Daron Rahlves Photo by Agence Zoom

Beefy bodyguards and throngs of screaming fans, barricades and late-night parties overtake the charming mountain town of Kitzbuehel once a year. Cobblestone streets are littered with people, spewing languages that are, quite obviously, not German, in shops and bars. Over the course of a week the population blooms from 8,000 to 80,000. Fireworks light up the sky, cowbells toll and flags fly. This is Austria's Hahnenkamm—the ski race among World Cup ski races. “It's like the Super Bowl meets Mardi Gras meets the Running of the Bulls,” says photographer Court Leve in the Tahoe World.

People in Europe love ski racing like Americans love baseball. Big races are not unlike the World Series and top racers rock celebrity status. When they're abroad, Daron Rahlves and Bode Miller get bombarded by fans clamoring for autographs. Everyone wants their picture taken with them. When they race, people the world over root them on.

While they may not have the same pop-star appeal here at home, in a nation that tends to think ski racing only takes place every four years, international fame is still a pretty new thing for U.S. skiers. There was a time, about eight years ago, when it seemed you couldn't trade the Men's Ski Team for a six-pack of beer. They weren't just the underdogs; they were bad. Really bad. But in that by-the-bootstraps kind of way that would make everybody's grandpa proud, the American Alpine team has risen from the bottom of the heap. With the Miller and Rahlves holding positions three and five, respectively, in the overall World Cup Standings and the Winter Olympics set to start at the end of the week in Torino, Italy, glory and gold finally seem attainable.

"Bode Miller is a firecracker on the hill. He shoots fast and far and sometimes blows out before he's supposed to!

The Players
Behind every great man is a woman. Behind every great athlete is a coach. Behind Bode Miller is no one but Bode Miller. He's the lone maverick at the head of a team peppered with tricksters and hucksters and some of the best skiers this country has ever seen. Born and raised in New Hampshire, Miller is painted as the bad-boy of U.S. skiing, the sport's Dennis Rodman, if you will, with as foul a mouth but more interesting things to say. And he's a firecracker on the hill. He shoots fast and far and sometimes blows out before he's supposed to. He races in every discipline, ripping through gates in a tight tuck, carving effortlessly from edge to edge through technical GS turns. Last year he won the World Cup's overall title, the first American to hold skiing's coveted crystal globe since Phil Mahre in the early 80s and the second person to ever win in all four disciplines, after Luxembourg's Marc Giardelli.

If Bode is like Dennis Rodman, Daron Rahlves is like Michael Jordan. He's cool, composed and technically great. As Bruce Barcott mentioned in his interview with MountainZone last week, he may just be the best downhill skier ever. He won the Hahnenkamm downhill in 2003, became the first non-Austrian to win a Super G in Kitzbuehel in 2004 and took third in the full course downhill this year. He plays speed like a fiddle, fine-tuning every detail. He amassed a contingent of more than forty people from his home in Lake Tahoe to go to Austria this year, proving there's an audience for American ski racing when there's someone exceptional to watch.

Eric Schlopy, the ski team's veteran racer exudes East Coast cool. Having raced the World Cup circuit since he was 18, with a few years off for some serious injuries, Schlopy comes at skiing with the wisdom of Yoda and the determination of Obi Wan. He's a seven-time U.S. champion, with both World Cup and Olympic experience. He now makes his home in Park City, alongside up-and-comer Ted Ligety.

Ligety's nickname is “Ligety Split,” apt for the Park City native who links turns like a dream, skis consistent and fast and has passion to boot. At 21, he's the slalom skier to watch—right now he's third in slalom at the World Cup, trailing Italian Giorgio Rocca and Finland's Kalle Palander. "I'd say the freak on our team is Ted Ligety," said Rahlves to Reuters' reporter Mark Felsenthal. "That kid has a lot of fun with what he does and he skis just insane."