Vail and sister resort Beaver Creek have been awarded the 2015 Alpine World Skiing Championships. The famous US resort last hosted the Championships in 1999 and European resorts have or will host the seven Championships in between.

Carlo Janka and Lindsey Vonn recorded their second World Cup wins in North America in as many days. Swiss Janka’s outstanding season continued with victory in the men’s downhill at Beaver Creek following his triumph in Friday’s Super Combined.

Switzerland’s Carlo Janka won the men’s super combined, pipping compatriot Didier Defago to first place in Beaver Creek. The 23-year-old Janka, who skied with great fluidity in bitter conditions, is generating plenty of pre-Olympic excitement on the circuit with his victory his third podium finish, in three different disciplines, in four races this season.

Austria’s Michael Walchhofer set the fastest time in Thursday’s second and final training run for the Birds of Prey World Cup downhill race at Beaver Creek, Colorado.

So there I was, lying in a bed big enough for giants, with crisp cotton sheets. Having done a few hours’ hiking followed by the best massage in the world, I was thinking in an American accent: ‘Yup, this is, “Not exactly roughing it”.’ For that is the Beaver Creek motto.

Beaver Creek officials announced Wednesday Jim Kercher would be the new director of the Beaver Creek Ski and Snowboard School. Kercher worked for almost seven years at the ski and snowboard school and was a member of the resort’s guest services team before leaving in 2007 to work as a general manager at Alpine Meadows in California.

Cue up the Jeopardy music. The International Ski Federation’s (FIS) Web site has an online poll asking readers where they think the 2015 World Alpine Ski Championships should be held — Vail/Breaver Creek, St, Moritz, Switzerland, or Cortina, Italy? Ted Ligety probably has his opinion and you can voice yours, too, at www.fisalpineworldcup.com/Fis_alpine. As of yesterday, the local favorite was carrying 74.3 percent of the vote. FIS makes its decision on the 2015 Worlds in June 2010.