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More love for Copper's ski training center |
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Wednesday, November 16, 2011 17:58 |
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Bode Miller shoots down the headwall on the U.S. Ski Team training course at Copper Mountain. Courtesy of Copper Mountain
By Geoff Mintz, Summit Daily News
In 2010, the U.S. Alpine Ski Team collected eight Olympic medals. In 2011, it set the framework for many more.
The elite-level athletes were on-course at Copper Tuesday, running downhill in the morning and super-G in the afternoon. Bode Miller, Ted Ligety, Andrew Weibrecht and Julia Mancuso were just some of the racers enjoying their third day of practice at the Speed Center at Copper Mountain, which offers unprecedented, top-to-bottom speed training for this time of year.
The course provides diverse terrain over 2,300 vertical feet: good pitch, jumps and gliding sections, which are crucial for technicians to test different skis and wax combinations. The hill isn't scary steep compared to many of the courses on the World Cup circuit. But most of the athletes agreed, for November, it will do just fine.
The north-facing course begins atop the Super Bee lift and makes its way down Andy's Encore before winding through Oh No and Rosi's Run. The finish line is situated near base of the Super Bee.
“Last year, going into Lake Louise, I think my first run on downhill skis was in the training run," said gold medalist Ted Ligety. "And it was my third run on my super-G skis in the super-G race.
" I think having this facility at Copper is going to be super huge.”
Read what other U.S. Ski Team members think about the course and who gets to use it when the pros head off to competition.
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