2020-21 Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team and Staff Announced
U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced a deep 43-athlete roster for the 2020-21 season’s Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team. The U.S. Ski Team is currently on snow at U.S. Ski Team Speed Center at Copper Mountain, Colo. prepping prior to heading over to Europe to dive into the full FIS Ski World Cup schedule, starting with two women’s slalom races in Levi, Finland, Nov. 21-22.
First, let's get you acquainted with this season’s TV broadcast schedule.
The 2020-21 season kicked off yet again in Soelden, Austria, on Oct. 17-18 with women’s and men’s giant slalom races. While two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin sat Soelden out due to a nagging back injury, 2017 NCAA Slalom Champion Paula Moltzan blew everyone away when she skyrocketed from bib 62 to finish 10th—her best-ever World Cup finish to date. “Slalom specialist” no more, folks! Teammate Nina O’Brien was close behind, with her first-ever top-15 World Cup giant slalom finish. On the men’s side, 2019 Xfinity Birds of Prey victor Tommy Ford, who had been dealing with both a shoulder and back injury in the offseason, led the crew in 22nd, while River Radamus ran bullet second run and skied a smart, safe run to finish 27th and start his season strong with his second giant slalom World Cup points.
Mikaela and Tommy headline the list of both accomplished and emerging athletes heading into the 2020-21 season. The 2019-20 season was a step in the right direction for the Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team, with 15 FIS Ski World Cup podiums, one Junior World Championship medal, and seven NorAm titles. Mikaela led the way with 13 podiums and six victories in 19 World Cup starts, despite missing nine races. She’ll head into 2020-21 as the winningest slalom skier of all-time, with 43 slalom victories, and ranked fourth on the all-time win list behind Marcel Hirscher (67), U.S. Ski Team alumni and Land Rover ambassador Lindsey Vonn (82), and Ingemar Stenmark (86). When she steps into the start gate in Levi, Finland on Nov. 21, it will have been exactly 300 days since she last stood in a World Cup start gate. Think about that for a second.
The men’s team was highlighted by Tommy, with solid and consistent skiing, finishing his career-best season ranked fifth in the world in giant slalom with six top-15 results, four top-five results, two podiums, and a massive victory by .80 seconds in Beaver Creek, Colo. He is joined by a men’s team with considerable depth, specifically the men’s speed team—which had four athletes finish in the top-20 in the world in downhill for the first time ever: Travis (13th), Ryan Cochran-Siegle (14th), Bryce Bennett (16th) and Steven Nyman (20th).
The 2020-21 season will feature the much-anticipated FIS Ski World Championships in Cortina d’ Ampezzo, Italy, February 8-21, 2021. Following the premature end to the 2019-20 season with the cancellation of the FIS Ski World Cup Finals in Cortina d’Ampezzo due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the athletes are looking forward to competing in the Dolomites. Cortina d’Ampezzo is a favorite classic venue on the women’s World Cup circuit where the U.S. women’s speed team has enjoyed a lot of success, while the men have never skied at the venue.
Another highlight of the 2020-21 season will be the women’s Olympic test event in Beijing. The men were supposed to test out the Olympic track in Beijing last winter, but it was cancelled due to COVID-19. According to Olympic course designer Bernhard Russi, the track should be about 1 minute, 55 seconds, and equate more to Sochi’s Olympic course than the 2018 Olympic track in PyeongChang. Additionally, this year the FIS Alpine Junior World Ski Championships will be in Bansko, Bulgaria, from March 2-11, 2021.
“This group of athletes includes a healthy mix of World Cup performers as well as young guns we are developing to be tomorrow’s champions,” said Alpine Director Jesse Hunt. “This is one of the largest and deepest teams we have fielded and funded in years. Although we are navigating through a pandemic, we are determined to make this the best season possible. We owe it to the athletes and the nation to be resilient in our pursuit of safe, high-quality opportunities in training and competition. We will keep focused on improvement with this impressive and dedicated group of athletes.”
NBC’s new streaming platform, Peacock Premium, will live stream the 2020-21 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup Tour this season. NBC, NBCSN, Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA and
NBC Sports’ digital platforms will also air World Cup alpine skiing coverage all season. Alpine broadcast and streaming listings will be available throughout the season at USSkiandSnowboard.org.
Each athlete named to the U.S. Ski Team receives world-class program support, along with access to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Center of Excellence, as well as athletic benefits including elite coaching, sport science, sports medicine, and high-performance staff, and education opportunities. Additionally, A, B, and C team athletes are fully travel-funded once again this season, and the organization has also made significant headway in our efforts to decrease travel costs at the development team level, where members will be responsible for no more than $10,000 in travel and training costs with their team.
You can be assured that whatever happens this season, the Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team will roll with the punches and be ready to throw down on race day!
2020-21 Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team
(Hometown; Club; Birthdate)
A TEAM
Men
Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley, Calif.; Squaw Valley Ski Team; 7/14/1992)
Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, Vt.; Cochran’s/Mount Mansfield Ski & Snowboard Club; 3/27/1992)
Tommy Ford (Bend, Ore.; Mt. Bachelor Ski Education Foundation; 3/20/1989)
Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley, Calif.; Squaw Valley Ski Team; 7/14/1988)
Ted Ligety (Park City, Utah; Park City Ski and Snowboard; 8/31/1984)
Steven Nyman (Sundance, Utah; Park City Ski and Snowboard/Sundance Ski Team; 2/12/1982)
Women
Breezy Johnson (Victor, Idaho; Rowmark Ski Academy; 1/19/1996)
Laurenne Ross (Bend, Ore.; Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation; 8/17/1988)
Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.; Burke Mountain Academy/Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 3/13/1995)
B TEAM
Men
Sam DuPratt (Park City, UT; Park City Ski Education Foundation; 11/28/1993)
Bridger Gile (Aspen, Colo., Aspen Valley Ski Club and Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 10/15/1999)
Jared Goldberg (Holladay, Utah; Snowbird Sports Education Foundation; 6/15/1991)
Jimmy Krupka (Waitsfield, Vt.; Dartmouth College and Green Mountain Valley School (7/15/1998)*
Sam Morse (Carrabassett Valley, Maine; Carrabassett Valley Academy; 5/27/1996)
Kyle Negomir (Littleton, Colo.; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 10/3/1998)
River Radamus (Edwards, Colo.; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 2/12/1998)
Ben Ritchie (Waitsfield, VT; Green Mountain Valley School; 9/5/2000)
Jett Seymour (Steamboat, Colo.; Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club/University of Denver Ski Team; 11/5/1998)
George Steffey (Lyme, N.H.; Stratton Mountain School; 8/8/1997)
Luke Winters (Gresham, Ore.; Sugar Bowl Academy; 4/2/1997)
Women
Keely Cashman (Strawberry, Calif.; Squaw Valley Ski Team; 4/4/1999)
Alice McKennis (New Castle, Colo.; Sunlight Winter Sports Club/Rowmark Ski Academy; 8/18/1989)
Alice Merryweather (Hingham, Mass.; Attitash Race Team/Stratton Mountain School; 10/5/1996)
Paula Moltzan (Prior Lake, Minn.; Buck Hill Ski Team/Ski and Snowboard Club Vail; 4/7/1994)
Nina O’Brien (Edwards, Colo.; Burke Mountain Academy/Squaw Valley Ski Team; 11/29/1997)
Jacqueline Wiles (Aurora, Ore.; White Pass Ski Club; 7/13/1992)
C TEAM
Men
Cooper Cornelius (Glenwood Springs, Colo.; Aspen Valley Ski Club; 6/20/1999)
Isaiah Nelson (Wayzata, MN.; Buck Hill Ski Racing Club; 4/3/2001)
Women
Katie Hensien (Redmond, Wash.; Rowmark Ski Academy; 12/1/1999)
AJ Hurt (Carnelian Bay, Calif.; Squaw Valley Ski Team; 12/5/2000)
Nicola Rountree-Williams (Edwards, Colo.; Loveland Ski Area; 7/7/2002)
Zoe Zimmermann (Gilford, N.H.; Burke Mountain Academy; 5/16/2002)
DEVELOPMENT TEAM
Men
Jacob Dilling (Vail, Colo.; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail, 10/19/1999)
Kellen Kinsella (Edwards, Colo.; Dartmouth College and Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 8/7/2001)
Trent Pennington (Shalimar, Fla.; Ski and Snowboard Club Vail; 5/8/2002)*
Jack Smith (Sun Valley, Idaho; Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation; 4/24/2001)
Bradshaw Underhill (Newbury, N.H.; Killington Mountain School; 3/10/2000)*
Women
Lauren Macuga (Park City, Utah; Park City Ski & Snowboard; 7/4/2002)
Ainsley Proffit (St. Louis, MO; Sugar Bowl Ski Team & Academy; 3/21/2001)
Allie Resnick (Vail, Colo.; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 9/1/2001)*
Emma Resnick (Vail, Colo.; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 7/23/2003)
Alix Wilkinson (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.; Squaw Valley Ski Team; 8/2/2000)
Isabella Wright (Salt Lake City, UT; Snowbird Sports Education Foundation; 2/10/1997)*
*Newly named to the U.S. Ski Team
2020-21 ALPINE STAFF
Alpine Director: Jesse Hunt
Alpine Development Director: Chip Knight
Alpine Communications Manager: Megan Harrod
Alpine World Cup Medical Coordinator: Gillian Bower
Alpine Europa Cup Medical Coordinator: David Quammen
MEN
Team Manager: Gwynn Watkins
Athletic Development Coordinator: Michael Bingaman
Men’s World Cup Speed
Head Coach: Randy Pelkey
Assistant Coach: Urban Planinsek
Assistant Coaches: Scott Veenis/Chris Beckmann
Assistant Coach/Strength and Conditioning Coach: Ben Black
Physiotherapist: Ben Scheu
Men’s World Cup Technical
Head Coach: Forest Carey
Assistant Coach: Ian Garner
Assistant Coach/Strength and Conditioning Coach: Will Courtney
Slalom Coach: Ryan Wilson
Men’s Europa Cup
Head Coach: Matt Underhill
Assistant Coach: Max Lamb
Ski Service: Tristan McInnis
Ski Service: Jay Vestich
Men’s Development
Head Coach: Sasha Rearick
Assistant Coach: Nathan Bryant
Ski Service: Josh Benge
WOMEN
Head Coach: Paul Kristofic
Team Manager: Colleen Jamieson
Athletic Development Coordinator: Bob Poehling
Women’s World Cup Speed
World Cup Speed Head Coach: Alex Hoedlmoser
Assistant Coach: Karin Harjo
Assistant Coach: Daniel Dejori
Physiotherapist: Torey Anderson
Women’s World Cup Technical/Speed
Mikaela Shiffrin
Head Coach: Mike Day
Coach/Strength and Conditioning Coach: Jeff Lackie
Physiotherapist: Nick Franssen
Women’s World Cup Technical
Head Coach: Magnus Andersson
Women’s Europa Cup Technical
Head Coach: Casey Puckett
Assistant Coach: Katie Twible
Women’s Development
Head Coach: Marjan Cernigoj
Assistant Coach: Ali Spencer
Follow the Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team:
Instagram: @usskiteam
Facebook: @usskiandsnowboard
Twitter: @usskiteam
OFFICIAL LAND ROVER U.S. ALPINE SKI TEAM PARTNERS AND SUPPLIERS
Learn more about how you can support U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes this season at KeepTheFlameAlive.org.
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