She’s the most successful American skier ever – and she’s ready to race. To race you.
It’s not going to be easy. Lindsey Vonn has won four Overall World Cup titles, one of only two women in history. She’s one of just five with World Cup wins in every discipline (Downhill, Slalom, Giant Slalom, Super G, and Super combined). She’s third all-time with 53 World Cup wins. Oh yeah, she’s got an Olympic Gold Medal too.
You’d better start practicing.
Vonn, who lives in Vail, is going to take on all comers on behalf of Vail Resorts. I’ve mentioned their very successful social media effort, EpicMix, here before. By using ski passes that are read by scanners at every lift, at all but one of their seven resorts (Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Vail and Keystone in Colorado; Heavenly, Kirkwood and Northstar-at-Tahoe in California – Kirkwood is still being brought online), skiers can track and compare stats such as number of runs, vertical feet skied, days skied and much, much more online. Awards are given virtually for various feats, and the program has encouraged the more competitive season pass holders and locals to engage in a heated battle for bragging rights over various measures of physical achievement.
This coming winter will be the third iteration of EpicMix – EpicMix Racing. This pits real skiers against a real Lindsey Vonn, virtually – and in the flesh. If you ever wondered how you’d stack up against the likes of an all time great ski racer, it’s time to find out. The new feature takes on-mountain results of ski racing from ticket holders and compares this to the performance of Vonn, enabling it to be shared on social media. If you are not too embarrassed.
Ski legend Lindsey Vonn when she is not beating up on recreational skiers.
But it’s not all virtual. As part of the initiative, Vail resorts has created the Lindsey Vonn Race Series, in which all skiers and riders who participate online will be ranked based on their best 10 races of the season. The top racers from across the six resorts will then be invited to a grand finale event in April 2012, hosted by Vonn, on the Birds of Prey World Cup Course at Beaver Creek, CO. This is the only recurring annual World Cup downhill in the U.S. (I’ve skied the course, think fast!). Vonn also will provide race tips throughout the season, which will be featured on the web and mobile applications.
Here’s how it works: Vonn will set the pace for the season of EpicMix racing at the U.S. Ski Team training event at Vail Mountain in early November 2012. Then self-operated courses will be open on intermediate slopes at all Vail resorts except Kirkwood (being added the following year) all winter long. After each run you take, Epic Mix will adjust each racer’s time for age, gender and discipline and compare that to the time set by Lindsey Vonn. Anyone, of any age, who completes 10 races is eligible, and the best performers go to Beaver Creek to try to beat Vonn in person.
Good luck and pray for snow!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryolmsted/2012/09/05/this-winters-big-ski-question-can-you-beat-lindsey-vonn/Read Forbes® Website Terms of Service: http://www.forbes.com/fdc/terms.html
