman got so much new snow, it was not able to open Tuesday. It plans to open today. Mountain High got almost a foot of new snow, and the Big Bear resorts received four to eight inches Monday and early Tuesday. Chains are required on roads to all Southland resorts.

“Right on the Edge of Crazy,” a book that takes an in-depth look at the U.S. Ski Team, is due out Feb. 15. Author Mike Wilson, a reporter for the Miami Herald’s Tropic magazine, was granted unprecedented access as he traveled with the team for the 1990-91 and 91-92 World Cup seasons. He chronicles life on the tour with special interest in the personalities of the downhill skiers, who tend to live right on the edge of, well, crazy. . . . A sneak teaser: AJ Kitt, America’s top downhiller, is referred to by teammates as “Alpine Jet” or “Arrogant Jerk,” depending on the day.

A 10-day trip with legends Warren Miller and Stein Eriksen will leave the West Coast on March 17 and includes stops in Copenhagen, Bergen, Oslo and Lillehammer, site of the 1994 Olympic Games. Cost of the tour is $1,995 per person and includes air fare and lodging. Details: 1-800-SKI TRIP or (619) SKI TRIP.