What's wrong with Ante Kostelic?

To be perfectly honest, I never been crazy about the man, but he has produced some pretty impressive results with his own kids, forcing them to reach the pinnacle of ski racing. I don't know if his mind is as tormented as his way of setting slalom courses, but since I watched the Sochi Olympic Slalom, he's redeemed himself a bit, at least in my eyes.

One of the problem with modern ski racing is that when you have seen one racer, you've almost seen them all. New techniques, modern equipment, smooth and bullet-proof slope preparation - I'm not talking about Sochi - have tremendously reduced the discernible gaps between racers, both in style and timing. For the public at large, the ones who can't tell the difference between a flush and a horizontal gate, it generally looks all the same, as if all racers were some robots or clones of each other.

 

On Sunday, Ante engineered a second run that was so schizophrenic that it ended up being highly entertaining. We could see a clear difference between the few racers who made it down to the bottom of the hill and the many who choose to stop half-way. Kidding aside, the very best won. Was it a disservice to the sport as some disgruntled racers have suggested? Not really; I did enjoy the show and can still turn pretty good on my own.

The only thing that I believe was wrong is that Dad the Coach shouldn't be able to set the course Son is racing on, but this is the fault of the closed and antiquated boys club FIS has always been. I doubt this rule will ever change, and unless he gets a huge contract with Cirque du Soleil, I believe that Ante will soon re-appear and set crazy slaloms again, as soon as his grand-children are of World Cup racing age; I can't wait!