"Ripping Downhills"

I didn't have the time to acknowledge the Men's Downhill Race the other night in which Bode Miller grabbed a Bronze Medal in the closest race in Olympic Downhill History. Gold and Bronze Medals were separated by 9/10's of a second! These competitors, both Men and Women, absolutely live on the edge at all times during their race. They travel at over 70 MPH, get some big air and are virtually skiing on ice with intense turns and angles. One of the Women's highly touted competitors lost control over the last jump and actually traveled 190 ft in the air before landing in an ugly crash! But Congratulations goes to USA's Lindsey Vonn (Gold) and Julia Mancuso (Silver) in the Women's Downhill held earlier today. What an awesome event!!

It was always my absolute favorite event as a child to watch and one I always dreamed of covering as a photographer. When I was in Lake Placid, it was the first event I covered while I was there and it was quite the adventure. My back had been out leading up to the trip and I had to hike up the mountain for what seemed like forever with all of my equipment (until I flagged down and hitched a ride on a snowcat) in temperatures that were minus 30 with the windchill. Due to those high winds, the race was postponed several times of course after I had got to what I thought was an optimum vantage point. Then with the race finally given a starting time (nearly 6 hours later than scheduled) and my hands and fingers almost completely numb, the TV folks come and decide a huge advertising banner would look great directly in front of my position. My potty mouth absolutely exploded and and it almost got physical with the poor person responsible for putting that sign up. After much debate with the producer, I convinced him to move it slightly to keep the position that I had scouted for so long.

With the vantage point I had fought so hard for, I still could not see or hear the competitors coming as I was below a jump which obviously posed a huge problem. Luckily during on of the postponements I was able to befriend one of the course staff and we worked out a signal system where he let me know when he first viewed a racer. I then had to count off several seconds to myself and start firing the shutter. Yes there were some blank frames, but I also got some incredible images in my humble opinion. Above are just a couple...