The USSA will be a winner with the merger of Delta and Northwest. Delta came on board this season as a major USSA partner at the highest level ever for an airline partner. Delta has also done a fabulous job in promoting the partnership. The new airline will fly under the Delta name when the merger is completed later this year, dramatically expanding the markets for USSA travel. This means easier access to the places you need to go.
The U.S. Disabled Ski Team along with 1,300 fans and nearly 50 sponsors descended on Vail April 3-6 for the 13th annual SkiTAM fundraising event. Organized by the Cable and Telecommunications Association of Marketing (CTAM) of the Rocky Mountains, the event brought some of the biggest names in the cable and telecommunications industry together with athletes to raise money for the disabled Team.
Mark Lampe, Bill Marolt, Sandy Metzger, Dick Coe
Two new additions have been made to our alpine coaching staff. Former women’s tech head coach, Trevor Wagner, will return to this position with our women’s Team. Rudi Soulard will take over the men’s tech head coach position. Both coaches come to us with extensive backgrounds in alpine programs and are great choices for these positions.
Randy Hill, PhD joins the sport science department as head physiologist. He is one of the world’s leading applied sports physiologists and has worked with a number of highly successful Olympic athletes. Randy brings enormous experience as a physiologist having previously worked for the USOC, USA Biathlon, Western Australian Institute of Sport and Aspire in Qatar. This University of Utah graduate has extensive experience in talent identification and will be a driving force behind the new talent identification systems at the USSA.
The USSA has announced five new members who were selected from among those nominated to the USSA Board of Directors. The Athletes’ Council consists of Scott Macartney (Alpine), Patrick Weaver (Cross Country), Curtis Tischler (Freestyle), Greg Mallory (Disabled), Tim Tetreault (Jumping/Nordic Combined) and Lisa Kosglow (Snowboarding) who will be returning for her second term. Nina Kemppel is our USOC AAC representative and David Babic is our USOC ACC alternate.
Nearly three-dozen past athletes of the U.S. Ski Team and U.S. Snowboarding were on hand for the annual alumni gathering held March 29 in the Team’s home of Park City. It was a star-studded evening with Olympic medalists Jonny Moseley, Eric Bergoust and Travis Mayer among the guests. Around a dozen athletes were honored with the presentation of their alumni jackets and certificates.
2008 Recognized Alumni
Our second annual rookie camp will take place June 19, 20, and 21. We are expecting up to 30 newly named athletes to join us in Park City for an introduction to the USSA and to share what this great organization provides to nearly 180 elite athletes each year. This camp will help define what being a national Team member is all about. Workshops will be conducted on agents, sponsors, educational advancement, team building, media training, etc. We look forward to welcoming our next Olympic champions to the USSA family.
2007 Dare to Dream Rookie Camp
At a recent presentation I attended by our own Director of Sports Medicine Richard Quincy (Q), a condition called deep vain thrombosis (DVT) was discussed. A current national team athlete was diagnosed with DVT recently upon returning on a flight from Europe. I want to make sure you are aware of the symptoms and how you can prevent this from happening to you.
First, a giant thank you to retiring head alpine coaches Phil McNichol and Patrick Riml for their many years of outstanding service coaching our elite Team athletes. Their leadership accounted for five crystal globes this season. We wish you all the best for the future. You will be missed. Continue Reading »
We are almost a year away from the opening of the Center of Excellence. The Milk Run will provide updated photos in the right column. We hope you are getting excited about this new training facility that will allow all of our athlete support programs - sport science, sport medicine, athlete services, sport directors, communications, events, etc. to be under one roof for you. We hope you recognize what a great resource this will be for our current and future national Team athletes. Recently, Graham Watanabe shared his thoughts with me.
Ted Ligety (giant slalom), Lindsey Vonn (downhill, overall), and Bode Miller (overall, super combined) for bringing home the globes.
Lindsey Vonn and Ted Ligety
Pat Deneen and Allison Treleaven for being named FIS Rookies of the Year.
Congrats to all of our Sprint U.S. Freestyle Champions Michael Morse (men’s moguls, dual moguls), Emiko Torito (women’s moguls), Michelle Roark (women’s dual moguls), Ryan St. Onge (men’s aerials), and Emily Cook (women’s aerials).
Emiko Torito and Michael Morse
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