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Sports Illustrated On Campus Feature
3/23/2005 12:00 AM | Skiing
March 23, 2005
By Sports Illustrated Writer John Walters
Is Ben Thornhill on the cusp of the wildest spring break adventure since The Real Cancun? Thornhill, a junior at Utah, is off on a ski trip to Stowe, Vt., all expenses paid. He's traveling with a multinational assemblage of female talent -- an Aussie, a Norwegian, a Swede, two Swiss and a Californian, all of them kick-ass competitors themselves -- heretofore only possible, or so I thought, in a 007 Days of Bond marathon on TBS. And, even though Thornhill's break officially begins on Monday, he bolted Salt Lake City six days ago. Can you blame the guy?
When -- or if -- Thornhill returns to campus, he may arrive with more than just a renewed appreciation for Advil and Gatorade. He may come back with an unprecedented third-consecutive NCAA championship in giant slalom (GS).
Welcome to the NCAA skiing championships, where the two most welcome traditions of the semester -- March madness and Spring Break -- merge like double-black diamond runs approaching the midway chair lift. "I don't want you to think our sport is a joke," says Thornhill. "Anyone who's finishing top 10 on the circuit was probably on their national team. But yeah, on the last day, after all the awards are given out, it's a huge party."
"Saturday night after we won the [2003] national championship was the best night I ever had," says Utah's Lina Johansson, the aforementioned Swede and the 2003 NCAA women's slalom champ. "We were singing We Are the Champions and partying. The problem was that the bar closed down at one and we were just getting started."
There's more to intercollegiate skiing than getting snowplowed, of course. Alpine skiing (there is also Nordic) may be the most dangerous of all NCAA diversions. Then again, downhill racers end their runs before a veritable Finnish line (and Norwegian and Swed-ish lines) of admirers from the opposite sex. Meanwhile, Southern Cal QB Matt Leinart gets stuck talking to Jack Arute.
And so the question becomes, ¿Quien es más macho? Alpine (downhill) or Nordic (cross-country) skiers?
"Definitely Alpine," says Vermont junior Jamie Kingsbury, the 2003 NCAA women's champ in GS. "Maybe it's because we don't hang out with Nordic as much. Or maybe it's just the body type."
"Nordic are really skinny and tall," says Western State slalomite Brooke Gaisford, "but downhill guys, they're stacked. No balls, no glory. And speed -- it definitely matters." So imagine what it must feel like to be Thornhill, a two-time defending national champ in the ballsiest of downhill events. Imagine what it will be like come Saturday night should he win a third title.
"It's like the last day of summer camp," Thornhill says. "You've been checking out the girl campers all summer. Now you're about to go home."
And, if you're Thornhill, you've just won the Best Camper award -- again.
"Two years ago we wrote CHAMP and No. 1 all over Ben's body," Johansson says.
I presume Thornhill's just a heavy sleeper. There's no business like snow business.
Issue date: March 10, 2005
This article originally appeared on SI On Campus
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