If you're already looking forward to the 2012 Olympics, start paying attention to the name Morganne Murphy.  Murphy, who just turned 17, is poised to be dominant in multiple disciplines.

“Hopefully I’ll make the U.S. Ski Team in the next two years,” she says. “I’d like to race in Sochi.”

The odds of that are looking pretty good. She’s the reigning 2010 U.S. Junior Ski Cross Champion and the year before that she won the Super G Gold at the Junior Olympics. Last summer she was the only American female ski cross skier to go to the FIS Junior World Championships. This winter, Murphy says this year she's going to ease off of Ski Cross, because she's already qualified for Junior Worlds, and focus on Super G.

Murphy is one of a small number of up-and-coming Ski Cross racers. "It's getting a lot more popular," she says. "Last year there were 10 people, now there are 30. You have to be a lot more aggressive, you have to know exactly where you are."-H.H.

All photos shot by Heather Erson and Drew McElwee of Heather Erson Photography at Squaw Valley.