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World Record Speed Racer

CJ Mueller

I first met CJ Mueller when I was building a six-story condominium project at Copper Mtn. He was operating a backhoe and wore these really dark sunglasses. I never knew if were really communicated because of the lack of eye contact and the noise of the tractor. I'd just scream some directions and he would halfway nod his head. Later, I saw him participating in the local parades, over period of time, dressed up as 50's biker. It wasn't until a number of years later did I find out he had become a world class speed skier. I went over to his home in downtown Breckenridge to see if I could find out more about his unique personality. He graciously invited me in and told some amazing stories.

"I moved in 1970, about fifteen years. I went right out of high school into college. Then after one year of college I moved up here. I've been up here ever since. I had raced a little bit and the first year I moved up here. I had intentions of racing a little bit more. There got to be a problem with the work I had conflicted with the races and so I just kind of blew it off.

"The first year I moved up here I worked out at the High Tor which was the Summit Motor Inn now. And it was kind of a full time dish washer, maintenance man type job and we'd stay there. Then we skied on weekends and that's when the races were, so it worked out.

"My real name is John Frederick Mueller. And I get CJ from a long time ago when we use to race up at the employee race the first year they had them. Everybody on the team had a nickname and they started calling me crazy John.

"That was back in the days when five season passes cost $300 for a business and at the end of the year the people at the area figured it cost me thirty-five cents a day to go skiing. I worked there that winter and then I found myself a little apartment right off of Main Street, right behind where Alpine Camera is now. There's just a little one bedroom apartment. I moved into there and started doing some laboring work for some guys I'd met at the Summit Motor Inn...doing some concrete work. Eventually I got a job at a rock crusher and learned how to run a loader. Then I learned how to run heavy equipment from there. So now I've gone to work for Stan Miller (excavating contractor) for five summers.

"I asked him last year if I could shoot grades pretty much full time because they needed somebody to do it. And he said ok. That way I stayed on my feet instead of having to sit down on a machine. He needed somebody to do it and I wanted to do it...so it worked out. I haven't been up in about four weeks now. But I was skiing a lot right up till the first week of August. Some guys were going up today and they said they were going to call me, but I think the weather is bad enough so they decided not to go. We go to the snowfield up on Peak 10. In fact four weeks ago I had a course set up that was 31 gates, a 31 gate slalom which was pretty amazing. Running gates is the best way to ski it in the summer because the snow gets so pitted and rough. If you set a course and ski the same line, the skis smooth it. So it gets easier the more you ski it.

CJ Mueler

CJ Mueller at World Speed Championships, Araphahoe Basin, Colo.

"I drive up to the bottom and hike up from the bottom. After awhile it doesn't seem like work at all because you do it so many times. You get use to it and pace yourself because you got to be rested up when you get to the top so you can ski down. You just pace yourself. I got to the point that first week in August where the only reason I was leaving was because the weather was getting bad, not because I was getting tired.

"It's funny, the reason I got back into ski racing up here. I was just a kind of ski bum, skiing powder and skiing every day. I was just going to the ski area every day and really enjoyed it. Larry Hardy moved out from Connecticut who was a good friend of mine now and we skied together for five years. He joined the ski team and started racing. Pretty soon he was skiing as good as I was and when he moved out here, he wasn't that good of a skier. I looked at him and he was skiing so much better from his racing experience. I liked to ski fast and a couple of people involved with the ski team told me I ought to start racing downhill. So I joined the ski team and started racing downhill. I did pretty good at it and even then I was twenty-three years old and I was eight or ten years older than most of the kids racing. I had a real good time at it and so I kept racing downhill. That's all I did. I raced a little slalom and giant slalom. I focused on downhill racing and really enjoyed it. Eventually when I was twenty-seven years old I was invited to a ski team development camp -- which was kind of unusual because of my age. But they figured I'd earned it because I was really gun ho about running downhill, so they figured I earned it and let me come.

"Then I developed a problem with my knees, the lateral ligaments were too tight which is kind of unusual. Most people have the problem of their ligaments loosening up and their kneecaps get loose. My ligaments were too tight and it was pulling my kneecaps out of joint to the outside. So every time I'd bend my leg the kneecap would be moving out of place. It got pretty bad in my left knee. I thought I had to have it operated on and I did have it operated on and ended up that my knees hurt in the left knee. Now instead of hurting when I'm done skiing, it hurts while I'm skiing and feels fine when I'm done. But it's getting better and that's the reason I quit downhill racing and got into speed skiing because the turn is what hurt. After the operation while I was making turns...it hurt.

"I was over in France...went over there for a kind of last fling because I knew my knees were going to be operated on and they were pretty much shot and I wouldn't be able to race downhill anymore. So I went over there and raced in some international downhills. While I was there, in fact the first day that I was there--I had just flown over and skied one day at Val d'Isere. The next day I went with some people, I had been introduced to, to the speed track in Les Arcs where we have the world championships. They just went over there for a day of training. I went along and I had on regular downhill skis, 225's, and a regular downhill suite and goggles. My first run I did 100 mph. They were pretty amazed. Of course I had a pair of really fast skis and I felt really good that year and the year before I did really good downhill racing. But they were kind of amazed and I decided that spring since I was going to have my knee operated on, that instead of racing downhill that I would race speed skiing. Go pro and hang up downhill racing, but that's how I got involved in that. I went to Silverton that year and raced. That summer I had my knee operated on. I didn't qualify for the final day at Silverton that year, I just fore-ran the final run at Silverton my first year, but I did 111 mph as my top speed.

"That next year I went over to Europe speed skiing and in my first international race I came in seventh place. I was pretty excited. In France I set the world record for production skis this year, that eventually got broken by Weber and Wills. When I was riding up the lift, I knew we had gotten close to the record the day before and I knew these guys, Weber and Wills, had their choice of when they wanted to run because they had come in the top five on the run before and I hadn't. I knew I'd be running sixth or seventh in the order. They would probably be coming down after me. I knew that I had some fast skis. Dynastar had specially built some skis for me...some 223's specifically for this event. And as I was riding up the lift I knew I was going to set a new world record. I just knew it was going to happen. And when I got to the top I wasn't really thinking any thing special. In fact I think that may have been helping me because a lot of the time I'm thinking of my position and pushing. When I came down I think I was a little bit looser than I usually am. Thinking back about it, since I was a little bit looser I was able to get into a little bit better tuck and my skis were able to run a little bit flatter. I wasn't scared at all...I mean you're at 110 mph. That's what I ran. Weber did 112 and Wills did 111. I think I did 110.9 mph. I wasn't scared at all. It was an easy run and I wasn't really thinking of anything.

"At the higher speeds, when you get up over 120 mph, I get nervous. For one thing we've never had a track that I've been really confident in since about two years ago at Silverton. In France we've never had the track really smooth. I really think we could do 135 in France if they really worked on getting a really smooth track for us. I'm a little nervous up at the start, but mostly I think about getting a good powerful start and riding a good tuck. And you really can't think about anything else.

"There isn't any money in speed skiing...I don't even want to call myself a professional athlete because I've spent more money on it than I've made. That includes money I've made money I made last year working for RJ Reynolds. They've paid me to go and promote speed skiing. I've still not come out ahead because of all the money I've spent going to Europe. Pretty much the money I made with RJ last year just paid for the trip to Europe. I came in second in one race and seventh in a couple, so total prize money there was only two thousand dollars. So I've only made about five thousand dollars off the whole deal and I've probably spent about ten in the last three years.

CJ Mueler at

CJ (left) watching the next racer coming down the course at Arapahoe Basin.

"I don't want to get back into the competition aspect of downhill, but I want to keep fore-running. I'm just happy being a ski bum. I don't feel any burning desire to become financially successful. To me just to be able to ski every day and to do the things I want to do in the winter which is to ski. And I coach at Copper Mountain so I'm helping out some kids and I like helping out down-hollers at the races. If anybody comes to me and has any questions, I like to help them out. I just really enjoy downhill races mostly and skiing powder.

"I finally got my act together a little bit and came up with a written proposal for some potential sponsors. I've given a couple to some friends of mine...one guy who works with Bob Beattie and World Wide Ski Corporation...who is looking for sponsors for me while he's traveling around talking to sponsors with the Nastar Races and the things Beattie does. He's got one interested sponsor right now. I gave a proposal to the Breckenridge Ski Area. They contacted me just the day before yesterday and we set up an appointment for next week just to talk about it and see if they are interested in helping sponsor me.

"I really can't picture myself sponsored by Vail. If Breckenridge doesn't sponsor me, I may talk to Copper because I work over there. But I'm confident that we can work something out from Breckenridge because I don't want to put Copper Mountain or Vail on my suite because I've been at Breckenridge for fifteen years and I ski here. I would rather ski here rather than somewhere else.

"About the first place prize for the Pub Crawl you asked about, I didn't bring it home. I gave the prize to the second place guy...it was a pair of skis and I didn't need them. There were 17 bars in the Pub Crawl and everyone runs them on St. Patrick's day. We all start in one spot and have a little sheet-listing the bars- and we run bar to bar. You've got to be on foot. The first guy that drinks a beer at every bar and back at the starting point---wins. There wasn't that much because they were little kegs and when you're in that much of a hurry...you spill some of it and the little kegs aren't that big. But there was a lot of beer in my Stomach. I got to admit I was a little bit sick after that race.

"The Pub Crawl started at 2:00. What I did was...it was a nice powder day. So I went up to the ski area and I knew I would be running the Pub Crawl. So instead of just skiing around in the crud, I hiked up and made two runs early in the morning up on Peak Seven. I hiked up Peak Eight almost to the top and traversed across to the top of Peak Seven. It was great snow! It was a great day! I skied two runs up there and came down.

"I don't know what it was but I felt really good that day. I had been feeling really good and I had been hiking up Peak Seven lots so I felt like I was in really good shape. When I came down I just started taking lots of Vitamin B. I don't know if that helped at all. But as soon as I got down I took some Vitamin B. Before I went to the Angel's Rest to figure out my strategy for the race I took some vitamin B. And then just before the race I took some more vitamin B because I heard it keeps you from getting drunk. I don't know if that's just a rumor, but I had a good race.

"I think the main reason I won wasn't because I was really that much better shape. There was only one other guy that was really competitive. I just had a better route because I lived here for so long. I knew exactly which way to go. I planned it out so I would have a fairly fast route...The guy that came in second actually was faster than me. Because he had run a farther distance and he came in right behind me. Just before we were going up the stairs I jumped over a mud puddle and he didn't see it. He slipped on some ice and fell in a puddle. And so I got up there first and they didn't have any of the beers poured. So as I was running up, they poured my beer and then everybody else was kind of clogged up behind me. They were kind of slow getting the beers out to them , so I got a good head start right off the bat. And from there it was just a matter of hanging on.

"Once when I was racing in Aspen, I caught my tip on the last gate and it kind of flipped me upside down and I slipped into the 4X4's that was holding up the finish banners. They didn't have them padded real well. I broke four transverse processes in my back. While I was laid up, Larry Hardy decided to set a record on Mach I because we'd always talked about it. And he just started doing it. He called me at noon and said he was going to do fifty runs on Mach I. And I was laid up in bed. I think he was doing this half way to cheer me up and half way to see how many runs he could do. He did fifty runs on it. He moved out of town the next year.

"I went up to the ski area one day. It was like in December, the 17th or something in 77. It was a really cold day and I rode up the lift and didn't even ski right away. I was so cold I went in to warm up and decided to see what's it like down Southern Cross and the sun was shining but it was about ten degrees out. It was really cold to make long runs. I said `I'm just going to leave.' I got down to the bottom of the seven up lift and it was like Hawaii down there. No wind and the sun was shining. I was kind of warm down in that hole, so I figured I would ski here all day. I made about four runs and took off all my clothes...all the heavy clothes I had for the cold. And said `hey, that's four runs isn't it.' and the lift operator said `Yah that's four'. And I said `well mark them all down as I go up and we'll see how many I can do.' I was making like fifteen runs an hour. The lift ride was like about three minutes. I averaged fourteen or fourteen and a half runs an hour and skied from like ten o'clock to three o'clock. Yah, I did about fourteen and a half runs an hour for about five hours, a little over five hours to do seventy-seven. They just kept count of them and I never did stop. There never was a lift line down there. It was so cold nobody was down there. One time there was about three people waiting, so I had some lunch in my pack and I grabbed a couple of Mystic Mint Cookies and drank a Dr. Pepper and that's all I had. My legs didn't bother me at all, but my stomach tightened up so much from using my stomach muscles. Because when you get off of the Seven Up lift you have to ski uphill to get to Mach I.

"Then in 1973, I started getting mixed up with the Rowdies. A guy named Dicky Hiteman lived in town. He knew the people that owned the Monte Christo and he had a collection of 50's records. He started going in there on Thursday nights or something during the winter and doing 50's nights. I was living with 'Larry the Loaf' at the time and he was really into it. We thought it would be really hilarious to grease up and go to the Monte Christo. So we started going to these fifties nights and pretty soon we had some pretty good outfits. We had leather jackets and everything. I kind of kept this thing going. Then the ski patrol got into it and soon we started a gang. Pretty soon I bought myself a black leather jacket. We got the mirrored sunglasses and slicked our hair back. One thing led to another and the next thing we knew we had a whole group of people greasing up. So we decided to start our own little motor cycle gang. We were a motor cycle gang without motor cycles. We didn't drive anywhere, we just went to the fifties nights and terrorized everybody. Finally Miner's Camp had tee-shirts printed up saying `Ridge Street Rowdies' or something and they had one every Sunday night for one summer. And they did a real good business.

"We got a couple of groups together and took a bus down to Denver to fifties nights down there. We scared the hell out of them the first time we showed up. We were close to getting into a rumble a couple of times. Our costumes got so realistic that when we go down to Denver, people think we're a real motorcycle gang. Even in Breckenridge now when we go out, people think we're really greasers. As long as I'm still around it still will be going. But there are not a whole lot of guys involved right now because so many guys have moved away.

"I was just thinking last year that I was just having such a good time that I didn't want to change. I don't want to start thinking about business and all that. I'm thirty-two years old and there are probably a lot of people who think that it is kind of stupid for a thirty-two year old guy to be a ski bum. But then again, there are probably a lot of them that are kind of jealous. Fortunately I don't really care what anybody else thinks. I'm just happy doing what I'm doing and I can't imagine myself being as happy doing anything else. And I just want to keep skiing."

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