The Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team men's speed team recently concluded their first on-snow prep camp for the 2020-21 season with a five-day giant slalom-focused camp at Official Training Site Timberline Resort & Ski Area in Mt. Hood, Ore. 

Led by head men's speed coach Randy Pelkey, assisted by longtime speed coach Scotty Veenis and men's team manager Gwynn Watkins, athletes included Olympians Steven Nyman, Travis Ganong, and Bryce Bennett, as well as World Junior downhill champion Sam Morse and former University of Utah NCAA giant slalom standout Sam Dupratt. 

After weeks of planning and time spent creating COVID-19 protocol, led by U.S. Ski & Snowboard High-Performance Director Troy Taylor and Lead Physical Therapist Gillian Bower, along with team managers, staff, and beyond, alpine athletes across training groups were finally able to return to snow.

The focus of the camp was technical, with a giant slalom focus, but there was a bigger accountability component as well. "We challenged the guys to tell us what was good about their skiing, what they wanted to fix, and how they wanted to fix it," explained Randy. "They're really good at knowing what's bad about their skiing and what they want to fix...but they really don't have the idea of how to go about the progression to fix that. We tried to fill in behind that, and give them the ways to improve—to look at it and say, 'this is the root of what you're seeing, this is the outcome...but this is how to fix that through the basics.'" The message was to get them to look at it from a different perspective.

Randy says a lot of ski racers can't really identify something positive about their skiing, as athletes tend to be accustomed to focusing on the bad. By approaching it from a coach's perspective, the athletes were able to think differently and more holistically about their skiing, while the coaches were able to fill in behind that—something Randy says was really a fun thing for him. Seeing what the athletes wanted to work on, through the athletes' eyes and critical reflection, and figuring out how to support their goals, was gratifying for Randy and Scotty. 

Though the COVID-19 protocol was detailed in order to ensure athlete and staff safety, Randy and the athletes settled into their new normal with relative ease, thanks to their positive attitudes. "I think about it like a big project coming up—like if you're going to build a house, but you pick up one piece at a time, it becomes easy and you just get in the flow of it," explained Randy. "It's the new normal, so we just kind of got in the flow of cleaning the iPad every time someone touched it, cleaning the computers, and going through the whole protocol. It becomes more natural as you do it, and it's not as cumbersome as you'd think. Just to be the thought behind it and follow-through, feels good...and to look at it from a perspective that it's not about you as much, but everyone else. That's refreshing."

As far as conditions at Timberline go, the crew skied five days in a row, and two of the days were frozen and were extremely good. Randy said that the staff at Timberline did an unbelievable job of supporting the team and ensuring the camp was safe and productive. He said, in particular, they worked hard to get the guys the terrain they needed, and "working with us on line-cutting, and just all of the stuff that made the camp really easy to not only do what we got there to do but do it safely," he added. "They were instrumental...unbelievable." 

 

 

 

 

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So grateful for the opportunity to practice my craft again. Thank you @timberlinelodge and @usskiteam for working hard to create a safe training environment for us to get back on snow during this pandemic 🙏🙏🙏

A post shared by Travis Ganong (@travisganong) on Jun 27, 2020 at 9:58am PDT

Off the snow, the crew packed up their Land Rovers and went mountain biking most afternoons. They stayed in Government Camp, which was a preference of the athletes. This made access to great mountain biking easy, as they made an effort to concentrate on spending as much time as they could outside, socially distanced, having fun. 

The plan for the men's speed team will be to return to Timberline in early August for a training camp but stay in Hood River for a little change in scenery and a snow-water camp focus. Randy says the focus off-snow will be balance, and they'll likely take advantage of the access to kiting that Hood River provides for their afternoon activity. The on-snow focus will be a follow-up to the last camp, with a giant slalom focus and a little bit of slalom. The goal is consistency. 

Lastly, Randy wanted to thank Rachel Rourke from Howard Head Sports Medicine for joining the crew as the guest PT, as well as Gwynn, who was very instrumental in managing the food piece and the COVID-19 protocol for the group. 

U.S. Ski & Snowboard sanctioned training camp attendance is optional. U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes and staff should not feel pressure to travel to train. All sanctioned training camp policies and protocols are subject to change based on local, state, and federal public health orders, updated guidance from the USOPC, or updated U.S. Ski & Snowboard policies.

The Modern Wellness Guide recently launched their Women in Sports Campaign, featuring four of the top athletes in the snowsports industry and two female coaches who are leading the way, including Olympic gold medalists Mikaela Shiffrin and Maddie Bowman, Olympic bronze medalist Brita Sigourney, and seven-time X Games gold medalist Maggie Voisin.

Featured U.S. Ski & Snowboard coaches include Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team assistant women's World Cup speed team coach Karin Harjo, who has paved the way for colleagues like assistant women's World Cup and Europa Cup tech team coach, Katie Twible. In 2016, Karin became the first woman in FIS Ski World Cup history to set a slalom course.

When asked who her role model was growing up, and how she manages the pressure of being a role model for young female athletes, Karin—who has coached Olympic champions Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, among many more World Cup podium finishers—replied, 

I’ve been blessed with many role models in my life. The consistent message they all taught me is that you CAN do whatever it is you want to do if you will take the leap of faith it takes to do it. The only thing holding you back is yourself. 

Being a coach, in my mind, is a huge responsibility because of the impact you have on people’s lives not only as athletes but as human beings. It’s an incredible responsibility that shouldn’t be taken for granted. We might not be trying to find a cure for cancer but, in my mind, it’s just as important, because of that impact we have. 

Being a role model is no different. My goal is always to do whatever I can to help, whether it’s young women or girls, in any way I can. I want to help them learn and grow, and try to help pave the way for them because I think that’s part of what our calling is, as any coach in any profession.

Each of the incredible women interviewed shared what it's like to overcome the competition to reach the top of the podium, or overcome "barriers to earn the same amount of respect and recognition as their male counterparts." They discussed role models, inspiring the next generation of athletes, and beyond.  

Read the full piece at ModernWellnessGuide.com.

Women's Standings click Here

Men's Standings click Here

When the Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team returned to snow recently at Official Training Site Copper Mountain, Colo., they didn't know what to expect. Colorado in early June, in one of the hottest summers to date?! But, the Copper Mountain and U.S. Ski & Snowboard staff pulled it off together, and it was a productive camp.

That feat caught the attention of the Associated Press' Pat Graham, a longtime partner of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, who was impressed, to say the least. He featured the camp in a recent article, entitled "Peak performers: Shiffrin, ski team return to snow for camp". 

In his piece, Pat interviewed newly-nominated Development Team athlete Isabella "Bella" Wright, who was an invitee with the U.S. Ski Team throughout the 2019-20 season and started in her career-first FIS Ski World Cup in Lake Louise, Canada. Bella, who won the 2019-20 super-G NorAm title, was stoked to be back on snow in Copper. 

“Being back skiing, on the snow, it just felt like home,” said Bella Wright, who made her World Cup debut last season. “It felt like we were back doing what we’re supposed to be doing.”

Head women's coach Paul Kristofic added that the training was vital, since the Team missed spring training due to COVID-19. "It's just great quality mileage in the bank," he said. 

Read the full article on apnews.com. 

We are sad to report that the 2020 event must be canceled. The restrictions currently in place for COVID-19 do not for allow for a large race event. A big thank you to Meri Stratton for all her work on planning this year's event and for the past 31 years. It is truly a labor of love for our sport and the masters community. We look forward to the 32nd Annual SFN in 2021.

There are still several summer camps running this summer at Timberline. Here's a listing for the next few months. If you make it to Mt. Hood, be sure to stop by and say hi to Fuxi in Government Camp.

Mt. Hood, OR
ADL Mahre Camp - June 26-28
Willy Camp - June 22-26, June 29-July 2, July 6-10, July 13-17, July 20-24
Party Beach Ski Camps - July 9-12
Tichy Race Camps - June 16-23, June 23-30, June 30-July 7, July 7-14, July 14-21, July 21-28, July 28-Aug 4, Aug 4-11, Aug 11-18
GTI Sports - June 11-17, August 11-16
Ligety Weibrecht Ski Camp - June 16-20, June 22-26, June 28-July 2

Check out the Training Page for info on an August indoor training camps in the Netherlands as well as a full lineup of fall and winter camps. Information on the South America FIS camp is also on the training page and below in the FIS section.

For more Masters News and Information go to: usskiandsnowboard.org/masters

Each year, the Masters hold Eastern and Western Regional Champions to bring together people from different race series. It's a opportunity to race against a larger field of competitors and see how you stack up.

EASTERN REGION CHAMPIONS

The 2020 Philips 66 Eastern Region Championships in Stratton, VT saw a variety of weather! Sunny and clear for the SGs and SL while the final GS day brought sleet and fog resulting in the race being finalized after 1 run.  Not to be deterred, the Eastern Region Masters racers along with several visiting from the Canada Masters were able to throw down some great competition to crown the 2020 Eastern Region Champions! 

WESTERN REGION CHAMPIONS

The 2020 Western Region Championships were part of the FIS Masters Cup event in Northstar, CA. Racers were scored on results from 5 events: 2SG, 2GS(1-run each), and SL. Northstar did an incredible job hosting the event and putting together 3 days of great courses on a perfect race surface! Congratulations to the Western Region Champions!

For more Masters News and Information go to: usskiandsnowboard.org/masters

The 2020 Phillips 66 National Speed Series overall champions are the top competitors in the overall group rankings for each of the Group A/B  (age 18-64) men, Group C women, and Group D (age 65+) men based on total world cup points accumulated in the all races of the series. Races were held at Sun Valley, Stratton, Mammoth, Aspen Highlands, Northstar, Granite Peak, West Mountain, and Schweitzer. Prior to the cancelations we had a record 22 speed series races on the schedule! (Our previous record was 20.) Park City races were cancelled due to weather and races at Ski Cooper, Steamboat, and Mt. Bachelor were cancelled due to developments with COVID-19.

Competitors must have at least three starts to be eligible for series awards. With 1/3 of the planned NSS races cancelled, many classes would not have met the three-race minimum starts eligibility rule for series awards. Given these unprecedented circumstances, the Division Chairs voted unanimously to adjust the eligibility rule for 2020 as follows: Racers who met the three-race eligibility rule were scored first for both class and overall finish places. Racers with two starts were then added to complete the series awards finish order for both class and overall positions. See the links below for the full group and age class standing results:

• Top finishers in overall standings
• A/B men class champions
• D men class champions
• C women class champions
•  

You can find more information on the National Speed Series webpage including an archive link for previous season information and results. You can also check out the searchable spreadsheet of previous season results for the National Speed Series and all Regional and National events and awards.

For more Masters News and Information go to: usskiandsnowboard.org/masters

2019-2020 Season Summary

The 2019-2020 FIS Masters Cup Season started in Nevados de Chillan, Chile in September 2019 with 26 racers from USA. For the USA racers, there was an opportunity to train for several days followed by 6 race starts over 4 days. The weather kept everyone on their toes, but they managed to get in several days of great training and racing along with some bonus time at local thermal hot springs on the tough weather days. The dramatic scenery of the area was further enhanced by a volcano active 5km away.

The USA FIS Masters racers took a break from the FIS calendar in November and December before jumping back across the pond in January. Excitement was at an all time high as racers traveled to Innsbruck, Austria for the World Winter Masters Games. The World Winter Masters Games (WWMG) are held every 5 years brining across athletes from all winter disciplines and this year's alpine events were also part of the FIS Masters Cup Calendar. Twenty U.S. Ski & Snowboard Members competed and 3 USA racers Lilla Gidlow, Stein Halsnes, and Pepi Neubauer achieved podiums in their age classes (picture below L to R in 1st place).

USA WWMG Results    Full WWMG Event Results

In early February, the FIS Masters Cup Circuit came to North America. After a 2019 ruling from the FIS Masters Committee allowing more race starts in North America, events were able to be hosted in both the United States and Canada for the first time. The USA events brought 99 racers together from 9 countries to Northstar, CA. Northstar delivered a stellar event with bluebird weather and top notch courses and race crew. A couple weeks later 16 USA racers traveled to Stoneham, Quebec for the Canadian events and toughed it out through some cold weather to enjoy and celebrate the return of Canada to the FIS Masters Cup circuit.

As COVID-19 spread across the globe, racers were packing up to head to the World Criterium Masters in Austria and Finals in Slovakia when the events were canceled. Much like the with World Cup, the show could not go on. 

2019-2020 FIS Overall Winners

During the 2019-2020 season, USA racers attended events in Chile, Austria, USA, Canada, Australia, Croatia, and Italy. Eighteen USA racers were ranked internationally and 7 racers placed on the podium to win the coveted FIS Masters Cup globes. In the end over 50 racers were held before losing the last 3 events of the season.

FIS Event Results & Calendar Online  FIS Masters Cup Standings

2020-2021 FIS Preview

Though in person meetings were shut down, FIS quickly adapted to move the Spring planning meetings online. The 2020-2021 FIS Masters Calendar has been approved and we're looking forward to kicking off the 2020-2021 season as soon as conditions will allow. The opening event in Australia have been cancelled, but so far the next event at Catedral Alta Patagonia in Bariloche, Argentina is still on as scheduled pending Argentina reopening to travelers on September 1st. Lisa Ballard, Masters former National Committee Chair who is also a coach and official has put together another great camp preceding the 6 FMC races. The camp and events are September 9-20 South American Masters Race Camp Flier Register here.

North America will have 2 events again this year!

• Beaver Creek, CO - February 5-7
• Stoneham, Quebec. - February 11-14

For more Masters News and Information go to: usskiandsnowboard.org/masters

As Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team athletes returned home early in mid-March from a shortened 2019-20 season, they were faced with a plethora of unknowns amidst the new normal that a global pandemic would provide. On the top of their list? Uncertainty around when they’d be able to return to the mountain and be able to do what they love so much: ski fast. 

In early June, the entire women’s team, including A, B, C, and Development Teams, as well as the men’s Europa Cup team led by Matt Underhill, was able to return to the mountain in an unlikely location: Copper Mountain, Colo.—Official Training Site and home of the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center, where all athletes spend a significant amount of time in late October and November, heading into each FIS Ski World Cup season. The conditions were nothing short of incredible, and World Cup speed and tech athletes including Olympians Mikaela Shiffrin, Alice McKennis, Alice Merryweather, Breezy Johnson, Laurenne Ross, Jackie Wiles and more were singing Copper Mountain’s praises for the opportunity.

“It was amazing that Copper was able to pull it off. I think they were ready to flip the switch when the county let them, and they kept the hills in good shape and had plenty of snow up there,” said Head Women’s Coach Paul “PK” Kristofic. “Obviously, we wanted to capitalize on the very best options for snow and altitude and hill profile, and Copper was by far the best choice at this time of year, and it became available. We were super happy they were able to do it—it took a ton of effort from Frank Kelble and the Copper Mountain staff to get it done, and then our entire sports science team and all of the staff that were able to check off the boxes to ensure we were able to pull off a camp safely.” 

For Breezy, it was great to get back on snow and experience some sort of normalcy after the long break, “The precautions meant that we were a little more distant from our teammates than normal,” she commented. “I never realized quite how close we all were until we were literally required to stay away from each other. But luckily you need distance while you ski so things felt pretty normal in the course and on skis for the most part.”

In order to run safe camps, the U.S. Ski & Snowboard staff worked tirelessly to create and roll out a protocol to all athletes and staff returning to the mountain. This included minimizing contact with other training groups—including their teammates—and creating safe and small “team bubbles,” wearing masks, disinfecting workout equipment and any communal surfaces, distancing on the chairlift, and much, much more. 

Despite all of the precautionary measures, World Cup technical skier and seven-time national champion Nina O’Brien was happy to be back on snow and admitted it wasn’t that different than normal. “It felt so good to be back on snow in Copper!” Nina exclaimed. “I’ve really missed skiing and my teammates these last months.” 
 

 

 

 

 

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Fun camp last couple weeks back on snow training with these ladies. Thanks @usskiteam & @coppermtn for taking extra safety precautions to make it possible! 🙏🏻🎿🥳

A post shared by Jacqueline Wiles (@jacquelinewiles) on Jun 20, 2020 at 12:05pm PDT

“It was definitely a little strange to be social distancing on the mountain, but we all respected the rules and I felt totally safe returning to training,” she added. “Besides wearing face masks and sticking to our small training groups, it didn’t feel wildly different to be skiing with the COVID-precautions. Off the hill, the biggest changes we made were daily disinfecting of our condos, twice daily symptom monitoring, and changes to group workouts. I think our trainer Bob [Poehling] had the most difficult job of wiping down every piece of workout equipment between each person!”

For speed specialist Alice McKennis, returning to snow was sweet, especially considering it came sooner than she had expected. She said, “It was really exciting to get back on snow and much sooner than anyone anticipated! Throughout the spring I had heard of many different ‘plans’ that local ski clubs were trying to put in place to ski that kept getting shut down—so I had my hopes up several times this spring that I would be able to ski that never came to fruition until now! The first few free runs of just going fast and free without any focus were incredibly fun! Then to work…”

Speaking of work, PK said that the focus for all of the athletes was fundamental technical work. For the women’s speed team, that meant a focus on giant slalom. “We made a conscious decision to really put some effort into our GS training and technical training to improve the technical aspects of the speed team,” noted PK. “We decided that as a staff, and it’s just a really good opportunity to do that. So we’re able to work technical fundamentals with freeskiing, and then do a really good progression in giant slalom through this entire block of training to really implement those technical improvements into their GS gate training. That’s been the primary focus.”

On the tech side, there was about a 50/50 split of slalom and giant slalom with “a lot of technical, basic fundamental work at the start of camp.” Other than the skiing itself, one of the most exciting components of this camp was welcoming four-time Olympian and U.S. Alpine Ski Team alumnus and 2010 skicross Olympian Casey Puckett, who most recently was a FIS coach for Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club (AVSC). 

“A big target for this camp was the introduction of Casey Puckett as the Europa Cup coach, as he was leading the entire group since [World Cup Tech Team Head Coach] Magnus [Andersson] wasn’t there, so it was a chance for him to work with those athletes for the first time, work with Katie [Twible] for the first time, and get to know everybody,” added PK. “The camp was high volume slalom and GS, focused on technical adjustments and progression. It was nice there because you could start changing slopes, you could go across three different hills and change the profile to change the challenge so you’re not stuck on one hill all of the time with one profile. You could move around and match up your progression to the challenge of the hill, which was really good.”

U.S. Ski Team athletes were surprised by how good the training conditions were for June, and though they battled with some warm weather, the snow held up and allowed for productive training. “We started the camp with a progression of drills,” said Nina, “and eventually worked our way into normal slalom and GS courses. I was mainly focused on getting a good feeling back on my skis and strong body position.”

For Alice and Breezy both, the giant slalom training and honing in on the technical fundamentals made for a great start to the 2020-21 season prep period. “The conditions were great! We certainly had some ‘spring’ conditions a few days where the snow softened rather quickly but our staff worked super hard with salting and slipping to make it the best possible,” commented Alice. “Our last couple days of full-length GS were really good, some of the best and more challenging GS training I have had in a long time!” Breezy added, “I’ve been trying to improve the technical aspects of my speed skiing for some time so working on GS was a great time to get some of that done. I was working on being dynamic and moving throughout the turn and staying level over the outside ski.”

Coming off a challenging season in which Alice returned from a horrible leg injury, she said she changed up her focus and thought a lot about the notion of “skiing out”—“skiing the turn deep, then getting really strong pressure above the gate, while pushing my upper body out and away from the gate as I have a tendency to move my upper body inside which weakens the top of my turn. It was really just a different way for me to think about leveling my shoulders up and worked really well.”

The athletes are full of gratitude to everyone who was able to ensure they made a safe and productive return to the mountain, including the U.S. Ski & Snowboard staff, team manager, Copper Mountain staff, and beyond. Alice also passionately added, “HUGE thanks to Copper Mountain, the lift operators, ski patrollers, groomers, Frank Kelble, and much of the Team Summit crew that put so much work into getting everything ready and making skiing happen again! Our staff did an incredible job as well being short-staffed without any of our European staff—Karin [Harjo] was certainly the MVP and we are so grateful for the help from Kristina Revello for joining us this camp! It was pretty fun having an all women's crew I must admit...additional thanks to my husband Pat and Napa (Jonathan Wyant) for helping with the ski preparation! All in all, it was a huge effort to make this training camp happen and I know how grateful all of us are! After a strange few months, it was motivating and inspiring to get on snow again.”
 

In terms of what’s next, PK said: “We’re keeping all options open and we have multiple plans in place, and all of them are driven by our ability to travel and travel safely.” Currently, the women’s team has plans that are all domestic, plans that are based in Europe, and those in the Southern Hemisphere “which are definitely challenged at the moment.” He added, “The number one priority is to do it safely and number two is to be able to capitalize on the best training we can get safely, so that may turn out to be a domestic Mt. Hood program for the summer.”

U.S. Ski & Snowboard sanctioned training camp attendance is optional. U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes and staff should not feel pressure to travel to train. All sanctioned training camp policies and protocols are subject to change based on local, state, and federal public health orders, updated guidance from the USOPC, or updated U.S. Ski & Snowboard policies.

Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team Development athlete Ainsley Proffit was recently featured in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's "Best of St. Louis" series, featuring the region's top performers in Olympic and recreational sports in an article entitled, "From St. Charles to U.S. ski team: Ainsley Proffit's unlikely quest to be queen of the hill."

Ainsley, who has partnered with teammate and Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin the last two years as the faces of U.S. Ski & Snowboard's St. Louis fundraising event at Ron Kruszewski's home, is a St. Louis, Mo. native who has taken a more unlikely path to the U.S. Ski Team. Hailing from a small ski area called Hidden Valley Ski Resort in Wildwood, Mo., with a modest 470-foot vertical drop, Ainsley vividly remembers the first time she raced in Colorado. 

“I remember my first year racing out in Colorado,” Proffit recalled. “I came out for Colorado’s end-of-season championships, where all best racers who were 11 or 12 years old all competed, all the best kids in the state. In the first race of the series I got second and one of the moms asked my mom where I was training. Did I go to Austria or Switzerland for special coaching? How was I so good from Missouri? It was me skiing at Hidden Valley every day.”

This spring, Ainsley and her family made headlines when they turned their small children's clothing company into a mask-making business when COVID-19 hit. She recently returned to snow at Official Training Site Copper Mountain, Colo., for a successful camp. 

Read the full story on stltoday.com.