U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s annual report on philanthropy, the Gratitude Report, provides a complete overview of the organization’s fundraising activities, highlights significant campaigns and achievements, and honors the more the 2,000 donors who make it possible for our athletes to train and compete on the world stage. You can view and download the reports in the Resources Section.
Promoting and expanding the reach and visibility of our national team athletes on social media channels is a top priority for the organization and the athletes.
Bob Beattie was an icon of the sport of alpine ski racing and one of its most passionate pioneers. He was a driving force for ski racing his entire life, counted among the sport’s leaders who built alpine ski racing into one of the pillar events at the Olympic Winter Games. He was the founding coach of the U.S. Ski Team and one of the creators of the Alpine Ski World Cup.
The goal of the Shaw Graham Coaches’ Excellence Initiative is to augment our coaches’ certification curriculum and develop a delivery mechanism that is accessible and user-friendly. U.S. Ski & Snowboard hopes to achieve universal coaches’ certification with a long-term strategy in place for club development, and regional delivery through the club system.
The Stifel U.S. Cross Country Ski Team is the first philanthropic investment of its kind at U.S. Ski & Snowboard.
U.S. Ski & Snowboard today announced its partnership with R-Zero, the first biosafety technology company dedicated to reducing the spread of infectious diseases.
Ahead of a critical Olympic season, U.S. Ski & Snowboard has incorporated R-Zero’s IoT-enabled, whole-room UV disinfection system, Arc, into its daily health and safety protocols at its Park City, Utah training facility, the USANA Center of Excellence. Arc’s hospital-grade, sustainable UV disinfection allows U.S. Ski & Snowboard to safely eliminate pathogenic risk on surfaces and air without the use of harmful chemicals. The addition of R-Zero’s biosafety technology is part of the organization’s innovative approach to ensuring U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team athletes are able to continue performing at their highest while training for and competing in Beijing in 2022.
“Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve been taking a multifaceted approach to ensure our athletes are protected from health risks across the board, and R-Zero’s partnership is a big added step in the right direction,” said Gillian Bower, Director of High Performance at U.S. Ski & Snowboard and a 15-year veteran of the organization. “Health and performance are a priority—not just for our athletes but for our staff. R-Zero’s Arc adds a safe, highly effective and sustainable way we can ensure we’re reducing risks in all spaces and for all parts of the organization.”
Currently, U.S. Ski & Snowboard is using four Arc units in the USANA Center of Excellence to disinfect spaces such as the weight room, physical therapy facilities, performance lab and their aerial practice area, which includes ramps, trampolines and foam landing pits. To optimize athlete health and performance, the team runs R-Zero’s UV-C systems daily in these high-traffic training locations. Later this month, the team will also ship two Arc units to Beijing for use in the upcoming Games.
“COVID-19 illuminated the need for increased health and performance conditions for professional athletes across the world,” said Grant Morgan, co-founder and CEO of R-Zero. “As the Delta variant continues to surge globally, ensuring the health security of team staff and athletes will continue to remain critical. We are proud to support the entire U.S. Ski & Snowboard organization in creating safer indoor athletic training environments, both here in Utah and internationally.”
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About R-Zero
R-Zero is the first biosafety technology company dedicated to making the indoor spaces we share, safer and clinically clean. Founded to help organizations protect the health of people they serve, R-Zero is dedicated to developing the most effective and innovative disinfection technologies, to reduce the spread of all infectious diseases. R-Zero’s first product, Arc [an IoT-enabled, whole-room UV disinfection device] is currently enabling a higher level of health safety for hundreds of thousands of people, across both public and private sector organizations, without the use of chemicals. Today, R-Zero is pioneering the first continuous, automated disinfection ecosystem, enabling every organization to measure and manage indoor health risk with the same level of sophistication and technology that’s become standard across virtually every other industry. Informed by data science, built with AI, ML, and IoT connected hardware, R-Zero’s intelligent disinfection platform provides greater visibility, automation and even smarter risk reduction within the indoor spaces where humans spend their time. R-Zero is backed by leading venture capital firms, as well as thought-leaders from the health, hospitality, sports, commercial real estate, impact, and other industries. For more information, visit www.rzero.com.
About U.S. Ski & Snowboard
U.S. Ski & Snowboard is the Olympic National Governing Body (NGB) of ski and snowboard sports in the USA, based in Park City, Utah. Tracing its roots directly back to 1905, the organization represents nearly 200 elite skiers and snowboarders in 2021, competing in seven teams; alpine, cross country, freeski, freestyle, snowboard, nordic combined and ski jumping. In addition to the elite teams, U.S. Ski & Snowboard also provides leadership and direction for tens of thousands of young skiers and snowboarders across the USA, encouraging and supporting them in achieving excellence. By empowering national teams, clubs, coaches, parents, officials, volunteers, and fans, U.S. Ski & Snowboard is committed to the progression of its sports, athlete success, and the value of team. For more information, visit www.usskiandsnowboard.org
Creative Assets:
Photo assets of the R-Zero Arc system installed in the USANA Center of Excellence are linked here for use.
U.S. Ski & Snowboard has officially announced a multi-year partnership with Givego, an on-demand virtual coaching and connectivity platform built by athletes, for athletes.
Givego’s one-of-a-kind virtual learning platform connects users to experts through an easy to use and intuitive app, allowing anyone the ability to connect and learn from some of the world's best experts and professional athletes. Today, users simply upload a video using their mobile device, describe what aspect of their sport they are looking to improve, and their choice of expert can respond within minutes.
“Givego’s ability to provide on-demand feedback to skiers and riders around the world directly complements our mission to encourage and support athletes, clubs, coaches, parents, officials, volunteers, and fans,” said U.S. Ski & Snowboard President and CEO Tiger Shaw. “In addition to providing a valuable resource to key stakeholders, Givego also contributes to an athlete’s financial well being by compensating them for their expertise. We could not be more excited to support elements of our development pipeline and athlete experience alongside Givego.”
"We exist to make dreams possible," says Willie Ford, founder & CEO of Givego. "Whether you're a world champion, a young athlete with big goals, or someone who simply wants to be their best, we help you. We could not be more excited to bring Givego to the greater community of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard."
Customers can expect the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Givego experience to launch in September. To learn more, visit: www.givego.io or download Givego from the App Store to receive your free session.
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About Givego
Givego is an online marketplace built by athletes for athletes in Salt Lake City, UT. Givego delivers a proprietary mobile technology that connects passionate sports enthusiasts with world-renowned experts across multiple disciplines with the sole objective of helping athletes improve. Givego’s community of experts range from Olympic and professional athletes to some of the most sought-after instructors and coaches certified by leading NGB’s.
About U.S. Ski & Snowboard
U.S. Ski & Snowboard is the Olympic National Governing Body (NGB) of ski and snowboard sports in the USA, based in Park City, Utah. Tracing its roots directly back to 1905, the organization represents nearly 200 elite skiers and snowboarders in 2021, competing in seven teams; alpine, cross country, freeski, freestyle, snowboard, nordic combined and ski jumping. In addition to the elite teams, U.S. Ski & Snowboard also provides leadership and direction for tens of thousands of young skiers and snowboarders across the USA, encouraging and supporting them in achieving excellence. By empowering national teams, clubs, coaches, parents, officials, volunteers and fans, U.S. Ski & Snowboard is committed to the progression of its sports, athlete success and the value of team. For more information, visit www.usskiandsnowboard.org
U.S. Ski & Snowboard today announced the organization’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Action Plan.
The objective of the three-year action plan is to achieve a higher-performing organization with an inclusive culture, equitable systems, and a team that will benefit from a more diverse range of backgrounds, experiences, and views. The plan is built around DEI pillars and corresponding subcommittees including leadership, governance, training, education, expanded access, representation, recognition, public facing content, and partnerships.
“Elite performance cannot reach its highest levels when pursued in an elitist or inequitable way,” said U.S. Ski & Snowboard President and CEO Tiger Shaw and Chairman of the Board Kipp Nelson. ”In setting this Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Action Plan, our purpose is to honor and hold ourselves accountable to enriching our sport by nurturing a more welcoming culture, establishing fair systems at all levels, and opening the door wider to make skiing and snowboarding more accessible to athletes, professional staff, and communities with a more diverse array of backgrounds and identities.”
U.S. Ski & Snowboard expanded and accelerated DEI efforts following the unjust killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery in June 2020, begging the question: What can our organization do as a member of the bigger snow sports industry? Up until that point, progress had been made in the area of gender equality, but it was clear the organization needed to make more headway in creating a real connection between snowsports and underrepresented communities.
The action plan is not the beginning of, or the end of the organization’s DEI efforts, but is a tool to focus efforts on key priorities and provide accountability over the next three years. The plan is designed to have a positive impact on diversity and inclusion across our organization, our athletes, our members, our clubs, our donors, and our fans around the world. It is a symbol and a representation of a commitment to advancing DEI throughout the organization and snowsports in a way that is both meaningful and lasting.
U.S. Ski & Snowboard Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Action Plan
June 2021 DEI Update: One Year of Progress
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About U.S. Ski & Snowboard
U.S. Ski & Snowboard is the Olympic National Governing Body (NGB) of ski and snowboard sports in the USA, based in Park City, Utah. Tracing its roots directly back to 1905, the organization represents nearly 200 elite skiers and snowboarders in 2021, competing in seven teams; alpine, cross country, freeski, freestyle, snowboard, nordic combined and ski jumping. In addition to the elite teams, U.S. Ski & Snowboard also provides leadership and direction for tens of thousands of young skiers and snowboarders across the USA, encouraging and supporting them in achieving excellence. By empowering national teams, clubs, coaches, parents, officials, volunteers and fans, U.S. Ski & Snowboard is committed to the progression of its sports, athlete success and the value of team. For more information, visit www.usskiandsnowboard.org.