Scott Macartney

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Scott Macartney
— Alpine ski racer —
Disciplines Downhill, Super G,
Combined
Club Crystal Mountain
Born (1978-01-19) January 19, 1978
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
World Cup debut November 27, 1999
(age 21)
Website Scott Macartney.com
Olympics
Teams 2 - (2002, 2006)
Medals 0
World Championships
Teams 2 - (2005, 2007)
Medals 0
World Cup
Seasons 10
Wins 0
Podiums 2
Overall titles 0
Discipline titles 0 - (15th in SG, 2006)

Scott Macartney (born January 19, 1978, in Seattle, Washington) is an alpine ski racer with the U.S. Ski Team.

Biography

Macartney grew up in the Seattle area, in Redmond, where his parents were public school teachers. He skied at the Crystal Mountain ski area, located 76 miles (122 km) southeast of Seattle, where his parents were members of the volunteer ski patrol on weekends. Macartney did not attend a ski academy, but graduated from Redmond High School in 1996 while working his way up through regional teams in the Northwest with limited funding. He attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics.[1]

Macartney competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and was the first racer on the course in the downhill event at Snowbasin, eventually finishing in 29th position. He reached his first World Cup podium finish on January 29, 2006, when he placed second at the Super G in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

The following month he competed in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, where he finished 16th in the men's combined,
15th in the downhill and 7th in the Super G at Sestriere.

Injury at Kitzbühel

On his 30th birthday in 2008, Macartney competed in the Hahnenkamm downhill in Kitzbühel, Austria. The second racer on the course, he had an excellent run going until he suffered a spectacular fall just five seconds from the finish line. After descending the high-speed Zielschuss section and reaching a speed of 87.7 mph (141.2 km/h), Macartney was challenging for a top ten finish. At the final jump (Zielsprung), he was twisted left while airborne and could not recover. During the high-speed crash he impacted hard on his right side; his skis released, as did his protective helmet after a direct impact with the icy course. He lost consciousness, then twisted and spun on the hard snow. Macartney came to a stop just across the finish line, arriving boots first and face down with his body quivering, ski pole straps still attached to his wrists. He received immediate medical attention and was airlifted by helicopter to a hospital in Innsbruck. He is said to have suffered bruising to the brain but did not require surgery at the time and was put into an induced coma.[2] The next day he recovered more quickly than expected, regained consciousness, joked, and had doctors expecting a full recovery.[3] Despite the crash and unconscious slide across the finish line without his skis or helmet, Macartney did not miss a gate, so he finished the race in 33rd place with a time of 1:55.91, 3.16 seconds behind the winner, Didier Cuche.[4] Macartney's speed at the end of the Zielschuss was the highest of the race. The next closest speed was 86.5 mph (139.2 km/h) by Bode Miller, who came in tied for second.

Macartney recovered from his injuries and was named to the top team ("A Team") of the U.S. Ski Team for the 2008-09 World Cup season.[5]

World Cup Top Ten Finishes

Season Date Location Race Place
2003 19-Jan-2003 Switzerland Wengen, Switzerland Combined 8th
2006 16-Dec-2005 Italy Val Gardena, Italy Super-G 7th
29-Jan-2006 Germany Garmisch, Germany Super-G 2nd
Italy 2006 Winter Olympics
2007 01-Dec-2006 United States Beaver Creek, CO, USA Downhill 8th
2008 15-Dec-2007 Italy Val Gardena, Italy Downhill 3rd

References

  1. ↑ skiracing.com
  2. ↑ BBC Online
  3. ↑ Reuters Online
  4. ↑ FIS-ski.com
  5. ↑ U.S. Ski team

Further reading

Kahn, Jennifer (November 2009). "Scott Macartney's Comeback". Outside (Santa Fe, New Mexico: Mariah Media). 

External links

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