1STARTING GATE

World Pro Ski Tour returns to

Beaver Creek for 2019 opener

Beaver Creek 26 years ago:

The Pro Ski Tour was peaking

Volume XIX No. 2 JANUARY 2019

It was 1993. Y2K was just entering our vo-cabulary. Drew Bledsoe was the New England Pa-triots’ first draft pick. Most of today’s ski racerswere just entering the world or trying out theirfirst pair of skis. The world’s top racers were de-scending on Vail/Beaver Creek for the ChryslerU.S. Pro Championships, a three-event series withinthe regular circuit.

The Tour was wrapping up what observersagreed was its most successful season in history.During the 13 events leading up to the ChryslerU.S. Pro Championships the Tour had seen manyof its qualifying rounds attract more than 80 ski-ers, its celebrity events raising several milliondollars for charity with media attention reachingan all-time high.

Defending Champion Austrian Bernhard Knaussbecame the first skier in history to earn more than$1 million in career purses. Despite chronic backproblems and several spectacular falls, Knauss cameinto the Vail/Beaver Creek event with a command-ing lead in the standings having already capturedhis third World Championship title at Aspen andhis third straight U.S. Pro Ski Tour title.

But the Pro Tour king was unable to earn the“hat trick” at Vail when fellow Austrian MathiasBerthold, the 1991 Rookie of the Year, outdueledfellow countryman Sebastian Vitzthum for the$100,000 Chrysler Championships Ski Series titleon the final day of the season.

The event also included Women’s Pro Ski Tour

Please see Beaver Creek 26 years ago

on page 3

The World Pro Ski Tour is anationwide tour of events fea-turing the popular “dual” for-mat alpine ski racing. By plac-ing two athletes side-by-side,spectators on-site and TV view-ers consume the most excitingand easiest to understand for-mat in alpine ski racing.

The history of Vail/BeaverCreek mountain and ski racingcontinues as the resort will hostthe World Pro Ski Tour’s thirdseason launch on January 31,2019, the Rocky Mountain ProClassic.

The reborn World Pro SkiTour hosted its debut event in2017 at Sunday River Ski Areain Newry, ME which featuredNCAA champions, World Cupracers, and Olympians in thefirst pro tour style race in theUS since the late 1990’s. Four-time national champion andtwo-time Olympian DavidChodounsky narrowly defeated2017 US and Canadian nationalslalom champion AJ Ginnis inthe finals to take the $10,000prize.

In 2018 US Olympian NolanKasper (Warren, VT) won theVisit Maine Pro Ski Champion-ship at Sunday River, defeat-ing Slovakian Olympian AdamZampa in the final for the$10,000 prize. Kasper alsoedged out Michael Ankeny(Wayzata, MN) for the overall2018 season championship title

and an additional $5,000.Kasper also claimed the Tito’sRookie of the Year title, win-ning another $1,000.

For 2019, Nolan Kasper willbe returning to defend histitle. The 29-year-old formermember of the US Ski Teamand the 2018 US OlympicTeam lives in Brooklyn, NY.Nolan was a promising starout of Burke Mountain Acad-emy in Vermont who qualifiedfor his first Olympics at theage of 22. In 2014, he was 13thin the slalom at the SochiOlympic Games. A knee in-jury in the 2014/15 season side-lined him for 2 full seasonsuntil his return to World Cupaction in January 2018 wherehe finished 20th in Wengen,

Switzerland; then went on toPyeongChang Olympic Gamesfor 9th place in the team event.

Finishing second overall forthe 2018, Michael Ankenyproved to be a worthy oppo-nent for Nolan Kasper. Withthree, third place finishes hecame in behind Kasper by 11points. Ankeny’s finished 3rdPlace 2017 Pro Ski Challenge,19th 2016 Kitzbuhel WC SL,23rd 2017 Adelboden WC SL,2015 Overall and Slalom Nor-Am Champion, 2014-2015 NorAm Overall and Slalom Cham-pion, 19th 2016 KitzbuhelWorld Cup Slalom, 21st 2016Adelboden World Cup Slalom,

Third season for the reborn Tour

On course: Two-time Olympian David Chodounsky (r.) battles Slovakian Olympian Adam Zampa.Lisa Mutz-Nelson photo.

Top four at the 2018 Rocky Mountain Pro Ski Classic: (from left)

David Chodounsky 2nd, AJ Ginnis 1st, Michael Ankeny 3rd,Andreas Zampa 4th. Lisa Mutz-Nelson photo.

Covering: In April 1993, the overall Tour titlesalready belonged to Bernhard Knauss andCatharina Glasser-Bjerner, putting them squarelyon the cover of the Starting Gate race newspaper.However, neither of the Tour Champions wereable to win the Chrysler Championship Series.Lisa Mutz-Nelson photos.

Check your local

listings throughout

the season

Former WorldCup racerPam FletcherinterviewsCanadianMorganMegarry.

Lisa Mutz-NelsonLisa Mutz-NelsonLisa Mutz-NelsonLisa Mutz-NelsonLisa Mutz-Nelson

photo.photo.photo.photo.photo.

PRO SKI TV

Please seeSeason Opener

on page 7

2 JANUARY 2019

S T A F F

The Starting Gate is a publication of World Pro Ski Tour

Copyright 2019 - All rights reserved.

Printed at Alliance Press, Brunswick, Maine.

Ed Rogers

Ed is a legend in the skiing worldfollowing his twenty-two year runas the director of a regional protour starting in 1976 that grew tobecome the World Pro Ski Touruntil 1998. Ed has been working tobring back the pro tour ever sinceand is now the Chairman of theBoard of Directors of the WPST.He resides in Bath, ME where heowns and operates JR Maxwell’s, arestaurant downtown. He is veryactive in the local community, work-ing to drive tourism and increaseeconomic activity while still find-ing time to sail.

Carl Schlick

Maine native CarlSchlick skied Sugarloafmountain when therewere only three t-barsserving the slopes and EdRogers was just gettingstarted with his infamous Red Stal-lion Inn. As creative director, Carlhas worked with Ed for 40 years, 20of those with the pro skiing tours.He enjoys playing drums inBandCilantro.

Lis

a M

utz

-Ne

lso

n

www.worldproskitour.com

worldproski tour

@worldproski tour

@worldproski tour

Special thanks to these volunteers:

Harry Ricker, Kevin Keiley, Mike Haggerty

Clare Peaslee, Connor Hogan

and to the Vail Staff and everyone else who

makes these events possible.

Ed Rogersand TVsports-caster

PamFletcher.

Lisa Mutz-Nelson

Lisa Mutz-Nelsontraveled with theWorld Pro Ski Tourin the 1980s & 90s asthe race administra-tor and photogra-pher. When Ed Rogers called herto say he was “putting the bandback together” she jumped at theopportunity. Lisa also works as thegeneral manager for Falcon PointResort in Avon, CO.

World Pro Ski Tour5 Old Sloop Lane

Bath, Maine 04530

Edwin A. Rogers .............................................. President

Kevin Clarke ........................ Announcer, Vice President

Barrett Stein .......................... Events Director, Treasurer

John Jacobs ...... Chief of Course & Equipment, Director

Lisa Mutz-Nelson .. Race Admin., Photography, Director

Aimee Stein .................................... Activation Specialist

Kevin Kieley ......................................................... Starter

Matt Howard ......................................................... Timer

Susan Jacobs ......................................... Merchandising

Pam Fletcher ................. Reporter CBS Sports Network

Carl Schlick ........................................ Graphic Designer

GP Bonenfant ....................................... Sign Production

For more information on the World Pro Ski Tour,

sponsorship, event or racer info please contact:

Ed Rogers: 207-522-4026

erminc1@gmail.com

Lisa Mutz-Nelson: 970-390-4800

Lmnelson@worldproskitour.com

Kevin Clarke

A native of Fryeburg, Maine, Kevinworks for Martignetti Companies,one of New England's leading li-quor distributors. He was a proracer during the 1980s and went onto take a position as an announcerand sponsorship activation special-ist on Ed Rogers' U.S. Pro Ski Tourin the 1990's. Kevin enjoys skiingin the winter and car racing of alltypes in the summer.

Barrett Stein

Barrett grew up ski racing at BuckHill in Minnesota and started hiscoaching career there. He spent fif-teen years in Telluride and Aspen asa program director and race coordi-nator. He is passionate about theWPST dual format and is excited tohelp bring this event, which is gearedto spectators, back into ski racing.Besides skiing Barrett loves to golfand ride anything with two wheels.

From left: Kevin Clarke, pro racerNolan Kasper, Barrett Stein.Lisa Mutz-Nelson photo.

Hayden Scott

A former England National SkiTeam member and 3 x World Pow-der 8 Ski Champion, Hayden startedeef4kproductions in the Vail Val-

ley in the mid1990’s. Since thenHayden has pro-duced Ski TVaround the world.Notable projectshave included theSki World Cups inBeaver Creek and

Killington, the American Ski Clas-sic (for which he also brokered amulti-year title sponsorship dealwith KORBEL California Cham-pagne) along with Internationalprojects for BMW, Honda, Vail Re-sorts, Western Union and otherInternational corporations.

A passionate sailor, Hayden hasproduced films for Ocean Reef Cluband the Nevis Tourist board.Hayden’s eef4kproductions hasaired on the world’s top networksincluding NBC, CBS, ESPN andmore. Hayden often worked withWorld Pro Skiing founder BobBeattie on a number of projectsand was thus selected to lead andproduce Bob’s memorial video ear-lier this season in Aspen. Haydenstill lives in the Vail Valley, buttravels the world down the slopesand on the water, having skied theworld’s top pistes and sailed mostof the world oceans.

John Jacobs

John lives in Glens Falls, NY wherehe runs the world famous ReliableRacing Supply, a company that wasstarted by his parents in 1969. Hisexperience in pro tour skiing runsback to the days of Bob Beattie’stour and he stayed involved throughthe 1980’s and 90’s. John still enjoysskiing and sailing.

Bill Despo

Bill Despo is general counsel forthe Tour. He has been a lawyer forover 40 years and was a partner ata national law firm who concen-trated his practice on business law,corporate, securities, governmen-tal investigations and complex busi-ness litigation. Bill is an avid skierhaving skied all his life and all overthe world.

Lis

a M

utz

-Ne

lso

nReliableRacings’s

JohnJacobs

Jon J. Franklin

Jon Franklinr e m e m b e r swhen Billy Kiddwon both theFIS and ProWorld Champi-onships thesame year. Later, as Vice Presi-dent of Winter Sports for IMG, hebrought the Mahre twins back toski racing on the World Pro SkiTour. While at IMG, Franklin wasthe agent for not only Kidd and theMahres, but AJ Kitt, Bill Johnson,Tommy Moe, Julie Parisien andother top ski stars.

Along the way Franklin sold thetitle sponsorship of World Cup Ski-ing to Cafe de Colombia and workedin skiing with Rolex, VISA, Swatchand other companies. Leaving IMGafter 15 years, Franklin later did

B O A R D O F D I R E C T O R S

deals for Gold Medalists BodeMiller, Julia Mancuso and otherswhile putting global brands suchas Barilla Pasta, Rip It Energy Fuel,and Lacroix Spring Water into skiracing.

Even though he has held super-visory roles at the Olympics, he ismost proud of helping to start theWater Ski World Cup and becom-ing the TV voice of it in the late1990’s. More recently, based out ofDenver, Jon has been Presidentand CEO of multiple combat sportsleagues including Glory Sports onESPN and has worked with MikeTyson and others in the boxingworld.

Ed Rogers ....................................................... President

Craig Marshall ................................................... Director

Bill Stratton ......................................................... Director

Jeff Mehnan ....................................................... Director

Jon J. Franklin .................................................... Director

Justin Burley ....................................................... Director

Bill Despo ....................... Secretary & General Counsel

Still on in the off-season: There’s always a lot to accomplish in the summerfor the next World Pro Ski Tour season including the annual Board ofDirectors’ meeting at the Grey Havens Inn at Georgetown, Maine.

3STARTING GATE

racing. Catharina Glasser-Bjerner–a.k.a. the Swedish Express–startedthe season with five wins in the firstseven races. Despite a nagging thumbinjury and sore back, the fifth-yearpro rebounded from her season-end-ing knee injury the previous year towin her third title by more than 50points.

But the Austrians were not to bedenied. The 1987 Rookie of the YearAustrian Roswitha Raudaschl won theChrysler Championship Ski Series toleave Beaver Creek with more than$83,000 in cash and prizes for herefforts.

A lot has changed since 1993 –shaped skis are faster and all theracers are wearing helmets now –but the Pro Show still presents theworld’s best skiers in the most excit-ing format.

– Compiled by Carl Schlick from Tour

articles written by Don A. Metivier

from page 1

Beaver Creek 26 years ago

Front page news: Excitement

was high in April 1993 as huge

prize money awaited the king of

the hill. Ten years earlier, Lonny

Vanatta had wrapped up the

1983 Rocky Mountain Pro Ski

Tour Championship with

season-long earnings of

$18,500. Now the best of the

best were competing for a

weekend purse of $380,000.

The Women’s Tour was also

in the money with another

$160,000 up for grabs bringing

the total prize money for the

Vail/Beaver Creek event to

$540,000.

Lisa Mutz-Nelson photos.

King Knauss: Hard chargingBernhard Knauss of Austria was thepro to beat in the early 1990s.

Lisa Mutz-Nelson photo

4 JANUARY 2019

S C H E D U L E a t B E A V E R C R E E K

FREEadmission

on theRACE HILL

Check your local

listings for airtimes

OFFICIAL SPONSORS:

ROCKY MOUNTAIN PRO CLASSIC

BEAVER CREEK, COLORADO

January 31 - February 2, 2019aaaat

5STARTING GATE

SEASON SCHEDULE - 2019 WORLD PRO SKI TOUR

ROCKY MOUNTAIN PRO SKI CLASSIC

BEAVER CREEK, CO .... Jan 31 - Feb 2

WHITE MOUNTAIN DUAL CHALLENGE

Waterville Valley, NH .. Feb 7-10

COLORADO CUP

Steamboat, CO ............. Feb 28 - Mar 2

MIDWEST PRO SKI CLASSIC

Buck Hill, MN ................ Mar 14 - 16

MAINE PRO SKI CHAMPIONSHIPS

Sunday River, ME ......... Mar 28 - 30

www.worldproskitour.com

worldproski tour

@worldproski tour

@worldproski tour

Check your local

listings for airtimes

Watching the dual format of pro ski

racing is easy and exciting.

The competition starts with the qualifying

runs, the only part of the event when racers

are timed from start to finish. The fastest

pros qualify and then it’s on to the

head-to-head competition.

Two racers blast out of dual starting

gates onto parallel courses, one red

and one blue. All the timing is at the

finish line. The action continues

down the ladder until only one

pro is left -- the champion!

SCOREBOARDStarting with the qualifiers, the dual

format builds excitement as the pro field

narrows through rounds of 16, 8 and the

semi-finals. The hottest racing is often at

the end when the best racers battle to be

the champion. Updated continuously to

show each racer's progress, the

scoreboard is the site of the post-race

awards ceremonies.

PRO SKIING�S FORMAT

TIMING IS EVERYTHINGRaces are won by thousandths of a

second. The state-of-the-art timing

system uses a light beam on each

course. The first racer through the finish

starts the clock and the second stops it.

The margin of victory, called the timedifferential, appears on electronic

scoreboards in the finish area. The pair

of racers then return to the start and race

again, switching courses to equalize

any differences between the red and the

blue courses. The pro with the greater

time differential after two runs advances

and meets a new opponent.

OFFICIALLY SPEAKINGTiming building houses race

announcer, TV commentators

and race officials.

AIRTIMEBuilt into the

race course,

bumps

launch

the pros

skyward --

an excellent

spot for

spectators.

u n d e r s t a n d i n g

FREEadmission on the

RACE HILLWalk to the race course

from the base lodge or

stop by on your skis.

These are some of the

world’s best ski racers–

the action is intense and

viewing them close up

gives a new appreciation

of their excellence.

Twice the action:

The dual courses

mean more

excitement as the

world’s top ski

racers pull out

all the stops.

Lisa Mutz-Nelson photo

(TENTATIVE)

6 JANUARY 2019

Final Standings 2018

1 Nolan Kasper

2 Kei Kullberg

3 Peter Ankeny

4 Johnny Manekin

5 Sam Ricker

6 Keefe Gorman

Tito’sHandmade Vodka

Rookieof theYearStandings

Tito’s amigos:The handmade vodka

will be featured ata variety or Tour parties

Thursday, Fridayand Saturday.

See scheduleon page four.

Lisa Mutz-Nelson photos

Gate crashers:Jake Jacobs (r.)

tests the ReliableRacing gate as

Michael Ankeny(above) sets up his

approach.

Lis

a M

utz

-Ne

lso

n

7STARTING GATE

23rd 2017 Adelboden World Cup Sla-lom.

AJ Ginnis, a 2015 World JuniorChampionships Bronze Medal SL,2015 US Nationals 2nd SL, 2017 USAWorld Championships Team, 2 Euro-pean Cup Podiums, finished third forthe 2018 season. Due to a knee in-jury, AJ is out for the 2019 season.

The World Pro Ski Tour providesa unique racing experience with ath-letes competing head-to-head in a dualformat event. Racing against eachother and not against the clock thedead-horse starts, identical courses,and two pro jumps make the eventexciting and fast passed.

Friday, February 1 qualificationswill begin at 12:00 noon, the SuperSlalom event will be held on Satur-day at 11 am. A seeding bracket witheach round will decide who advances- two runs, one on each course, thefastest combined differential from thetwo runs will advance.

For more information visitwww.worldproskitour.com.

– by Aimee Stein

from page 1

Season Opener

Pro time: AJ Ginnis is on course as Nolan Kasperand Michael Ankeny pose and Rob Kelley takestime to greet some young fans.

Lisa Mutz-Nelson photos

Bringing the action:Adam Zampa (above) teststhe clocks that Timer MattHoward (left) keeps ticking

while announcer KevinClarke keeps the

spectators in the know.

Lisa Mutz-Nelson photos

8 JANUARY 2019