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VAIL, Colorado — The boys watched the girls J3 Junior Olympic super-G as 11 racers didn't finish. They inspected. They visualized.
It was still chaos as 24 of 90 athletes were either DNFs or disqualified for missing a gate. It was hard to watch in more ways than one for the competitors.
“I'm glad we went behind the girls,” Nicholas Veth of Taos, N.M., said. “The jump was solved.”
For some, or more particularly, it was solved for Veth who emerged with super-G gold.
“I thought (my time) was going to be awful,” Telluride's Hayden Fake said. “I left once I found out. I didn't want to hear people come down and beat me. I took a lap around and got my clothes.”
Fake did come back once he found out he had captured silver.
“It was a wild course,” bronze-medalist Zak Kjos of Apex (Minn.) said. “You just had to stay ahead of it and know where you were going. Inspection was a big thing.”
Veth's key was to be in his turn before the gate. He felt he was successful with that in all but one gate. He went big on the jump after I-70. And then it was time to wait.
Veth had raced ninth — in fact, early seemed to be the key for the medalists — and felt there were two guys who could catch him. While obviously not wishing ill toward anyone, he breathed a sigh of relief when Welch Valley's Nicholas Mitchell was a DNF.
Once Buck Hill's Connor Croasdale made it down in fifth, Veth knew he had it.
“It's pretty special because Taos needs to be seen more,” Veth said. “They have very good steeps. I think the steep pitches and the bumps help me ski better because I got to ski good terrain.”
Veth had been skiing well in super-G coming into the Junior Olympics. He won two JO qualifiers in the discipline as well as a Smartwool. And now he gets to go to the Whistler Junior Cup. The JO winners in super-G, giant slalom and slalom all are guaranteed spots.
“I had two goals this year,” Veth said. “One was to be under 90 points is GS and slalom, and I got that. My second was to go to Whistler, and I got that.”
Like Veth, Fake had been skiing well this week. But watching the DNFs in the girls race beforehand did not help his butterflies.
“I watched a lot of the girls fall, so I was really nervous,” Fake said. “I heard there was really big air. I was really nervous in the start. I just kicked out and skied basically. I didn't have to think too much.”
Kjos skis for Apex in Minneapolis, but actually lives and trains in La Crosse, Wis.
“It's a big accomplishment,” Kjos said. “I've been working hard all year to do this. It's really nice to get a nice reward.”
Ski and Snowboard Club Vail's Alex Leever got the home crowd buzzing flying up to fourth place. He's coming off a tibia-plateau fracture, and just got back on the snow on Monday. Meanwhile, Nicholas Romano finished eighth for SSCV.
Aspen's Brannen Haderle finished sixth with Flagstaff's Walter Reznick in seventh. Travis Lundin of Aspen took ninth and Loveland's Anthony Wada was 10th.
The boys are off today before Tuesday's GS.
It was still chaos as 24 of 90 athletes were either DNFs or disqualified for missing a gate. It was hard to watch in more ways than one for the competitors.
“I'm glad we went behind the girls,” Nicholas Veth of Taos, N.M., said. “The jump was solved.”
For some, or more particularly, it was solved for Veth who emerged with super-G gold.
“I thought (my time) was going to be awful,” Telluride's Hayden Fake said. “I left once I found out. I didn't want to hear people come down and beat me. I took a lap around and got my clothes.”
Fake did come back once he found out he had captured silver.
“It was a wild course,” bronze-medalist Zak Kjos of Apex (Minn.) said. “You just had to stay ahead of it and know where you were going. Inspection was a big thing.”
Veth's key was to be in his turn before the gate. He felt he was successful with that in all but one gate. He went big on the jump after I-70. And then it was time to wait.
Veth had raced ninth — in fact, early seemed to be the key for the medalists — and felt there were two guys who could catch him. While obviously not wishing ill toward anyone, he breathed a sigh of relief when Welch Valley's Nicholas Mitchell was a DNF.
Once Buck Hill's Connor Croasdale made it down in fifth, Veth knew he had it.
“It's pretty special because Taos needs to be seen more,” Veth said. “They have very good steeps. I think the steep pitches and the bumps help me ski better because I got to ski good terrain.”
Veth had been skiing well in super-G coming into the Junior Olympics. He won two JO qualifiers in the discipline as well as a Smartwool. And now he gets to go to the Whistler Junior Cup. The JO winners in super-G, giant slalom and slalom all are guaranteed spots.
“I had two goals this year,” Veth said. “One was to be under 90 points is GS and slalom, and I got that. My second was to go to Whistler, and I got that.”
Like Veth, Fake had been skiing well this week. But watching the DNFs in the girls race beforehand did not help his butterflies.
“I watched a lot of the girls fall, so I was really nervous,” Fake said. “I heard there was really big air. I was really nervous in the start. I just kicked out and skied basically. I didn't have to think too much.”
Kjos skis for Apex in Minneapolis, but actually lives and trains in La Crosse, Wis.
“It's a big accomplishment,” Kjos said. “I've been working hard all year to do this. It's really nice to get a nice reward.”
Ski and Snowboard Club Vail's Alex Leever got the home crowd buzzing flying up to fourth place. He's coming off a tibia-plateau fracture, and just got back on the snow on Monday. Meanwhile, Nicholas Romano finished eighth for SSCV.
Aspen's Brannen Haderle finished sixth with Flagstaff's Walter Reznick in seventh. Travis Lundin of Aspen took ninth and Loveland's Anthony Wada was 10th.
The boys are off today before Tuesday's GS.
