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Sports
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Ruidoso ski team
captain Hubert Siegmann fore-runs the Arizona Junior Championship
slalom course last season. The area resident has recently formed the
World Wide ski team with the state goal of producing World Cup ski
athletes to compete with no affiliations to any particular country.
(photo by Mark Doth) |
Alpine Ski Coach and racing competitor Hubert Seigmann recently
announced the formation of a Worldwide ski team. Formed with the goal
of producing World Cup ski athletes from around the world, Seigmann
sees the team as creating international unity and bringing people of
different races and cultures to race under one banner. There will be no
one country represented.
Seigmann said, “This will be the first time that there will be a truly
international World Cup Team. The World Wide ski team will represent
the best of world athletes focusing on the original Olympic goal of
athletes racing against other athletes, not country against country.”
Seigmann will solicit sanctioning by FIS (International Ski Federation
— Fédération Internationale de Ski) at the International
Congress in May 2004 in Miami, Fla. If the team is sanctioned during
that process, Seigmann will start racing under the banner of WWST at
the 2005 Hahnenkamm in Kitsbuhel, Austria. Seigmann foreran this year’s
Hahnenkamm Super G and trained for the downhill.
A formal process for admitting athletes to the World Wide Ski Team will
be announced later this year, but will based on the FIS race profile.
Seigmann’s idea grew out of principles set forth by his good friend and
mentor, the late American businessman and international lawyer George
Bronfen. Bronfen was a firm believer in what he called the
“International Man”.
According to Bronfen, the International Man “is a man that respects all
nations but is slave to none.” His premise was that “all nations of the
world are respected by me and I respect their people.” He further
stated, “Peace in this world will only come through the growth of the
international man. It is only through this brotherhood of international
men who will one day, I hope, rule this world, that we will then have
peace on earth and good will.”
A native of Anif, Austria, Seigmann, 43, has had a life-long passion
for skiing and racing. Two severe bouts with cancer altered his
ambitions and course along the way.
Since 1987, he has been based at Ski Apache, where he has taught skiing
and racing to many area youths. While regaining his health, Seigmann
has renewed his racing dreams and recently participated as a ski racing
forerunner at this year’s Hahnenkamm, one of the most demanding races
on the World Cup circuit today.
In 1989, Seigmann held his first ski training camp under the name, “A
Touch of Austria,” for junior ski racers at Blackcomb in Canada. He has
since moved his camps to his native Austria, holding them at
Kitzsteinhorn, among other places. He holds both Austrian and American
certification in teaching and coaching.
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Copyright ©
2004 Ruidoso News, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper.
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