Lack Of True Leadership Hinders U.S. Ski Team Latest Team Leader Says She Is Going To Leave The Team

With the retirement of world champion Hilary Lindh, whither goes the U.S. Ski Team? Does it stay firmly on course or careen aimlessly downhill?

With just four races remaining in the World Cup Finals - the women’s and men’s giant slaloms and slaloms this weekend - the United States still is without a single World Cup victory this season and, not coincidentally, without a team leader.

“Clearly, this was a disappointing season,” Paul Major, vice president of athletics for U.S. Skiing, said Friday. “We fell far below what our expectations and goals were. We raised the performance bar, and we didn’t reach it.”

Only four U.S. skiers qualified for the finals. Lindh and Megan Gerety finished ninth and 24th, respectively, in the women’s downhill on Wednesday. Daron Rahlves, 23, of Truckee, Calif., placed sixth on Thursday in the men’s super giant slalom.

The only remaining hope for gold is Matt Grosjean of Steamboat Springs, Colo., who will compete in Sunday’s concluding race, the men’s slalom.

Lindh’s second-place finish in a downhill in Japan on Feb. 28 ranks as the best U.S. finish in a World Cup race this season, although Lindh broke through with a stunning victory in the downhill at the world championships on Feb. 15.

But Lindh, 27, of Juneau, Alaska, is leaving the team after 13 seasons. She announced her retirement on Thursday, saying she was “ready to go on to new things,” including classes this semester at the University of Utah.

She leaves a void. An even bigger - albeit temporary - void was created last Dec. 4, when Picabo Street tore ligaments and cartilage in her left knee in a crash during downhill training. The injury and resulting surgery tore the heart out of the U.S. team.

“This is a team, but it really is an individual sport,” Major said, “and so you can never have a distinctive team leader. But we look to individuals to set high standards as far as results, whether it’s Hilary and Picabo or AJ (Kitt) and Tommy (Moe). Those results weren’t there.”