pp class=”MsoNormal”Because he…goes for it, because of his constant balls to the wall attitude. – emAn email nominating Andy Newell for the Johnny5/emspan /span/p
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p class=”MsoNormal”Imagine if this year hadn’t been an Olympic year, if Apollo Ono’s greatest contribution to the cultural record had been merely another season on emDancing with the Stars /emspanand if Shaun White had stayed hidden in his secret half-pipe lair high in the Rockies. (I like to envision it as a James Bond villain’s home really.)span /spanWere that the case, were we to have avoided being caught up in the pomp and exuberance of the “Old-limp-dicks” as a former Olympic participant described them, then perhaps, aspan/spans a skiing country, we wouldn’t be crying on our Olympic issued Polo Ralph Lauren hiking boots. Rather we’d be celebrating the powerful improvement and success of the ski team, most notably and consistently, the efforts of Andy Newell.span /span/span/p
p class=”MsoNormal”span /spanIt would be stupid to describe Andy Newell here and now.span /spanIf you’re an English speaking skier who doesn’t fully know the depths of Andy’s abilities, you should relegate yourself to the fantasy island that Cloxxi lives on training solely on Catskis.span /spanWhat you don’t know, and what may surprise you is that in addition to being a great athlete with interests in making movies, skateboarding and general dude-bro pasttimes, Andy Newell leads a silent revolution against the weight of succeeding in our sport.span /spanHe balances his athletic obligation with more school visits than Jamie Oliver.span /spanHe’s been known to call up non-profits during important days and ask if he can be involved.span /spanHe’s remained powerfully loyal to his home program, the Stratton Mountain School, lending support and consistent presence to their program. Rightly so as Stratton started him on the road to World Cup success. In general, he’s a good guy./p
p class=”MsoNormal”span /spanSo how does this push skiing forward in 2010?span /spanSimple, while the rest of the ski world is mooning via interwebs (including this site) over what to do next, Andy knocked down five, top-ten finishes in World Cup sprints, two of those in the Tour de Ski as the first American competitor to take on the significant event in the world cup calendar and one of those a podium in Drammen, which for those of you in the cheap seats is in NORWAY where they eat Americans and shit our dreams. Think that race wasn’t hotly contested??span /spanThere are dudes still upset they were Americanned at that event./p
p class=”MsoNormal”span /spanFurthermore, were there no Andy Newell, there’d be no explosion of Simi Hamilton onto the scene as Sim’s confidence grew out of workouts against Andy (and, to be fair, Torin) in the summer leading up to this season.span /spanSimply put, Newell is one guy pushing the envelope, the whole envelope as we grope towards a more focused future of skiing in the US and he does it with aplomb./p
p class=”MsoNormal”span /spanIn a place where we are constantly trying to qualify ourselves as a skiing community on the world stage, it’s useful to have Andy Newell leading the charge./p
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