SALT LAKE CITY — Of all the places in the United States, one of the least likely spots for the coronavirus to be a danger to spread would have been up in the mountains of Montana, one of the few states in the country where no cases had been reported as of last Thursday.
Still, when the Pac-12 Conference and NCAA decreed that all sports championships were to be cancelled, the NCAA Ski Championships had to go along. Unlike the NCAA basketball tournament, which was to start a week later, the ski championships in Bozeman had already begun and had just hit the halfway mark when they were shut down.
It was especially disappointing for the University of Utah ski team, which held a 32-point lead and was on track to win its second consecutive national championship and third in the last four years.
“It was definitely bittersweet,” said Fredrik Landstedt, director of skiing for the University of Utah. “Overall they skied really well and we were in the lead by 32 points when it ended and we were really happy with that. But we totally understand why the decisions were made.”
Landstedt said the ski event was “probably one of the safest spots to be” because of the large area of the competition with smaller crowds that are spread out over a mountainside.
“The decision was made to cancel everything but you can’t just have one sport keep going,” Landstedt said. “That’s understandable. It’s crazy times we live in and there’s bigger things out there for sure. Hopefully we can get over this as soon as possible.”
The Utes, who qualified 12 skiers, six men and six women, entered the meet as one of the favorites after winning the title a year ago in Vermont. They trailed Denver by 20 points after Wednesday’s giant slalom, where Joachim Lien and Sona Moravcikova each finished third. Then on Thursday, Samuel Hendry and Guro Jordheim came through with top-three finishes in the nordic freestyle races under windy, snowy conditions to put Utah in front in the team standings.
Because there was no cell-phone coverage up on the mountain, it took a little while for word to get out about the cancellation of the final two days of competition.
“We heard that all the Pac-12 events had been cancelled so then I figured, ‘Wow, it’s going to be unlikely they’re going to finish our championships if they’re cancelling everything else,’ ” Landstedt said.
He said his skiers were disappointed, especially the seniors who wanted to “redeem” themselves Friday and Saturday with better races.
“They were disappointed, but everyone understood it,” he said.
Because at least half of the competition was completed, Utah may still be awarded the national championship.
According to Landstedt, the skiing rulebook has provisions for cancelling an alpine or nordic event for “unforeseen circumstances” such as bad weather, which can be common in ski competitions. If at least one alpine or nordic event is completed and the second one can’t be, the score is doubled for a final score. Landstedt believes technically Utah should be the national champion, but the NCAA will decide.
“We felt pretty comfortable we could pull that off, especially when we had the lead after two days. It’s too bad, but in the big scheme of things a lot of other sports didn’t even get to compete in their championships or even get started, so we were still lucky.” — Utah director of skiing Fredrik Landstedt
“It’s up to the NCAA, if they feel you have to complete an event to crown a national champion or if what we have in the rules is enough,” he said. “It’s their decision.”
Landstedt felt the Utes were on track to win their second straight title because of their 32-point lead and because they still had their best event, the nordic classic races, coming up on Saturday.
“We felt pretty comfortable we could pull that off, especially when we had the lead after two days,” he said. “It’s too bad, but in the big scheme of things a lot of other sports didn’t even get to compete in their championships or even get started, so we were still lucky.”
As for next year, the Utes should have another strong team.
“We hope to come back next year and have a great season,” Landstedt said. “We have a very good team coming back and some good recruits coming in, so we should be right in the mix next year.”