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Two More Chances to See Stone Soup This Week Page 5
NEW FEATURE: Hailey Chamber Corner
Arnot Trains Locally to Climb the World’s Tallest Peaks
Page 10
Bellevue Community Seeks Donations for Displaced Family with Local Roots Page 13
M a r c h 6 , 2 0 1 3 • V o l . 6 • N o . 1 0 • w w w .T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
read about it on PaGe 3
) Heather flood (daves
annual race happens this Sunday BY KAREN BOSSICK
Flags touting Sun Valley’s status as an Olympic/Paralympic Nordic training site went up outside the Sun Valley Nordic Center on Sunday—just in time for the NCAA collegiate races, which are being held there through Sunday. Similar flags will go up at Ketchum Town Plaza, Galena Lodge, the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Headquarters and Lake Creek Nordic Training Center.
CARD ILLUSTRATIONS:
LESLIE THOMPSON/SUN
O former Kindercup
winner
randy flood (daves)
Community Eyes Olympic Training Possibilities
W
hat does a boathouse foundation in Oklahoma City have to do with Sun Valley? It’s the Olympic training site that both Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Director Don Wiseman and Sustain Blaine Director Harry Griffith keep pointing to when they cite the potential that awaits Sun Valley as an Olympic/Paralympic Nordic training site. The Oklahoma City Boathouse Foundation believed that the Oklahoma River had the power to change lives and help Oklahoma City become a stronger, healthier community. They diverted water from the Oklahoma River into a canal and, since, they have hosted national and international racing events and festivals there, including a USA Canoe/Kayak Olympic Trials and an international Rowing World Challenge. They built a National High Performance Center with a rowing tank, hypoxic training room and indoor propulsion swim pool. And they’re about to build a world-class Whitewater Rafting and Kayak Center and river stadium as attractions for people who now come from around the world to row, kayak, dragon boat, run and cycle along the river. We don’t have to do anything now that we have been designated a training site, Griffith told 50 people attending a community meeting Thursday night at Sun Valley’s Limelight Room. We’ve already proven to the Olympic Committee that we’re worthy of being a training site by virtue of what we’re already doing, including the hosting of the Super Tour every couple years. There are just five programs nationwide that compare to Sun Valley’s Gold Team, said Sun Valley Nordic Coach Rick Kapala. And the Wood River Ability Program is the most active program for Paralympians in the country, according to its head, Marc Mast. But we could strive for more: more camps, competitions, conferences,
continued, page 12
COURTE SY PHOTOS
STORY & PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
former Kindercup
winner
laura flood
former Kindercup
winner
ne of Randy Flood’s most cherished photos is of his father—Peter Flood—taking him down the Kindercup course when he was just 2 1/2. He can’t wait to do the same with his 3-year-old son Huxley this coming Sunday. “It’ll be father passing on the tradition to his son,” said Flood, who still has his trophy from that first race. “Our community is a skiing community and the Kindercup is a milestone. Anyone who’s lived in the Valley, whether they’re a professional skier or not, has raced in the Kindercup.” The Papoose Club will hold its 57th annual Kindercup on Dollar Mountain beginning at 10:15 a.m. Sunday. This year’s race is being dedicated to Alice Schernthanner, longtime maven of the Children’s Ski School at Dollar Cabin. Schernthanner was among a group of mothers who started the club in 1954, giving moms a chance to babysit one another’s children so each could get some skiing in. The group started the Kindercup in 1957 at the old Kinderhorn ski hill, which sits above the Ketchum Cemetery, before moving to Dollar Mountain, said Anna Mathieu. Since, it has become one of the Valley’s most beloved traditions. The Papoose Club added the Nordic Cup in 2006 to address the growing number of children who were taking up skinny skiing. Heather Flood Daves—Randy Flood’s sister—said the Kindercup was one of the things she looked forward to as she moved back home from Atlanta, Ga., 10 years ago with two infant boys, Ethan and Alex, in tow. “I won once—the Kindercup got me started in my racing career,” said Daves, a pro racer who went on to be NCAA champion while skiing for Middlebury College in Vermont and a pro racer. “I remember always looking forward to it… the sunny days, all my friends getting together. And it’s very exciting to have my kids do it, to participate in something I did when I was a kid. We live in a place where there are not a lot of traditions that go back years and years, but the Kindercup is one of them.” Angie Grant Kettleband remembers being “super scared” as she stood in the gates for the first time. “Here I was, this little kid on this
“Any ski racer who has come out of Sun Valley almost surely raced in the Kindercup.” –Eric Leidecker
big mountain. I didn’t know if I would be able to make it around all those gates. But my three older sisters had done it before me and my mom was there, cheering me on. And afterwards, I felt proud I’d done it. It ‘an amazing thing for the camaraderie and confidence it builds,” she said. Eric Leidecker remembers how nervous he was when his oldest daughter Sasha raced in the Kindercup for the first time. “I saw Doran Key, who was one of my coaches when I was on the farm team, up there at the start and I could feel the pre-start jitters coming back even though I wasn’t racing,” he said. “It was a little nerve-wracking standing up there looking at all the adults I used to race against as kids. It was kind of like we were all sizing up each others’ kids.” Danielle Carruth recalls her son Jett, now 9, never took the straight path down. The first year he was distracted by the balloons and stopped in the middle of the race to fetch one. The second year he stopped at the gate to beckon his mother to join him. “It’s fun. It’s cute,” she said. “All the kids get a silver dollar from the bank so everyone wins. And I really think it’s a lot of fun for the kids to run the gates,” said Carruth, whose 7-year-old son Zephyr and 5-year-old daughter Scarlett are also Kindercup pros. Papoose Club President Danni Dean says that the Kindercup not only supports growth activities for the kids of the Wood River Valley, but puts its volunteers in direct contact with the kids for whom the club raises funds. “For me, the importance of the Kindercup is that the children are all having fun outside in the snow and on the ski slopes,” said Randy and Heather’s mother, Debbie Flood, who steered
continued, page 11
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