Nolan Kasper’s long road of recovery is finally over, and just in time to give the men’s U.S. Ski Team tech squad, and his own Olympic aspirations, a much-needed boost.

Kasper (Warren, Vt.), competing in his first FIS Ski World Cup race in two years following a host of knee and hip surgeries, came from the 52nd start position on a rutted, icy slalom track to finish 20th in Wengen, Switzerland Sunday.

“I'm psyched to be back and having a second run again,” Kasper said. “This is a good as I could have hoped for. I knew I was skiing well, but we’re at the World Cup and these are the best guys.”

Skiing balanced and solid, Kasper took control in the first run, mastering the steep sections that took out numerous competitors before him, including teammates David Chodounsky (Crested Butte, Colo.) and AJ Ginnis (Vouliagmeni, Greece), and skied into the top 30, just ahead of Mark Engel (Truckee, Calif.) in 28th position.

“They injected the course yesterday and it held up pretty well, but you definitely get some grooves and bumps,” Kasper said. “They didn’t (groom) it after the combined (Friday), so there are some ruts in there from that slalom. But you just have to fight through it.”

Starting third in the second run, Kasper kept fighting and skied to his best World Cup result in three years. Austria’s Marcel Hirscher extended is overall World Cup lead with yet another slalom victory – his fifth of the season – as Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen finished second and Sweden’s Andre Myhrer was third.

In addition to surgeries and recovery over the past two years, Kasper returned to Dartmouth College to complete his degree in economics. He also interned for U.S. Ski & Snowboard, assisting with the Athlete Career & Education department and redesigning the new U.S. Ski & Snowboard website.

Up next, the men’s World Cup circuit returns to Kitzbuehel, Austria Jan. 19-21 with super-G, downhill and slalom races where Kasper will once again have the opportunity to state his case for becoming a member of the 2018 U.S. Olympic Team.

“Its always in the back of my mind,” Kasper said of the prospects of making his third Olympic team. “But it’s not for me to decide. I’m just going to go out and try and ski and have fun. My goals this year don’t change, I’m trying to go and prove to myself that I can be competitive and try and ski well. I just want to go out and have some fun and enjoy this year.”

RESULTS
Men’s slalom
 

Laurenne Ross (Bend. Ore.) competed in her first FIS Ski World Cup downhill after recovering from a severe knee injury suffered at the U.S. Alpine Championships last season and led the U.S. Ski Team, finishing 11th, in Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria Sunday. Italy swept the podium with Sofia Goggia, Federica Brignone and Nadia Franchini going 1-2-3.

Weather issues hampered downhill training all week and continued into Sunday as light mist and fog forced FIS officials to move the downhill start down to the super-G start. The ladies also completed and abbreviated downhill training run prior to Sunday morning race. The race start was then delayed as course crews worked to smooth out the rough, icy track.

However, none of that seemed to faze Ross during her run as she charged down the course. But the sigh of relief after crossing the finish line told another story.

“Today was an extremely tough race,” Ross said. “These are the most difficult conditions I’ve skied in since I’ve been injured and to have to race in them was a really big challenge for me.

“I wasn’t sure if I was going to race or not, but when I decided to go for it … I tried to charge and tried to be solid on the front of my skis,” she added. “It didn’t feel good, but I suppose nobody’s run felt that great. It’s a difficult hill and the conditions are kind of ridiculous.”

Alice McKennis (Glenwood Springs, Colo.) provided another bright spot for the Americans as she posted her second top-20 result of the season in 16th. Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, Calif.) was 18th; Breezy Johnson (Victor, Idaho) 20th; and Lindsey Vonn (Vail, Colo.) 22nd.

“I knew it was going to be a struggle this morning from the training run,” Vonn said. “Really poor visibility, pretty icy and bumpy conditions. I really had no grip on the ice and I felt like I was skiing on marbles.”

Up next, the women’s FIS World Cup circuit continues with super-G and downhill Jan. 20-21 in Cortina, Italy, where overall World Cup leader Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.) is expected to compete.

RESULTS
Women’s Downhill

In front of huge crowds in the historic German city of Dresden, Sophie Caldwell (Peru, Vt.) and Ida Sargent (Orleans, Vt.) sprinted to third behind two powerhouse Swedish teams in a World Cup freestyle team sprint Sunday. It was a career-best match for Sargent. Italy beat Sweden for the men's victory.

The podium finish for Caldwell and Sargent matched their finish in the Olympic test event at Alpensia in PyeongChang, South Korea last February. The duo had been fifth in Planica, Slovenia a year earlier. Caitlin Patterson (Anchorage) and Kikkan Randall (Anchorage) teamed up to finish eight for the women, as did Erik Bjornsen (Winthrop, Wash.) and Simi Hamilton (Aspen, Colo.) for the men.

In the second women's semi-final, it was an all USA show as Caldwell and Sargent took the win with Patterson and Randall right behind. In the final, it was a tight battle most of the way between Sweden, Germany and the USA's two teams plus Switzerland and Slovenia. Sargent handed off to Caldwell for the final leg with the Swiss in the lead. Caldwell worked her way through traffic on the short, flat sprint course to join the Swedes for a finish sprint.

"That was a really fun and exciting race and I'm so happy to be on the podium with Sophie," said Sargent. "The course was so fast so the pack stayed together. We tried to stay near the front and stay out of trouble."

The high speed of the course also created chaos in the tag zone. "We had a couple of rough tags where we lost a little time to the Swedes but luckily we stayed on our feet," said Sargent.

"It was another great day for our team," said Caldwell, who scored her second straight sprint podium. "Our goal was to stay towards the front, stay out of trouble, and save some legs for the last lap of each heat. I think we executed our plan really well and I was proud of how both Ida and I skied."

With Olympic qualifying now completed, the World Cup tour now heads to Planica, Slovenia for a weekend of classic sprint and distance. Jessie Diggins (Afton, Minn.) and Sadie Bjornsen (Winthrop, Wash.) will rejoin the team after taking a one week break. The full Olympic team will be announced the week of January 22.

RESULTS
Men's Team Sprint 
Women's Team Sprint 

Maggie Voisin (Whitefish, Mont.) took second place at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix freeski slopestyle at Aspen-Snowmass, which clinched her spot in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

Voisin was the youngest team member to be named in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, but broke her ankle during training just prior to the Olympic competition. Emotions came running back to her when she called her mother to tell her that she was named to another Olympic team.

“Oh my gosh, I can’t even explain it,” said Voisin. “I feel like it’s been a long four years since my last Olympic experience and just to lock it in today is emotional in the best way. I can’t believe I’m going back to my second Olympics with a little bit of redemption going into Korea. There’s just so much look forward to. Grateful.”

Voisin finished behind Johanne Killi of Norway and ahead of Isabel Atkin of Great Britain. The only other American woman in the finals was Devin Logan (West Dover, Vt.), who finished sixth.

The men’s competition was hotly contested, with the top six skiers all scoring more than 90 points. McRae Williams (Park City, Utah) was in the running for a podium spot, but was bumped in the last run to fourth. Nineteen-year-old Andri Ragettli of Switzerland took the win, with Norwegians Ferdinand Dahl and Oystein Braaten in second and third.  

Competing in his second World Cup event, Quinn Wolferman (Missoula, Mont.) finished ninth. The North Face Rookie Team member Willie Borm (Chaska, Minn.) was 14th.

The men and women contest another slopestyle Sunday, which is also an Olympic selection event.

RESULTS
Men’s slopestyle
Women’s slopestyle

OLYMPIC STANDINGS
Men’s and women’s slopestyle

Two-time Olympic champion Shaun White (Carlsbad, Calif.) rose up to the challenge of making the Olympic Team with a definitive perfect winning run to lead a trio of Americans onto the 2018 Olympic Team Saturday at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Aspen-Snowmass.

"It's been all about making the Olympic team and after having had a poor finish at the Dew Tour, it put a lot of pressure on me for the win at this event," White said. "And that was my goal - to win this thing!"

Sitting ninth out of 10 after his first run, White came back on his third and final run to score a perfect 100 to take the World Cup win over Australia's Scotty James in second and Yuto Totsuka of Japan in third. Americans Ben Ferguson (Bend, Ore.) and 2016 Youth Olympic Games champion Jake Pates (Eagle, Colo.) were fourth and fifth respectively. White, Furguson, and Pates all clinched spots on the Olympic Team with one selection event remaining. This will be White's fourth Olympic Winter Games dating back to the 2006 Games when he won gold in the halfpipe.

White nailed his perfect run with a frontside 1440 to cab double 1080, frontside 540, tomahawk and a frontside double 1260 - a trick he had worked on to clean it up over the last couple of weeks.

“Man, I’m tripping out,” said White. “What a day.”

White had strong practice runs but had a leg tighten up heading into the competition. His first run was a wash and he missed a landing on the second. On the outside looking in, White dropped in one final time for his third run and nailed it.

“For the third run it was this huge debate (with myself),” he said. “It’s like, ‘do you play it safe and make the Olympic team or do you try to win it?’”

At the top, White took his time as options raced through his mind. With encouragement from his coaches, he launched one of his sport’s best runs ever.

“I’m just so stoked and then I got a 100 man,” said White. “That was unreal. I was almost in tears, man, I shed a couple.”

White served notice when he launched a YOLO early in his run - a 1440 move that includes two head-over-heels flips and two 360-degree turns. He stuck it perfectly, then launching a cab double 10, wrapping up with double 12s - a McTwist 1260 and a front double 12.

“That was a cool one because I’d reworked that trick the second day of practice here,” said White.

The win clinched White’s spot for an unprecedented fourth Olympics. 

“For sure, I mean it’s so exciting to be around this long,” said White, who is looking forward to returning to PyeongChang where he finished second to Australia’s Scotty James last year. “The test event was amazing. I’m so excited. I’m just going to take this run I’m doing now and just build – get it bigger, better, more technical tricks.”

In the women's halfpipe, Spain's Queralt Castellet took the win with Chloe Kim (Torrence, Calif.) top American in second ahead of Maddie Mastro (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) in third and Kelly Clark (Mt. Snow, Vt.) fourth.

Kim’s second-place run included an air front 10 tail, cab seven indie, front five McTwist.

With the Olympic Team already achieved, Kim contemplated the best approach to the event in Aspen-Snowmass. 

“The pipe was a little tricky here and everyone was kind of struggling, so I just wanted to challenge myself, said Kim. “I wanted to put down a run that’s normally pretty easy for me in these conditions and I was able to do that. So, I’m pretty hyped. I’m looking forward to Mammoth now and it will be a good time.”

With Kim the only one to clinch a spot on the Olympic Team, Mastro heads to Mammoth Mountain next weekend with a continuing mission. “I’m really happy with how I’m riding and where I’m moving and the direction of my snowboarding,” said Mastro. “I just hope it keeps snowballing and rolling forward and I just keep climbing and climbing.”

Mastro put down a front nine, back five, front seven, Haakon, crippler and method to close.

Two spots via objective criteria remain open for the women's Olympic Team with Mastro, Clark and Arielle Gold (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) all in contention. While the three men's objective criteria spots are now filled, a fourth discretionary spot may still be available with a host of men vying for the potential opportunity.

​​​​​​RESULTS
Men's World Cup Halfpipe
Women's World Cup Halfpipe 
 

HOW TO WATCH
All times EST

Jan. 14
3:00 p.m – Slopestyle skiing finals #2 – nbcsports.com
3:00 p.m. – Halfpipe snowboarding finals – NBC (next day coverage)

Jan. 15
1:30 a.m. – Slopestyle skiing finals #1 – NBCSN

Jan. 16
12:00 a.m. – Slopestyle skiing finals #2 – NBCSN
 

Sophie Caldwell (Peru, Vt.) charged through a traffic jam of Swedes to finish third in a photo finish at a freestyle city sprint in the historic city of Dresden, Germany. Sweden's Hanna Falk skied with a vengeance to pickup her first World Cup win in eight years.

Caldwell, who qualified 11th, moved into the finals with a lucky loser finish in the semifinals. One of the shortest and flattest sprint courses ever, the Dresden track was an all-out sprint from start to finish. Falk led the Swedes out of the gate at a torrid pace. Caldwell was slow getting out but held with the pack, moving quickly up into position.

Just past the midway point, Sweden's Stina Nilsson crashed hard just in front of Caldwell, who navigated around and used the incident to burst up into the front half of the pack. "The crash happened right in front of me," said Caldwell, "but I managed to avoid it and then put in a big push to maintain contact with the leaders."

It was a great return to the World Cup from Caldwell who had dropped out of the Tour de Ski a week ago with illness. "I was really happy with today," she said. "It was a course unlike any we’ve ever skied before being the flattest and shortest race I’ve ever done. It was important to get in a good position from the beginning and I did a decent job of that in my quarter final and semi final, but got off to a bit of a slow start in the final. I tried to stay patient and make moves where I could."

The podium moved Caldwell into third in the FIS World Cup sprint rankings. A team sprint is set for Sunday. It was the last World Cup race of the Olympic selection period with Ida Sargent (Orleans, Vt.), Simi Hamilton (Aspen, Colo.) and Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, Vt.) all confirming team spots with top 50 sprint rankings.

RESULTS
Men's Sprint 
Women's Sprint
 

For the second-straight day, Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley, Calif.) led the way for the U.S. Ski Team, finishing 17th on the famed Lauberhorn downhill course at Wengen, Switzerland Saturday.

For any fans that arrived, or tuned in late, they missed the show as Switzerland’s Beat Fuez came out of the No. 1 start position and took home the victory. Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal was second, followed by Austria’s Matthias Mayer in third.

Steven Nyman (Sundance, Utah), competing in only his second downhill since returning from a knee injury, had some blazing top fast splits and made a miraculous recovery off the final jump and finished 28th. Kipling Weisel (San Francisco, Calif.) made his World Cup downhill debut and finished 52nd. Jared Goldberg crashed midway down the course, but is OK.

Bennett secured his Olympic Team selection Friday after finishing ninth in the alpine combined. However, he still has a shot to make the downhill team for the Games with a solid result next weekend in Kitzbuehel, Austria.

“The pressure is still on to throw some results down in downhill,” Bennett said. “I want to compete in downhill (at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games). I think I’m skiing well, and I could have a good chance there if I keep skiing the way I am.”

Up next, the men compete in slalom Sunday in Wengen, where Nolan Kasper (Warren, Vt.) will return after being sidelined from competition for two entire seasons. His last World Cup start was Schladming, Austria on January 27, 2015. Kasper has one career podium from 2011 and has worked extremely hard to come back from injuries.

RESULTS
Men’s downhill

HOW TO WATCH
All times EST

Saturday, Jan. 13
10:00 p.m. – Women’s Super-G; Bad Kleinkirchheim – NBCSN (same day coverage)
11:00 p.m. – Men’s downhill; Wengen – NBCSN (same day coverage)

Sunday, Jan. 14
4:15 a.m. – Men’s slalom, run 1; Wengen –olympicchannel.com
5:00 a.m. – Women’s downhill; Bad Kleinkirchheim – Olympic Channel TV
6:30 a.m. – Men’s slalom, run 2; Wengen – Olympic Channel TV
 

Lindsey Vonn (Vail, Colo.) returned to the FIS Ski World Cup circuit following a three-week break and cracked the top 10 on a rough super-G track in Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria.

Italy’s Federica Brignone took the victory Saturday, as Lara Gut of Switzerland was second, followed by Austria’s Cornelia Huetter in third.

“This course, you really have to be pushing the line, and ski more like Lara Gut skied,” Vonn said. “Going straighter, maybe feathering a little bit more. I think did well on the top with that - I went a pretty direct line. But on the bottom, I think I was round and feathering, so probably not the fastest way.”

Vonn, who has been nursing a sore knee suffered in a crash at Lake Louise last month, started second on Saturday and was pleased with the course conditions after a week of challenging weather in which officials switched the race program, running super-G on Saturday and downhill on Sunday.

“As soon as I saw the course this morning in inspection, I knew I was going to run,” Vonn said. “In the downhill training runs, the snow was sugary, there was no surface, and for me, that’s a dangerous situation because then I don’t have any stability on my knee. If it’s bumpy, it’s not a problem, so long as the surface is holding and solid, it’s fine.”

Breezy Johnson (Victor, Idaho) was 26th; Laurenne Ross (Bend, Ore.) 29th; Alice McKennis (Glenwood Springs, Colo.) 31st; Jackie Wiles (Aurora, Ore.) 33rd; and Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, Calif.) 34th.

Up next, the ladies plan to ski the downhill training run prior to the downhill race in Bad Kleinkirchheim Sunday.

RESULTS
Women’s super-G

HOW TO WATCH
All times EST

Saturday, Jan. 13
10:00 p.m. – Women’s Super-G; Bad Kleinkirchheim – NBCSN (same day coverage)
11:00 p.m. – Men’s downhill; Wengen – NBCSN (same day coverage)

Sunday, Jan. 14
4:15 a.m. – Men’s slalom, run 1; Wengen –olympicchannel.com
5:00 a.m. – Women’s downhill; Bad Kleinkirchheim – Olympic Channel TV
6:30 a.m. – Men’s slalom, run 2; Wengen – Olympic Channel TV

It was a night of ‘almosts’ across the U.S. Ski Team as the Visa Freestyle International wrapped up with a packed house for aerials. Jonathon Lillis (Rochester, N.Y.) put down a near perfect score to earn a spot in the super finals but crashed on the landing of his final jump to finish sixth.

Russian Maxim Burov took the win over China’s Guangpu Qi for the men. China’s Mengtao Xu took a dominating win over Russian Kristina Spiridonova for the women with Maddy Olsen (Park City, Utah) fourth. Madison Varmette (Stafford, Va.) was sixth in her first appearance in the super finals.

Favored Kiley McKinnon (Madison, Conn.) and Ashley Caldwell (Ashburn, Va.) failed to make the Super Final cut. With no American women on the podium, McKinnon did clinch an Olympic spot with just two aerials events remaining.

In the opening round, McKinnon landed clean but just missed the six-skier super finals. Caldwell went with her traditional triple but touched down and failed to advance.

Lillis, on the other hand, went huge on his opening jump landing a textbook perfect quadruple twisting triple flip just two points from a perfect score.

“They don’t give out perfect score so it’s about as good as it gets,” he said “If I can get that going and keep that momentum up into the games I’ll be really happy.”

As the last jumper of the evening, he went big again with another quad twisting triple, this time a higher degree of difficulty, but spun out on landing.

“Going into the Super Final it was all about doing that full full double full,” he said. “It’s a hard trick to land and hard to perform. It’s all about practice and building up to the Games. That’s the one I intend to use to win there.”

The tour now heads to Lake Placid, New York for a pair of aerials events next weekend. So far only McKinnon has clinched a team spot, which requires two top-three finishes. The full team will be announced the week of January 22.

RESULTS
Men’s Aerials
Women’s Aerials

David Wise (Reno, Nev.) led a USA podium sweep in the Visa freeski halfpipe at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix to punch his ticket to South Korea for the 2018 Olympics. Local boy Alex Ferreira (Aspen, Colo.) finished second in front of the Snowmass Mountain crowd and Aaron Blunck (Crested Butte, Colo.) was third.

The defending Olympic gold medalist from 2014, Wise put down a massive first run, establishing his dominance with a 95-point score. No one could touch him, though Ferreira came close with a 93-point run on his final run through the pipe. Blunck put down a killer first run with a 91.20 score, but crashed hard on his third run and limped down the course.

“I’m on cloud nine,” said Wise. “Honestly, the level of skiing right now is the highest I’ve ever seen it - halfpipe skiing is insane. The guys who are getting fifth and sixth today would have been on top of the podium two years ago, so that just speaks to the level of skiing. It’s a huge honor to be out here shredding and to be able to sweep the podium with Alex Ferreira and Aaron Blunck is as good as it gets.”

While Wise clinched his qualifying spot for the freeski halfpipe team, both Ferreira and Blunck made objective Olympic criteria with a second podium in an Olympic qualifier. Both will look to lock in their spots at Mammoth Mountain next week, where the official U.S. Olympic Team will be named.

Brita Sigourney (Carmel, Calif.) captured her first Olympic qualifying podium in the women’s halfpipe, taking second place behind Cassie Sharpe of Canada.

“I’m so stoked,” said Sigourney. “I haven’t podium since like 2015, so this came at a crucial time and it feels really good to be back up there.”

The Toyota U.S. Grand Prix freeski events at Snowmass Mountain continue with slopestyle finals on Saturday and a freeski slopestyle Olympic selection event Sunday. The final Olympic qualifying event takes place Jan. 18-21 at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain, where the U.S. Olympic Teams will be named.

RESULTS
Men's halfpipe
Women's halfpipe

OLYMPIC STANDINGS
Men's and women's freeskiing