And the 2017/18 US Team Is….
Face it: America’s doing pretty darn well in ski racing. And Vermont, or certainly our ski academies, are a big part of that. How big? The U.S. Ski Team just announced it’s 2017 line-up: 7 of the Nordic team of 16 and 11 of the 47 alpine racers trained at Vermont ski academies or grew up skiing here.
The team’s strong 2016-17 season was highlighted by Burke Mountain Academy grad Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, CO) capturing the coveted overall and slalom World Cup titles. The team also took home three World Championship medals, three Junior World Championship medals and 21 World Cup podiums by five athletes, and is looking for medals in the upcoming 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang.
In addition to Mikaela Shiffrin, Vermont is turning out some strong racers. On the Men’s B team are Richmond’s Ryan Cochran-Siegle (yep, another Cochran), Warren’s Nolan Kasper and AJ Ginnis, who hails from Greece but went to the Green Mountain Valley School. And there are more Waitsifield/Sugarbush/Green Mountain Valley School prodigies on the roster: Drew Duffy made the C Team and Jimmy Krupka and Ben Ritchie are named to the National Training Group.
Stratton Mountain School also has a fair share of grads represented. Alice Merryweather returns to the B Team. Nick Krause and George Steffy are on the Men’s C Team.
Watch for Merryweather to compete again this year at the Killington World Cup, over Thanksgiving weekend.
Each athlete accepting the nomination to U.S. Ski Team receives a high level of world-class program support, along with access to the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Center of Excellence, as well as athletic benefits including an elite coaching, sport science, sports medicine and high performance staff, and education opportunities.
Team nomination status will be confirmed when the first FIS point list for the 2017-18 season is published in late June/early July 2017. An official team announcement will be made in the fall.
Photo: Nolan Kasper at the 2014 Audi Birds of Prey. Photo by Eric Scrhramm/USSA.
U.S. Ski Team
2017-18 Alpine Team Nominations
Name (hometown; home club; birth date)
A TEAM
Men
Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley, CA; Squaw Valley Ski Team; 7/14/1992)
David Chodounsky (Crested Butte, CO; Crested Butte Ski Team; 6/25/1984)
Tommy Ford (Bend, OR; Mt. Bachelor Ski Education Foundation; 3/20/1989)
Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley, CA; Squaw Valley Ski Team; 7/14/1988)
Ted Ligety (Park City, UT; Park City Ski Team; 8/31/1984)
Steven Nyman (Sundance, UT; Park City Ski Team/Sundance Ski Team; 2/12/1982)
Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, NY; New York Ski Education Foundation; 2/10/1986)
Women
Stacey Cook (Mammoth Lakes, CA; Mammoth Mountain Ski & Snowboard Club; 7/3/1984)
Breezy Johnson (Victor, ID; Rowmark Ski Academy; 1/19/1996)
Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA; Squaw Valley Ski Team; 3/9/1984)
Alice McKennis (New Castle, CO; Sunlight Winter Sports Club/Rowmark Ski Academy; 8/18/1989)
Laurenne Ross (Bend, OR; Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation; 8/17/1988)
Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, CO; Burke Mountain Academy/Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 3/13/1995)
Resi Stiegler (Jackson, WY; Jackson Hole Ski Club; 11/14/1985)
Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail/Buck Hill Ski Team; 10/18/1984)
Jacqueline Wiles (Aurora, OR; White Pass Ski Club; 7/13/1992)
B TEAM
Men
Tommy Biesemeyer (Keene, NY; New York Ski Education Foundation; 1/30/1989)
Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, VT; Cochran’s/Mount Mansfield Ski & Snowboard Club; 3/27/1992)
AJ Ginnis (Vouliagmeni, Greece; Green Mountain Valley School; 11/17/1994)
Jared Goldberg (Holladay, UT; Snowbird Sports Education Foundation; 6/15/1991)
Nolan Kasper (Warren, VT; Burke Mountain Academy; 3/27/1989)
Kipling Weisel (San Francisco, CA; Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation; 3/26/1995)
Women
Patricia Mangan (Derby, NY; Holimont Race Team; 3/7/1997)
Alice Merryweather (Hingham, MA; Attitash Race Team/Stratton Mountain School; 10/5/1996)
C TEAM
Men
Erik Arvidsson (Woodside, CA; Squaw Valley Ski Team; 9/3/1996)
Garret Driller (Tahoe City, CA; Montana State University; 8/24/1996)
Drew Duffy (Warren, VT; Green Mountain Valley School; 6/1/1995)
Mark Engel (Truckee, CA; Sugar Bowl Academy; 10/1/1991)
Nick Krause (Northboro, MA; Stratton Mountain School; 5/12/1993)
Sam Morse (Carrabassett Valley, ME; Carrabassett Valley Academy; 5/27/1996)
River Radamus (Edwards, CO; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 2/12/1998)
Brennan Rubie (Salt Lake City, UT; Snowbird Sports Education Foundation; 4/8/1991)
Jett Seymour (Steamboat, CO; Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club; 11/5/1998)
George Steffey (Lyme, NH; Stratton Mountain School; 8/8/1997)
Florian Szwebel (Avon, CO; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 9/4/1996)
Women
Cecily Decker (Saranac Lake, NY; New York Ski Education Foundation; 5/16/1998)
Katie Hensien (Redmond, WA; Rowmark Ski Academy; 12/1/1999)
Nina O’Brien (Edwards, CO; Burke Mountain Academy/Squaw Valley Ski Team; 11/29/1997)
Galena Wardle (Aspen, CO; Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club; 4/24/1998)
DEVELOPMENT TEAM (D TEAM)
Keely Cashman (Strawberry, CA; Squaw Valley Ski Team; 4/4/1999)
Nellie-Rose Talbot (Vail, CO; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 8/24/1999)
NATIONAL TRAINING GROUP (NTG)*
Men
Jimmy Krupka (Waitsfield, VT; Green Mountain Valley School; 7/15/1998)
Andrew Miller (Park City, UT; Park City Ski Team; 12/18/1998)
Ben Ritchie (Waitsfield, VT; Green Mountain Valley School; 9/5/2000)
Luke Winters (Gresham, OR; Sugar Bowl Academy; 4/2/1997)
Women
AJ Hurt (Carnelian Bay, CA; Squaw Valley Ski Team; 12/5/2000)
Maureen Lebel (Truckee, CA; Mammoth Mountain Ski & Snowboard Club; 6/13/1998)
