Mid-Season Update from U.S. Ski & Snowboard President & CEO Sophie Goldschmidt

Hi all,

We’re in the thick of another thrilling winter season and what a season it’s shaping up to be! As we are officially one year away from the start of the Olympic Winter Games in Milan Cortina today, we are excited about what’s to come, especially as we reflect on all we’ve accomplished this season so far. 

Across all 10 of our sports, our athletes are putting down some incredible performances. With many new faces on the World Cup podium, never-before-done tricks thrown at competitions and career-best results regularly, we feel the collective momentum as we head into the next big event: the World Championships.  

Outside of athletics, on the partnerships front, we’ve partnered with incredible companies and organizations who are helping us move the needle in the right direction. We’re in a good position on the revenue side, especially heading into an Olympic Winter Games year. While progress is never linear, we’re confident that we’re continuing to head in the right direction on all fronts. 

With that, I want to thank everyone involved. U.S. Ski & Snowboard is 10 sports and one team, so thank you for being a part of it. 

ATHLETIC HIGHLIGHTS
On the snow, we’ve seen some exceptional results at World Cup events in the U.S. and worldwide from veterans and breakout stars. 

Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team
We’re delighted to welcome Mikaela Shiffrin back to racing after a challenging two-month recovery from an abdominal injury she sustained at the Stifel Killington Cup in November. Seeing her on the snow again brings extra energy to the team and sport, especially as she chases her 100th World Cup win. As you all know, Lindsey Vonn has made a very impressive comeback to competition after six years of retirement, which has been huge for our sport and we’re looking forward to seeing what more she can do, especially after her fourth-place result a few weeks ago in the St. Anton downhill! We’ve also seen top results from new athletes on the podium, including Lauren Macuga, who earlier today won a bronze medal at the World Championships, following her first World Cup victory in St. Anton at only 22 years old, and Jared Goldberg, who took home his first podium in Val Gardena. Veteran Ryan Cochran-Siegle also podiumed in Val Gardena that same weekend, and Paula Moltzan is having a strong season, highlighted by her third-place result in Kronplatz a couple of weeks ago. 

Stifel U.S. Cross Country Ski Team
Jessie Diggins continues to lead the overall World Cup rankings by a large margin, putting herself in a good position to bring home the coveted FIS Crystal Globe for the third time in her career despite battling a painful foot injury this season. This is her 13th month in a row ranked as the #1 skier in the world. She has five individual wins this season alone and is prepped to enter another round of World Championships races in a few weeks as a defending World Champion. Ben Ogden is also having a standout season, shown by his World Cup podium two weeks ago in a distance skate race – a distance he considered a weakness just a few seasons ago.

Stifel U.S. Freeski Team
Just last weekend, we had our Stifel U.S. Freeski Team once again sweep the men’s podium for the second time this season at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Aspen Buttermilk, led by Nick Goepper and Alex Ferreira, who are in the midst of a great sports rivalry, as the teammates continue to trade places for the top step of the podium. On the slopestyle side, Rell Harwood podiumed twice in both X Games and the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix, Alex Hall continuing to show his unique approach to skiing by bringing home several podiums and Colby Stevenson added more top results to his resume too. The Visa Big Air presented by Toyota kicks off today, so tune in on Outside at 12 p.m. ET to watch!

Stifel U.S. Freestyle Ski Team
Starting tonight, we will welcome the world to Deer Valley for the “Super Bowl of freestyle skiing” at the Intermountain Health Freestyle International presented by Stifel on Thursday, Friday and Saturday for moguls, aerials and dual moguls events. This season, the women’s moguls team continues to dominate, with a U.S. athlete on the podium in nearly every World Cup led by Jaelin Kauf and Olivia Giaccio. Nick Page also secured his first domestic World Cup podium at the Toyota Waterville Freestyle Cup at Waterville Valley. For aerials, their season is heating up, and they kicked off the season in Lake Placid for the iFIT Freestyle Ski World Cup and now go into Deer Valley with renewed motivation. 

U.S. Ski Jumping Team, U.S. Nordic Combined Team
Our U.S. Ski Jumping and U.S. Nordic Combined Teams have had several breakthrough performances this season, with more athletes in the top 10 than we’ve seen in many years, especially athletes like Tate Frantz, Kevin Bickner and Annika Belshaw. They’ll look to bring home medals in the World Championships in just a few weeks.

Hydro Flask U.S. Snowboard Team
Halfpipe stars Chloe Kim and Maddie Mastro have shown the world what they’re capable of. Chloe is having a standout year, taking home three wins this season, while Maddie took home her career-first win in China. Then, one of our youngest stars, Lily Dhawornvej is becoming one of the sports’ brightest stars, and we’re looking forward to seeing what more she can achieve. Red Gerard went on to win back-to-back X Games gold in the men’s snowboard competition – and they’re just getting started! The Visa Big Air presented by Toyota in Aspen goes off today at 3:00 p.m. ET, so watch on Outside!

Stifel U.S. Para Alpine Ski Team, Toyota U.S. Para Snowboard Team
Our Para teams are dominating on all fronts. Every weekend, U.S. athletes are on the podium, regardless of the event—the depth of that team is outstanding. Andrew Kurka showed his absolute mastery throughout the last month, and while his season was recently cut short due to injury, seeing what he could do while healthy was incredible. We also had first-time podium stars like Audrey Crowley, and Saylor O’Brien has had some stellar results. 

On the Para snowboard side, our ESPY winners, Brenna Huckaby and Zach Miller, are stringing together great finishes. Huckaby continues her work off the snow to ensure that Para sports are easily seen in the media, which is highlighted by her co-founding Culxtured, a company focused on changing the narrative around Para sports. Noah Elliott secured himself a Crystal Globe, marking him the best male LL1 on the circuit this season.

DOMESTIC WORLD CUPS
Our 12 domestic World Cups—the most we’ve ever hosted in a single season—are more than halfway complete. They have been a massive success on every front: revenue, partnerships and, most importantly, athletic performances. Hosting more domestic World Cups is an enormous priority for us, as it not only gives us the chance to compete on home snow but also directly inspires the next generation of skiers and snowboarders. Starting today, we have the Intermountain Health Freestyle International presented by Stifel at Deer Valley and tomorrow kicks off the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup in Lake Placid. At the end of the month, the Toyota U.S. Para Snowboard Team will compete on home snow for the first time in many years at Steamboat Ski Resort, and finally, we’ll wrap up the season at the Stifel Sun Valley Finals—the first time the U.S. has hosted the World Cup Finals since 2017. We hope to see you at all of these!

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Every other non-Olympic and Paralympic year is a World Championship year in our sports, with athletes competing for medals, not just podiums. The first World Champs started this week with able-bodied alpine in Saalbach, Austria and Para alpine in Maribor, Slovenia. Races kicked off on Tuesday with the alpine team bringing home a fourth place in the mixed team parallel, and Lauren Macuga bringing home her first World Championships bronze medal in her first-ever World Championships race! 

Cross country, nordic combined and ski jumping compete at the end of the month in Trondheim, Norway, while freestyle, freeski and snowboard will be in St. Moritz-Engadin, Switzerland in March. Keep an eye on your social media channels for results and behind-the-scenes moments from one of the biggest stages in our sport.

DEVELOPMENT LEVEL
We’re seeing top results and performances across all disciplines across the pipeline of young talent in the U.S. We’ve hosted several domestic events for our junior athletes, but now, they’re competing on an even bigger stage: the Junior World Championships. With cross country underway, alpine a few weeks away and freestyle already stacking up some medals, we’re excited to witness the depth of talent in our country. It’s also very positive to see great results in the NorAms, SuperTours, Selections and Rev Tour events – a direct indicator of the tremendous potential and depth in our junior-level athletes that will one day become the world's biggest snowsports stars. 

PARTNERSHIPS
Our partnerships continue to thrive and evolve. 

CLOUDFLARE, DAVOS ACTIVATION
We recently welcomed Cloudflare as our newest Tier 1 sponsor—an important partnership that touches every part of our organization as they become our official technology sponsor. As part of our partnership with Cloudflare, we’re activating innovatively, including bringing Stifel U.S. Ski Team athletes Lindsey Vonn, Jackie Wiles and Lauren Macuga to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to host meetings on the slopes. In this unique activation, our current athletes stood alongside some of the sport’s greats, including Olympic champion Picabo Street, Daron Rahlves and Steven Nyman, to take people outside the traditional board room and instead take on global issues while skiing among the vast landscape of the Davos Klosters Mountains. The value of the partnership was brought to life through this activation and we are now inspired to organize more events like this with our existing and future partners. 

NSA PARTNERSHIP & FIS
We’re also proud to have signed a groundbreaking agreement with Ski Austria, creating a unique collaboration between our two organizations. It is the first commercial-based partnership between U.S. Ski & Snowboard and another country’s NSA, alongside key sport activations as well. In addition, FIS’ move to centralize broadcast rights is an essential step toward making our sports easier to watch and access worldwide—something we know is vital for growing engagement. This will start from the 2026/27 season.

TITLE SPONSORS
Toyota and Stifel continue to step up as partners, becoming the title sponsors of our Para teams. Toyota now supports the Toyota U.S. Para Snowboard Team, and Stifel has taken on the Stifel U.S. Para Alpine Ski Team. These investments mark a significant step forward in amplifying Para sports and supporting our mission of inclusivity.

X GAMES
We kicked off a strategic partnership with the X Games in December at Copper Mountain, with X Games hosting a night street style event just below the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix halfpipe. It was a big success, with large crowds and a great atmosphere. We also worked closely with them on the venue build in Aspen, which allowed for both the X Games and Toyota U.S. Grand Prix/Visa Big Air presented by Toyota to be hosted at the same resort. And we partnered with them around content, showcasing each other’s assets to both social media audiences throughout the season. 

MEDIA
Our U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team social media channels continue to grow this season. By the numbers, we’ve seen over 35% season-over-season growth in impressions, driven by strategic content planning, elevated storytelling and standout posts that have captured audience attention. Social media is key in today’s sports landscape and we’re excited to see how our audiences are constantly receiving our content and the new audiences we’re capturing by telling more of the story behind our sports.  

Regarding traditional media, we’ve had several significant hits covering areas which we’re excited about. A few highlights include the New York Times/Athletic covered Lindsey Vonn’s return, Jessie Diggins’s approach to the grueling Tour de Ski, Gus Schumacher and Ben Ogden’s rise in cross country skiing, keeping up with the Macuga family, and Alex Hall’s utter dominance in sport. Forbes has covered Chloe Kim, Maddie Mastro and Lili Dhawornvej’s big moments across the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix events and X Games, and we’ve were quite a few sports business-focused features on partnerships and projects such as our activation with Cloudflare in Davos in Sportico, new World Cups in the U.S. in Sports Business Journal, and increased organizational marketing in SportsTravel.

STIFEL SNOW SHOW
The Stifel Snow Show has entered its second season, and this year, we’ve emphasized telling the story of the stories behind the results, with great features of athletes and lots of behind-the-scenes footage. The NBC team has been great to work with and we’re excited about the storylines we’re creating, especially as we enter an Olympic year. 

The show continues to show on CNBC every Saturday, but we have also partnered to launch the episodes earlier on YouTube, so you can stay up-to-date on all the action before the next weekend’s events kick off. Catch up on all the episodes here.

KEY INITIATIVES
We remain committed to ongoing initiatives, including HERoic, which is focused on women’s sports, and Easy Green, which is focused on sustainability. On the HERoic side, we've hosted panels and events at domestic World Cup events featuring inspiring sports leaders, had multiple social media activations to tell stories about women and hosted a very successful Stifel Birds of Prey for women, marking the first time women had a chance to race down the famed Birds of Prey downhill track. 

Sustainability also remains a top priority and through Easy Green, we’re working closely with partners to raise environmental awareness while reducing our own climate impact. As part of our campaign, we launched climate change-themed race suits for alpine and cross country, which debuted earlier this week at the FIS Alpine World Championships. In partnership with Protect Our Winters, we are continuing the conversation we started two years ago by having our athletes show their commitment at the highest level of the sport. 

We’re also planning more HERoic and Easy Green activations at the Stifel Sun Valley Finals – stay tuned for more.

FOUNDATION AND REVENUE GROWTH
We’ve hosted several successful donor events and fundraisers this season, including the return of the Denver Snow Ball in Colorado, fundraisers in Park City, alpine and freeski gatherings in Aspen and the first-ever moguls fundraiser at the Yellowstone Club. As an organization that receives no government funding, we rely heavily on donor support. We’re incredibly grateful for this community and the support we see. Thanks to these efforts, we’re in the strongest financial position we’ve ever been, directly benefiting our athletes and their pursuit of becoming the best in the world. 

LOOKING AHEAD
As we continue through this season, we’re reminded of our core organizational values: achieve athletic and operational excellence, grow the visibility of our athletes and sports, and drive financial performance. These principles guide everything we do, from supporting our athletes on the world stage to making skiing and snowboarding more accessible for future generations.

Having said all of this, we’re not complacent. We have ambitious targets to reach across our entire organization at all levels, and we are working day in and day out to meet them, with our incredibly committed and talented staff. We know when we all work together, we can achieve amazing things. Thank you for your continued support and passion for our sports.

Best,
Sophie