31 Eagle County athletes accept nominations to U.S. Ski and Snowboard 2024-25 national teams
Mikaela Shiffrin and River Radamus headline Alpine ski team
Giovanni Maria Pizzato/AP
U.S. Ski and Snowboard announced rosters for the 2024-25 season in Alpine, snowboard, cross-country, freeski, freestyle and para-Alpine disciplines earlier this month. Thirty-one athletes with Eagle County ties accepted nominations to the various squads.
U.S. Alpine ski team (Eagle County athletes: 11)
The 48-member team is led by Mikaela Shiffrin (Edwards, CO, Ski and Snowboard Club Vail), River Radamus (Edwards, CO, Ski and Snowboard Club Vail), Nina O’Brien (Edwards, CO) and Paula Moltzan (Ski and Snowboard Club Vail). Kyle Negomir (Ski and Snowboard Club Vail) is on the B-Team while Liv Moritz (Edwards, CO, Ski and Snowboard Club Vail) and Bridger Gile (Ski and Snowboard Club Vail) earned C-Team nominations.
Development Team athletes include Kaitlin Keane (Vail, CO; Ski and Snowboard Club Vail), Kjersti Moritz (Edwards, CO; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail), Emma Resnick (Vail, CO; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail) and Hunter Salani (Edwards, CO; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail).
The World Cup schedule includes four stops in the U.S. The women will compete in slalom and giant slalom races in Killington, Vermont, Nov. 30-Dec. 1. The next week, both the men and women will take to the Birds of Prey course in Beaver Creek for back-to-back speed weekends. The tour closes with the World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho, March 22-27.
“This is a dedicated and determined group of athletes ready to compete at the highest level as we head into a World Championship season,” stated U.S. Ski & Snowboard Chief of Sport Anouk Patty. “The summer training at the USANA Center of Excellence and on the snow shows that these skiers are poised to enter the winter season ready to race. We cannot wait to see what they achieve.”
U.S. freeski team (Eagle County athletes: 2)
Matt Labaugh (Avon, CO, Ski and Snowboard Club Vail) enters the season as the 12th-ranked halfpipe skier in the world, the press release noted. Aaron Blunck, a Crested Butte-native and former SSCV athlete, is also on the team.
The World Cup season kicked off in Cardrona, New Zealand, at the beginning of the month. The calendar includes five halfpipe, five slopestyle and six big air World Cups as well as the X Games.
The U.S. team will compete on home soil twice this year. The halfpipe team will be at Copper Mountain for the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix Dec. 19-21 and in Aspen for the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix and Visa Big Air Jan. 29-Feb. 6.
Skogen Sprang, freeski sport director said in the press release that every athlete has “worked very hard to get to this point and continues to push and support each other, fostering a unique culture that promotes positivity and success.”
“We are excited to continue to push them to be the best humans they can be and achieve the highest standards on the freeskiing world stage,” he stated.
U.S. Para Alpine ski team (Eagle County athletes: 2)
The 12-member squad is led by two-time Paralympian and Paralympic silver medalist Thomas Walsh (Vail, CO; Ski and Snowboard Club Vail) as well as “up-and-comer” Audrey Crowley (Eagle, CO; Ski and Snowboard Club Vail).
Crowley, 17, has raced both able-bodied and adaptive races across the country. She made her para-alpine World Cup debut in Cortina in January 2024, placing fourth in the downhill and fifth in both the super-G and slalom. Also a softball player for Eagle Valley High School, Crowley has five U.S. titles on her resume and was the 2019 Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy’s athlete of the year.
The season begins in Steinach am Brenna, Austria, Dec. 9-13 with three super-Gs and an alpine combined event. The U.S. team will spend most of its time in Europe, according to a press release, with stops in the U.S. for the Huntsman Cup (Feb. 26-28) and the U.S. Championships.
“I am confident that the team will bring home some great results this season,” said U.S. Ski & Snowboard Para Sport Director Erik Leirfallom in a press release.
“This team had a productive off-season with a month-long speed camp in Chile and two strength testing sessions in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Park City, Utah, so I’m excited to see their hard work pay off.”
U.S. cross-country ski team (Eagle County athletes: 1)
Haley Brewster (Avon, CO, Ski and Snowboard Club Vail) is the lone Eagle County representative on one of the largest Nordic squads in U.S. history, with 27 athletes total.
Period 1 of the World Cup consists of the three-race opening weekend in Ruka, Finland on Nov. 29-Dec. 1 and stops in Lillehammer on Dec. 6-8 and Davos on Dec. 13-15. Brewster is an alternate for the two distance races in Ruka and also earned a discretionary slot for the Lillehammer and Davos sprints and the 20-kilometer skiathlon in Lillehammer.
Brewster’s breakout 2023-2024 season included winning the U.S. senior national title in the 20k mass start freestyle, becoming the sixth American to win a cross-country ski medal at the U23 world championships with her silver in Planica, Slovenia and making her World Cup debut on home soil in Minneapolis last February. Brewster also claimed two runner-up finishes at the NCAA ski championships in Steamboat Springs in March.
U.S. freestyle ski team (Eagle County athletes: 4)
Thirty athletes were named to the freestyle team.
“With a perfect blend of seasoned champions and rising stars, this team is poised to achieve great things in the coming season,” stated Matt Gnoza, freestyle sport director in a press release.
“Last year’s successes laid a strong foundation and I am eager to see how this talented crew builds on that momentum. I’m excited to support these athletes as they continue to push the boundaries of the sport heading into a World Championship season.”
Veteran Tess Johnson joins two-time Youth Olympic Games gold medalist Liz Lemley as the two A-Team Eagle County locals. 2022 Olympians Kai Owens and Dylan Walczyk are on the Development Team.
The season kicks off in Ruka, Finland on Nov. 30. U.S. fans can catch their heroes in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire for moguls and dual moguls events Jan. 25-26 and at Deer Valley in Utah Feb. 6-8. Four athletes per gender, per sport, will be selected for the 2025 FIS Freestyle Ski World Championships Mar. 18-30 in Engadin, Switzerland.
U.S. snowboard team (Eagle County locals: 11)
Fifty-six athletes were named across slopestyle, halfpipe and snowboard cross disciplines.
The slopestyle pro team is led by Summit County native Red Gerard and two-time Olympian Chris Corning (Avon, CO). The rookie squad includes 2024 Youth Olympic Games big air silver medalist Ollie Martin and 2024 slopestyle national champion Lily Dhawornvej, both Ski and Snowboard Club Vail athletes.
The season kicked off in August in Cardrona, New Zealand in August and continues on Oct. 19 with the first big air event of the season in Chur, Switzerland.
Kade Martin (Bellyache Ridge, CO; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail) is on the halfpipe rookie team while five of the eight roster spots on the slopestyle rookie team were filled by SSCV athletes in Brooklyn DePriest (Rocklin, CA; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail), Ollie Martin (Wolcott, CO; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail), Evan Wrobel (Bozeman, MT; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail), Lily Dhawornvej (Frisco, CO; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail) and Hahna Norman (Truckee, CA; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail).
Veterans Senna Leith (Vail, CO), Faye Thelen (Salt Lake City, UT; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail) and Eagle’s Meghan Tierney Daniel (Rumson, NJ; International Snowboard Training Center) are once again on the snowboard cross pro team and Connor Schlegel (Edwards, CO; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail) joins the development team this winter.
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