SKIING / U.S. ALPINE CHAMPIONSHIPS : Canadians Finish With Sweep

The U.S. (Canadian) Alpine (We showed ‘em, eh?) Championships (Same time next year?) concluded Monday with another foreign raid on U.S. dollars.

Canadian skiers, who apparently would have driven dog sleds to get here, took the top three places in men’s giant slalom and then called it one heck of a week.

So much for our national championships.

Thomas Grandi, who won the Canadian national title in GS on Saturday, added the U.S. title and $5,000 to his collection with a two-run time of 2:13.68.

He finished ahead of Canadian teammate Cary Mullen, who won U.S. titles earlier this week in the downhill and super-giant slalom. Mullen finished ahead of teammate Sean Valentine, who flew down with Grandi from the Canadian meet.

Canadians won half of the eight U.S. national titles at stake and $31,000 of $100,000 in available prize money.

The Canadian men’s team took eight of the 12 available podium spots reserved for the top three skiers in each event. Lindsey Roberts, one of three Canadian women represented, won the women’s downhill and finished third in super-G.

What about rules? Aren’t there any rules?

As they pertain to participation, there are none. The U.S. championship meet is open to all comers. Some years, American skiers have crashed the Canadian nationals with some success. The U.S. team won six medals in 1990 and four in 1991.

But that doesn’t do much to ease the pain.

Christopher Puckett of the U.S. team did manage to win the men’s combined title after finishing fourth in the giant slalom.

“The last couple of years I thought I had the talent to do it,” Puckett said. “But I kept falling in the slalom or doing something stupid. Today, I didn’t want to do anything stupid. If I can be top five in the GS and win the combined, that’s a great day for me.”

But Puckett was fortunate, too.

Canada’s Mullen would easily have won the combined had he played it safe in Saturday’s slalom and merely finished the race.

Instead, Mullen went for the victory and crashed, denying him crucial combined points. The combined title in the nationals is based on performance in all four events.

“That’s five grand I cried away,” the 20-year-old Mullen said. “I should have hiked it. I wouldn’t have had to hike much to make the gates.”

Mullen meant that he could have scored points by backtracking the course and skiing through the gates he missed.

“But I was going for it,” he said. “I wanted a good slalom result. I didn’t want to be super far out and end up winning the combined when I (stunk) in the slalom.”

With the Canadians stacking the field, the U.S. men didn’t stand much of a chance in Monday’s slalom. Not a strong U.S. event to begin with, the Americans were skiing without their best GS man, Jeremy Nobis, who is out with a knee injury.

For the second consecutive day, course conditions were brutal as skiers tried to navigate through sub-zero temperatures, gusting winds and driving snow.

Grandi had only the fourth-fastest time after the first run, but blew away the field with a second run of 1:07.89, which was more than a second faster than his closest competitor, Mullen.

Puckett, fifth-fastest after the first run, moved up one spot in the second run.

“The conditions are bad, but everybody’s got them,” he said. “The first few guys on the second run had better conditions, but they were a lot further out (of contention). The guys I had to worry about had the same conditions as me.”

Thankfully, after a week of fun and frolic, the Canadians weren’t in a gloating mood.

“It was a great week for Canada,” Mullen said. “We showed we could compete with the States in every event. It was really good for us. It’s good we have two strong nations now.”