Athlete profile: Daron Rahlves

Posted: Tue February 3, 1998 at 5:00 PM ET

Athlete notes

Although he has struggled as of the new year, Rahlves remains the freshest face on the US Men's Ski Team...last season, Rahlves continued to burst through to the elite by ending the season with three top-finishes in his last four World Cup races -- incredible considering he had a broken collarbone and a dislocated hip right before the season..."Seriously, I feel that in the Super G I could go into the Olympics and win it," Rahlves says. "It's an oxymoron to ski for gold. You can't ski for gold. You just got to go out there and ski for whatever you've got. But I don't want to be known as someone getting lucky that day and winning because I have not really showed it. I really have not been that consistent. If you see me coming up all throughout the World Cup leading to the Olympics, then I'll show I belong on the medal stand"....Rahlves' major breakthrough occurred in 1995 when he finished fourth in a World Cup Super G in Lillehammer...Rahlves barely missed the podium, but all he talks about is placing one spot ahead of his idol, Austrian Guenther Mader (GOON-ter MAH-der)..."I beat him by 100th of a second," says Rahlves. "It said that I was starting to come into the group, you know, a ski god in my eyes, an idol, I just beat. Someone I've always looked at, his videos. It just kind of opened my eyes. And it was a smack in the face, and I said, `I can do this'"...Rahlves top finish so far this season (as of the new year) was 17th in a Super G..."I'll find it," says Rahlves brashly...Rahlves was not even on the 1994 Olympic team -- and his announcement on the Lillehammer course a year later was the beginning of a career and the end of a lot of frustration...Rahlves' parents -- Dennis and Sally -- met while skiing in Aspen, Colorado and returned to the resort every Christmas -- always with Daron in tow...the Rahlves live in Lake Tahoe -- a bastion for American ski racing -- but Daron convinced his father to let him attend high school at the Green Mountain Valley School in Vermont..."When I went back East, it was a whole new game for me skiing on ice and fine tuning my skills," says Rahlves. "I never turned my skis back here because we had powder all day"...but even at a high-profiled ski academy, Rahlves attracted very little attention from US Skiing..."The year after I graduated from high school, I still had not made the [US Ski] Team," recalls Rahlves. "Usually, guys step up and make the team right after high school. I didn't do that, but I still had this fire. I believed that I could do it. So I talked [my father] into taking a year off"...but even after a year, Rahlves did not make the US Ski Team, but a regional coach convinced Dennis to give Daron another year..."So basically, I took another full year off, on my own, doing my own thing," recounts Rahlves. "Jumping in and out between coaches, trying to get on teams, training, taking care of all my own travel arrangements, and I made the team finally that year. I think I grew up a lot that year and learned a lot of what it takes"...many on the US Ski Team still questioned Rahlves' discipline -- and a lot had to do with his penchant for motocrossing in the off-season, "Right up until the day I left for training camp," admits Daron...but in 1996, Rahlves crashed on his dirt bike and snapped his collarbone; as soon as he returned, Rahlves crashed on snow at a training camp -- dislocated his hip -- and missed five additional weeks ..."The hip healed but that collarbone plagued me the whole season," says Rahlves. "Skiing with an injury and holding back is not my style"...Rahlves has refrained from motocrossing this year; but he still jet skis on occasion...his father, Dennis, was a world champion water skier and Daron won the world jet ski championship in 1993..."I'm kind of a seasonal guy," says Daron. "I like to be in the snow every winter and in the water every summer"...he has also toned down his free skiing..."I love going out and free skiing," admits Daron. "I get a soul session out there. Free skiing, powder, jumping a few cliffs, doing whatever I can. But I'm not [flinging] myself off big cliffs anymore. Little ones, sure, but you gotta think about it. It's a job, and I'm not going to endanger myself doing something stupid"...Rahlves has been working on getting his skiing smoother -- and looks to retired World Cup downhill champion Luc Alphand of France as his model..."He was just like a cat, so smooth, silky smooth all the yea down," marvels Rahlves. "And that's something that I really need to concentrate on"...Rahlves' giant slalom is still a work in progress...he has been known to unleash some top 10 runs, but has not put together two consecutive runs...last year, his collarbone especially curtailed his progress in GS..."I was thinking about it as I was skiing on the course," says Rahlves, whose collarbone is now healed. "You have a tendency to get close to the gate and hit them hard, and you know, all it takes is slipping one time. And you know it was going to happen. It happened the second race of the year in GS. I crashed and cut the edge of my shoulder, and re-injured it when I was trying to ski with it all taped up. I was trying to protect my shoulder and that's not the way to go fast"...Daron has a younger sister -- Shannon...