The Inside Edge - Rough week for U.S. ski team

n Disappointing — Not in the medal count… in the exodus of our top athletes from the Alpine Team event. The event was created to foster a sense of “team” in the Alpine World. So much for that concept… Mikaela Shiffrin dropped out of the Feb. 24 event saying it interfered with her ability to focus on the Feb. 22 Alpine Combined. No sooner did he hear that she bailed than Ted Ligety pulled from the event for no apparent reason. And when Lindsey Vonn heard that they had abandoned the team, she allowed that there was no reason to waste the time on an event with no chance for a medal. Somehow they missed the team concept.

n 2018 Olympics — The U.S. Alpiners had a rough week. Aside from Mikaela Shiffrin’s Giant Slalom Gold and Lindsey Vonn’s disappointing Bronze, they’ve come up empty in the medals department. On the encouraging side, Ryan Cochran-Siegel returning from two years of injury was the top US finisher in Giant Slalom and Super G posting results of 11th and 15th respectively. The Edge knows Ryan well. He’s an enormous talent that needs to rely upon his distinctive style rather than becoming like everyone else.

Another bright spot for the future was first time Olympian, 6’7” tall Bryce Bennett, who was one of the top finishers in all the training runs, then slipped to 16th in the actual Downhill. He knew where he messed up and promised to work that out in the next four years. He’ll be back.

Jared Goldberg was also a solid performer who’ll be back. The once dominant Ted Ligety was 5th in Alpine Combined and 15th in Giant Slalom, participating in what was probably his final Olympics.

Another bright spot for the future was the Womens’ downhillers, who placed four in the top 15 this year. That’s the only part of the US team with any depth.

n Emerald Empire Zonal Qualifier — Mount Hood hosted this three-day tech event. Saturday was lost to iced chairlifts. Sunday was lost to massive snowdrifts. Monday’s results are not yet available and will be reported next week.

n USSA Masters Races — The senior gang will be competing in Super G, Giant Slalom and Slalom on Zip down this weekend. We’ll have full results next week.

n Potpourri — Watch here for results from the Sun Cup races being hosted by Mt Bachelor. Any comments, recommendations or contributions to this column may be sent to Shep Snow by email at shep@thesnowschool.com. Negative feedback should be sent to someone else.

The Inside Edge runs every Thursday during ski season in the Daily Bee.