Teller third in World Cup standings
Video of Teller’s winning run can be found at www.johnteller.com.
First American to win World Cup ski cross race
What Mammoth’s John Teller has accomplished of late is rare. Very few athletes in mid-career make the kind of quantum leap in results that Teller’s made over the past few weeks.
As father Karl said this week, “He’s gone from barely qualifying for World Cup events to winning them.”
Teller won his first career World Cup ski cross event on Friday, Jan. 7 in St. Johann, Austria during the third race of the World Cup Series. The accomplishment not only briefly put him in the lead in the overall World Cup Ski Cross standings by 170 points, it also made Teller the first American to win a World Cup ski cross race.
By Jan. 12, after another race in Alpe d’Huez, France, Teller was back in third place but not at all discouraged by the change in ranking.
“Still 3rd in the World Cup Standings,” said a post on his Facebook page. “Congrats to those who won at Alpe d’Huez today. Just gonna have to bring it Sunday to reclaim my top spot.”
The post was referring to the next race in the series on Jan. 16. It will be the fifth in the 11 race series and will be held in Les Contamines, France.
That same day, USA Today named Teller its athlete of the week.
“Teller swept Thursday’s [Jan. 6] quarterfinal and semifinal races en route to the four-man final. In the final, he beat Nick Zoricic of Canada, who finished second, and Austrian skiers Thomas Zangerl and Andreas Matt,” the article explained.
He flies back home this coming Monday, Jan. 17. On Tuesday, a celebratory event for Johnny is scheduled for the Clocktower Cellar beginning at 6 p.m.
Teller’s success overshadows a bit of bad luck experienced by his fiancee Angela Dessert, who broke her arm in a slip-and-fall accident earlier this week while training for a marathon.
Teller will be in town two days before heading to Sun Valley, Idaho on Thursday to begin training for the X Games.
One of the residual benefits of Teller’s success is that Atomic quickly moved to replace his third generation skis with the latest models.
He also took home 5,000 Euros for his triumph in Austria.
Karl Teller said his son has been extremely thankful for the job Corty Lawrence did in fitting his boots. For the first time in memory, Johnny didn’t have to peel his toenails off after the first race.
As Johnny told ESPN in an interview Thursday, he credits local support in Mammoth as “a very big reason I made it this far.”
