Photo credit: Steve Griffin, Salt Lake Tribune

The SOAR Blog didn’t give Real Salt Lake due attention and praise when the team won the Major League Soccer championship in the spring, but that doesn’t mean SOAR isn’t incredibly proud of its home team for bringing the State of Utah a professional sports championship title for the first time in 40 years.

It seems fitting that the influence of professional soccer in Utah, and in the United States, was recognized today by President Barak Obama in a brief ceremony honoring Real Salt Lake team at the White House. Joe Biden wasn’t there- he is heading up the contingency representing the U.S. at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa which is now less than a week away. One of Real Salt Lake’s players, Robbie Findley, will play with the U.S. team, which is a contender against Algeria, England and Slovenia.

Professional soccer is too often overlooked by North American spectators. World Cup engenders even more global enthusiasm than the Olympics in some regard- except in the United States. There are books, classes, experts, lectures galore on the global significance of “footy,” so I won’t belabor the topic here. We’re glad that with all of the other matters our presidency has to attend to that it would recognize the athletic power coming out of Salt Lake City and the importance of the World Cup.

Any chance Obama will vie for World Cup 2018 to be in the U.S. like he did for the Olympics? (2014 is already scheduled to be in Brazil).

See the Salt Lake Tribune article here

When we first met Shelly she was returning home to Reno after taking 7th place in the women’s moguls competition at the 2008 World Cup season opener in Tignes, France. Since then we have traded emails back and forth with a plan to see her ski in person at the Deer Valley event.

After France, her next event was the Nature Valley Freestyle Cup on January 20 in Lake Placid, New York. I’m signed up for the US Ski Team email newsletter (You can sign up in the middle of the page at (www.usskiteam.com), and I saw that she took 5th place, so I sent her a congratulations email. She responded, “I was definitely excited about 5th- skiing really well- just went way too big on the bottom jump and almost over-rotated the backflip.” That statement turned out to be prophetic for her next event.

At the 2008 FIS Freestyle World Cup in Mont Gabriel, Quebec on January 26, she qualified in 4th place, but had a bad crash in the finals. In her email a few days after the event she wrote, “Well last week was a little rough- did a backflip to my head in finals so ended up 15th, but I was just thankful to be ok because it was a very bad crash. But now I’m in Deer Valley and went and did a bunch of backflips today and feeling good about it.”

This morning Shelly and I had breakfast at the Morning Ray Cafe in Park City. We had a chance to get caught up on how her season is going and had great Huevos Rancheros.

At Mont Gabriel she said she landed on the top of her right shoulder and was lucky she didn’t break her collar bone. She’s been going to a chiropractor who said the crash knocked a few ribs out of place. She’s feeling a lot better now and had a chance to ski some powder at Snowbird a couple days before. I asked her if her ribs still hurt and she said a little when she’s free skiing, but during practice when she’s so focused on the course, she doesn’t notice any pain at all.

When we first met Shelly last December, she was trying to decide if she wanted to continue skiing competitively or start a business of her own. She explained she’s 28 and wanted to figure out what her next career move should be. At breakfast we talked about how she usually is very relaxed during her qualifying runs and typically places around forth heading into finals. But she said she tends to get a little tense in the finals, make subtle mistakes and doesn’t do as well as she’d like. She has a reputation of being one of the fastest skiers on the team and could place well, if she could stay as relaxed in finals as she does in qualifying. She feels she’s coming into her prime and with the 2010 Winter Olympics two years away, she has now decided to keep skiing and stay on the team.

I was thinking, “Wow! The Olympics. She’s on the US Ski Team. Good Sponsors (Tecnica boots, Marker bindings, Smith Optics, Predator Wear, HiBall Energy). Life must be pretty good.” However, she explained she doesn’t receive a lot of cash from her equipment sponsors, the team only pays for her travel to and from the events and her lodging while there, and except for a couple patrons of mogul skiing, she pretty much has pay for the majority of her expenses herself. Prize money is not so hot either (7th in France earned her $150).

So skiing is a career of love for Shelly. She’s looking forward to skiing well this season and the next and going to the Olympics. She’s also looking for more sponsors to help her get there. If anyone’s interested, she has a big spot on her helmet that needs a logo.

It’s now almost 1:00 a.m. Saturday morning. Shelly gave David and I VIP passes for the Deer Valley event. I’m taking my camera and hope to get some good shots of Shelly and cheering her on (and yelling, “Relax!”). In the mean time, here’s a shot I took Friday morning of the course with 16″ of new snow. You can’t even see the bumps! But I’m sure they will be just right for Shelly by the time of the event.

In Utah, it’s no different. The rivalry game between No. 23 BYU and Utah has come to be known as “The Holy War” for the connection BYU has with the LDS Church (Mormon). With the schools located only 40 miles apart, pranks from each school have heated up the rivalry to fever pitch for years. Last year’s late-game heroics by now-NFL quarterback John Beck has only added fuel to the fire. There’s been nothing but trash talk between SLC and Provo for almost 12 full months now.

Here’s the clip that fueled the fire:

This year’s game should be even better. Each team is riding a seven-game win streak, with BYU looking to secure the top spot in the Mountain West Conference with a win, and the Utes looking to share a piece of the top spot with a win and a BYU loss at San Diego State.

If this year’s game is anything like last year’s, it will be awesome! Go Cougs!

(This game will be televised live on CSTV at noon MT.)

Regardless, congratulations to the World Champions! Well done! Let’s do it again next year!

I’m bummed. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency found Landis guilty of doping (see AP story here). I haven’t ridden regularly in a while, but I’m still an avid fan of cycling and racing. My wife and I cheered loudly at the TV during Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour, only to stare silently again later while learning that Landis was accused of doping.

I’m not even going to pretend to understand the facts surrounding the case and spout my opinion here in this post. I’m just bummed for Landis, racers in general and for recreational cyclists and potential recreational cyclists who might think twice about participating in a tainted activity.

The news about Landis will make for an interesting next few weeks, especially with the industry’s largest trade show, Interbike, and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Championships taking place at the same time. I’m sure everyone will be talking about the verdict and will have an opinion.

If you’re interested in seeing what members of the bicycle industry will be saying about doping and other subjects at Interbike, go to InterbikeTimes.com to see live streaming video from the Media Center on the show’s main floor. From 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. media outlets such as BicycleRadio.com, BicycleWorld.tv, Bicycling Magazine, BMXer, Crooked Cog Network, Cycling.tv, Dirt Rag, Mountain Bike, QuickRelease.tv, Road Bike Action, Swagger, The Spokesman, VeloNews and VitalBMX will be interviewing industry heavy weights, former pro racers, product managers and the like. Besides talking about 2008 product, I’m sure doping will be discussed.

My friends have occasionally goaded me to get back on my bike, and I will. Last summer I literally dusted off the trusty, old 9-speed Dura-Ace equipped Landshark, pumped up the tires, adjusted the shifting with the intent to ride, but got lazy. This year we bought a 1950’s house here in Salt Lake City, but you know what that means – lots of remodeling projects.

I love cycling. Not just for racing, but for the fun and freedom it brings. Those nice cool solitary morning road rides up the canyons or a fun day chairlift mountain biking at Deer Valley with friends and family helps slow down life a little.

Bikes are fun. They will always be about fun. I hope everyone can get past the sadness of doping in the professional ranks, and even in the amateur ranks, and just get on the bike and ride.

I’ll post more soon.

Chip