The general public tends to only care about winter Olympic sports every 4 years (with the exception of hockey), but as a former ski racer, I do my best to follow alpine skiing all year. In the post-Olympic high resulting from a record 8 medals in alpine skiing, the average American has not heard much about other enormous successes that Americans skiers have been enjoying recently.
Aside from Olympic and World Championsip medals, the true measuring stick in ski racing is the season titles, which are often referred to as "globes" because the trophy is a crystal globe (the large one for the overall title and smaller ones for individual disciplines).
Lindsey Vonn won her 3rd World Cup overall title this week at the World Cup Finals. Her win in the super-G gave her 11 victories this season (T-2nd best ever), which puts her at 33 World Cup wins for her career (a US record). Vonn also won the season titles in 3 of the 5 events (downhill, super-G, and super combined). She is nowhere near done, but it would be hard to argue against her being the best American female skier of all time. Actually, she can make a strong case for being the best American SKIER of all time.
On the men's side, Ted Ligety, the gold medalist in the combined in 2006, came through with a 3rd place finish in the giant slalom this week to capture his 2nd World Cup giant slalom globe.
Congrats to the US team for one of the best seasons ever!
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