Can French ski racing return on top?

Recently a French friend of mine told me he was writing a story about the (short-lived) past glory of the French ski team and how it might eventually resurface based on the fact that France has consistently been among the top ski country in the world in terms of annual ski visits and should hold the largest and most impressive reservoir of ski talent, when compared to say, Austria.

My quick analysis is that the Austria ski machine is a highly disciplined one and is probably sticking to a ski racer production process that generates results and is consistently unmatched by its Alpine counterparts.

Austria is the Toyota of ski racing. France's success was more like a creative accident, a flash in the pan that happened because of Honoré Bonnet's unorthodox and maverick leadership style at a time when other ski federation programs were not that sophisticated.

Could that be recreated? It's quite unlikely, because the French Ski Federation has become more ossified, bureaucratic and far less innovative. It's reacting more like General Motors and internal politics remain the largest obstacle to change and evolution, with members that prioritize individualism over collaboration, unlike the Toyota model that works hand-in-hand with a highly disciplined work force.

That's my short and easy take.

My favorite envelope opener

Sometime in May of 1964, just over 50 years ago, my sister and brother spent some time in Brussels visiting family friends and attending to other business.

When they returned home, they brought me a memento of their trip in the form of a solid brass letter-opener, adorned with the Manneken Pis, a famous small bronze sculpture found in Brussels and featuring a naked little boy urinating into a fountain's basin.

This piece of memorabilia crossed an ocean, survived more than 12 moves and, half a century later, is still in my possession, which is why I cherish it so much. Whenever I use it, this small item reminds me of my two siblings, even though mail-opening is becoming a rare activity these days...

Catching up?

For the first time since the spring of 2013, I'm finally getting the feeling that I'm catching up with my work and not running like a chicken with its head cut off.

This building project – although not quite completed – has truly taken its toll on me and if it hasn't produced undue stress, it has brought me much more work and activities that I could comfortably handle.

While I still believe that it's good to be stretched, being brought close to stress isn't something I want anymore in my life. Time for some smooth cruising!

Taking the time to do it right

Of all the DIY household projects I've ever undertaken, my pet-peeve is hanging curtains. Window coverings are generally heavy, are operated frequently and a solid anchoring of the rod supporting the whole system becomes crucial. Problem is that in most houses, these elements need to be directly attached into the drywall as there's no studs where they can be placed, and this often requires a sturdy anchoring...

Without getting into the most minute details, suffice to say that it took some thorough thinking, never-ending planning, getting all the right tools to do a good job and finally – but certainly not least – taking all of my time, proceeding very prudently and thoughtfully, in order to accomplish the job. Once more, 90% worth of preparation vs. 10% of execution!

End of life goal?

This is an interesting one. If you'd ask me, mine would be to die... peacefully, end of discussion. That's it. I do not have such a thing as an end of life goal going in crescendo, because it never happens this way.

I've always seen my presence here and now, more as a journey than a destination. So each day that passes is a true adventure in which I focus all my might in doing the very best I can with the resources I have. I'm certainly aware of the fact that I may have to settle for less as time goes by, but regardless I'll always strive to do my utmost.

All along, I look forward to remain in the best mental and physical shape I possibly can muster, and at the end of the road, I'll be looking forward to a peaceful rest and to being recycled. This is clear, simple and quite healthy.

Weak links in the French ski instructor's training

In the early 70s, a French ski instructor had to know the nuts and bolts of skiing and be quite good at it. In particular, it was expected from a would-be instructor to be proficient in slalom and able to “show ease” in a steep, crappy snow, free descent. These were the job's gatekeepers.

What wasn't in the picture however, were basic and essential customer service considerations. The six and four week long courses that took place at the ENSA in Chamonix, after a young “moniteur de ski” cleared the first exam called “Capacité d'enseigner le ski” (Ability to teach skiing) were solely about teaching French ski technique.

Nowhere to be found in the curriculum were personal presentation, empathy, student's personal goals, fears or aspiration. There was nothing either in terms of putting oneself in the student's shoes (or ski boots) and nothing either about self-promotion (how to develop return-customers, how to up-sell or ask students to tell and refer their friends, etc.) 

In retrospective, the ENSA training, while extensive on the technical side, was woefully lacking in terms of basic human psychology and salesmanship. How did instructors do with that lack of knowledge (remember, two-third of them had not even completed high-school)? Simple, it was trial and error and ability or lack thereof to learn from experience.

I personally chose the hard-way. Working long hours and exhausting myself on the job, teaching boringly instead of just showing clients a good time. Well, ski and learn!

2022 Winter Olympics in Zimbabwe?

Putin showed the world how to use the Sochi Olympic Games to whitewash Russia and make it look like a civilized and proud nation, just as China did before.

You just do what it takes, take land away from local people and flood the process with never-seen-before pageantry plus pour obscene amounts of money into the process, and... voila! Your country and politics are cleansed by the Oympic Detergent and following that, you have Carte Blanche to invade Ukraine by proxy.

Today's after the defection of democracies like Sweden and Poland and the vacilation of Norway as well as Ukraine, there's only contemporary tyrannies like China and Kazakhstan in the running. Okay, I've made clear that the motive behind an Olympic candidacy have got to be suspect.

So what's next? Perhaps Zimbabwe or North Korea might step in, unless Salt Lake City that has indicated some interest in picking up the pieces - if called upon - could once more use the IOC expensive washing machine to make its weird local culture look a bit more acceptable to the rest of the world...