Does the name Marcus Nash ring a bell? It should -- he helped the University of Utah win the NCAA Championships in 1993. Now he's a prominent member of the United States Cross Country Ski Team.
Ten skiers -- five men, five women -- were named to represent the U.S. at the World Nordic Championships in Austria next month.Also named to the team was Park City's Wendy Wagner.
While still a student at the U., Nash competed in the '84 Olympics in Lillehammer, but he later admitted he was in over his head. Now he's out of school, training full time and doing well. This past week at the U.S. Cross Country Championships in Maine, he won three championship titles.
If you're looking for something to whet the appetite for Super Bowl Sunday, catch Saturday's 11 a.m. edition of the Outdoor Life Network and relive the stunning victory of Park City's Ricky Bower in the World Snowboard Championships in Berchtesgarden, Germany.
A darkhorse going into the event, Bower --, a member of the U.S. Snowboard Team -- stuck his jumps and spins and won the gold in the halfpipe event.
Bower, whose previous best was a second in the Utah Winter Games, said he changed his whole routine just before entering the halfpipe.
"It was a combination of things, but I was much more comfortable. I had a good feeling," he said.
Turns out it was a feel for the gold.
Utahns will get the opportunity to see Bower in person, along with all of the other top snowboarders, next week when the World Cup Snowboard Championships come to Park City.
This will be the first World Cup event at the actual Olympic venue. The slalom will be on Friday, the halfpipe on Saturday and the giant slalom on Sunday.
Well, you can't keep a good team from medaling. Layton's Jen Davidson earned another silver medal to add to two silvers and two golds she has already won with her bobsled driver, Jean Racine of Waterford, Mich.
The two started the season with a gold and silver in their first bobsled appearance together. They followed that with a second gold-silver combination in Canada, and the pair now have a silver from the World Cup race in Winterberg, Germany.
A team from Switzerland won the race.
It was nearly a year ago that Davidson watched the men's bobsled at the Olympics in Nagano, thinking to herself that it would be a fun sport. Now, one year later, she is discovering it is. Medaling certainly helps.
It certainly doesn't hurt chances of women's bobsled being recognized as a sanctioned event in the 2002 Games to have one of Utah's own in the running for a gold.
Jill Bakken, who now makes her home in Salt Lake City, and brakeman Meg Henderson were fourth.
It just shows what a costly package it is to pay freight on the sled and traveling costs for the four occupants.
The two-man -- half the sled and half the manpower -- went off on schedule last week.
Opening ceremonies for the two-week World Alpine Championships were held today.
Among those competing will be Salt Lake's adopted daughter, Alex Shaffer. She is among 16 American skiers chosen to compete in the event.
Shaffer's best performance this year is a 17th in a slalom in Austria.
Two skiers that could do well for the U.S. are Kristina Koznick and Bode Miller.
Miller first hit the spotlight this year in Park City when he finished in the top 10 for the first time in his career. He went on to finish fourth in a World Cup race in Switzerland.
Koznick won a World Cup slalom in Austria in December.