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Local Happenings
Billie | 21 February 2006
World records set at 24 Hours of Sunlight
After 24 hours of hiking up and skiing down Sunlight Mountain and conquering a world record, Greg Hill and Jimmy Faust are finally satisfied.
Completing 32 laps each and covering 50,100 vertical feet in Saturday and Sunday’s 24 Hours of Sunlight.
Read the rest of the story from Joelle Milholm
Post Independent Staff
February 13, 2006
INTERNET.BIZ
February 21, 2006
Two Denver-based Web sites are battling for the carpool-service market to take skiers to mountain resorts. For those interested only in Colorado areas, try www.carpool.com, or for a more nationwide focus, try www.snowrides.com.
Alpine Fax
Glenwood Springs Post Independent
Glenwood really delivered for Olympic skier
Dennis Webb
Post Independent Staff
February 20, 2006
Glenwood Springs residents cheering on their fellow Americans in the Winter Olympics can take it a step further by rooting for a native daughter.
Skier Sarah Schleper was born in Glenwood, although few people in town may know it.
That’s because the three-time Olympian’s connection with Glenwood is about as thick as an umbilical cord. She grew up in Vail, but was delivered at Valley View Hospital in Glenwood, on Feb. 19, 1979.
Her brother, Johnny, explained that Sarah’s mother, Meredith May, had to go to Glenwood to give birth to her.
“There was no hospital in Vail at the time,” he said.
He said his dad, Buzz, probably took it pretty fast through Glenwood Canyon, which at that time had a two-lane road rather than Interstate 70 running through it.
Johnny said he was born closer to home, in 1982. He was one of the first 50 babies delivered at Vail Valley Medical Center.
Although it all started in Glenwood for Sarah, it would be misleading to make too much of the city’s influence on her life. Johnny Schleper said he thinks she spent about a day here before going back home after her birth.
In an e-mail interview from Torino, Sarah said she doesn’t know many details about her birth, such as what doctor delivered her, how much she weighed, or whether she yet had any of her signature, wavy blond hair.
“I have to ask my mom these questions,” Sarah said.
As they were growing up, about the only time Sarah spent in Glenwood was when she and Johnny went to the Hot Springs Pool, he said.
“That’s about the extent of it,” he said.
But Sarah said she used to enter competitions at Sunlight Mountain Resort. “They put on a great race,” she said.
Her Glenwood connection somehow went unnoticed during her participation in the 1988 and 2002 Olympics. But the U.S. Olympic Team Web site for this year’s Games lists her hometown as Glenwood Springs.
That may come as news to many in town.
“I didn’t know. Wow!” said Valley View spokesperson Alice Sundeen, when told that the hospital had delivered an Olympian into the world.
Jim Setterberg, a Glenwood Springs dentist, has known the Schleper family for years but hadn’t heard of Sarah’s local tie. Setterberg’s daughter, Whitney, races for the Ski and Snowboard Club of Vail. Setterberg said Sarah’s younger brother, Hunter, also went to Italy to ski this month in Topolino, in a premier event for 14- and 15-year-olds. His sister earned a silver medal in Topolino in 1994.
Setterberg said he would hope that as a Vail-area resident, never mind a Glenwood native, Sarah would serve as an inspiration to young ski racers in the area.
Setterberg and Sarah’s father both used to ski in Minnesota. Buzz Schleper moved to Vail as a self-proclaimed ski bum, went to work at a local ski shop and now owns Buzz’s Ski & Snowboard Shop in Vail.
His daughter was skiing by age 2, and would fall asleep beneath his ski-tuning benches.
Sarah didn’t begin ski racing until age 11, but Setterberg said she had a rapid rise to success.
Johnny said he used to ski race as well. “I play guitar now,” he said.
He also manages his dad’s shop. He got to accompany his sister to the Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002 but is running things at the store now while his dad is in Torino to see Sarah race. She is scheduled to compete in slalom on Wednesday and giant slalom on Friday.
She won a World Cup event during the last ski season, and has had several World Cup podium finishes. She also is a multiple national champion. Her brother thinks she will finish in the top 15 in both of her Olympic races, and maybe break into the top five. “She’s skiing well,” he said.
Chris Freud, sports editor at the Vail Daily, said Sarah has been battling back problems and he thinks her chances of medaling aren’t good. Then again, he noted that underdog skiers have been surprise winners in some of the men’s events in Torino.
One surprise was victory by American Ted Ligety, whom Sarah called “probably one of the greatest guys on our team.”
Sarah also will be skiing in a venue where she has had some past success, Freud said. She has recorded two second-place finishes in Sestriere, where the ski races are being held in the mountains outside Torino.
Freud said skiing isn’t Sarah’s only claim to athletic fame. She used to hold the records in the 1600- and 3200-meter runs at Battle Mountain High School.
While in Torino, she isn’t only enjoying her Olympics experience. She also celebrated her birthday - the 27th anniversary of her entrance into the world at Valley View - Sunday. She said beforehand that she had no big plans for the day - maybe just watching an Olympic event in Torino.
She called the games’ opening ceremonies “a blast,” and said she also got to meet President Bush’s daughter, Barbara, while at the Olympics.
Even though Sarah wasn’t raised in Glenwood, she said she’d be thrilled to be cheered on by her native city this week. “Of course. I love Glenwood. The town is great; the hot springs are healing,” she said.
It’s too bad she can’t take a soothing dip in the pool as she nurses her back prior to racing.
“I had a surgery Nov. 13 so I am lucky to be competing in the Olympics at all,” she said.
She said that although she’s not a medal contender, she has a valid chance of ending up on the podium.
“Anything is possible. I have been training a long time and I have the skill to be at the top. I am just going to go out there, ski my best and see what happens.”
Contact Dennis Webb: 945-8515, ext. 516 dwebb@postindependent.com
