L a t e s t  n e w s ..... Rachel Adcock and Gerard Flahive win both races at Scottish Dry Slope Championships ...

'The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams' (Eleanor Roosevelt).

News from the top women racers:

Hilde Gerg has decided to quit after suffering knee damage in training.  The 30 year old won twenty world cup races in Super G and Downhill (as well as Combined and Parallel) since 1994.

Ludlow misses out on spot for Solden.  Kaylin Richardson, Stacey Cook and Lauren Ross came out on top of the American team's qualification race. The American women's team have 10 starters. Also in Soelden this week are those Americans who qualified for the race either through placing themselves in the top 60 worldwide, or gaining a top-two spot in last year’s NorAm standings. On the women’s side, these are Julia Mancuso, Sarah Schleper, Kristina Koznick, Caroline Lalive, Lindsey Kildow, Resi Stiegler, Jessica Kelley and Kristen Mielke. The format for each was better-of-two runs; men skied first with the entire tech team competing for two places and then the women ran with four athletes chasing three open spots; 10 U.S. women and seven men will ski in the first races. Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) and Tom Rothrock (Cashmere, WA) edged two-time Olympian Chip Knight (Stowe, VT) for the men's final starts while Lauren Ross (also Stowe), Stacey Cook (Truckee, CA) and Kaylin Richardson (Edina, MN) earned the women's places for the opening weekend with Libby Ludlow (Bellevue, WA), coming back from knee surgery in the spring, just off the pace. "It was a fun time, definitely fun to watch - everyone put some urgency into their runs. All three guys skied really well and it was close," Men's SL/GS Head Coach Mike Morin said. "We had everybody in the trial and Ted and 'Rotty' were skiing just as fast as the whole team; they were right in there." Daron Rahlves (Sugar Bowl, CA), GS bronze medalist at the 2005 World Championships, led the first run and World Cup overall champion Bode Miller (Bretton Woods, NH) was the fastest in the final run. "Ted was just a tenth of a second off Bode in the second run...yeah, the slalom specialist making a strong move in GS," Morin said. Women's Coach Trevor Wagner preferred a different format for their test. "We ran after the guys and that was really more realistic conditions for where these girls will be running, back in the 40s or 50s, We re-dressed the course a little, slipped it out ...It's a pretty rough course to begin with - the top part has some [steep] terrain you have to deal with, but that's what it's going to be like when you're starting in the back." The four women completed their two runs and then the rest of the women's group took a couple of runs, Wagner said. "We wanted the four to focus on their run, not have to worry about holding up anyone, or anything else...and when they were done, everyone else jumped in there for two, three, four runs. Conditions were perfect, not a breath of wind, no cloud in the sky, great snow...just perfect."

Chemmy Alcott is scheduled to start for Britain.

Lalive and Goetschl injured: Ski Racing report that Caroline Lalive is flying home to have her medial-collateral ligament examined in Colorado, and Austria's Renate Goetschl strained her MCL as well, according to the Austrian Press Agency. "I must now wait, see what happens, and make a decision then", Goetschl told APA, adding that it could just be inflammation.

Koznick stays in the northern hemisphere, Sept 7. Ski Racing report: Kristina Koznick is embarking on another season racing independently of the U.S. Ski Team, and has opted to train in Saas Fee, Switzerland rather than joining her former teammates in the southern hemisphere. Koznick has been forced to deal with some stormy weather that has socked in the car-free Swiss resort -- on a glacier not far from the Matterhorn. Accompanying Team Koz is long-time USST coach Roger Bay, who joined the staff this summer.