Misson: Vancouver; Start line: Vail

Click to Enlarge Browse Vail Daily Photos Vail’s Chris DelBosco, a member of the Canadian Skiercross Team, takes a run during a training camp last spring in Canada. Special to the Daily Get Sports Feeds

Ian Cropp
Vail, CO Colorado
November 1, 2007

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Late last winter in Whistler, British Columbia, Canadian Skiercross Team Chief Executive Officer Cam Bailey was sitting down for a meal when the topic of the X Games came up. The waitress mentioned that her cousin had participated in the X Games. And that’s when Vail’s Chris DelBosco, who wasn’t born in Canada, got his tryout with the 2010 Olympic Canadian Skiercross Team.

DelBosco’s cousin told Bailey that Dell DelBosco, Chris’s father, was Canadian.
“It was sort of immediate,” Bailey said. “The wheels were turning.”

Months later, after a training camp that served as a tryout, DelBosco was added to the squad — a full-time commitment leading up to the 2010 Vancouver Games. And just this month, DelBosco went to Canada to begin training with the team.

After a young career as a ski racer, DelBosco, 25, moved to the up-and-coming sport of skiercross when he was still a teenager. When DelBosco started participating, skiercross only had about four events a year but year by year it grew, and in November 2006, the International Olympic Committee announced it would add skiercross for the 2010 Olympics.

“I never thought it was going to go this far,” DelBosco said. “I thought ski racing was the end of my Olympic dream.”

Now, DelBosco will have the chance to stand on the podium at the world’s premier athletic gathering. And the man who will hopefully be coaching DelBosco and the squad to medals is Eric Archer, who spent years racing out of Vail and still owns an apartment in the area. Following a solid ski-racing career, Archer moved into what was then the new sport of skiercross and has been a mainstay in the sport ever since. Now, he’s emerged as the first coach of what is essentially the first real team.

“I knew (Cam) from competing in (skiercross) events in Canada,” Archer said. “He was one of the crazy Canucks — the Canadian national downhill guys — and would come to skiercross events and just compete. He would pick my brain and ask questions about how he should be running the course.”

In March, when Archer was up in Canada running the first camp for a group of potential team members, Bailey approached him about a full-time position.

“He told me, ‘There aren’t any coaches in the sport yet, but I think you’d be pretty good at it,’” Archer said. “He didn’t know if I’d be retiring or not, ... but he offered me the job after (the camp).”

Chris DelBosco gets vertical during a training camp for the Canadian Skiercross Team. DelBosco, whose father is Canadian, will be a part of the Canadian squad, which is preparing for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Special to the Daily Browse Vail Daily Photos

Easy pick
For both Bailey and Archer, picking DelBosco was an easy choice.

“I’d raced with him at X Games qualifiers,” Bailey said. “The kid is incredibly talented and had a real gift and a real touch on his skis. I knew a bit about his background, and the other guys who raced against him told me quite about his background.”

“Our talent (pool) is limited to an alpine base, and Chris, being an individual who has raced some, had a huge advantage over someone who came right over from alpine.”
Archer was confident that DelBosco was going to impress his potential teammates during the first camp.

“In the world of skiercross, everyone knows who Chris DelBosco is,” Archer said. “He’s an up-and-coming guy. He has been a little hit-and-miss, and sometimes you’d wonder what would happen next. It was important for me to get him up to the camp because he’s an American switching to a Canadian passport, and there could have been resentment from some guys. I told him, ‘Just come up and perform and win the time trial and you’ll change their minds.’ And that’s what happened. There were two standouts at camp, and he was one of them. They’re happy to have him on the team, and he makes the team strong.”

After the first camp — which was held on a glacier in a permanent ski area developed by the Canadian Olympic Development Association for the 1988 Calgary Games — DelBosco was named to the men’s team along with three others. One team member, Stan Hayer, was in a situation similar to DelBosco’s in that he could have chosen to race under the Czech flag.

For DelBosco, joining the team was an easy choice.

“It’s going to give me the best opportunity to help them win a gold medal, and it will help me fulfill a lifelong dream I’ve had,” he said. “We’ve got a pretty solid team — I’ve been competing with the guys for six years, and I get along with them better than anyone else on the circuit.”

Archer, who is an American, also was quick to jump at the offer from the Canadian team and knows exactly why DelBosco did.

“It’s a no-brainer when there’s nothing going on in the United States and everyone is basically privateers,” Archer said.

And with little sponsorship available, it’s almost financially impossible to be a privateer.

Chris DelBosco, foreground, prepares for the upcoming season while Ski & Snowboard Club Vail’s John Cole, left, and Eric Archer, background, watch. Dominique Taylor/Vail Daily Browse Vail Daily Photos

The program
Thanks to the “Own the Podium initiative” and the Canadian Snow Sports Association, the Canadian Skiercross Team is financially backed for the next three years.

“It’s a $1 million budget to operate each year,” Bailey said.

Along with salaries, the racers have access to part-time staff like physical therapists, massage therapists, training coaches and nutritionists. And the team also has one of the best ski technicians out there.

“We went after Daron Rahlves’ old ski tech, Willie Wiltz,” Bailey said. “I gave him our plan and vision, and he said that we were committed to success.”

One of the biggest advantages the team will have is a full-sized course at its disposal for the winter.

“If your training is limited to participating in races, you have one day of training and the most runs you get will be five. The next day is the race, and if you are lucky, you get eight runs. If all you did was the Honda Ski Tour, you’d have 40 runs for the year. We’ll have 40 runs in one week.”

Another distinct advantage the team will boast is some knowledge of the terrain. The team’s course will be at the Cyprus Skiing Area, where the races will be held in 2010.
“There is some home-field advantage,” Bailey said. “And the course designer (for the Olympics) is Canadian, and he does a lot of building at our camps, and he was the (boardercross) course builder at Torino. There are a lot of variables we have control over when we get down to the event.”

This summer, while competing in professional mountain-bike races, DelBosco was training with Ski & Snowboard Club Vail’s John Cole, getting ready for the
winter.

“(The Canadians) have it pretty dialed in,” DelBosco said. “It’s a great plan. Give us some time to get to 100 percent prepared and when the gate drops — there are no guarantees in skiercross — but we won’t have any excuse not to do well. We’ll be primed when it rolls around.”

Vancouver may be a while away, but there are plenty of races until then, as the team will be competing in the Jeep King of the Mountain races, X Games and about 10 World Cup races.

“We’ve got a pretty full schedule and a pretty awesome opportunity ahead,” DelBosco said.

For more, check out www.ski-cross.ca.

Sports Writer Ian Cropp can be reached at 748-2935 or icropp@vaildaily.com.