One ski race is a stepping stone and the second denotes arrival. Both will run this weekend — the Snow Cup at Snowbird and the Super Series at Deer Valley.
The running of the two races will mark an end to the alpine racing season in Utah. The next step to the Olympics will be the naming of the skiers to compete in the 2002 Games.
Likely candidates will certainly be members of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team. Many of them will be competing in the Super Series race at Deer Valley Friday and Saturday.
The Snow Cup is another story. It is the oldest alpine racing event held in the United States. Started in 1940, its list of winners is, in fact, a roster of who's who in ski racing. Many went on to ski in the Olympics.
Among past winners is Gretchen Fraser, winner of the first Olympic gold medal for the United States. Her name, along with Lloyd McLean's, was the first to be attached to the trophy. She would go on to win the event in 1941 and 1942.
Other Olympic notables on the list include Dick Durrance, who skied in the 1936 Olympics; Jack Reddish (1948); Jean Saubert (1964); Christian Cooper (1980 and 1984); Tamara McKinney (1984); Phil Mahre (1976, 1980 and 1984); and Sandra Van Ert (1998).
Winners also include some of Utah's best-known skiers, including Jim Gaddis (a three-time winner), Ray Miller, Margo Walters, Kathy Hoffman, Craig Gorder, Scott Hoffman and Steve Bounous.
The race has a mystery angle. The cup with all of the names engraved on little silver plates around the bottom is missing and has been for about seven years.
The race originated at Alta, but in the past two decades was moved among Alta, Solitude, ParkWest (now The Canyons) and Snowbird.
This year there has been an intensive search for the round, two-foot-high cup. So far searchers have been unable to trace the cup's whereabouts.
According to race officials, replacing the cup would cost about $20,000.
Bounous, director of the Snowbird Sports Educational Foundation, is among those trying to locate the trophy. It is, he said, a part of Utah history.
As part of the weekend race, The SBSEF will be holding the first Snow Cup Gala on Saturday evening at the Salt Lake Hilton at 7 p.m. For information call the SBSEF, 943-4889.
The Snowbird foundation is a non-profit group working to develop Utah's young ski talent into future Olympians.
Like, for example, those headed for the Super Series slalom at Deer Valley.
This will be a test event for the coming Olympics and the one and only look skiers will have at the slalom course before the Games. A World Cup event scheduled last year was canceled because of low snow cover.
The races will start at 9:30 a.m. both Friday and Saturday on the Olympic course located south of the Snow Park Lodge at Deer Valley.
The field of competitors will include Park City's Eric Schlopy, currently the No. 1-ranked slalom skier on the U.S. team. Other U.S. skiers will be Sacha Gros, Casey Puckett and Chip Knight.
There will be no charge to spectators for this event.
E-mail: grass@desnews.com