Paul Mitchell World Series of Moguls, Vail, CO, 1995: This was Shane McConkey’s coming out. Earlier in the day, he was banned from the competition for throwing a backflip, so he convinced a patroller to let him go back to the start to get his bag. Instead of picking up his things, he took off all his clothes, did a spread eagle, and was once again banned from Vail.
Freeskier had a cool article on Shane McConkey through the years. Can you imagine hitting the bumps completely nude and throwing a giant spread eagle like that?
Hermann Maier decided to end his ski racing career today after a knee injury last season, and subsequent surgery prompted him to make a long term health decision. Maier entered the ski racing world at age 23 in 1996 and has won four Olympic medals (two Gold) and six world championship medals (three Gold). Maier was an amazing skier, but most probably remember him from “the” crash in Nagano which he walked away from to return two days later and snag his first Gold.
