Ski Racing - December 27, 2011

points to Jens Byggmark and Jean-Baptiste Grange as two who have overcome the change by renovating their styles.

“To see a guy like Jens Byggmark go from being the King of Slalom — winning both of those Kitzbuehel races [in 2007] — to now, doing as well as he did this past season with the changes in courses is pretty sweet,” said Kasper. “I know a lot of other guys have struggled with that. You see different faces come out with the short turns.” While Kasper is impressed with how well Byggmark and Grange have adapted to the changes in slalom courses, it is the younger slalom skiers he watches most closely. “Although they haven’t had amazing success in World Cup —Justin Murisier who was top 10 at Val d’Isere, Alexis Pinturault, these are some of these ‘91’s coming up who have a different style and it seems to me are a little more similar to [Marcel] Hirscher,” said Kasper. “They’re pushing me, I’m pushing them. Obviously I’ve done a lot of racing with them on Europa Cup. You try to take something out of their skiing. You’re trying to be better than anyone so if someone is faster than you you’re going to look at them and see what they’re doing.” Which is not to say he tries everything he sees. “There was kind of a movement there with knuckle dragging,” he said. “You look at all the Swedes and they do it, and they’re really fast, but I think you can be faster than that.” There is an old sports cliché that says the action slows down for the very best; batters can see the seams on a fastball. “Definitely the more comfortable you get, the slower it seems,” said Kasper of slalom. “We all go through phases, and I still go through them, getting to that next gear and you feel like it’s coming at you so fast. Then you get more consistent and it slows down and then, in turn, you can move into the next gear. We’re all still figuring out how to go faster. It’s always a pull and push trying to go faster and not blowing out.” And that is the goal, be faster without blowing out of courses. Kasper pondered some long seconds when asked if he is a slalom specialist. “I wouldn’t consider myself a slalom specialist, even though my World Cup success has been in slalom,” he said. “I feel it’s important to be good at, and ski, other events, so I’m not going to just focus on slalom.” Last summer while Kasper was training in New Zealand, his hip, bothering him all of last season, got so painful he returned home for a medical analysis and an MRI. The prognosis wasn’t good, and he underwent surgery for a torn hip labrum and gluteus medius. On Nov. 1, 72 days after surgery, he returned to snow; and by Dec. 8 he returned to form with his fourth-place finish at Beaver Creek.