Men's Alpine Utilizes Private Mammoth Training
MAMMOTH LAKES, CA (May 10) – Olympians including Ted Ligety (Park City, UT), Will Brandenburg (Spokane, WA) and Steven Nyman (Sundance, UT) are up early this week to utilize private alpine training at Mammoth Mountain. The resort has been spinning the lifts for the U.S. Ski Team beginning at 6 a.m. PT allowing for incredibly productive training on hard smooth snow until the resort opens to the public at 8:30 a.m. PT. Ideal California weather has produced cold nights where the snow can freeze followed by consecutive blue sky days.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Mammoth Mountain has made their resort available to the U.S. Ski Team starting each morning at 6 a.m. PT for two and a half hours of private training before opening to the public at 8:30 a.m. PT.
- Athletes are testing skis and other equipment as well as training giant slalom, slalom and super G on a variety of slopes specially prepared by the Mammoth Mountain Race Department and U.S. coaches.
- Among the top alpine athletes at Mammoth are Ted Ligety (Park City, UT), Will Brandenburg (Spokane, WA), Steven Nyman (Sundance, UT), Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley, CA), Tim Jitloff (Reno, NV) and Junior World Champion Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, VT).
- It marks the first gate training of the preparation period for Nyman, who missed the 2012 season with a torn achilles.
- The nine-day camp, which closes Sunday, is designed to allow each athlete to work on specific needs before moving into heavy conditioning sessions and high volume on-snow training later in the preparation period.
QUOTES
Will Brandenburg
It has been incredibly productive at Mammoth – probably the most productive camp I've had in a number of years. I've been taking 12 runs each day with six of those being full speed training runs of full-length or beyond full-length slalom.
Last season I was getting tired for the last 15 seconds during races so the aim is to increase my endurance by training on longer courses. I'm also working on getting my body to the outside at the top of the turn in order to be more consistent in finishing.
The weather has been epic. Super cold at night and so far we haven't had a day without sun. I've been road biking a lot in the afternoons and even got out rock climbing yesterday – we're definitely staying active.
Forest Carey, Coach
Ted [Ligety] is specifically working on testing skis right now with coaches Mike Day and Dane Spencer and I've been working with Brandenburg on tip clearance in slalom and even a little giant slalom. It's been a while since he's been on GS skis.
Steven [Nyman] and Travis [Ganong] are primarily working with the speed group and we also have Tommy Biesemeyer and Ryan Cochran-Siegle who are focusing on giant slalom. There's a lot going on, but we have a great set-up with perfect snow and our own private hill for a few hours each morning.