It's a season that spans months, conducted less than two minutes at a time. The World Cup Ski Tour started 21/2 months ago at Soelden and continues through March. At we round the turn towards home, we examine the themes that have emerged in our Mid-Season Review.

FIS makes a big change
The first big news of the season happened off the slopes. FIS, looking to generate some sort of buzz during training days, re-instituted a qualifying procedure not used in 12 years at Lake Louise, Canada. Under the new system, the top 30 finishers in the final training run will race in reverse order in the finals.

The revised approach has been a major talking point all season. As MountainZone.com reported prior to the Val Gardena downhill, "Much discussion continues on the tour about the new FIS qualifying rules this year, with racers still tweaking their strategies to ensure the best starting slot for the final race. However, the addition of a fairly substantial prize for winning the training run clearly appealed to Strobl, who said the Christmas bonus suited him just fine."

Several skiers, including American Daron Rahlves, spoke out in opposition to the new rule, which had not been used since a 1991 incident at Wengen, where Austrian Gernot Reinstadler was killed in a fall while trying to improve his final starting position. Critics blamed the qualifying procedure, in part, for his death. However, FIS officials have defended the decision to bring the rule back, stating that it will increase interest in the sport and pointing to Reinstadler's death as an isolated incident.

Eberharter Dominates Early
Once the real racing began, defending overall points champion Stephan Eberharter wasted little time re-establishing his position as the man to beat. The Austrian superstar burst out of the gate with victories in five of his first seven events, running off to a commanding lead in the early part of the season.

His competitors knew he was the best. After Eberharter won the downhill at Beaver Creek, defending super-G champion Daron Rahlves of the U.S. said, "What impresses me is how strong Eberharter is skiing. Every race, he comes up with a great day. It's good, because there's really someone to work hard for and chase and knock down, but it's going to be tough.

Austrian teammate Ben Raich, at 24 nearly a decade Eberharter's junior, realized he has time. "When you look at greats like Eberharter and know how he slowly grew into his greatness. I know that I too can grow into greatness too."

As it turned out, the only thing that could slow Eberharter was injury. After easily winning the downhill on Val d'Isere's famed Oreiller-Killy course, Eberharter crashed the next day in a giant slalom. Initially, it was feared that he might be lost for the remainder of the season, but after returning to Austria for an MRI, it was determined that he would miss just four to six weeks.

Nevertheless, the injury put Eberharter's stranglehold on the points leadership in jeopardy. When he won at Val d'Isere, Eberharter had nearly lapped the field with a total of 548 points, 259 points better than his nearest competitor. By the time he returned to competition, he would find Bode Miller of the U.S. breathing down his neck.

U.S. Men Show Their Stripes
For Miller, the season started as slowly as it can when you make your living careening down the sides of mountains. Bode spent the early part of the season working on his speed skills, hoping to become a real threat in the overall points chase. The effort paid off, as Miller's finishes in downhill and super-G began racking up substantial points.

"I haven't become a four event skier, by any means," Bode announced to the press, yet there he was, finishing 5th in the downhill on Bormio's fierce Stelvio course. That finish led U.S. coach John McBride to say, "Bode's a contender in any speed event now, too. The guy's feel for line and timing is phenomenal."

That same race provided one of two historic moments this season for the U.S. Team. Daron Rahlves won, his first cup victory of this year's circuit. It was the first time two U.S. men had finished in the top 5 in a downhill since 1968. Rahlves understood his accomplishment, saying "This is definitely one of the most challenging hills around. It's like skiing down a spiral staircase the whole way."

Miller admitted he was psyched by Rahlves performance. "When Daron came down, everybody was yelling. I was all right, thinking, 'He put a good one down.' I liked that. I wanted to beat him."

That intramural rivalry has played well over the past several weeks. Miller started his hot streak with a second in the GS at Val d'Isere, then sandwiched two GS victories, at Alta Badia and Kranjska Gora, around Rahlves' win at Bormio. The latter victory put Miller atop the overall points standings, the first American man to reach that lofty perch since Phil Mahre in 1983.

The team showed more depth earlier in the year at the Beaver Creek downhill, where Marco Sullivan joined Rahlves and Miller to give the U.S. three finishers in the top 10 for the first time in 30 years. Jake Fiala has also had several impressive finishes this year.

Reflecting on the overall depth of the team, U.S. Alpine Director Jesse Hunt said, "Getting top finishes takes a lot of consistency and hard work from both the coaches and the athletes-the culmination of a lot of things, both the ski preparation and the on-hill work everyone's contributed."

Eberharter returned to the tour at Bormio on December 27th, and took several weeks to get back into top form. Finally, back at Bormio on January 11th, he broke through to win yet another downhill and reclaim the points lead--for one day, until Miller leapfrogged him in Sunday's slalom. It's going to be an exciting stretch run to see who will finally claim the cup.

U.S. Women Uneven, Disappointing
Unlike the men, the U.S Women's team has had an uneven and relatively disapppointing season. The lone bright spot has been Kirsten Clark, who grabbed podium finishes (both 3rd place) in the DH at both Lake Louise and Lenzerheide, along with 3 other top-5 finishes.

The team suffered a blow at Lake Louise in early December when Lisa Kosglow was injured in a crash during the downhill. Kosglow suffered a sprained ligament in her left hip and injuries to her left sacroliliac joint. She is expected to return in late January or early February.

Americans Caroline Lalive and Sarah Schleper managed several 4th-8th finishes between them, but have been surprisingly inconsistent through the first half of the year. And while Kristina Koznich, Jonna Mendes, Julia Mancuso, and Libby Ludlow have each had points-earning finishes in the 15 -30 range, none has yet seriously contended for a podium this season.

The frustration has begun to show through a bit. After the GS at Semmering in late December, U.S. coach Mathias Berthold bemoaned the team's race performance, saying "I know it's still Christmastime but we can't keep giving away presents like this. It really bothers me to see us ski so good in training, then have other girls finish ahead of us in the race."

Overall, the women's tour has been completely dominated by Croation sensation Janica Kostelic, who just turned 21 two weeks ago. She celebrated her birthday with her 5th win of the season in the Slalom at Bormio. Kostelic has a commanding lead in the points race and appears to be headed for one of the all-time great seasons.

Weather Wreaks Havoc
It may be a cycle, or it may be the beginning of a global warming trend that will eventually be the end of of life as we know it. Either way, unusually warm and mild weather in Europe this winter has caused major headaches for world cup organizers. Races were cancelled or rescheduled at Bertschesgaden, Innsbruck, Cortina d'Ampezzo and Chamonix.

Bormio became the unofficial home of FIS, hosting two additional weekends of racing after it's regularly scheduled men's event. The beautiful Italian resort was simply the only available venue with sufficient snow to hold the races.

The Herminator Returns
Finally. More than 500 days after a horrific motorcycle crash that nearly cost his life, Hermann Maier returned to World Cup competition at Adelboden. Although he narrowly missed qualifying for the second run, fans and competitors again welcomed just the sight of the Herminator attacking the slopes alike. See MountainZone.com's complete report on Maier's return.

The season is just over halfway through, and while it looks like the remainder of the women's schedule will be spent admiring the wondrous abilities of Janica Kostelic, the men's points chase between Bode Miller and Stephan Eberharter is sure to provide many thrills. Stay tuned to MountainZone.com for complete coverage, beginning this weekend at Cortina d'Ampezzo for the women and Wengen for the men.

— MountainZone.com staff