Bergoust, Kavunov Return to Coach U.S. Freestyle Team

The U.S. Freestyle Ski Team welcomes two familiar faces to their aerials’ coaching roster. Dmitriy Kavunov has joined as Head Coach of the Elite Aerials Development Program (EADP) in Lake Placid and Eric Bergoust has joined as World Cup Aerials Coach in Park City. Both Kavunov and Bergoust have storied aerials careers and are excited to be back with the organization.

Kavunov comes from a gymnastics background and was an aerialist in Uzbekistan from 1982 to 1984. “There was no official team at that time, it was more like a club,” Kavunov said. “Me and a couple of guys would go out and practice ourselves.”

In 1985, after the first sanctioned FIS World Cup Aerials event, the discipline became an official sport in the Union of Soviet Social Republics (USSR) and Kavunov became the team’s coach. It was during this early time of aerials in the USSR that Kavunov started coaching Lina Cheryasova (Tashkent, Uzbekistan), who won gold at the 1994 Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway. “Lina was the athlete that put Dmitriy on the map,” noted Todd Ossian, head aerials coach for U.S. Ski & Snowboard.

In 1992 Kavunov went back to Uzbekistan to coach aerials until 1999 when he moved to New York to coach gymnastics. During his time in New York, he worked with the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA). From there Kavunov coached the Canadian aerials team for six years, the last two of which he worked specifically with their development program. In 2008 Kavunov helped start the EADP for U.S. Ski & Snowboard and was with the program until 2010. For the next eight years Kavunov contracted with the Russian Federation, working through two Olympic cycles.

It’s come full circle now for Kavunov with U.S. Ski & Snowboard as he returns to running the EADP. “I’m excited to be back with the EADP, which I helped start. Without the EADP there wouldn't be a opportunity for aerial athletes to train for Olympic-level competition since there are [few] club-level aerials teams in the U.S,” Kavunov  said.

“We’re so excited to have Dmitriy back. He helped build our current team,” said U.S. Ski & Snowboard C-Team Aerial Coach Emily Cook. “He’s coached our two current World Champions and Grand Prix Champion. We’re looking forward to him being a part of that process for new athletes.”

Following Kavunov’s departure from the EADP in 2010, Eric Bergoust took up the mantle of head coach until 2013. Bergoust was an aerialist on the U.S. Freestyle Team from 1989 - 2006.  He competed in four Olympics (1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006) and won gold at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games Nagano, Japan. Bergoust has consulted with U.S. Ski & Snowboard for the past five years and is now back as the World Cup Aerials Coach.

“It will be fun to work with the national team athletes that I coached during my time at the EADP,” Bergoust said about being at U.S. Ski & Snowboard full time.

“Having Bergy back with [us] is so awesome,” Cook remarked. “He was an amazing teammate and I am really looking forward to coaching with him full time now. He has a massive technical knowledge of the sport and the athletes are so fortunate to be learning from one the best.”