Attack! The Story of the Ski Racer

[Music] This film is a presentation of the Pontiac Motor Division of the General Motors Corporation. Pontiac, the official car of the United States ski team. [Applause] [Music] Pontiac and your local authorized Pontiac dealers present this film for your enjoyment and for driving enjoyment all year round. See and drive the 1970 Pontiacs, the cars from the people who take the fun of driving seriously. This is race day. The competitors climb the last 100 yards to the starting gate. They are alone with only their thoughts. They wait, sitting in tension until they can point down the hill and release all the pent up energy. They touch up edges, scrape bottoms, apply wax, anything to keep busy. It's all a ritual to pass the time until they can start down the hill. Last minute adjustments are made. The race will last only 2 minutes. They have been training for months. [Music] In the starting gate, it seems unreal, almost like a dream. Waiting for the countdown, they think of only one thing. To go as fast as they can and attack the course. [Music] [Applause] [Music] What is a ski racer? He's a complex athlete whose body is tuned to a fine point of physical perfection and lightning quick reactions. He lives in a world of solemn poles and stopwatches. He competes in a lonely atmosphere, himself against the clock. There are no other competitors to keep him company on the course or to judge himself against. There is no one to catch or stay ahead of. He spends years developing his mind so that not even a trickle of fear can creep into his consciousness because if this happens he is lost. Even when the race is over and he feels a tremendous release from the physical strain and tension, his mind has not been released. He is still hanging, tied to the mountain. His whole life revolving around the last 60 seconds. It's over, but he is still part of the mountain, looking, waiting for his time. But win or lose, his mind and body are fused to the mountain. What does it take to be a great racer? What does it take to be a world champion? Ski racing is a sport of technique. And to become a good ski racer, the competitor must perfect the basic movements of a good quick turn. To do this, he must develop a natural body position, square over his skis, hands forward, knees and ankles bent with skis slightly apart, on balance, and ready for quick movements. Next, he must learn good angulation. In most sports, the athlete will lean into the turn, but in skiing, the athlete leans away from the turn. This is called angulation. The planning of the pole is most important to the racer, for this is the movement that brings the racer squarely over his skis, getting him quickly out of one turn and into the next. From the pole plant, he begins the next step. Unweing the method of getting from one turn to the other by shifting his weight. It is here that the racer rocking back at the end of the turn quickly recovers to drive into the next turn. And so we have natural body position, angulation, pole plant, and unweing, which when combined with the use of knees and ankles, represents the technical movements the racer must practice again and again until they become instinctive. [Music] John Claude Keley demonstrates his solemn style during the Roach Cup races held at Aspen, Colorado. Good pole plant, relaxed body position, shoulders squared over his skis, limber knees and ankles, and above all, aggressiveness. Healey literally attacks the course. His aggressiveness and technical ability earned him three gold medals at the Olympic Games. Let's study the style of some of the world's top racers in actual competition. On hand at Sun Valley, Idaho are representatives of five nations competing for the International Team Trophy. The race today is the special slalom. The slalom racer must have every gate memorized before the race. This is done by walking the course from the bottom up. The first competitor is JeanClaude Keely. Keely has changed world slom racing technique with his aggressive style. Always on the verge of disaster, he has developed moves to quickly recover by using his poles, knees, and ankles. By keeping his hands well in front of him, he always comes squarely over his skis. Keely crosses the finish line with a time of 5436. Next on the course is Austria's Alfred Matt. Matt does not have the experience that Keley has. He flails his arms and sometimes misses pole plants. But Matt has that one thing that makes a great slalom racer. Continual aggressiveness. And when he makes a mistake, it doesn't shake his confidence. He keeps charging forward. In his mind, his mistake is behind him and he is thinking ahead, setting up each turn. And like Keely, he continues his drive forward until he passes the finish line. [Applause] The next competitor on the course is Austria's Kyle Schance. The slope is steep and flags are placed strategically to control the racer speed at the same time testing the racer's ability to make sharp quick turns. [Music] Trot skates across the finish line with a third fastest time in the first run. There are two runs in the slom. They combine the times for both runs. Starting his second run is Bill Kidd. He steps into the starting gate, secures his poles, and waits for the countdown. He will try to remember the difficult spots on the course. He leaves the starting gate and begins setting himself up for the first turn. On the course, Bill Kid demonstrates the style and technique that won him a silver medal in the 1964 Olympic Games. Staying close to the poles, he sucks his knees up to his chest to keep the bumps from throwing him. As he moves into the steeper part of the course, he is thrown back, but instantly drives forward and recovers. [Applause] Kid brushes a pole, knocks it over, and his right ski runs over the flag. The tails of his skis cross and he misses his turn, but he recovers with a good pole plant and he is on his way once again. Kid's minor mistakes on this race cost him over a second, but because of his confidence, drive, and refusal to give up because of mistakes, he went on to take ninth place and valuable points for the American team. Another racer, Francis Jean Pierre Roier, gets into trouble and slides wide on one gate, but reaches forward with one pole, makes a plant, and in less than a half second has recovered and was able to negotiate the next turn. With the slom pole rushing by at the rate of one gate per second, it is seldom that even the best racer will turn in a perfect run. It is the racer with the fewest mistakes in both runs that will come out the winner. Oier recovered on the upper part of the course to take fifth place in the international championships for France. Now in the starting gate, Alfred Matt. Matt had the second fastest first run and stands a good chance of winning. Matt takes the countdown and breaks the electric timer with a tremendous force. He pushes with his poles to get as much speed before the first gate. As he comes into the steeper part of the course, he leans into the hill ever so slightly. Suddenly, his downhill skids out from under it. To recover, Matt's uphill hand is thrust back in a dangerous position. At the same time, his downhill hand comes forward. He is now completely off balance. At this moment, a less experienced racer would most certainly have given up and fallen. But Matt drives his uphill hand around in almost superhuman effort, forcing his body into the next turn. He completes the turn with his full weight on his uphill ski and at the same time lifts his downhill ski to keep it out of the way. By the next skate, he has regained his balance and is continuing down the course. This amazing recovery enabled Matt to take a second place in combined time for Austria. Now in the starting gate, JeanClaude Keelley. Keely had the fastest first run. Notice Keely's explosive start as compared to Jim Huga of the USA who hunches down and breaks the bar with his knees before he actually starts down the course. Keely literally leaps over the bar and is several feet down the hill before breaking the timing circuit. At this point, he is already 1/5if of a second ahead of Huga in a race that can be won by one/tenth of a second. Now in slow motion, Keely's inside shoulder is tucked in to get closer to the gate. In doing so, he leans slightly into the hill, which causes him to momentarily be thrown off balance. His outside hand is thrown over his head and the tails of his skis slide out. At this point, Keely thrusts his uphill hand forward and drives his knees over the tips of his boots, steps onto his uphill ski, and negotiates the next gate. Lower down the course, Key hits the same bump that Matt hit. He is thrown backward. Off balance, his skis shoot out from under it. In this position, he should fall and slide off the course, but with amazing gymnastic ability and unbelievable reflexes. Keely drives his body forward with only the leverage of a single pole more than 4 ft behind him. He then dives onto his lower ski and lifts the uphill ski to join it and completes his turn. This attitude of attacking the course along with Keely's great physical strength are two of the factors that make him a three-time gold medal Olympic champion and the victor here at the Sun Valley Sloom. This has been a great demonstration by a champion. But how does it really look to him, the racer? Place yourself in his boots. You're in the starting gate. The timer gives you the countdown and you're on the course. It's steep. You make the turn, crushing the pole. A hair pin gate, then an open gate. You concentrate on the center poles, weaving, dodging, bobbing. [Applause] Red, yellow, blue. They flash by one per second. You think about the poles. Your legs ache. Close to the gates. Keep looking. Two. Three gates down the hill. Concentrate. Drive. A hair pin, then a flush. The finish line moves up. You are still standing. You cross the finish line. It's been a great run. Another alpine event is the giant slalom. Not as acrobatic or as quick as the special slom, the giant slom is a grueling, demanding race with wide turns and speeds approaching that of a downhill. The key to winning the giant slom is to maintain speed from one turn to the next. He must carve smooth arcing turns, avoid unnecessary braking at all costs, and uses edges smoothly and powerfully. Here, a racer makes one slight mistake. He overrotates, but is able to recover. Some racers are not so fortunate. [Music] [Laughter] One of the problems that the racer must contend with is an icy course. Here, every mistake is magnified. There is little room for error and even less room for recovery. Francis George Modi, silver medal winner at the World Championships, demonstrates a smooth, almost casual style as he makes his way down the course. Modi has spent years developing his style. In slow motion, a racer comes into the gate on the steep icy part. It is at this point that the downhill knee is pressed toward the hill and the racer leans over his skis. He prepares to plant the pole. It is this angulation that prevents the razor from skidding down the icy course. Icy conditions such as these are the most difficult to be found. This racer leans into the hill and has to drag one hand on the snow to keep from falling. He recovers and continues, but he loses time. This racer over rotates, starts late into the next turn. His skis slip out from under him, and he slides low. He is too late for the next turn. One small error in the giant slam is compounded, causing a loss of momentum. It is difficult to make up time. Herbert Huber of Austria demonstrates a reckless technique with recovery after recovery, but his knees and ankles are constantly pressing back and forth. He makes good time [Music] on the steep upper part. He skids low, makes a great recovery once again. [Applause] Ghee Perry of France shows good use of knees and ankles as he prepares to plant his pole to stop the skidding motion and the pull of gravity to get into the next turn. But Perry makes one slip, a lazy pole plant. No pole plant with his right hand. And Perry has to jump into the air and turn on his uphill ski, lifting his downhill ski in the same direction, just in time to make the turn at the next gate. Once again, he demonstrates the aggressiveness and ability to attack when in trouble. The mark of a champion. The fastest race of all is the high-speed downhill. A downhill race can be won or lost in the preparation of the skis. Carefully, each racer applies a coat of wax. Precise scraping leaves a fine film for additional speed. Too much or too little wax, and he will lose precious seconds. The downhill racer's primary concern is more speed and his ability to retain his speed to the finish line. There is no time to think on a downhill course. The racer's form must be an automatic function. As he enters the long sweeping turns, his skis must carve a smooth arc. Any sudden change of direction or jolt will lose time for the racer. Whenever possible, he drops into a tight tuck position to lessen wind resistance. Superior balance and reflexes are called for as he is forced into the air by the bumps on the course. Even so, the downhill racer fights to hug the ground. For a racer in the air catches more air under his skis, which forces him even higher, throwing him backwards and off balance. Every bump is a challenge to maintain his momentum while fighting for control as he is airborne. [Applause] A downhill racer's knees must act as a cushion over the bumps. His legs must be loose. This racer goes into the air, lands, and then leans too far into the hill. Another racer fails to suck his knees up enough and he doesn't drop his hands to his boots when he hits the bump. As he lands, he is going in the wrong direction and is way off the correct line. This racer does not come off the bump with good form, cannot absorb the shock. Another danger to the downhill racer is visibility. Split-second light changes from brilliant sunlight to deep shadows can confuse even the most experienced racer. Bumps must be memorized to ski under conditions such as these. It is here that the racer's judgment on which line he chooses to run the race pays off. Not only the speed, but the technical points of a downhill race must be mastered. And to do this, the racer must run hundreds of miles in training. Vulkenstein, Italy. The start of one of the world's fastest downhill courses. Speeds average 60 mph on this two-mile course. Top races are on hand, seemingly relaxed. They wait at the 10,000 ft level with one thing in mind. The moment they step into the starting gate, the first man is off. He drops into his tuck position and quickly builds up speed to 60 mph. [Music] across a long flat and then a series of bumps. For more stability, he spreads his arms. Sometimes a fast downhill is a series of one recovery to another, testing the rac's limits of physical ability and mental control. [Music] Ludwig Lightning sucks his knees up. He sees a bump. Hands down to the boots. Back into his tuck position. Body relaxed. [Music] Now on the lower part of the course, Lightner hits the fast transition at more than 60 mph. [Music] Another top racer from Italy. Across the same transition, he almost falls. loses one of his ski poles but remains standing to cross the finish line. Let's take the Vulkenstein downhill and see what it looks like at 60 mph. You step into the starting gate, flex your knees, and take a couple of deep breaths. Push your way through the starting gate, take one skating step, go into a crouch, and begin to accelerate. 40, 50, 60 mph. If you've waxed properly, you'll retain your speed all the way to the finish. You try to remember when to time your prejumps, when to hug the ground. Try to keep that aerodynamic position at all times. You don't dare fall. You fight for survival. Now you're on the easy part of the course. A control gate rushes by. You start to make a big right turn. Now the steep part. You dive into it. The bumps pound at the bottoms of your skis. It's hard to keep your skis tracking. You're in the air. You land on your left ski and then rock back to your right. Now the washboard. The constant pounding begins to affect your thigh muscles and your legs start to ache. Even the long muscle along your shinbone begins to burn, but you stay in your tuck. Now the fast transition, your pickup speed edge on the inside ski. Here comes the first bump. One more bump. Stay in the crouch. Finally, the finish line. You have covered the Vulcanstein downhill at an average speed of 90 ft per second, and you're still standing after a good run. And this is what it has all been for, to stand in the winner circle for one brief moment and accept the champions trophy. and realize that all of the years of training and discipline have paid off. It is a tremendous feeling of achievement, proper training, determination, and the will to win. The ingredients of a world champion [Music] [Applause] [Music] Pontiac and your local authorized Pontiac dealers have presented this film for your enjoyment and for driving enjoyment all year round. See and drive the 1970 Pontiacs, the cars from the people who take the fun of driving seriously.