A World Cup full of memorable moments was also marked by exclusion, exploitation and unprecedented political meddling, writes JAMES NALTON
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Olympians worry as ‘Winter’ disappears from Winter Games
Man-made snow: Skiers look over the Rocky Mountains while skiing
From Barry McGuigan and Carl Frampton to Tyrone McKenna and Lewis Crocker, the city’s fighters carry a complex history into the ring, writes JOHN WIGHT
SKI racers settling into the start gate for Alpine World Cup events in the Rocky Mountains in early December squinted through sunshine that carried the temperature towards 10°C and glanced down at a course covered with pristine — and manufactured — snow.
If they looked up and across the way, beyond the finish line, they saw adjacent hills that were brown and barren as can be, with nary a trace of powder or any indication that this was a setting for athletes who would be heading to the Beijing Olympics that begin on February 4.
It is a troubling reality and — given their own reliance on the production of snow, continent-hopping flights powered by diesel fuel and other environment-unfriendly offshoots of their careers — hard-to-reconcile push-and-pull for many of those who will be competing in Alpine skiing or freestyle skiing or snowboarding or Nordic combined events or other outdoor sports that helped put the disappearing “Winter” in Winter Games.
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