DH starts U.S. Disabled Alpine Skiing Championships today
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The best of American disabled skiing will be on display starting with today’s downhill, which begins the U.S. Disabled Alpine Skiing Championships on Golden Peak in Vail.
The U.S. Disabled Ski Team will be going up against the best from Canada, Australia and New Zealand during the five-day event and the High Country’s best will be looking to strike paydirt.
Three of the five American women competing this week train in Vail – Sandy Dukat, Allison Jones and Csilla Kristof – and, according to U.S. Disabled Team assistant coach John Cole, the trio is rearing to go.
Kristof, Dukat and Jones have been 1-2-3 in Monday’s and Tuesday’s downhill-training runs
“Their prospects are obviously high,” Cole said. “They’ve been finishing 1-2-3 in their training runs. They’ve all had incredible years. Allison won three golds and a silver at Worlds (in Wildschonau, Austria, earlier this winter). Csilla had two bronzes and Sandy had a silver and two bronzes.”
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Lacey Heward of Park City, Utah, and Laurie Stephens of Loon Mountain, N.H., round out the American women’s contingent.
Monte Meier (Park City), Clay Fox (Wyoming), Chris Canfield (Breckenridge), George Sansoneties and Nick Catanzerite (both of Winter Park) make up the American men’s team.
“Chris is skiing extremely well,” Cole said. “Though he’s new to the team, he’s been skiing very well in training. His ranking super-G is high. I give him a good chance to score well over the course of the next few days.”
Then, there is the story of Sansoneties, 32, who is afflicted with dystonia, a nerve disorder.
“George is remarkable,” Cole said. “He’s one of the oldest living persons we know of who has dystonia. A lot of the majority of people afflicted with the disease don’t live much past their teenage years. He’s an inspiration.”
Today’s downhill, starting at 11 a.m., kicks off four races in five days.
“It’s a pretty fast, technical set,” Cole said. “Golden Peak is short to run downhill on, but we’ve done our best to set a downhill which is challenging and also affords everyone the opportunity to finish and finish well.”
The U.S. Alpine Disabled Skiing Championships continue Thursday with a super-G at 11 a.m. After a weather-contingency day on Friday, there is giant slalom on Saturday and slalom on Sunday.
