Tompkins finishes fourth in giant slalom opener

Juneau monoskier Joe Tompkins, a 2002 member of the U.S. Paralympics Alpine Ski Team, saw his first action of the season last weekend at the Hartford Ski Spectacular in Breckenridge, Colo., placing fourth among monoskiers and 17th overall in Friday's giant slalom race.

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On Thursday, Tompkins missed a gate in the slalom race and didn't finish. There was more than a foot of fresh snow that fell on Thursday, according to the Summit Daily News, and in the women's race more than half of the competitors fell and the women's race eventually was restaged later in the day.

"There were a lot of able-bodied skiers, quite a lot of them," Tompkins said about the races, which featured some of the world's top disabled skiers in the same events as younger able-bodied skiers. "It was good for them, because they can qualify for something they're doing. And it was good for us, because a lot of people we raced had low points so we were able to drop points."

For season points, skiers want low scores since the points are handicapped based on the best finishes in the race and how close the following skiers were to the winner.

In Friday's giant slalom race, able-bodied racer Casey Wagner won with a two-run time of 1 minute, 39.12 seconds, edging out his twin brother Andrew, who had a time of 1:39.29.

Even though he was 15th in the overall giant slalom standings with a raw time of 2:05.88, monoskier Chris Waddell of Park City, Utah, was the top disabled skier after the factoring system was used to recompute the times based on each skier's individual handicap. Waddell's adjusted time was 1:41.10. Monoskier Ronny Persson of Sweden was 16th overall at 2:09.70, but took second among the disabled skiers with an adjusted time of 1:44.17. Monoskier Dan Metivier of Heber City, Utah, was 14th overall at 2:04.32, and finished third among disabled skiers at 1:44.32.

Tompkins finished 17th overall with an overall time of 2:13.69, but he was fourth among monoskiers and ninth among disabled skiers with an adjusted time of 1:52.18. Tompkins, Waddell and Metivier are all members of the U.S. Disabled Ski Team.

"I'm pretty happy," said Tompkins, who said he will be back in Juneau this weekend for the holidays. "The coaches were saying I'm skiing the best they've seen me ski. Right now, results don't mean that much to me. As long as I'm improving I'm happy."

In Thursday's slalom race, complete results weren't available. But among the disabled skiers, Waddell won with an adjusted two-run time of 1:20.92, followed by U.S. Disabled Ski Team members Monte Meier at 1:28.06 and George Sansonetis in third place at 1:34.39.

"It was really soft, and that's one of the problems with being a big boy," said Tompkins, who weighs 225 pounds and stood 6-foot-5 before he was paralyzed from the waist down in a fatal car wreck involving alcohol 15 years ago. "There was a foot, foot-and-a-half of fresh snow."

Before last weekend's races, the U.S. Disabled Ski Team had a two-week camp at Vail, Copper Mountain and Breckenridge resorts in Colorado. U.S. Disabled Ski Team coach and team manager Kevin Jardine said Tompkins had a great preseason camp.

"Joe made some great changes in his skiing," Jardine said. "The team as a whole is working well together, which pushes the athletes to make changes happen. The staff is very pleased with Joe's progress and expects big things from him at the World Cup races in Austria this year. In the past, Joe has emphasized the speed events like DH (downhill) and SG (super giant slalom), but now Joe is showing us he can be a four-event skier. A fourth in the sit-skiers in the GS this weekend shows that Joe is right in there with the best in the world (Waddell and Persson)."

Tompkins and the rest of the U.S. Disabled Ski Team will return to action in early January with the Huntsman Cup races in Park City, Utah, then will hold a speed training camp in Vail, Colo., for a week before heading to Europe for Disabled World Cup races.

Beedle opens telemark season with a third, fourth and fifth

Juneau's Matt Beedle, a member of the U.S. Telemark Ski Team, posted three top-five finishes last weekend at the 2002 United States Telemark Open at Big Mountain Resort in Whitefish, Mont.

Beedle got started telemark skiing when he was a student at nearby Montana State University in Bozeman, then kept up with the sport through graduate school at the University of Colorado. He now trains with the national team in Park City, Utah. Telemark skiing uses free-heel cross-country skis for four types of downhill events, and the sport is characterized by its trademark style of bent-knee turns.

On Friday, Beedle took third place in the sprint classic race with a time of 1 minute, 20.95 seconds. World Cup champion Reid Sabin, who grew up in the Seattle area, won the race in 1:17.61, followed by Andrew Minnier in 1:20.05. The sprint classic is a short race featuring slalom gates and jumps.

Later on Friday, Beedle took fifth place in the giant slalom race with a two-run time of 1:21.29. Sabin won the race in 1:18.59, followed by Minnier in 1:19.99, Joel Nylander in 1:21.20 and Chris Rice in 1:21.25 for fourth place.

On Saturday, Beedle finished fourth in the slalom race with a two-run time of 1:07.00. Rice won the event in 1:01.25, followed by Minnier in 1:04.61 and Sabin in 1:04.71 for third place.

The U.S. Telemark Ski Team will return to Big Mountain Resort for the FIS (Federation Internationale de Ski) Telemark World Championships on March 20-24, 2003.

Charles Bingham can be reached at cbingham@juneauempire.com.