Ritchie Second in Longines Future Champions Race

ST. MORITZ, Switzerland (March 15, 2016) – The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association’s (USSA) National Training Group (NTG) athlete Ben Ritchie (Waitsfield, VT, National Training Group/Green Mountain Valley School) snagged second place at the Longines Future Ski Champions event.

The Longines event, which alternates between men’s and women’s races each year, brings together the future talents of alpine ski racing to compete against each other on the scene of a major professional circuit competition. This year’s event took place the day prior to the the kick off of the 2016 Audi FIS Ski World Cup Finals in St. Moritz. 

Ben Ritchie (left) finished second at the Longines Future Ski Champions event. Joshua Sturm of Austria won, as Augustin Bianchini of France was third. (USSA)

On the same track as the World Cup Finals giant slalom, Ritchie had a brilliant run, finishing just .17 seconds behind Joshua Sturm of Austria. Augustin Bianchini of France rounded out the podium in third. 

The event was another notch on Ritchie’s growing tally of major international events, including this year’s Hahnenkamm Juniors and Seven Nations Cup. 

“I’m not sure if it’s more important than Hahnenkamm Juniors, but it feels like it with all the cameras and the scene here,” Ritchie said. “I was pretty nervous coming into it; we don’t have much snow for training now on the east coast. But I felt comfortable on the course. It was fun.”

Ritchie is USSA’s top U16 athlete, having taken home super G and slalom titles at last year’s U16 U.S. National Championships. He also won five out of six NTG time trial runs at Copper Mountain.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Ben Ritchie finished second in this year’s Longines Future Ski Champions, racing against some of the best U16 racers from 14 countries.
• Ritchie is a member of USSA’s National Training Group.
• NTG’s Keely Cashman (Strawberry, CA) and U.S. Ski Team’s River Radamus (Edwards, CO) have also represented the U.S. at the Longines event.
• It is the third Longines Future Ski Champions. Longines ambassador Mikaela Shiffrin (Vail, CO) presented bibs to the athletes in St. Moritz.