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Remaking Rahlves NBC, U.S. Ski Team try to remold champion before Games
Updated: Monday August 20, 2001 3:05 PM
TRUCKEE, Calif. (AP) -- He's an all-American guy who reigns in a sport traditionally dominated by Europeans. He's blond and photogenic. He rides dirt bikes when he's not racing down icy mountain slopes. Daron Rahlves, a world champion in alpine skiing who still lives above the garage in the house he helped his dad rebuild, seems like a perfect athlete to market in the months leading up to the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics. But Rahlves has a flaw. Unlike many sports stars, he shies away from fame. Even among skiers, he is overshadowed by flamboyant teammates such as the camera-ready Picabo Street -- an Olympic champ battling to return from serious injuries. "I'm definitely not made-for-TV, I just can't go out there and have fun on cue," Rahlves said. "They say, 'OK, give us some excitement.' But I can't just get pumped up Picabo-style. I definitely could never be a movie star." Not so, say the U.S. Ski Team and NBC, which will be televising the 2002 Games. And they have begun a vigorous campaign to build the public image of a reluctant hero. "He takes off his sunglasses, he flashes his smile, he looks gorgeous and it doesn't matter if he's low key. We can kind of mold him," said John Miller, president of the network's promotional arm. "There's a lot of rooting interest for gold in the United States, and if the guy has a bit of an aw-shucks attitude when he gives an interview, all the better. We can create a hero out of him." The 28-year-old Rahlves became the first American world champion in the super-giant slalom when he shocked the host Austrians in late January. Austrian fans stood outside his hotel room chanting "Daron, Daron!" after the race. He returned to tiny Truckee, tucked into mountains along the Nevada line, to recapture the virtual anonymity he craves. Here, he can work out at the gym, or run in the woods with black Labradors Tule and Decoy, without much notice. He can even go to a bachelor party with 26 guys and "not worry about people watching." "When I won the super-G, it was overwhelming. Everywhere you went, in restaurants, people were coming up to you," he said. "It's nice to come home and not have that." But his privacy will be severely tested in the months leading up to the Olympics. A full-page picture of a bare-chested Rahlves was featured in the June 7 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, among athletes such as Andre Agassi, Chris Webber and Jason Giambi. He's one of six U.S. skiers and snowboarders featured in a red, white and blue marketing campaign called "Home of the Brave" that will place ads in major publications leading up to the Salt Lake Games. And Matt Biespiel, managing director for brand development at the U.S. Olympic Committee, is trying to set up public appearances for Rahlves. "We'll try to get Daron some appearances at major lifestyle events, like being a judge for the Miss America pageant," Biespiel said. "One of the things we're trying to do is do a better job of generating awareness of some of our best prospects, so America knows who to root for in Salt Lake." Miller sees Rahlves as the type of athlete who can appeal to coveted under-35 viewers. As part of an NBC promotional campaign called "Warped Zoom," Rahlves was filmed racing at Mammoth Mountain, Calif., and then encouraged to describe the sensations of speeding down the slope. "These guys are going like 90 mph downhill, it's dangerous stuff, and there's a question of who would do that," Miller said. "Here's a guy who's a medal hopeful, whose European friends call him Beach Boy. He's American in every sense, he looks good, and he has a bit of Wild West in him." Rahlves was born in Walnut Creek, Calif., just east of San Francisco, and grew up nearby in Clayton. His family moved to the mountains of eastern California when he was in seventh grade, and he became an avid skier. "I just wanted to ski for fun. I never dreamed about going to the Olympics. I never even watched the Olympics," he said. "I just wanted to see how far I could go with it. I never felt like I was in it to be an Olympic skier." He switched to a ski academy in Vermont, but struggled on the rough snow of the eastern United States. Then he tried unsuccessfully for two years to make the U.S. Ski Team. He enrolled at Colorado but deferred his entry. Finally, in 1993, he made the national team, but he was far from a star. It was not until he won downhills on consecutive days in Kvitfjell, Norway, in March 2000 that he received international recognition. The attention multiplied after his win at the 2001 world championships, in which he edged Austrians Stefan Eberharter and Hermann Maier to capture the title. He was the only American to win a medal at the championships. Rahlves insists fame is not going to change him, and he has no plans to draw attention to himself the way U.S. teammate Chad Fleischer did in 1998 by bleaching his hair and adding leopard spots as highlights. "He's pretty laid back. He doesn't brag," said his mother, Sally. "When people come up to me on the street, they don't talk about Daron's victories. They always tell me what a nice kid he is. I've had a lot of nice compliments." Rahlves is content to be at home, surrounded by jet skiing and tennis medals from his youth and crystal trophies from his skiing victories. There's a guitar on his bed, and his racing bib from the 1998 Nagano Olympics hangs on the wall. In September, Rahlves will buy the house from his parents, who are retiring to Scottsdale, Ariz. He looked for 1 1/2 years for another place in the Lake Tahoe area, but couldn't find anything he liked as much. There's a hot tub on the deck, and five acres in the back yard. And, beyond that, there's plenty of room for snowmobiling. "It's a perfect place, I love it," he said. "You've got total privacy, that's something I was looking for."
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