June 18, 2007
PARK CITY, UTAH - (USST News Bureau Release) - World Championships medalists Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) and Lindsey Kildow (Vail, CO) plus Olympic champion Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) and first-time World Cup winner Steven Nyman (Provo, UT) headline the 2008 U.S. Alpine Ski Team, which was named Monday.
U.S. Alpine Director Jesse Hunt said the group, from the A Team through the Development Team, includes 27 men and 27 women; 15 are Olympians.
The Team, now in full summer training mode, will kickoff the 2007-08 World Cup season in October. The top U.S. Ski Team stars will be showcased in early December when the World Cup comes to Beaver Creek, CO, and Aspen, CO.
Mancuso produced the finest U.S. women's World Cup season since 1984 as she won the first four races in her career and finished third overall. She also collected another World Championships medal (the third of her career - this one silver in super combined) during the 2007 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Are, Sweden, and was named U.S. Alpine Skier of the Year by Ski Racing magazine. Kildow added three World Cup victories (seven in her career) and earned the silver medal in downhill and super G at Worlds before a knee injury shortened her 2007 season by a month.
Nyman earned his first World Cup top-3 during the Visa Birds of Prey races at Beaver Creek, CO, and two weeks later won his first race, capturing the downhill in Val Gardena, Italy. Despite starting the season with a broken hand, Ligety had two more World Cup podiums and finished with two U.S. championships for the third straight season.
"This Team is loaded with talent, from our top athletes that have had Olympic, World Championship and World Cup success to the up-and-coming athletes that have been successful at the Europa Cup and NorAm levels and are ready to take a step up," Hunt said. "This is a team - on both the men's and women's side - that has shown the potential to reach our goal of winning at every level."
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The 2008 U.S. Alpine Ski Team (with date of birth, hometown and club program):
MEN
A Team
B Team
C Team
WOMEN
A Team
B Team
C Team
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DEVELOPMENT TEAM
Men
Women
Hunt said the Ski Team would be continuing its quest for success at the World Cup level and to accelerate the development, as much as possible, of emerging young talents. There are seven World Cup races - four for men, three for women - in the USA before Christmas while NorAm Finals, the level just below the World Cup, will be March 13-16 at Whiteface Mountain, outside Lake Placid, NY.
The annual Visa Birds of Prey men's races will be Nov. 29-Dec. 2 (super combined, downhill, super G and giant slalom) at Beaver Creek, CO. The Aspen Winternational Dec. 7-9 (downhill, super G and slalom) will have the first women's World Cup downhill in the United States since 1997 and mark the 40th anniversary of the first women's World Cup downhill in Aspen.
"U.S. skiers took 11 of the 12 NorAm titles last winter, and with the top two skiers in each discipline (slalom, GS, super G and downhill) earning automatic World Cup starts, that provides a great opportunity for our young skiers to gain valuable experience," Hunt said. "They'll get a chance to see what the World Cup is, see how they can find their place in the top level of their sport...and keep working their way toward the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver."
In addition, several veterans who missed last season while recuperating from injuries are resuming their careers. Three-time Olympians Sarah Schleper (Vail, CO) and Caroline Lalive (Steamboat Springs, CO) will be back along with another three-time Olympian, Erik Schlopy (Park City, UT). Dane Spencer (Boise, ID), a 2002 Olympian who was sidelined in '06 by a life-threatening crash in a NorAm downhill, is returning from a broken neck and pelvis while Bryon Friedman (Park City, UT), who has undergone multiple surgeries to repair leg injuries following a training crash in January 2005, took his first racing starts in two years last winter and hopes to keep progressing back toward the World Cup.
"These returnees are all proven World Cup contenders," Hunt said, "and it will be good to regain their talent and leadership skills, especially for the younger skiers on the 2008 Ski Team."
in a NorAm downhill, is returning from a broken neck and pelvis while Bryon Friedman (Park City, UT), who has undergone multiple surgeries to repair leg injuries following a training crash in January 2005, took his first racing starts in two years last winter and hopes to keep progressing back toward the World Cup.
"These returnees are all proven World Cup contenders," Hunt said, "and it will be good to regain their talent and leadership skills, especially for the younger skiers on the 2008 Ski Team."
