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| 2005.11.30 Column Series by Ken Odashima No.01 “162cm” |
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The time, January 19th, 2003. It was the length of the skis Akira Sasaki used to win 2nd place, the best any Japanese has ever placed, from a 65th start by wiping away the bad flow up until that race.
| It is needless to say that this length, 162cm, was the longest ski used by any competitor in that race. The FIS rules at that time for the length of Slalom skis an athlete can use was “155cm and above”. Up until this race, the length of skis worn by the winners was 155cm, at the most 156cm. It was only natural that no one payed any attention to the 162cm skis that an anonymous Asian racer, who had never qualified into the second run, used. |
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| Recently, I instantaneously recalled those times. That year, I personally quit a company I resided for more than 10 years and established a company of my own, contracted with Salomon to build measures for all snow athletes except snow boarding (alpine, free style, and demonstrators). The company was established in June, 2002 and our first job was to extend the contract with Kentaro Minagawa, who at the time was the ace skier for the Japan National Alpine Team and was seriously injured in March in the FIS race at Nozawa Onsen by ripping his ligament. |
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I flew to the Salomon headquarters which was located in Annecy, France. My mission was to raise the priority to obtain good skis in order to keep Kentaro in the Salomon Team. I met with the engineers and explained the current situation and went into meeting with them with a determination that I wouldn’t be able to go back to Japan without obtaining several types of slalom skis. Here was my encounter with Jon Mazoli. He was a small stature and composed, man, unlike many Europeans, and was also a man who had given attention to Japanese skiers. |
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| “Minagawa is an athlete with guts and I truly hope he stays with Salomon. I also think the tall, skinny skier has much potential. I don’t understand why Japanese skiers do not come in higher in rank.” |
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| He had layed eyes on Akira who was still an unknown, lower category skinny skier but who skied flexibly like rubber. |
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To be continued...
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