Word: mountain
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...traditional powers of skiing - Switzerland, Austria and Italy - all this freestyle and half-pipe stuff is strictly New World. A course, a clock and a mountain are challenge enough. The Austrians have owned Alpine skiing lately, but the men's team has been devastated by injuries, most significantly to Hermann (the Herminator) Maier, a double gold- medal winner at Nagano who shattered his leg in a motorcycle accident last summer. Five other top Austrians are also on the shelf. Yet Austria is so deep it can easily claim gold through Stephan Eberharter, currently the No. 1 ranked skier on tour...
...Ultimately competition at this level is a celebration less of country than of character: of the will to do better, push through pain, leave the fear at the top of the mountain in pursuit of speed, come to the ice like a soldier in sequins; to defy the laws of physics and nature, bury the effort under the grace. That's what makes it fun to watch and useful as well. Games have always been a handy mirror for every challenge we face, every test we take. But we may be especially grateful for the chance to stop and watch...
...travel feetfirst, "Those guys are nuts." Not at all, says Gordy Sheer, who with doubles partner Chris Thorpe won America's first-ever luge medal in Nagano. Sheer is now the team's acting marketing director: "We don't have purple hair. We're not slamming six-packs of Mountain Dew and riding our BMX bikes to practice." Perhaps not, but lugers do reach 90 m.p.h...
...This is no longer the state in which some 120 settlers from Arkansas were killed for being non-Mormons in the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857. Now the gates to the Beehive State are wide open. Five million people visited its five national parks last year. A record 3.4 million skier days were recorded last season at its 14 Rocky Mountain resorts. And Utah is bending over backward to attract science graduates, software wizards and venture capitalists from across the country...
...Despite all the exercise, altitude lessens most appetites. Meals on the mountain consisted of canned soup and then a serving of pasta or stew plus lots of fruit. It was good and hearty, but sometimes you had to force yourself to eat knowing that your body needed the energy even if you weren?t hungry. Chocolate bars and high energy snacks are a must...