The 2006 Masters World Cup provided a fine prelude to the Torino Olympics. The championship was hosted by the town of Brusson in the picturesque Ayas Valley in the Aosta region north of Torino. The Ayas Valley is nestled in under Monte Rosa, sharing the view of the peaks visible form Zermatt and Charmonix on the respective Swiss and French sides of the same mountains. The ski conditions were first class, and the experienced World Cup organizer did a good job logistically as well as keeping the week long event fun and festive for all. The area in general lacked snow, but the ski courses were immaculately prepared with a mixture of natural and man-made snow. The World Masters is still an event open for everybody, but the experienced eye noticed that the average skier in this championship was a notch above what we have seen in the past. Russia fielded over 300 skiers in this year’s event, followed by the host country Italy and the USA who had about 130 skiers. Canada was also well represented. We saw strong participation from all over Europe and Scandinavia, and a team, who also captured medals, from Australia.
The US skiers fared very well throughout the week. Mainly represented in the age groups from 40 and up, the US captured medals across the distances and disciplines. The perhaps most inspiring performances came in the relays. The US quartet of Gabriele Andersen, Trina Hosmer, Dagmar Eriksson and Elisabeth Schluter were over 7 minutes ahead of the competition, led by Russia, for the gold medal in 4 x 5km for ladies over 60. It should also be mentioned that all these ladies made several visits to the awards podium throughout the week. The other US relay medal came to Milan Baic, David Edic, David MacLean and Jon Engen in men’s 45 – 49. They captured the bronze medal after Russia and Italy in this highly contested race.
The top American honors should go to Aimee Frenette of Sun Valley, Idaho who stopped during her 30K to give CPR to an older gentleman from Norway falling over on the course. A nurse by profession, Aimee recognized the symptoms of the fallen individual and kept up the procedure until additional help arrived. Unfortunately, this was a case of cardiac arrest where nothing could be done, but Aimee did her best.
US medals came as follows (as we tallied per name, class and event…):
