It was a night of ‘almosts’ across the U.S. Ski Team as the Visa Freestyle International wrapped up with a packed house for aerials. Jonathon Lillis (Rochester, N.Y.) put down a near perfect score to earn a spot in the super finals but crashed on the landing of his final jump to finish sixth.

Russian Maxim Burov took the win over China’s Guangpu Qi for the men. China’s Mengtao Xu took a dominating win over Russian Kristina Spiridonova for the women with Maddy Olsen (Park City, Utah) fourth. Madison Varmette (Stafford, Va.) was sixth in her first appearance in the super finals.

Favored Kiley McKinnon (Madison, Conn.) and Ashley Caldwell (Ashburn, Va.) failed to make the Super Final cut. With no American women on the podium, McKinnon did clinch an Olympic spot with just two aerials events remaining.

In the opening round, McKinnon landed clean but just missed the six-skier super finals. Caldwell went with her traditional triple but touched down and failed to advance.

Lillis, on the other hand, went huge on his opening jump landing a textbook perfect quadruple twisting triple flip just two points from a perfect score.

“They don’t give out perfect score so it’s about as good as it gets,” he said “If I can get that going and keep that momentum up into the games I’ll be really happy.”

As the last jumper of the evening, he went big again with another quad twisting triple, this time a higher degree of difficulty, but spun out on landing.

“Going into the Super Final it was all about doing that full full double full,” he said. “It’s a hard trick to land and hard to perform. It’s all about practice and building up to the Games. That’s the one I intend to use to win there.”

The tour now heads to Lake Placid, New York for a pair of aerials events next weekend. So far only McKinnon has clinched a team spot, which requires two top-three finishes. The full team will be announced the week of January 22.

RESULTS
Men’s Aerials
Women’s Aerials

David Wise (Reno, Nev.) led a USA podium sweep in the Visa freeski halfpipe at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix to punch his ticket to South Korea for the 2018 Olympics. Local boy Alex Ferreira (Aspen, Colo.) finished second in front of the Snowmass Mountain crowd and Aaron Blunck (Crested Butte, Colo.) was third.

The defending Olympic gold medalist from 2014, Wise put down a massive first run, establishing his dominance with a 95-point score. No one could touch him, though Ferreira came close with a 93-point run on his final run through the pipe. Blunck put down a killer first run with a 91.20 score, but crashed hard on his third run and limped down the course.

“I’m on cloud nine,” said Wise. “Honestly, the level of skiing right now is the highest I’ve ever seen it - halfpipe skiing is insane. The guys who are getting fifth and sixth today would have been on top of the podium two years ago, so that just speaks to the level of skiing. It’s a huge honor to be out here shredding and to be able to sweep the podium with Alex Ferreira and Aaron Blunck is as good as it gets.”

While Wise clinched his qualifying spot for the freeski halfpipe team, both Ferreira and Blunck made objective Olympic criteria with a second podium in an Olympic qualifier. Both will look to lock in their spots at Mammoth Mountain next week, where the official U.S. Olympic Team will be named.

Brita Sigourney (Carmel, Calif.) captured her first Olympic qualifying podium in the women’s halfpipe, taking second place behind Cassie Sharpe of Canada.

“I’m so stoked,” said Sigourney. “I haven’t podium since like 2015, so this came at a crucial time and it feels really good to be back up there.”

The Toyota U.S. Grand Prix freeski events at Snowmass Mountain continue with slopestyle finals on Saturday and a freeski slopestyle Olympic selection event Sunday. The final Olympic qualifying event takes place Jan. 18-21 at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain, where the U.S. Olympic Teams will be named.

RESULTS
Men's halfpipe
Women's halfpipe

OLYMPIC STANDINGS
Men's and women's freeskiing

Red Gerard (Silverthorne, Colo.) took the win at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Aspen’s Snowmass Mountain, which officially nominated him to the U.S. Olympic Team for snowboard slopestyle and big air.

Snowmass Mountain was again covered with a thick layer of snow this morning, causing delays in the slopestyle competition and an eventual decision to not hit the last jump due to low speeds. But the competition was still high, with Gerard throwing a massive second run and scoring an 87.28 over Hiroaki Kunitake of Japan. New Zealand’s Tiarn Collins was third.

“Qualifying for the Olympics today was amazing, but the best part about today was having my little sister Asher with me at the top before I dropped in,” said Gerard, whose family watched him at the event. “This was a pretty fun contest. I love riding at Snowmass.”

Ryan Stassel (Anchorage, Alaska) had trouble with his first two runs, but put down a clean third run to take seventh. Chandler Hunt (Park City, Utah) finished eighth.

In the women’s slopestyle, Jessika Jenson (Rigby, Idaho), who won the slopestyle qualifiers, took fifth place. Ty Walker (Stowe, Vt.) was seventh.

Gerard joins his U.S. Snowboard Team comrade Chris Corning (Silverthorne, Colo.) on the Olympic slopestyle and big air team. Jamie Anderson (South Lake Tahoe, Calif.) is the only U.S. female slopestyle and big air rider to have been named, so far.

The final Olympic spots will be decided at the last Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain Jan. 18-21.

RESULTS
Men’s slopestyle
Women’s slopestyle

OLYMPIC STANDINGS
Men’s and women’s snowboarding

With each event, more athletes are clinching spots on the Olympic Team. Full teams will be announced the week of January 22.

In moguls events Wednesday and Thursday, Jaelin Kauf and Morgan Schild earned spots. 

At the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix Friday, U.S. Freeski Team member David Wise punch his ticket to South Korea for the 2018 Olympics, while U.S. Snowboard Team rider Red Gerard was officially nominated to the U.S. Olympic Team for snowboard slopestyle and big air. 

Friday in Wengen, Bryce Bennett and Ryan Cochran-Siegle clinched spots by their finishes in the final alpine combined. Earlier in the week, Resi Stiegler earned her third Olympic Team berth after the final slalom of the qualifying period.

Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley, Calf.) picked up his fifth career FIS Ski World Cup top-10 result in alpine combined, leading four Americans into the top 20 Friday in Wengen, Switzerland.

“The top 10 thing is getting kind of old,” said Bennett, who finished ninth. “I knew after Bormio (where he finished 19th)… I was pretty upset with how that slalom run went and I knew that I had some better slalom skiing. I thought I did a better job (today). I had a little trouble up top, but I kept it rolling pretty well.”

Ted Ligety (Park City, Utah), who won the alpine combined in Wengen in 2014, just missed the top 10, finishing 11th Friday.  Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, Vt.) was 18th and Jared Goldberg (Holladay, Utah) finished 19th.

France’s Victor Muffat-Jeandet won his first World Cup race Friday. Pavel Trikhichev of Russia landed his first World Cup podium in second, as Italy’s Peter Fill was third.

Up next, the men tackle the Lauberhorn downhill in Wengen Saturday.

RESULTS
Men’s alpine combined

HOW TO WATCH
All times EST

Saturday, Jan. 13
4:30 a.m. – Women’s super-G; Bad Kleinkirchheim – Olympic Channel TV
6:30 a.m. – Men’s downhill; Wengen – Olympic Channel TV
10:00 p.m. – Women’s Super-G; Bad Kleinkirchheim – NBCSN (same day coverage)
11:00 p.m. – Men’s downhill; Wengen – NBCSN (same day coverage)

Sunday, Jan. 14
4:15 a.m. – Men’s slalom, run 1; Wengen –olympicchannel.com
5:00 a.m. – Women’s downhill; Bad Kleinkirchheim – Olympic Channel TV
6:30 a.m. – Men’s slalom, run 2; Wengen – Olympic Channel TV

U.S. Ski & Snowboard has named a team of 36 athletes to its squad that will compete in the International Ski Federation's (FIS) Junior Nordic World Ski Championships and U23 Cross Country World Championships Jan. 28-Feb. 3 in Goms and Kandersteg, Switzerland. 

The Junior Worlds team has a strong mix of veterans including medalists Hannah Halvorsen (Truckee, Calif./Alaska Pacific Nordic Ski Center) and Hailey Swirbul (Carbondale, Colo./Univ. of Alaska-Anchorage) from last year's cross country team and Youth Olympic Games nordic combined silver medalist from 2016 Ben Loomis (Eau Claire, Wis./Flying Eagles Ski Club).

The championships will also be a first for women's nordic combined, with a debut test event. FIS added nordic combined last spring, with subsequent addition of a U.S. Ski & Snowboard national championship. Tess Arnone, 15, of the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club will enter the test event for the USA.

Cross country athletes were chosen from domestic selection events including the L.L.Bean U.S. Cross Country Championships in early January at Anchorage as well as selection events for ski jumping and nordic combined at both Steamboat Springs and the Utah Olympic Park.

The Junior Worlds cross country team is coming off a double medal last year in Utah. Remaining from that bronze medal winning relay team are Halvorsen and Swirbul. It will be Swirbul's third Junior Worlds and second for Halvorsen.

The jumping team will be led by Casey Larson (Barrington, Ill./Norge Ski Club), who scored a top 10 in last year's Junior Worlds, making his third appearance in the international event. Loomis, making his third Junior Worlds appearance, and Steven Schumann (Park City, Utah/Park City Ski & Snowboard) also had top 10s last season at Junior Worlds.

"Having proven leaders like Hannah and Hailey will be a big asset for us in showing the way for younger skiers," said U.S. Cross Country Ski Team Development Coach Bryan Fish. "We had a very strong qualifying series at U.S. Championships and the team is heading to Switzerland with confidence."

"We have seen a lot of progress from all of the women on the team this year and we feel the team is getting stronger as a whole," said USA Nordic Coach Blake Hughes. "We are excited to get over to Europe and continue their growth as international competitors." The women's team will get its first taste of World Cup experience in Ljubno, Slovenia the weekend before Junior Worlds. 

The men's jumping team has a blend of rookies and veterans. "It's great to see that Andy (Urlaub) and Hunter (Gibson) could step up their game this year and qualify for the team," added Hughes. "They are all excited to get over to Europe and compete with their international peers." Casey Larson will remain on the Continental Cup tour, meeting up with his teammates in Kandersteg. The rest of the team will stay stateside the next few weeks to compete in U.S. Cup competitions at the Flying Eagles Ski Club in Eau Claire, Wis., Norge Ski Club in Fox River Grove, Ill., and Ishpeming Ski Club in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It will be the 132nd consecutive annual contest at Ishpeming's Suicide Bowl.

The World Juniors combined team has really stepped up with Loomis, Schumann and Jared Shumate (Park City, Utah/Park City Ski & Snowboard) all competing well for their age on the Continental Cup tour. The battle for fourth spot on the team was intense, with Tucker Hoefler winning a World Juniors qualifier to grab a berth on the team.

The team will do a pre-Championships camp in Oberstorf, Germany beginning January 22 then move to Kandersteg for official training that begins on January 28.

The U23 cross country team is a very seasoned group of racers with only two athletes who have not been on a past Junior Worlds team (Lydia Blanchet and Andrew Egger). The team also includes Junior Worlds medalist Julia Kern (Waltham, Mass./Stratton Mountain School). Kern has competed on the entire first period of the World Cup tour to gain experience leading up to the U23 World Championships.

Fish anticipates the freestyle sprint to be a strong event for both the U23 and Junior Worlds teams. First year U23 athlete Zak Zetterson (Bloomington, Minn./Northern Michigan University) was fourth overall at the L.L.Bean U.S. Cross Country Championships. Ian Torchia (Marquette, Mich./Northern Michigan University) should be strong in distance races. Torchia won the Silver Star NorAm Cup 15k freestyle in December and was the top U23 in the 30k classic mass start at U.S. Championships.

The event is split between Ulrichen near Goms, in the upper Valais region of south central Switzerland, for cross country and Kandersteg, in the Bernese Oberland, for ski jumping and nordic combined. The cross country venue lies at around 4,400 feet above sea level with the jump slightly lower. The famed Lötschberg jump in Kandersteg dates back 1920 and has gone through many iterations. A completely new jumping complex was built over the last decade, opening in 2016. The Goms Nordic Centre in Ulrichen is a popular trail network located in a high alpine valley along Switzerland's famous Glacier Express rail line.

All events will be streamed live through the Junior Worlds website at www.jwsc2018.ch. Also watch for content on Instagram at @jwsc2018.

The trip is partially funded by the National Nordic Foundation, an independent foundation that provides support for development programs across nordic sports, as well as USA Nordic, which manages national teams and pipeline development for ski jumping and nordic combined.

2018 FIS Nordic Junior World Championships
Goms-Kandersteg, Switzerland

Cross Country
Men
Luke Jager, 18, Anchorage, Alaska Pacific Nordic Ski Center
Ben Ogden, 17, Landgrove, Vt., Stratton Mountain School
Karl Schulz, 19, Lake Placid, N.Y., Univ. of Vermont
Gus Schumacher, 17, Anchorage, Alaska Winter Stars
Canyon Tobin, 18, Anchorage, Alaska Pacific Nordic Ski Center
Hunter Wonders, 19, Alaska Pacific Nordic Ski Center

Women
Margaret Gellert, 17, Anchorage, Alaska Winter Stars
Hannah Halvorsen, 19, Truckee, Calif., Alaska Pacific Nordic Ski Center
Kathleen O'Connell, 19, Steamboat Springs, Colo., Montana State University
Hannah Rudd, 19, Anchorage, Univ. of Alaska-Anchorage
Sofia Shomento, 18, Bozeman, Mont., Dartmouth College
Hailey Swirbul, 19, Carbondale, Colo., Univ. of Alaska-Anchorage

Nordic Combined
Men

Tucker Hoefler, 19, Park City, Utah, Park City Ski & Snowboard
Ben Loomis, 19, Eau Claire, Wis., Flying Eagles Ski Club
Stephen Schumann, 17, Park City, Utah, Park City Ski & Snowboard
Jared Shumate, 18, Park City, Utah, Park City Ski & Snowboard

Women

Tess Arnone, 15, Steamboat Springs, Colo., Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club

Ski Jumping
Men
Decker Dean, 17, Steamboat Springs, Colo., Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club
Patrick Gasienica, 19, Richmond, Ill., Norge Ski Club
Hunter Gibson, 16, Fox River Grove, Ill., Norge Ski Club
Casey Larson, 19, Barrington, Ill., Norge Ski Club
Andrew Urlaub 16, Eau Claire, Wis., Flying Eagles Ski Club

Women
Annika Belshaw, 15, Steamboat Springs, Colo., Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club
Anna Hoffmann, 17, Madison, Wis., Blackhawk Ski Club
Cara Larson, 17, Barrington, Ill., Norge Ski Club
Samantha Macuga, 16, Park City, Utah, Park City Ski & Snowboard
Logan Sankey, 19, Steamboat Springs, Colo., Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club

U23 Cross Country World Championships Team
Men
Andrew Egger, 22, Edina, Minn., Colby College
Bill Harmeyer, 20, Burlington, Vt., Univ. of Vermont
Zak Ketterson, 20, Bloomington, Minn., Northern Michigan University
Thomas O'Harra, 20, Anchorage, Alaska Pacific Nordic Ski Center
Ian Torchia, 21, Marquette, Mich., Northern Michigan University

Women
Lydia Blanchet, 20, Anchorage, Dartmouth Ski Team
Lauren Jortberg, 20, Hanover, N.H.,Dartmouth Ski Team
Julia Kern, 20, Waltham, Mass., Stratton Mountain School
Nicole Schneider, 20, Marquette, Mich., Northern Michigan University

COMPETITION SCHEDULE
Cross Country 
Sunday, January 28
Junior men’s and women’s freestyle sprints 

Monday, January 29
U23 men’s and women’s freestyle sprints 

Tuesday, January 30
Junior women’s 5k classic
Junior men’s 10k classic
Junior women's nordic combined test event (HS72/5k)
Junior men's nordic combined (HS106/10k)

Wednesday, January 31
U23 women’s 10k classic
U23 men’s 15k classic

Thursday, February 1
Junior women’s skiathlon (5k CL/5k FS)
Junior men’s skiathlon (10k CL/10k FS)
Junior men's and women's ski jumping (HS106m)
Junior men's nordic combined team event (HS106/4x5k)

Friday, February 2
U23 women’s skiathlon (7.5k CL/7.5k FS)
U23 men’s skiathlon (10k CL/10k FS)
Junior men's and women's team ski jumping (HS106)

Saturday, February 3
Junior women’s relay (4x3.3k CL/FS)
Junior men’s relay (4x5k CL/FS)
Junior men's and women's mixed team ski jumping (HS106)
Junior men's nordic combined (HS106/5k)

The American women put on yet another stellar performance on the second night of moguls at the Visa Freestyle International. After finishing second on Wednesday night, Jaelin Kauf (Alta, Wyo.) found herself on top of the podium, claiming her third-career World Cup win. Teammate Morgan Schild (Rochester, N.Y.) repeated her result from yesterday, finishing third and clinching her spot on the 2018 Olympic team.

Kauf’s journey to the podium was a bit different on Thursday night. She qualified first into the finals, but dropped down to second after France’s Perrine Laffont took her final run. Kauf’s super final run was fast and flawless, but she had to wait to see if it was enough to bear Laffont. In the end it was, with Kauf taking the win with a score of 81.37. She now leads the moguls World Cup standings by 51 points over Laffont.

“It’s been an incredible day,” said Kauf. “Qualifying first was definitely a confidence boost. I just kept trying to step up my run each time. Winning here in Deer Valley is incredible - I have my friends, family and my parents here. It’s unbelievable.

"I was just hoping that what I put down was better than [Perrine’s] skiing. I know she’s a really tough competitor and she put down a solid run. But my speed helped,” Kauf added.

Living in the moment and staying focused on her runs, Schild’s skiing was consistent from round to round. She was the only woman who threw a cork 7 in finals, a trick that has carried her to multiple podiums throughout her career. After joining Kauf on the podium twice this week, Schild will also join her on the team representing the USA in PyeongChang.

“This week puts Jaelin and I in a great spot,” said Schild. “To have these performances on home soil and put ourselves in a good position heading in to PyeongChang just makes it that much sweeter.”

Keaton McCargo (Telluride, Colo.), Tess Johnson (Vail, Colo.) and Avital Shimko rounded out the top finishes for the U.S. women in seventh, 11th and 15th respectively. Mikael Kingsbury was one again dominant on the men’s side, taking the win with a score of 88.80. Kazakstan’s Dmitriy Reikherd was second and Australia’s Matt Graham third. The U.S. qualified Joel Hedrick (Winter Park, Colo.), Emerson Smith (Dover, Vt.) and Troy Tully (Pleasantville, N.Y.) into finals, but they were unable to break into the super finals, finishing 13th, 14th and 15th.

The Visa Freestyle International concludes on Friday night with the men’s and women’s aerials competition on the White Owl jump site. Finals will be streamed live on nbcsports.com at 9:45 p.m. EST.

RESULTS
Men’s Moguls
Women’s Moguls

HOW TO WATCH
All times EST
*subject to change

Jan. 12
8:30 p.m. – Moguls finals #2 – NBCSN (next day coverage)
9:45 p.m. – Aerials finals – nbcsports.com

Jan. 13
2:30 p.m. – Aerials finals – NBC (next day coverage)

After a tough day of weather on Wednesday, seven inches of fresh snow and sunshine greeted the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team skiers and riders at Aspen’s Snowmass Mountain for a day of Toyota U.S. Grand Prix qualifiers.

The snowboard women kicked it off in the morning, with a hotly contested event leading to four U.S. women qualifying for Saturday’s finals. Arielle Gold (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) led the squad in first, with Maddie Mastro (Wrightwood, Calif.) second, Kelly Clark (Mammoth Mountain, Calif.) fourth and Chloe Kim (Torrance, Calif.) fifth.

The snowboard men competed in the afternoon, with snow beginning to fall in the sunlight. Greg Bretz (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.) and Chase Josey (Hailey, Idaho) qualified in the first heat, but the real event was the second heat, which stacked powerhouse rider after powerhouse rider. The U.S. stayed strong and dominated the field, with a clean sweep of the five finals spots. Shaun White (Mammoth Mountain, Calif.) led the team, with Ben Ferguson (Bend, Ore.) second, Jake Pates (Eagle, Colo.)—who recently surprised fans when he won the Dew Tour—third, Danny Davis (Highland, Mich.) fourth and rookie team rider Toby Miller (Carlsbad, Calif.) fifth.

The freeskiers competed in slopestyle qualifiers that saw some surprises in the results. McRae Williams (Park City, Utah) led the U.S., while The North Face Rookie Team skier Willie Borm (Chaska, Minn.) grabbed a spot over Olympic favorites. The real shock was 20-year-old Quinn Wolferman (Missoula, Mont.), who put down “the best run of his life” to make it to finals in only his second World Cup.

In the women’s slopestyle, both Maggie Voisin (Whitefish, Mont.) and Devin Logan (West Dover, Vt.) took spots in the finals.

Finals start Friday with freeski halfpipe and snowboard slopestyle. Finals stream live with a delayed same-day television airing on NBCSN.

RESULTS
Women's snowboard halfpipe qualification
Men's snowboard halfpipe qualifications - Heat 1; Heat 2
Women's freeski slopestyle qualifications - Heat 1; Heat 2
Men's freeski slopestyle qualifications - Heat 1; Heat 2; Heat 3; Heat 4

HOW TO WATCH
All times EST

Jan. 12
11:15 a.m – Slopestyle snowboarding finals – nbcsports.com
2:45 p.m – Halfpipe skiing finals – nbcsports.com
9:30 p.m – Slopestyle snowboarding finals – NBCSN (Same day coverage)
11:00 p.m. – Halfpipe skiing finals – NBCSN (Same day coverage)

Jan. 13
11:15 a.m – Slopestyle skiing finals #1 – nbcsports.com
2:45 p.m – Halfpipe snowboarding finals – nbcsports.com

Jan. 14
3:00 p.m – Slopestyle skiing finals #2 – nbcsports.com
3:00 p.m. – Halfpipe snowboarding finals – NBC (next day coverage)

Jan. 15
1:30 a.m. – Slopestyle skiing finals #1 – NBCSN

Jan. 16
12:00 a.m. – Slopestyle skiing finals #2 – NBCSN

After a busy, full-steam ahead tech run, where Mikaela went five for five victories, it’s time for the White Circus train to change the pace a bit and hit the next stop on its journey. Next stop: two of the most challenging tracks on the circuit. Welcome to the Lauberhornrennen and the Kärnten-Franz Klammer. That is Wengen, Switzerland and Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria.

The women's speed team enjoyed a sizable three-week break from competition, but they're eager to get back into the swing of things. To say they were antsy is an understatement. With holidays spent back home in the states and a return to snow with some of the best training they’ve had all season in San Pellegrino, Italy, this crew is amped to return to competition.

 

The face I make when it’s finally speed week!!! 🙌🏻 #shakenbake #ijustwannagofast

A post shared by L I N D S E Y • V O N N (@lindseyvonn) on Jan 10, 2018 at 5:02am PST

The women are so amped that Lindsey Vonn (Vail, Colo.) posted a picture on Instagram of herself celebrating with the caption, “The face I make when it’s finally speed week!!!” Vonn will lead a deep squad of speed women into a super-G and downhill this weekend while current downhill standings leader Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.) will take a much-deserved weekend off from competition. Shiffrin – who also has a massive 821-point lead in the overall standings, and leads the slalom and giant slalom standings – will rejoin the speed team next weekend in Cortina, Italy.

Vonn will look to build her FIS Alpine World Cup career tally to 79 victories, and therefore one step closer to the legendary Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 86 victories. She’ll battle a diverse field the next couple of weekends, as the last seven World Cup downhill events have been won by seven different women – Vonn, Christine Scheyer, Lara Gut, Sofia Goggia, Ilka Štuhec (out with injury), Cornelia Hütter and Shiffrin.

However, Vonn will not only battle the diverse field – she'll also battle the conditions in Bad Kleinkirchheim. With snow then rain pounding the surface, the organizers have had quite the challenge prepping the track. Wednesday's training run was canceled, as the bottom of the course featured "death cookies" and "sugary" snow – certainly not ideal for downhill. Due to the conditions, the organizers and FIS have decided to move the super-G to Saturday and the downhill to Sunday. 

"It's a difficult situation right now with the way the snow is and the way they prepared the course," Vonn said. "I'm not sure if we're going to be able to get a race off. They're definitely trying as hard as they can, and we'll have to see what things look like at inspection and we'll take it from there. The top is good, but the bottom is not safe to race, so I'm going to have to see how things look and make a decision tomorrow." Vonn's focus remains on the Olympics, so she'll assess the risk and make a game time decision on her participation. 

Over in Wengen, the American Downhillers are in classics heaven on the fabled Lauberhorn downhill. At nearly three miles long, this track is a test of pure athleticism and stamina. To put this into perspective – it is over two and a half minutes of leg-burning pain down a 2.78-mile course with speeds pushing 100 mph. In fact, the top speed on the World Cup was reached here in 2013, when Frenchman Johan Clarey hit a max speed of 100.6 mph at the Haneggschuss, the fastest section of the track.

Though the American Downhillers struggled in the first training run on Wednesday, it is important to remember that athletes are using training runs to dial in their strategy for race day. Team leader and veteran Steven Nyman (Sundance, Utah) is feeling good and will return to competition in Wengen, though his focus remains on building towards PyeongChang.

Jared Goldberg (Holladay, Utah) and Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley, Cali.), who have both found a new level of consistency and focus this season, both had strong training run results on Thursday, landing in seventh and 20th, respectively.

“I’m feeling good; I learned a lot in my first training run,” said Goldberg after Thursday’s run. “I was pretty all over the place. I’ve been here a bunch of years and I just started to put it all together today in the run. I think I still have a couple places I can clean up, but today was a much cleaner run. I’d like to ski the way I can and put this thing together, so I’m just trying to keep building off what I’ve been doing the last races and not expect too much and just have fun – because it really is a fun course.”

Though the weather proved to be challenging early in the week, with Tuesday’s training run canceled, Goldberg and teammates used the opportunity to play hockey – a Wengen American Downhiller tradition – and stay optimistic about conditions for the weekend.

“The conditions aren’t too bad considering all the weather, but that’s a pretty normal thing here,” noted Goldberg. “The course is just under three miles long and it goes from pretty high altitude – where the top is winter and the bottom is pretty soft snow. They’re salting on the bottom and the top is pretty much all winter snow, so a lot of different conditions as you go down, and that’s just what adds to the coolness factor of this race.”

The men will start the weekend off early with an alpine combined Friday, followed by the downhill on Saturday and slalom Sunday. Fans can look forward to watching Ted Ligety (Park City, Utah) – who has been training some impressive slalom – in Friday’s alpine combined.

Nolan Kasper (Warren, VT), who has been sidelined with an injury the last two seasons and was slated to return to competition in Adelboden, Switzerland, will be returning to competition in Wengen. His last World Cup start was Schladming, Austria on January 27, 2015. Keep an eye on Kasper, as he has one career podium from 2011 and has worked extremely hard to come back from injuries.

Steve Schlanger and U.S. Ski Team alumnus Steve Porino will call the action in the coming week.  See who to watch and where to catch all the action below.

WOMEN’S STARTERS
Bad Kleinkirchheim, AUT

• Stacey Cook
• Breezy Johnson
• Julia Mancuso
• Tricia Mangan
• Alice McKennis
• Alice Merryweather
• Laurenne Ross
• Lindsey Vonn
• Jackie Wiles

MEN’S STARTERS
Wengen, SUI

• Bryce Bennett
• David Chodounsky
• Ryan Cochran-Siegle
• Drew Duffy
• Mark Engel
• AJ Ginnis
• Jared Goldberg
• Nolan Kasper
• Ted Ligety
• Steven Nyman
• Hig Roberts
• Kipling Weisel

NOTE: Final starters have yet to be solidified. Stay tuned to our social channels for updated information.

HOW TO WATCH
All times EST
Friday, Jan. 12
4:30 a.m. – Men’s combined, downhill; Wengen –olympicchannel.com
10:00 a.m. – Men’s combined, slalom; Wengen – Olympic Channel TV

Saturday, Jan. 13
4:30 a.m. – Women’s super-G; Bad Kleinkirchheim – Olympic Channel TV
6:30 a.m. – Men’s downhill; Wengen – Olympic Channel TV
10:00 p.m. – Women’s Super-G; Bad Kleinkirchheim – NBCSN (same day coverage)
11:00 p.m. – Men’s downhill; Wengen – NBCSN (same day coverage)

Sunday, Jan. 14
4:15 a.m. – Men’s slalom, run 1; Wengen –olympicchannel.com
5:00 a.m. – Women’s downhill; Bad Kleinkirchheim – Olympic Channel TV
6:30 a.m. – Men’s slalom, run 2; Wengen – Olympic Channel TV

RESULTS
Men’s Training Run 1
Men’s Training Run 2
Women's Training Run

START LISTS
Men’s Alpine Combined
 

Battling rough weather in the latter half of the day, the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix freeski halfpipe and snowboard slopestyle qualifiers went off at Aspen’s Snowmass Mountain in Colorado. Fifteen Americans qualified for Friday’s finals.

The women’s freeski halfpipe went off without a hitch, with Olympic gold medalist Maddie Bowman (South Lake Tahoe, Calif.) celebrating her 24th birthday by leading the Americans in second place. Brita Sigourney (Carmel, Calif.) was third and Olympic silver medalist Devin Logan (West Dover, Vt.) fourth. Carly Margulies (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.) also made it into finals in eighth place with a solid second run.

But thick fog rolled in and heavy snow started during men’s training. After delays throughout run one and before run two, the Americans stacked six skiers into the 10 spots. Aaron Blunck (Crested Butte, Colo.) led the U.S. Freeski Team men with an enormous 93.66-point first run and local boy Alex Ferreira (Aspen, Colo.) won his heat. Both chose to not take a second run due to conditions and high first-run scores. Also taking spots in Friday’s finals were Olympic gold medalist David Wise (Reno, NV), Birk Irving (Winter Park, Colo.), Taylor Seaton (Avon, Colo.) and Olympic silver medalist Gus Kenworthy (Telluride, Colo.).

The women were able to get their snowboard qualifiers off cleanly, with Jessika Jenson (Rigby, Idaho) snagging the top spot and Ty Walker (Stowe, Vt.) also made finals. Jules Marino (Westport, Conn.) and Hailey Langland (San Clemente, CA) did not qualify.

The men squeaked in their first run of slopestyle qualifiers, but the increasing darkness and snow stopped a second run from happening. Three U.S. men qualified: Red Gerard (Silverthorne, CO), Ryan Stassel (Anchorage, Alaska) and Chandler Hunt (Park City, Utah).

Friday’s snowboard slopestyle and freeski halfpipe finals count as an Olympic qualifier. Bowman has met objective criteria for the U.S. Olympic Team with two podiums and would confirm her nomination with a first or second place at Snowmass. Already qualified for the U.S. Olympic snowboard slopestyle team are Jamie Anderson (South Lake Tahoe, Calif.) and Chris Corning (Silverthorne, Calif.). Neither Anderson nor Corning are in attendance at Snowmass.

Snowboard halfpipe and freeski slopestyle qualifiers start Thursday.

RESULTS
Men's freeski halfpipe
Women's freeski halfpipe
Men's snowboard slopestyle (heat 1, heat 2)
Women's snowboard slopestyle