Efforts of young Australian boost hopes of ‘Down Under’ skiers

Press, 3 August 1983, Page 22

Efforts of young Australian boost hopes of ‘Down Under’ skiers

By

TIM DUNBAR

The isolation of New Zealand and Australia from the alpine nations of Europe has long been used to excuse the failure of skiers from “down under” to break through in world ski-racing. In recent years that explanation has not held quite so much water here because of the top competition provided by the Europa F.I.S. series which brings some of the world’s top skiers together at Mount Hutt in their summer season. And now there is the example of a young Australian skier, Steven Lee, to show that coming from the Southern Hemisphere is not an insurmountable handicap in the big time of World Cup racing. Lee, aged 20, startled the ski-ing world in mid January with his “top 10” finish in a World Cup downhill race in the famed Hahenkamm course at Kitzbuehel, in Austria. The course, an awesome 3.5 km long, is regarded as the toughest downhill in the world, but the lean Australian left behind top racers such as Ken Read, of Canada, as he made the descent in 2min 08.23 s to finish equal tenth with a rising Austrian, Helmut Hoeflehner.

Another World Cup downhill followed at Kitzbuehel,

and Lee showed the Europeans that his first result was no fluke with his sixteenth place. Later he was seventeenth at St Anton, also in Austria, and, in March, was twenty-first at Lake Louise, Canada. That was Lee’s first World Cup season and he felt that it could hardly have gone any better. Lee, who is training at Mount Hutt for another international downhill said that the Europeans were starting to look over their shoulders, especially after that second race at Kitzbuehel. “They realised it wasn’t just luck. Some of the ski companies started to show some interest . . . calling me over for little chats.”

While many of the world’s top downhill racers are specialists Lee still does a lot of technical ski-ing, in giant slaloms, and he says that probably helped him at Kitzbuehel.

“The course probably suited me more than most. It was more like a superfast giant slalom with -hard turns and cranking turns which suit me better. I haven’t got the smooth downhill turns right yet.” His first look at the Hahnenkamm course had not

inspired confidence. “Looking at it during inspection was pretty scary,” he admitted. “But once I had one run it was good fun.” His good results over the northern winter did not just come on the World Cup circuit. He was runner-up in the downhill at the French national championships, missing a major title by just eleven-hundreths of a second. With a sixth place in the giant slalom, he finished second in the combined results. At the end of the World Cup season, Lee’s position on the F.I.S. (International Ski Federation) points lists had improved dramatically from about sixty-eighth place to thirty-second. His F.I.S. points for downhill were just 11.52 way and above the best in the Southern Hemisphere. By way of comparison, New Zealand’s top downhill racers, Bruce Grant and Marcus Hubrich, both had points around 40, which put them just out of the world’s top 200. The ultimate is 0.00 points. Lee looks the best ski-ing prospect from the Southern Hemisphere since another Australian downhiller, Malcolm Milne, more than a decade ago. Milne won one

World Cup race at Vai d’lsere in 1969 and was the bronze medallist in the downhill at the 1970 world championships at Vai Gardena. “I’m still aiming for the first seeding group in the Olympics — that’s been my

goal for the last four years,” said Lee. “And then I’ll set my sights on winning a World Cup race or two. There’s no reason anyone down here can’t win.”

His natural ability has already impressed the renowned Austrian coach, Karl (“Downhill Charlie”) Kahr, and the national coaching director, of the Australian Ski Federation Jan Tischhauser, believes Lee has the potential to get to the top. “He is probably the most talented guy I’ve ever worked with,” said Mr Tischhauser, a Swiss who has coached skiers in New Zealand, Australia, and Europe. “Steven is very agile and has tremendous all-round athletic ability. He’s also a lot more natural on skis; he grew up in the mountains unlike most New Zealanders and Australians.” That feel for the snow to which Mr Tischhauser was referring stems from the fact that Lee started ski-ing at the age of two. “As soon

as I walked I was on skis.” His parents have run a lodge at Falls Creek for the last 16 years and were involved in others before that.

Lee’s agility has become almost legendary in the Australian team. Once he hit a bump at high speed, did a complete somersault and landed back on his skis, but was oblivious of the stir he caused. He is also a good surfer, water skier, and wind surfer.

Although Lee wants to keep ski-ing giant slalom the dangerous downhill event is his favourite. “I like the jumps and the speed. I’m pretty stable at high speed,” he said. “It’s pretty exciting just to go down the mountain faster than anyone else.”

Mr Tischhauser said that Lee has one disadvantage. “He hasn’t got a strong team around him. But he has to learn to live with it. Now he’s pulling others up too like a magnet. Kids have someone to look up to.”

There is, of course, the example of the famous Swede, Ingemar Stenmark, who has won more races than any other skier in the history of the World Cup. For several years he was the Swedish team; now others such as his cousin, Bengt Fjaellberg, Stig Strand, and Torsten Jakobsson are coming through. Lee has given up a lot, including his full-time job as a sales representative, but Mr Tischhauser believes he could have still more self-discipline and total commitment. “He needs to develop real meanness and become more like the Europeans.” This week Lee is taking on the Austrians again in the two international downhills at Mount Hutt and when he “shouts” in Methven for his twenty-first birthday on Sunday he is hoping to have something a little extra to celebrate. Another good result could take him into the world’s top 25.