Franconia, NH (June 4) - The Eastern Ski Writers Association (ESWA) has awarded Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, CO) and Kieffer Christianson (Anchorage) with the 2013 Don A. Metivier Golden Ski Award.

This is Shiffrin’s third and Christianson’s first win. The winners were officially recognized at the New England Ski Museum in Franconia, NH, on May 31.

INNSBRUCK, Austria (Jan. 20) - Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club racer Julia Mueller-Ristine (Aspen, CO) capped her 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games with 12th in slalom, less than 24 hours after meeting Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO). Vonn was in Innsbruck for a few hours to meet with all Youth Olympic athletes, but spent some time talking privately with Mueller-Ristine. The Youth Olympics close Sunday with men's slalom, featuing Ski & Snowboard Club Vail athlete Alex Leever (Vail, CO).

HIGHLIGHTS

ZAGREB, Croatia (Jan. 5) - Reigning Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom champion Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) finished 14th in the Zagreb night slalom as Austrian Marcel Hirscher captured the victory to move into the overall World Cup lead. Rapidly deteriorating course conditions due to warm weather caused havoc for late starters in both the first and second runs.

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COURCHEVEL, France (Dec. 18) - Austrian Marlies Schild continued her slalom dominance Sunday by winning an Audi FIS Alpine World Cup in snowy Courchevel by a staggering 1.87 seconds over Finn Tanja Poutianen. Olympic downhill champion Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) went out in the first run, yet retained a 236 point lead in the early World Cup overall standings as defending overall winner Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany failed to finish the second run.

HIGHLIGHTS

LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland (March 15) - The Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom title came down to a dramatic last run shootout Saturday, with Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) taking the victory and winning a points tiebreaker with Austria's Marcel Hirscher to claim his fifth crystal globe. Hirscher lost his hold on the globe when he finished the race fourth by a mere hundredth of a second. Universal Sports will air coverage at 12:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. EDT.

HIGHLIGHTS

JANSA, Slovakia (March 2) - Brian McLaughlin (Topsfield, MA; Green Mountain Valley School) and Sam Morse (Carrabassett Valley, ME; Carrabassett Valley Academy) finished 16-17 to lead the U.S. Ski Team in men's downhill Sunday at the FIS Alpine Junior World Ski Championships. Morse, who also competed later that afternoon in the Nations Team Event, was second among athletes under 18 to stand on the U18 podium. Sandy Vietze (Warren, VT; Green Mountain Valley School) also finished inside the top group with 29th behind race winner Adrian Smiseth Sejersted of Norway.

KVITFJELL, Norway (March 1) - Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley, CA), who 24 hours earlier stamped the first Audi FIS Alpine World Cup top three of his career, finished fourth Saturday, a mere .05 from a second downhill podium in Kvitfjell. The race was held from the super G start after consecutive days of fog, rain and wet snow made it impossible for the crews to prepare the full length 1994 Olympic speed track. Canadian Erik Guay hit 88 mph on the final speed trap to secure the win, the fifth of his career, with a time of 1:22.17.

ROSA KHUTOR, Russia (Feb. 19) – Team USA’s sole alpine snowboarder Justin Reiter (Steamboat Springs, CO) finished 24th Wednesday during the parallel giant slalom event of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games. U.S. born Russian Federation athlete Vic Wild earned the gold medal. The men’s event is set to air on NBC’s Late Night Olympic coverage at 1:00 a.m. Wednesday night, and the entire competition can be streamed on NBCOlympics.com. Reiter gets another shot at an Olympic medal Saturday Feb.

Nate Holland laid on the floor of the athlete lounge chilling, playing around with social media. “I’m ready to go – I’m pretty sure I can ride this course in Braille. The seven time X Games champion was ready, but mother nature didn’t cooperate, fogging out Monday’s men’s SBX. They’ll be back at it on Tuesday.

ALPINE