Happy New Year Lakers families!

Attached you will find the fact sheet for this week's first race at Ausblick Saturday Jan 3. We will do our best to send the fact sheet, run orders and results over Team App for your convenience, however both are first released on the MWAR website (https://midwestalpineracing.com/2026). Please review the fact sheet as this will be both your timeline and instructions for waivers and competition fee, both of which may be required for your athlete to race.

Ausblick is changing things up this year. There will be no race day ticket sales. So PLEASE read the Fact Sheet and complete your waivers and purchase your tickets before Saturday. Please note that returning athletes DO NOT get new bibs this year, so please find, bring and wear your bibs from last year!

Below you will find lots of useful information for prepping for your first race. This is a must read for all new families and a good review for all seasoned families.

Bibs
I repeat we DO NOT have new bibs this year. Please bring and wear your bibs from last year! All new athletes will be able to pickup their bib on Saturday from the coaches, if they did not receive it at the last practice.

It is VERY important that your athlete bring their bib to every race. They are required to have this to race. In the most unlikeliest of events that you do happen to forget your bib, coaches can help make a temporary one, but doing so is added work for the coaches as we are trying to focus on other aspects of the race, so please bring your bibs!

Helmets
As a reminder, all racers must have a HARD EAR helmet for races. Rules have been updated to allow for a FIS approved soft-ear helmet for slalom races. Soft-eared helmets that the kids would wear recreationally do NOT meet FIS requirements. If in doubt, just make sure they have hard ears. Also for racer safety, if your athlete has a bar on his or her helmet for slalom, it MUST be removed for GS races. Please come prepared with tools in your athlete's bags to remove their bar (and better yet, teach them how to do it). Again, this is another distraction that coaches shouldn't have to deal with on race day.
Please help your coaches by making sure all of your athlete's gear is correct and in proper working condition (this means also torquing down screws on pole guards before practices and races).

Race Info, Run Orders & Results
Your one source for race information will be the race's fact sheet. The fact sheet will be released some time during the week prior to the race at the MWAR website. This link will be your main source of MWAR information throughout the season.
This will have not only the fact sheet prior to the race, but will also have the run orders (generally posted Friday night). I would recommend printing off the run order and highlighting your athlete, so that you have an idea of when they will be coming and the other Lakers athletes so that you can cheer on our team!

MWAR races will have 2 courses set. One for U8-U12 and one for U14-U19. You may hear these referred to as the "Big" and "Little" courses. If you're new and not sure which is which, just ask any other parent standing on the hill and they will likely be able to tell you. The run order for U8-U12 will be the same for both runs. Your athlete will come down in the order they are on the sheet both runs, but do be aware that not all athletes are present at a race, so your athlete may come sooner than you expect. The coach at the finish can usually help notify you when your athlete is "in the gate (next to come)" and "on course."
As for the U14-U19 run orders, these will change for the second run. On the second run the order will be sorted by fastest time with the top 5 flipped. So the 5th fastest time will be the first out followed by 4, 3, 2, 1, 6, etc.

The MWAR site will also have the results after the race. We may or may not send Team App messages with results. It's not really necessary for us to do so since they will be posted at this link, so please check the link rather than messaging the Lakers Board. If it's not posted there, we also don't have the results.

Race info for new families or those of us who are still confused
I will admit that ski races are a little more confusing for new parents as compared with many other sports. We don’t have matching uniforms or a bench on a field, so navigating and getting to the right place at the right time can be a challenge. The best advice I can give is to get there early. This will ease most of your stress about where to be when.

As you will notice on the fact sheets, there sometimes isn’t a lot of time between when the lifts open and when the first course inspection happens, so I would recommend making sure your racer is on the hill waiting for the lift if it’s warm enough. If it’s a cold day make sure your racer is ready to walk out the door as soon as the lifts turn. One thing you will learn quickly is that ski racing is a hurry-up and wait sport. While the fact sheet has precise times for everything, we are dealing with changing weather conditions and tricky timing systems. Thus, there is a high likelihood that things will be delayed. However, I am not saying this so that you can show up later. Still, please be early, just don’t be surprised when the schedule doesn’t go off exactly as planned.

Once on the hill/waiting for the lifts, racers should start looking for their coaches who will be in our orange jackets. Racers should find a coach as quickly as they can to ask for instruction. Coaches will instruct the racers where to be and when for course inspection. We will meet at the top for a group inspection, but make sure your racer finds a coach for those exact instructions

Following inspection the racers may have time to either come into the lodge or take some free runs, depending where they are in the start order. When you see the run order, racers will run sequentially as listed. If you have a U8 or U18 girl, for example, she will likely be running very quickly after inspection, so once she is done with inspection be sure she is camped out at the top waiting for her run. Parents, please be aware of your racer’s run position and make sure you lovingly nudge them out of the lodge or away from your side with sufficient time to get in the lift line, grab a chair to the top, strip down to their race suit and get situated in the line at the top. For new families, this can take surprisingly longer than you might expect (also, please don’t forget to have your racer wearing his bib prior to leaving for inspection).

From there, you watch the run order and wait for your racer to hit the course. Then remember to cheer, ring your cowbells, take photos and congratulate your racer after her run (we need end-of-season slideshow content!). Once your racer is done with their run, they should be sure to stop by their coach in the finish area. There is always the possibility for something to have gone wrong in the course or something with timing that might warrant a re-run. Before your racer takes off for the lodge we want to be sure their time will stand.

Speaking of your racer taking off for the lodge, if it’s not an absolutely frigid day, please encourage your racer to stay out and cheer on their friends. Shuttling coats down is also a kind gesture to teammates that we should encourage our racers to help with.

Following the run you may attempt to check their time on Live Timing (link posted on the MWAR site). However, please be aware that this is not always reliable. If you don’t see a time on Live Timing, please do not ask the coaches about it. Timing will inform the coaches if an athlete doesn’t have a time or if an athlete has been disqualified. If the coaches notice that an athlete has been disqualified they have the option to challenge it. This would occur for example if a gate judge marked the athlete as missing or straddling a gate, when it may not have occurred. If this is the case, the coaches may challenge the call and we may need to track you down as parents to see if you have a video of their run. Thus, if you can I would encourage you to record their runs.

Whew…that’s run 1!
You will see the timeline in the fact sheet for run 2. However, delays in ski racing are inevitable, so keep your eyes on the hill to see when the next course looks like its setup and your ears open in the lodge for the announcement for inspection. We also try to post 2nd run times to Team App, which then can come through as a message on your watch. If you have any doubt about when inspection will start, find a coach or have your racer take a lap and look for a coach on the hill. There is normally sufficient time between runs though for your racer to come in, warm up, and grab some lunch. You’ll get the hang of it, but if ever in doubt about when your racer should be out there, your racer can take warm up runs with his friends and look for a coach while he’s out there. Again, as long as it’s not a frigid day, we’re there to ski anyways, right? So they may as well get some extra laps in.

Please familiarize yourself with the rules for MWAR races. The MWAR rule book doesn’t include just “rules” but other helpful information that will help new parents understand the nuances of ski racing. MWAR also has other useful links to help better understand the sport, gate keeping, rules, etc. https://midwestalpineracing.com/rules