U S Skiing

Faced with a sizable rebuilding task off the ice, the Kings are trying to hire Tim Leiweke, president and chief executive officer of U.S. Skiing. Leiweke, working for U.S. Skiing only since September, has been courted by several pro franchises in recent months, and one source close to the situation believes he will take the high-profile job with the Kings.

What do you do if you get kicked out of a neighborhood pickup game? Go start another one with another team. That's just about what veteran snowboarder Chris Klug did after he was dropped from the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Assn.'s program last year. He formed a team with four others. It's a do-it-yourself parallel giant slalom team. "I still wanted to continue," Klug said this week. "I had some unfinished business. It turned out to be a real blessing in disguise."

Dennis Agee, director of skiing at Mammoth Mountain, was named Alpine program director of U.S. Skiing Wednesday, and will guide American ski racing efforts in the 1992 Winter Olympics at Albertville, France, as well as the development of future talent. The appointment was announced in Park City, Utah, by Howard Peterson, president of U.S. Skiing, who acted as interim Alpine director after the firing of John McMurtry last fall. "Dennis brings U.S.

What's good for Bode Miller is good for America. What? Ridiculous as that reads, four years after his enfant terrible turn at the 2006 Turin Olympics, there may be a ski tip of truth to it. With the Vancouver Olympics fast approaching, we'd like to report Miller is reciting acts of contrition while negotiating a couch summit with Oprah to explain his boorish behavior in Italy, where he failed to win anything or anybody over --...

America, hide your ski coaches. Two weeks after the U.S. Alpine team was branded "the left-footed snow-plow brigade," by Sports Illustrated, top European ski countries reportedly are wooing top American ski team staffers. The U.S. team, in a reversal of fortunes, has already won four medals in skiing--more than traditional Alpine powers Austria, Switzerland and France combined. "Funny how it changes things," said Howard Peterson, the outgoing CEO of U.S. Skiing.

Tommy Moe talked of future success after winning the downhill Thursday in the U.S. Championships at Sugarloaf/USA in Carrabassett Valley, Maine. Hilary Lindh's future involves retiring from competition, after her downhill victory. The two Alaskans, Moe from Anchorage and Lindh from Juneau, were in the spotlight at the championships, which end the U.S. competitive ski season.

Leading officials of United States Ski Assn. Tuesday called for the immediate resignation of Robert Helmick, U.S. Olympic Committee president, and Harvey Schiller, executive director, in an open letter to the USOC executive committee. Helmick, who is under scrutiny because of concern that some of his private business arrangements represent a conflict of interest, said Saturday that he would not seek re-election when his current term expires next year.

An independent counsel's investigation of U.S. Olympic Committee executive director Harvey Schiller was incomplete, the head of U.S. Skiing said Friday. The counsel's report, made public this week, concluded Schiller used poor judgment on several occasions that resulted in violations of the USOC's statement of principles. The USOC's executive committee took no action against Schiller, a former commissioner of the Southeast Conference. Howard Peterson, executive director of U.S.

AJKitt, skiing on the course where he scored a surprise World Cup victory four years ago almost to the day, severely injured his left knee Friday and probably will be lost to the U.S. ski team for the rest of the winter. The accident was the latest in a series of misfortunes that have beset Kitt since he became the first American to win a men's World Cup race in nearly eight years when he beat an elite international field at Val d'Isere, France, on Dec. 7, 1991.

Robert Helmick, president of the U.S. Olympic Committee for the past six years, resigned Wednesday amid controversy over whether some of his private financial arrangements as a sports law attorney represented a conflict of interest. Helmick, 54, said as recently as last weekend that he would not leave office until his term expires in the fall of 1992, but he changed his mind while attending a meeting of the International Olympic Committee's executive board in Berlin.

Lindsey Vonn won a World Cup downhill for the second straight day, giving her seven victories on the Lake Louise, Canada, course since 2004. Saturday's victory marked the first time the 25-year-old Vonn has won two downhills in two days at Lake Louise. The U.S. Ski Team said it was the best overall showing for American women in a World Cup downhill since March 16, 1991, at Vail, Colo. Alice McKennis -- a 20-year-old in her third career World Cup race -- finished 10th, Stacey Cook 11th, Julia Mancuso 12th, Leanne Smith 23rd and Chelsea Marshall 25th.

Ready or not, world, Bode is back. Bode Miller, the enigmatically-talented and bombastic ski racer who bombed out at the 2006 Turin Olympics before splitting with the U.S. Ski Team, announced at a Thursday news conference at Staples Center that he was returning to the squad in advance of the 2010 Vancouver Games. "This is an opportunity for me to have the best runs of my life," he said. A self-proclaimed nonconformist, Miller left the team in an acrimonious parting after the 2006 Olympics during which he failed to medal in five events and spent many nights cavorting at drinking establishments in the Italian Alps.

WHISTLER, Canada -- Lindsey Vonn lost a World Cup ski race on Friday by one-hundredth of a second on the Whistler Mountain downhill course that will be used for the 2010 Vancouver Games. Bummer? Hardly. Sometimes in ski racing you win when you lose, and this was definitely one of those times for the U.S. skier.

Bode Miller overtook Phil Mahre as the most successful American skier by getting his 28th win with the combined title for the slalom and Saturday's downhill at the traditional Hahnenkamm World Cup races in Kitzbuehel, Austria . "It's a nice record, something you dream about as a kid," Miller, 30, said. "As a professional skier, you're more focused on winning each individual race. Before the season, it was my target to break that record, and it's a really good feeling if you reach your goals."

Former Olympic medalist and World Cup champion Bode Miller is leaving the U.S. ski team, ending his contentious relationship with the federation that oversees the sport in this country. The fiercely independent Miller has been at odds with the association for years, and there long had been rumblings that he would leave the team. U.S. officials have been unhappy with Miller's late-night partying and his outlandish public comments. But he was by far the best skier on the team.

Corey Engen, 90, who was captain of the U.S. Nordic ski team at the 1948 Winter Olympics and, with his brothers, helped popularize skiing in Idaho and Utah, died from complications of pneumonia Tuesday at a nursing home in Provo, Utah. A ski jumper and cross-country skier in Norway, Engen followed his two older brothers, Alf and Sverre, from Norway to Utah in the early 1930s. Engen taught skiing during the early years of the Sun Valley Resort in Ketchum, Idaho.

Wednesday's announcement that U.S. Olympic Committee President Robert H. Helmick will resign was greeted with sadness, disappointment and a sense of relief by some leaders of America's Olympic sports organizations. A handful of national governing body executive directors called Helmick an important figure in the growth of the U.S. Olympic movement.

Skiing's "White Circus" has left North America and will set up its tents in Europe for most of the remainder of the winter, which should make everyone except the U.S. ski team feel a bit more comfortable. Aside from Picabo Street's downhill victory Sunday at Lake Louise, Canada, Americans failed to take advantage of their home-snow advantage and now must challenge the Europeans in the Alps, cowbells and all.

Clarita Heath Bright, a California-born pioneer skier who qualified for the first U.S. Women's Ski Team in the 1936 Olympics after a mere 13 months on skis, has died. She was 87. Bright, who competed as Clarita Heath, died Oct. 13 of natural causes in her sleep at her Brookline, Mass., home. She never forgot the opening ceremonies of the 1936 outdoor games in the Bavarian Alps' Garmisch-Partenkirchen -- conducted during a blizzard, which enabled the events to proceed.

There is no easy way down. There's not supposed to be. Just over the edge of my ski tips was Silverton Mountain, North America's first new ski area in almost two decades and arguably one of its most thrilling. With more than 3,000 vertical feet of the steepest in-bounds slopes in the country, neck-deep powder and wide-open bowls, it has what expert skiers and snowboarders dream of. For $99 a day you get nearly unfettered access to this 1,600-acre ski mountain in southwest Colorado.