SOS Outreach, a sport outreach and mentorship program serving 15 communities and 24 mountain resorts nationwide, was awarded U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Champion Award. The award is focused on recognizing a person, group, organization, or program that has contributed significantly and sustainably to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in skiing and snowboarding.

This past season, SOS Outreach and U.S. Ski & Snowboard partnered on opportunities to give participants a unique close-up experience with U.S. national team athletes, including at the VISA Big Air at Steamboat and two community programs in Summit County, Colo. and Park City, Utah. In addition, U.S. Ski & Snowboard will host an SOS Outreach intern this summer.

“SOS Outreach’s work to make skiing and snowboarding accessible for all in our resort communities is really vital to our future as a sport,” said U.S. Ski & Snowboard President and CEO Sophie Goldschmidt. “Its work to bring the values of our sport to youth from underserved communities is really what drove U.S. Ski & Snowboard to partner with SOS Outreach.”

Since the program’s inception 28 years ago, SOS Outreach has engaged over 80,000 youth in resort communities around the country. “These are young people who would not have been a part of the sport,” said SOS Outreach Executive Director Seth Ehrlich. “This recognition goes to each of those kids and to all the ones who will follow them. Our entire team at SOS Outreach is dedicated to continuing our work and to expanding the reach of our impact. Thanks to U.S. Ski & Snowboard for walking with us to make it possible.”

SOS Outreach’s philosophy is that no matter what social, societal or economic barriers exist, every child deserves the opportunity to thrive. Its programs start with powerful outdoor experiences. On the slopes or trails, kids unearth the courage to step outside of their comfort zones, discover new strengths within themselves and develop lifelong skills. Through its proven curriculum, they empower kids in our communities to discover their true potential.

U.S. Ski & Snowboard looked to SOS Outreach to help the organization plot its course in making skiing and snowboarding more welcoming, accessible, and diverse, raising awareness across its membership and the entire sport community.

“U.S. Ski & Snowboard wants everyone to have the opportunity to experience the sense of accomplishment and well-being that participation in skiing and snowboarding brings,” said Club Development Manager and DEI Committee member Ellen Adams. “We commend SOS Outreach for being a leader in bringing youth from all backgrounds to the joy of winter sports.”

With its commitment to being best in the world, U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s focus is often seen as being on developing elite athletes. But Adams cited the work of SOS Outreach, and local clubs nationwide, as being vital to the success of the sport. “Before an athlete is competing at an elite level, and even before they are identified as an emerging athlete, we rely on our member clubs and partners to introduce families and athletes to the sport and help them develop the fundamental skills necessary to pursue their goals,” said Adams. 

DEI Champion Award annual recipients are selected based on a matrixed review of various factors reflecting the nominees’ impact on advancing DEI. The criteria include leadership of DEI in ski and snowboard, advancing education, collaborative coalition-building, development of equitable systems and implementation of effective programs.

The U.S. Ski & Snowboard DEI Committee was founded in 2017 to increase racial, ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic diversity at all levels of skiing and snowboarding. SOS Outreach was the second recipient of the award, after National Brotherhood of Skiers President Henri Rivers was recognized in 2021.

U.S. Ski & Snowboard recently announced its U.S. Ski Team nominations for the 2022-23 season. Of the 22 athletes named to the team this season, six were not on the previous year’s roster, either newly named or renamed: Michael Earnhart, Walker Hall, Zak Ketterson, Will Koch, Finn O’Connell, and Sammy Smith.

To help fans get to know these new(er) faces, FasterSkier is doing a series of interviews, providing insights into the factors that have contributed to the development, progress, and growth of these athletes last season. In this installment, we talk with Zak Ketterson about his renomination to the U.S. Ski Team on its B-Team, his World Cup breakthroughs this past season, and the growth of his club, Team Birkie. 

Ben Theyerl/FasterSkier (FS): Can you start off by telling us a little bit about yourself?

Zak Ketterson (ZK): I grew up in the Twin Cities area in Bloomington (MN). I didn’t really start skiing until 7th grade, when I got into it because my older brother (Jan) was on the high school team. Up until then, I had been into more of the traditional American sports – basketball, football, baseball – and even after my first few seasons of nordic skiing, I really didn’t like it that much better. I really wanted to play basketball, but I kept with skiing because I was having a lot of success in it, which is always fun, and like I said, I was getting to spend time with my brother and our teammates.

My first introduction to competitive skiing was the Minnesota high school league and trying to win the Minnesota state meet. That was the highest level of skiing in my head at the time, and in Minnesota, that’s the thing to win. Even as I progressed to being at Junior Nationals and started competing nationally, I wanted to win the State Meet.

When I got out to JNs, it was like, ‘oh, there’s a lot of good skiers from elsewhere,’ and that made me start thinking I wanted to continue with skiing – maybe do it in college. I went to Northern Michigan University (NMU), so stayed very local because being from the Midwest is pretty important to me. I just think it’s the coolest ski community, and always have, and going to NMU was cool because I got to follow the footsteps of Ian Torchia, Adam Martin, Kyle Bratrud, and go there with Leo Hipp and be teammates with them all – I didn’t have to leave.

Read the Full Story by Benjamin Theyerl at FasterSkier.com

U.S. Ski & Snowboard has recognized longtime ski jumping official Chuck Heckert with its Julius Blegen award - the organization’s highest service. Heckert, who passed in November 2020 was the penultimate volunteer and competition official, with a long and distinguished career of service to athletes.

A native of Grand Lake, Colo., Heckert began coaching ski jumping in 1976 at Winter Park, becoming an international judge in 1993. In the lead-up to the 2002 Olympics, he moved to Utah to oversee the ski jumping and freestyle venues at the Utah Olympic Park serving as a venue manager at the Games. Through the years he expanded his officiating role and remained at the forefront of the sport. In 2017 he received U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s Mittelstadt Award for ski jumping officials and was also inducted into the American Ski Jumping Hall of Fame.

“Chuck was the quintessential volunteer and official - a real role model,” said U.S. Ski & Snowboard President and CEO Sophie Goldschmidt. 

He was selected for the Blegen Award in a vote of past Blegenites, the U.S. Ski & Snowboard board of directors and its awards working group.

Heckert became the 76th recipient of the Julius Blegen Award dating back to 1946. The award recognizes established history of distinguished service and a lasting contribution to U.S. Ski & Snowboard and its membership. It is named in honor of Julius Blegen, a key past leader of the National Ski Association.

He will be honored in late July during USA Nordic’s annual Springertournee when the Blegen Award will be presented to his family.

JULIUS BLEGEN AWARD HONOREES

• 1946 Roger Langley
• 1947 Arthur J. Barth
• 1948 Fred McNeil
• 1949 John Hostvedt
• 1950 Fred C. Bellmar
• 1951 Douglas M. Burckett
• 1952 F.C. Koziol
• 1953 Albert E. Sigal
• 1954 Harold A. Grinden
• 1955 Burton H. Boyum
• 1956 John B. Carson
• 1957 Olav Ulland
• 1958 T. Lee McCracken
• 1959 Robert C. Johnstone
• 1960 Dr. Amos R. 'Bud' Little and Malcolm McLane
• 1961 Sepp Ruschp
• 1962 J. Stanley Mullin
• 1963 Ralph A. 'Doc' DesRoches
• 1964 Robert Beattie
• 1965 Merritt H. Stiles
• 1966 Evelyn Masbruch
• 1967 C. Allison Merrill
• 1968 Willy J. Schaeffler
• 1969 William Berry
• 1970 Earl D. Walters
• 1971 Gustav Raaum
• 1972 James Balfanz
• 1973 Charles T. Gibson
• 1974 Sven Wiik
• 1975 Byron Nishkian
• 1976 Dr. J. Leland Sosman
• 1977 Gloria Chadwick
• 1978 Richard Goetzman
• 1979 Graham Anderson
• 1980 Bill Beck
• 1981 Not awarded
• 1982 Hank Tauber
• 1983 Robert Thomson
• 1984 Ed Hammerle
• 1985 Robert Oden
• 1986 Bill Slattery
• 1987 Jim Page
• 1988 Whiting Willauer
• 1989 James H. “Red” Carruthers
• 1990 Nelson Bennett
• 1991 Tom Corcoran
• 1992 Nick Badami
• 1993 Serge Lussi
• 1994 Fraser West
• 1995 Gerald F. Groswold
• 1996 Anna McIntyre
• 1997 Faris Taylor
• 1998 Irv Kagan
• 1999 Thom Weisel
• 2000 Dr. Richard Steadman
• 2001 Warren Lowry (posthumously)
• 2002 Not Awarded
• 2003 Jim McCarthy
• 2004 Howard Peterson
• 2005 Michael Berry
• 2006 Peter Kellogg
• 2007 Charles Ferries
• 2008 Gary Black, Jr.
• 2009 Lee Todd
• 2010 Tom Winters
• 2011 Joe Lamb
• 2012 John Garnsey
• 2013 Barry 'Bear' Bryant
• 2014 Bill Marolt
• 2015 Allen Church
• 2016 Bob Dart (posthumously)
• 2017 Ted Sutton
• 2018 Bruce Crane (posthumously)
• 2019 Thelma Hoessler
• 2020 Dexter Paine
• 2021 Darryl Landstrom
• 2022 Chuck Heckert (posthumously)

U.S. Ski & Snowboard announces today that Kristen Bourne will join the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team staff as D-Team coach.

Bourne, who has worked with the team on several projects as a ski technician and coach, replaces Kate Johnson, who coached the D-Team for the past two seasons. 

“It was such a great experience to be with this team for the past two seasons,” said Johnson, who will return to the collegiate coaching ranks. “Kristen is an outstanding coach and will make a great addition to the team. I’m looking forward to being a huge supporter of the team from the sidelines.”

Thanks to a Women’s Sports Foundation grant and support from the U.S. Ski Team, Bourne joined the team for the Davos, Switzerland, Dresden, Germany, and Lahti, Finland FIS Cross Country World Cups last season, working with multiple athletes, in addition to joining the service team for ski testing and preparation.

“We were grateful for those opportunities to work directly with Kristen and to expose her to coaching and (ski) teching at the World Cup level,” noted U.S. Cross Country Team Director Chris Grover, who added that Bourne was very instrumental in the team’s success in all of these events. “She meshed super well with the team and added immediate value with both her coaching and teching ability.”

“I'm super excited to be joining the team and to hit the ground running,” Bourne said. “I had a couple of opportunities this past year to get a taste of the World Cup with the team and learn the system. Both experiences left me feeling inspired, excited, and ready for more. I'm really looking forward to getting to know all of the athletes better and being part of their pursuit of excellence and success at the highest level.”

Last summer Bourne also worked with current D-Team athletes Will Koch, Sammy Smith, and Michael Earnhart during a National Training Group camp in Park City. “Due to the poor air quality from all of the fires we spent a decent amount of time indoors on the roller ski treadmill,” she recalled. “We ran interval sessions and distance technique sessions on it which ended up being a great opportunity to work one-on-one with some of the athletes.”

Bourne holds Bachelor's degree in Sports Science from Northern Michigan University, in Marquette, Michigan, and she is currently working on her Master's degree in Exercise Physiology from The College of Saint Scholastica, in Duluth, Minnesota. She is also a former professional cross country athlete having competed in numerous FIS races, and U.S. and Norwegian National Championship events. She was also a two-time member of the U.S. Junior/U23 FIS World Championships Team. 

For the past few years, she has been the assistant cross country coach at The College of Saint Scholastica, and a U23 coach for the Craftsbury Green racing team in Craftsbury, Vermont. She also served as World Cup ski tech for U.S. athlete Bill Harmeyer in Lahti, Finland, last season.  

In addition to cross country skiing, Bourne is an avid outdoorswoman. “I love going on trail runs and adventures with my dogs and I just started dabbling with mountain biking,” she said, adding that she will spend her summer in Craftsbury, Vermont, and spend time working with many U.S. Cross Country Team athletes who spend their summer prep period training in Vermont, while also working with Development Team athletes across the U.S.

Bourne joins an experienced U.S. Cross Country Team staff that includes the following:

• Cross Country Program Director: Chris Grover
• Head Coach: Matt Whitcomb                    
• World Cup Coach: Jason Cork                                     
• D Team Coach: Kristen Bourne
• Development Team Coach: Greta Anderson                                                                            
• Cross Country Sport Development Manager: Bryan Fish                       
• Cross Country Sport Coordinator: Adam St. Pierre              
• Cross Country Communications Manager: Tom Horrocks

U.S. Ski Team athlete and 2022 NorAm Overall Champ Ava Sunshine Jemison, pictured here standing atop the podium in Sugarloaf, Maine, has been named Golden Ski Award winner for the second-straight year. 

Each season the New England Ski Museum presents this award to the most promising male and female junior alpine racers in the Eastern U.S. Their awards will be presented at a reception to be held at the New England Ski Museum at New Hampshire’s Cannon Mountain, Friday, June 10th, from 5 to 7pm.

Ava Sunshine Jemison
This is the second time Ava has won this coveted award. She showed impressive results during her first season as a U.S. Alpine Development Team athlete. Highlights included top-10 NorAm finishes in all five disciplines, including a win in slalom and one in alpine combined, which culminated in her winning the NorAm Overall title. In January, she won the giant slalom at the Italian National Championships, rounding out an excellent European swing that included multiple podium finishes. Ava also earned a silver medal in super-G at the World Junior Ski Championships in Canada and finished in the top-ten in the slalom and alpine combined as well. Over the course of the season, her world rank improved from 430 to 56 in slalom while her giant slalom world rank improved from 263 to 129. Ava’s hard work, dedication, and stellar results have earned her a nomination to the 2022-23 U.S. Alpine Ski Team B Team.

John Kerbaugh 
At the age of 16 in his first year of FIS racing as an U18 competitor, John started strong. At early regional slalom events at Sunday River he sliced through the field and moved up about 100 spots each day. A few weeks later, still starting at the back of the pack, he managed a top-10 finish in an Eastern Cup giant slalom, and he grabbed his first FIS win just a few days after that. By the end of December he was ranked second in the world for his age in giant slalom. He continued to progress throughout the year scoring Nor-Am points in alpine combined and finishing just outside the top-30 in NorAm slaloms on back-to-back days. In March, John became a national champion for the first time at the U18 National Championships in Vail, winning both runs of the giant slalom and taking the overall title by nearly one second. John finished the season with more strong results in giant slalom and slalom. He ended the year ranked third in the world for his age in giant slalom, and 12th in slalom. 

The Golden Ski Award has been presented to the top junior male and female skiers in the East since 1969, the year after the modern World Cup circuit started. Many of the Golden Ski winners have gone on to World Cup and Olympic gold as well. In 1975, the Golden Ski was "lost." In 2007, the New England Ski Museum was given some artifacts, and in that donation was the original Golden Ski. ESWA revitalized the honor. “The Golden Ski Award is the oldest honor given to junior alpine ski racers that exists today,” says Jim Gregory, Chair, of the New England Ski Museum’s Golden Ski Award Committee. “We are proud this year to honor Ava Sunshine Jemison, for the second time, and John Kerbaugh, two extraordinary athletes. We look forward to watching them pursue their goals and set the bar even higher in the sport we all love so much.”

Previous Golden Ski Award Winners:
1969: Tyler Palmer, Karen Middleton
1970: Charles Bent, Karen Middleton
1971: Rod Taylor, Judy McNealus
1972: Laurent Gaudin, Jody Palmer 
1973: Jerry McNealus, No female winner
1974: No award
1975: Scott Light, Holly Flanders
1976-2007: Award Lost
2008: Bump Heldman, Julia Ford
2009: Nolan Kasper, Julia Ford
2010: Ryan Cochran-Siegle, Julia Ford
2011: Ryan Cochran-Siegle, Mikaela Shiffrin
2012: Ryan Cochran-Siegle, Mikaela Shiffrin
2013: Kieffer Christianson, Mikaela Shiffrin
2014: Sam Morse, Alice Merryweather
2015: Drew Duffy, Nina O’Brien
2016: Ben Ritchie, Cecily Decker
2017: George Steffey, Patricia Mangan
2018: Jimmy Krupka, Abigail Jewett
2019: Ben Ritchie, Claire Thomas
2020: Ben Ritchie, Zoe Zimmermann
2021: Ben Ritchie, Ava Sunshine Jemison

Release courtesy of Jim Gregory, Chair: Eastern Ski Writers Golden Ski Award, presented by the New England Ski Museum.

Contact:
Jim Gregory (cell: 609-505-6252, email: nyleski@verizon.net)

Following a crash in Cortina d' Ampezzo, Italy this past January, Olympian Breezy Johnson announced she would sit out the upcoming Beijing Olympics to focus on healing. Johnson, who was seventh in the downhill at PyeongChang in 2018, was a favorite—along with Italy's Sofia Goggia, who was also injured recently at Cortina—for the downhill win in Beijing.

Recently, Johnson caught up with Ski Racing to discuss her injuries and her return to snow plan. She said, 

“I basically had a bad cartilage lesion when I crashed in Cortina. I tore a large chunk of cartilage off of my knee. I actually tore my ACL earlier in January and was succeeding in skiing without it,” Johnson said.

After the first crash, Johnson opted out of the upcoming speed events in Zauchensee, Austria. Feeling recuperated and ready to race a week later, she finished fourth in the first downhill training run in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Then she crashed during the second training run, tearing the meniscal roots in the same (her right) knee. 

“The only reason I didn’t talk about tearing my ACL when I did it is that I feel there’s a lot of judgment in our sport about ACL tears and re-tears,” she says. “People may think, ‘do you really think you can do this without an ACL?’ I told myself yes.  I was going to try to compete without it. I did compete without it. What people are doing and what people are capable of is somewhat their business. Remember, you’re not in my body. You’re not in my shoes.”

As far as her return back to the mountain, Johnson is hopeful for a September return and will be working hard in the gym at the USANA Center of Excellence in the meantime. “Mentally, obviously, I’ve been struggling. Physically, it’s coming along,” she says. “Our goal is to get back on snow in September. We’re on track right now, working really hard in the gym all the time.”

Read the full article at SkiRacing.com. 

With three-time Olympic medalist Jessie Diggins leading the way, the U.S. women’s cross-country team has made major strides in recent years.

But outside of the athletes competing, the world of cross-country skiing remains something of a boys’ club.

“Women are really underrepresented in ski coaching, but also in the technician roles, which are massive in cross-country,” says U.S. cross-country program director Chris Grover.

A new proposal submitted to the FIS cross country committee by U.S. Ski & Snowboard aims to change this paradigm. Under the new guidelines, each cross-country team on the World Cup circuit will receive a maximum of eight “course access” bibs, so long as two are used by women.

Read the full story by Alex Azzi at OnHerTurf.NBCSports.com

Believe it or not, it is mid-May. For those following a traditional cross-country calendar, this means the start of a new training year, building toward the 2022/2023 competition season. And, for many of the top American athletes, this means it’s time to make an annual pilgrimage to Bend, Oregon for the on-snow camp of the season at the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center.

The weather gods were kind to the camp attendees, with nearly a foot of fresh snow falling on Mt. Bachelor last weekend, restoring it to mid-Winter conditions. April was also a fruitful month for snowfall, setting up for a base-depth of 92” currently reported on the trails – not bad for May!

To learn more about the camp and what has made Bend and Mt. Bachelor a staple of the U.S. Ski Team’s early season training, FasterSkier connected with head coach Matt Whitcomb, who shared that he has been coming to Bend almost-annually for the last 26 years. 

He first experienced the trails at Mt. Bachelor during the 1996 U.S. National Championships. 

...Read the Full Story by Rachel Perkins at FasterSkier.com

 

 

 

 

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U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced Wednesday that 44 athletes across all sport disciplines at all levels have received awards through the Jeff Shiffrin Athlete Resiliency Fund. 

Last June, U.S. Ski & Snowboard, in collaboration with the Shiffrin family, announced that the Jeff Shiffrin Athlete Resiliency Fund (JSARF) would live on as a newly established need-based, direct-to-athlete funding source for U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes. The goal was to raise $250,000 with every dollar being matched by a generous anonymous donor up to $125,000. Thanks to 60 donors, the campaign reached its goal of $250,000 to be distributed to athletes across all sports at all levels, from Development Team to A/Pro Team, based on a combination of both need and merit. 

Athletes are able to use the funds toward any cost related to their sports career, including but not limited to living expenses, medical expenses, and rehabilitation from injury. Being a JSARF award winner means that an independent review committee, comprised mostly of former athletes, believes that these athletes are capable of breaking through to the next elite level of their sport. The committee was impressed by the stories of athlete resilience and acknowledged the hard work and dedication the athletes have demonstrated. 

In the inaugural year of providing the JSARF awards, the program has achieved the following milestones:

• 60 donors contributed to the campaign
• 44 applicants were awarded stipends of up to $13,000
• Multiple athletes from all sport disciplines received awards
• 59% of the awards went to female athletes and 41% went to male athletes
• The vast majority of award recipients received 50% or more of their total funding request
• Applicants spanned all levels of sport, from first-year team members to Olympic athletes

Several award winners have expressed that this funding is providing them with the opportunity to keep their sports careers moving forward, particularly Development Team/Rookie Team athletes.

Two-time Olympic champion, six-time world champion, and mental health awareness advocate Mikaela Shiffrin shared her thoughts about the impact the Fund has had on the organization and her teammates. “My Dad was passionate about elite sports and believed in supporting athletes who are hardworking, disciplined, and constantly pushing themselves to be better and overcome challenges to compete at the top of their game,” she reflected. “His passion for sport and athletes lives on through this fund, which we created to honor his life and legacy.” 

Shiffrin, her mother Eileen, and her brother Taylor shared that they created the fund in their father and husband’s name so “his legacy will live on and he will continue to contribute to the ongoing pursuit of excellence for all athletes across all sports.” 

U.S. Ski and Snowboard CEO Sophie Goldschmidt added, “We’re delighted to be partnering with the Shiffrins on this important program, the number of athletes the JSARF is supporting just shows the impact. We’re extremely grateful to the Shiffrins and the donors for their commitment to this initiative and the lasting legacy.”

A new round of fundraising will also start this Father’s Day, for distribution in the spring of 2023.

U.S. Ski & Snowboard, the National Governing Body of Olympic skiing and snowboarding in the United States, announced today that the International Ski Federation (FIS) provisionally approved the United States’ hosting of four Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup events in the 2022-23 season, doubling the amount of alpine World Cups in the U.S. in recent years. The 2022-23 FIS World Cup schedules were confirmed on May 25 at the annual FIS Congress.

For the last five years, the U.S. has hosted two alpine World Cup events: the women’s Killington Cup in Killington, Vermont and the men’s Xfinity Birds of Prey at Beaver Creek, Colorado. Once the schedule is approved, the 2022-23 winter will mark the expansion of the domestic World Cup footprint as U.S. Ski & Snowboard will bring alpine ski racing to Palisades Tahoe in California and Aspen Mountain in Colorado, marking the most World Cups on American soil since the 1996-97 season.

“We are thrilled to bring four World Cups to U.S. venues this season to provide our country’s ski racing fans with more opportunities to see the best skiers across the globe compete on our home turf,” said U.S. Ski & Snowboard President & CEO Sophie Goldschmidt. “This is a pivotal move for our organization and FIS to grow the sport within the United States and make events more accessible to attend. The expansion gives us a further opportunity to bring more attention to the sport domestically and inspire the next generation of U.S. athletes.”

The 2022-23 season kicks off in North America with the Killington Cup over Thanksgiving Weekend for a women’s slalom and giant slalom World Cup. The following week, the men head to Beaver Creek for the annual Xfinity Birds of Prey super-G and two downhills. Following World Cup stops in Europe, the men will return to the states for tech events at Palisades Tahoe on February 25-26, 2023, followed by speed events at Aspen Mountain on March 3-5, 2023. 

The Killington Cup, a regular stop on the women’s circuit since 2016, was the first World Cup to be hosted in the eastern United States since 1991 and has since become a favorite event of local fans and World Cup stars alike. It will be headlined by two-time Olympic champion and 2021-22 overall World Cup winner Mikaela Shiffrin. Shiffrin has won all five of the past Killington Cup slaloms in front of the yearly crowds of nearly 40,000 ski racing enthusiasts.

The Vail Valley Foundation—local organizers of the legendary Xfinity Birds of Prey race since 1997 and three FIS Alpine World Ski Championships at Vail/Beaver Creek in 1989, 1999 and 2015—and Beaver Creek Resort will once again play host to two downhills and a super-G. Athletes such as 2022 Olympic silver medalist Ryan Cochran-Siegle, 2021 Xfinity Birds of Prey podium star Travis Ganong and local legend River Radamus will be looking to show off in front of the home crowd.

Palisades Tahoe is a storied Olympic venue, having hosted the Olympic Winter Games in 1960. The mountain’s challenging terrain and dedication to snowsports have produced countless Olympians and World Cup champions since then; there are currently seven Team Palisades Tahoe athletes on the U.S. Alpine Ski Team. Palisades Tahoe most recently hosted a women’s World Cup event in 2017 on the same trails that crowned Olympic heroes more than 50 years earlier.

America’s Downhill returns to Aspen Mountain, an iconic venue with several decades of U.S. Alpine Ski Team history. Aspen was the host of the first World Championships held outside of the European borders in 1950 and the mountain has produced innumerable ski racing legends throughout the last century. Aspen has hosted more than 100 World Cup races for both men and women over the years and was home to the World Cup Finals in 2017.

The expansion of the alpine World Cup calendar in the United States is part of a larger plan to host more World Cup-level events in America across all U.S. Ski & Snowboard sports and genders in the coming years.

2022-23 U.S. WORLD CUP SCHEDULE 

ALPINE
Nov. 26-27: Killington Cup, Killington, Vermont; women’s slalom/giant slalom
Dec. 2-4: Xfinity Birds of Prey, Beaver Creek, Colorado; men’s super-G/downhill/downhill
Feb. 25-26: Palisades Tahoe, California; men’s slalom/giant slalom
March 3-5: America's Downhill, Aspen, Colorado; men’s super-G/downhill

FREESTYLE
Feb. 2-4: Intermountain Healthcare Freestyle International, Deer Valley, Utah; men's and women’s aerials/moguls

FREESKI & SNOWBOARD 
Dec. 16-17: Toyota U.S. Grand Prix, Copper Mountain, Colorado; men's and women’s halfpipe
Dec. 16-17: Visa Big Air Presented by Toyota, Copper Mountain, Colorado; men’s and women’s big air
Feb. 2-4: Toyota U.S. Grand Prix, Mammoth Mountain, California; men's and women’s halfpipe/slopestyle