BEAR HOLLOW -- In sliding sports, slow is the enemy.
And a potent dose of the enemy plagued the U.S. Sliding Championships at the Utah Winter Sports Park on Saturday, courtesy of a blinding snow storm that reduced winning times and temporarily forced cancellation of the day's last event."This is a hazard," said Matthew Lints, head of the crew that had been cleaning the icy, 1,335-meter course since 6 a.m. "I'm surprised that this hasn't been canceled."
Winds gusted in excess of 40 miles per hour, pelting athletes and spectators with snow, but the races went on.
To appreciate the impact of the inclement weather, consider the case of 26-year-old Chris Soule.
The 26-year-old Trumbell, Conn., native performed the rare distinction of finishing first in the men's singles skeleton during the events first heat with a top time of 51:11 seconds. In the second heat, it took him seven seconds longer to negotiate the winding track -- an eternity by skeleton standards -- and good enough to earn him last place among 10 competitors.
"My visibility was zero," he said.
Recognizing the snow's adverse impact, racing officials disregarded the second heat and declared Soule this year's national champion in men's skeleton, a feat he also accomplished in 1997.
But while track records in the men's singles luge and women's skeleton were set during optimal, snowless conditions on the four-year-old course on Friday, there would be nothing of the sort on this horrific day for sliding.
The records didn't stop Chris Thorpe and Gordy Sheer from winning their sixth national title in the men's luge doubles. The prolific duo, which earned a silver medal at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, netted a combined time of 1:28.804 and won both heats.
Sheer, 29, said track conditions "bordered on" dangerous.
"That last run was crazy," he said. "I looked up, and all I saw was snow. That's how winter sports are sometimes, but you gotta' run the race."
In the women's two-team bobsled, the national title went to Jill Bakken and Shauna Rohbock, a former two-time All-American soccer player at Brigham Young University. The tandem finished with a combined time of 1:44.01.
Becky Wilzak claimed the national title in the women's luge with a combined time of 1:29.472.
But as conditions worsened, many athletes conceded traveling on the slow, messy track was a fun adventure. When medals were awarded to the men's skeleton's top-3 players, a free-for-all snowball fight broke out among coaches and players.
Yet, Sheer would offer his apologies to the track's cleaning crew.
"I feel bad for the guys on the track crew," he said, "because they did a good job all week. You want to set records for them, too. But when you have wind and snow, it's not gonna' happen."