By U.S. Ski Team

PARK CITY – Vancouver Olympic gold medalists Lindsey Vonn of Vail and Bode Miller of Franconia, N.H., are among 19 athletes named to the 2011 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Team announced Wednesday. The biennial event opens Feb. 8 and continues through Feb. 20 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

The strong group also features fellow Olympic gold medalists Ted Ligety of Park City and Julia Mancuso of Squaw Valley, in addition to 15 other 2010 Olympic athletes.

NBC and Universal Sports will carry a full broadcast package of the World Championships.

Vonn, a three-time Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall champion, is seeking to defend the double gold she captured in downhill and super G from 2009 and contend for medals in three other events including super combined. She is currently leading the World Cup standings for downhill, super G and super combined.

For Mancuso, the event will serve as a continuation of the resurgence she started in Vancouver with a pair of silver medals to become the most successful female Olympic alpine skier in the U.S. Thus far, she has stood on the 2011 World Cup podium for super G and downhill, plus added three top 10 results in giant slalom – the discipline that brought her Olympic gold in 2006

Miller will seek to put down medal inspiring runs similar to those that produced a full spectrum of medals in Vancouver and made him a four-time World Champion and two-time World Cup overall champion. He enters the championships having recently landed his sixth podium finish at the Hahnenkamm races in Kitzbuehel, Austria, with a downhill second.

Notably absent from the Team is Olympic bronze medalist Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid), World Cup winner Marco Sullivan (Squaw Valley) and Olympian Alice McKennis (Glenwood Springs, Colo). All three are currently sidelined with injuries.

The 2011 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Team:

Men

Will Brandenburg (Spokane, WA)

David Chodounsky (Crested Butte, CO)

Nolan Kasper (Warren, VT)

Tim Jitloff (Reno, NV)

Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley)

Tommy Ford (Bend, OR)

Ted Ligety (Park City, UT)

Bode Miller (Franconia, NH)

Warner Nickerson (Gilford, NH)

Steven Nyman (Provo, UT)

Women

Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA)

Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA)

Chelsea Marshall (Pittsfield, VT)

Megan McJames (Park City, UT)

Laurenne Ross (Klamath Falls, OR)

Sarah Schleper (Vail, CO)

Leanne Smith (Conway, NH)

Resi Stiegler (Jackson Hole, WY)

Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO)

Tahoe-Reno is positioning itself to submit a proposal for the next opportunity to bid for hosting rights of a future Olympic Winter Games. Learn more about the vision and how individuals and businesses can join the effort during a presentation at Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village on Feb. 4 at 2:30pm.

Aside from hearing more about the work being done to prepare for a potential bidding opportunity, attendees will also learn how they can become directly involved with the project by becoming a member of the “Founder’s Ring.”

The meeting is on the SNC campus (999 Tahoe Blvd., Incline Village) in the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, Room 139.

The Alpha Gamma Sigma Honor Society is hosting a blood drive on March 15 form 10am-3pm in the Aspen Room at Lake Tahoe Community College in South Lake Tahoe.

No appointments needed.

For more information, or questions, contact BloodSource at 800.995.4420.

Best to stay on the groomed runs.

Here is the ski report from Curtis Fong, the Guy from Tahoe.

The Crest Café, known for its specialized winemaker dinners, is teaming up with High Sierra Veggies & Vegans to host a gourmet vegan Valentine’s dinner.

The five-course, gourmet menu will be made without animal products or by-products and includes wine pairings and discount wines by the glass or bottle. A winemaker representative will be on hand to facilitate the pairings and interact with diners.

The dinner is Feb. 12th at 6:30pm. The cost is $49 per person, which includes wine tastings. Reservations are required by calling (530) 581.3037.

Sept. 18 — Athleta Iron Girl Lake Tahoe South Shore, is a triathlon consisting of a 400-meter swim, 24K bike and 5K run.

Launched in 2004 with just two races, the Iron Girl Series has grown to include 13 events nationwide, varying in distance from 5K to duathlon and triathlon. Iron Girl recently introduced its first half-marathon with plans to expand on the distance in 2012.

With the mission of empowering women toward a healthy lifestyle, Iron Girl has celebrated finishers ranging in age from five to 89 years old with an average age of 35. Visit the website for more information.

• Puppy Kindergarten Class begins every Wednesday at 6:15 pm at Tahoe Best Friends, 2197 Ruth Ave., in South Lake Tahoe. Call (530) 542.2336 for more information.

• Dominik, a bichon frise owned by Laura Rosio of Lake Tahoe, won best of breed at the annual Winterfest All-Breed Dog Show in Ventura County this month.

• Versus, the network that has televised the Amgen Tour de California, has seen viewership grow from 1.5 million to 3 million in 2010.

• Julie Mauer has left Northstar-at-Tahoe to become Squaw Valley’s vice president of marketing and sales.

• Michael Lipkin, South Lake Tahoe chiropractor, is offering a deal through Feb. 17 to patients that involves giving some of their fee to benefit the Washoe Meadows Community Legal Fund. For more information, call (530) 544.8495.

By Kathryn Reed

Although the dollars to put the final touches on the Van Sickle Bi-state Park have been allocated, the actual opening of the park still teeters on securing funds to operate it.

Lisa O’Daly with the California Tahoe Conservancy told her board, “Currently, the Nevada budget doesn’t have the money to open the park. Behind the scenes we are working on private money for the park.”

What the board approved last week was to spend $165,000 to establish the day-use facilities for the park that straddles California and Nevada on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe. Improvements will begin this spring as conditions allow.

Day-use facilities for bi-state park users will go in this spring near the old Van Sickle barn. Photo/Kathryn Reed

CTC staff and private contractors will install the prefabricated restroom, fencing, signs, interpretive material, create a decomposed granite trail around the parking lot, and put in picnic tables.

The goal is for the park to open this year.

All along the Conservancy anticipated California State Parks would take over as the main partner with Nevada State Parks. Funding has prevented that from occurring. Nonetheless, CTC Executive Director Patrick Wright told the board Jan. 20, “It makes more sense to be part of State Parks.”

Explore Tahoe, dubbed an urban trailhead in the Heavenly Village, wants to run interpretive programs that would take people to Van Sickle. The bi-state park, the only in the country, is walking distance from the major bed base on the South Shore.

On the site is the old barn belonging to the Van Sickles. It is said to be oldest standing barn in the Lake Tahoe Basin. It has been secured with the hope of one day being on the National Registrar of historic places.

Besides the day-use facilities, a short ways up the paved road are numerous trails, some of which are part of the Tahoe Rim Trail routes.

By Jim Sanders, Sacramento Bee

Seven Republicans and one Democrat met Monday’s filing deadline to become candidates for the 4th District Assembly seat left vacant by Ted Gaines’ recent move to the state Senate.

GOP candidates are Beth Gaines, Ted Gaines’ wife, a homemaker with business experience; Roseville City Councilman John Allard; Cheryl Bly-Chester, founder of Rosewood Environmental Engineering; Matt Williams, a South Lake Tahoe attorney; Rob Matthews, a police officer; Mike O’Connor, a retiree and former Yuba County assistant personnel director; and Bogdan “Bo” Ambrozewicz, a business entrepreneur who has been involved in home and business construction.

Read the whole story

Sierra Nevada College’s Department of Humanities and Social Sciences has received a grant for the Tournées Festival, a program which brings contemporary French cinema to American college and university campuses, to be staged April 6-9.

This inaugural festival spearheaded by SNC’s language program and made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture, will be free and open to the public.

Now in its 15th year, the Tournées Festival has partnered with more than 300 American colleges and universities making it possible for more than 450,000 students to discover French-language films.

The film festival will coincide with the Incline Village college’s 2011 Multicultural Collaborative, a series of events and performances designed to highlight the cultural diversity of Sierra Nevada College.

For more information, call (775) 831.1314, sbankston@sierranevada.edu, or Robert King, at (775) 831.1314, rking@sierranevada.edu.a Coll