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John Russell

John Russell's sports column appears Sundays in Steamboat Today. Contact him at 871-4209 or e-mail jrussell@SteamboatToday.com.

Steamboat Springs — Our town has a long, proud tradition of producing Olympic athletes.

It's a great tradition, but there also is a dark side.

For some, the tradition hangs like a storm cloud over the heads of many local athletes who train at Howelsen Hill. It haunts them like a scary movie when they are slicing down the slopes of the Steamboat Ski Area and gives them chills as they train through the heat of a Yampa Valley summer.

Well, maybe it's not that bad. But it seems that much too often, our town measures the success of skiers, jumpers and snowboarders in terms of their Olympic success - or their status in the ranks of the U.S. Ski Team, their results in a World Cup event and their invitation to an elite camp.

In most cases, it is a force that can drive some athletes to the Olympic games faster than I could get to Denver in a Lamborghini on a highway with no traffic.

There is no question it is one of the reasons this town has produced so many terrific skiers and a reason we continue to draw top athletes from other places.

I was asked in Salt Lake City and Turin, Italy, what Steamboat adds to the water to produce so many Olympic-level athletes.

It's not so much what's in the water of our mountain valley as what's in our own expectations about what is possible.

I love this town's Olympic tradition and would never suggest that it should be downplayed. However, I would argue that an athlete's success needs to be measured in much broader terms.

This week, I met four skiers who grew up in Steamboat and dreamed of competing in the Olympic games.

I'm sad to say they didn't reach that goal, but that does not mean their journey has not been successful.

Instead of winning Olympic medals, these skiers are earning college degrees. For these athletes, skiing has provided the perfect path to college, where they have uncovered new adventures, built lifelong friendships and extended their skiing careers.

There was a time when college ski racing was looked down on and considered the end for a competitive ski racer.

But today, the college ranks are filled with top European ski racers and more than a few speedy Americans.

Ski racers such as Utah's Tague Thorson are proving that it is possible to go to college and not give up your Olympic dreams. Thorson decided to postpone his college career after being named to the U.S. Ski Team last summer.

Who knows? Maybe someday a parent will watch his or her 6-year-old slice through the gates at the Soda Pop Slalom and dream of the day when his or her child steps up on the podium in front of a crowd of cheering people - to accept their college degree.

That's the kind of tradition we all can get behind.