Keep your Eye on this Kid!!

[jbotti]

I have been very impressed with this 21 year old out of Norway. Alexander Steen Olsen is the reigning World Junior Champ in both the slalom and GS (so he's not coming out of nowhere). He is competing on the WC this year and he has been starting with numbers in the 40s and 50s, but that has not stopped him from making the split into the second run. Most recently with bib #30 he finished 8th at the Slalom in Schladming posting the fastest 2nd run time. The next day he finished 4th in the GS from bib #34 while posting the second fastest 2nd run time. With these finishes he will no longer be starting outside the top 30 and I think we are going to see him on a podium sooner than later (possibly this season, maybe even at the World Championships that start next week). His skiing is a joy to watch, very PMTS and he in such perfect balance pretty much the whole way down.

His main competition, comes from his teammates. The Norwegians are seriously stacked. Kilde dominates speed. And in the technical events they have Kristofferson, Atlie Lie McGrath and another powerhouse youngster in Lucas Braathen who is already winning races (McGrath has also won), not to mention 3-4 other guys that are regularly scoring WC points by finishing in the top 30.

Norway, with 5.5m people is putting the US (with 330m people) to shame. Yes, we have a system that produces superstars (Mahre, Tamara McKinney, Darren Rahlves, Bode, Ligety, Lindsey, Mikaela), but we produce zero depth!

Here is Olsen's second run from the Schladming slalom:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brHKIWc84aE

[jbotti]

For those that care and may have missed it, here are highlights of the second run of the Men's slalom from Palisades Tahoe where Alexander Steen Olsen got his first WC victory. Snow storm conditions persisted throughout and you can see (barely) that AJ Ginnis did straddle a gate, thus giving the win to Olsen. The commentators are speaking German, as it's the only one I could find. He went off in 12th place starting the second run and posted the winning time. His run can be seen at the 21:35 point. No one (including Olsen) with maybe the exception of AJ Ginnis skied great which speaks to a course that was not injected and was breaking down with large ruts as the race progressed. Throw falling snow on top of that, making visibility very difficult and that certainly explains the bulk of what occurred.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdvF8hUMOAA

Olsen is only 21. On his better runs this year he looks as good or better (IMO) as anyone skiing slalom on the WC. His GS is damn good as well. The Norwegians are stacked with 5 guys that ski both GS and Slalom at a level that can put any or all of them in the top 5 in pretty much every race (Kristofferson, Braatten, Atlie Lie McGrath (just blew out his ACL, which is terrible), Olsen, Timon Haugen). The US should copy everything they are doing, especially in junior development. Its painful to realize that a country of 5m people outproduces ours with 330m people, consistently! Yes, I realize that athletes in the US have other sports that are more popular here and produce more income for the stars, but still!! We haven't had a men's slalom podium in over 10 years and longer than that since we had a win!

[Erik]

The US broadcast was on the Outside media channel. The other men's races at Palisades Tahoe and Aspen have been broadcast live on this channel (for US viewers) and are also available to restream. The archived Palisades Tahoe GS races have already been moved off the free viewing site to the Outside+ subscription platform.

Steen Olsen's 1st run (Bib 20) is at 45:30 here: https://watch.outsideonline.com/live-events/usss/9OU4lNDz

Steen Olsen's 2nd run is at about 38:10 here: https://watch.outsideonline.com/live-events/usss/Vn9nC8Pj

[jbotti]

Thanks. I actually paid for the outside+ subscription, but I thought it was only for live streams which I rarely watch. Peacock did have replays of several of the US races earlier this year (BC and Killington) but not Palisades, and I'm guessing not Aspen this week.