Dear Cross Country Skiing Community,

In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country staff has been meeting frequently with many members of our community, including the various event organizing committees, regional leaders, members of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country Sport Committee, athlete representatives, etc. We have created solutions that work for our Cross Country community pertaining to competition this season amidst the ongoing pandemic. We are developing a robust calendar of racing that will continue to motivate, develop and provide qualifying opportunities for international competition for cross country athletes.  

Decisions for all other U.S. Ski & Snowboard domestic event calendars will be made independently and based on an assessment of each sport’s unique set of circumstances and variables.

Modification of 2020-21 XC National Events Calendar

 The U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country Sport Committee has voted to formally restructure many of our national-level competitions for the 2020-21 season. This includes the SuperTour, U.S. National Championships, and the Junior National Championships. These events will be replaced with high-level regional and divisional competitions-including season ending Regional Junior Championship in each Region of the country, at the discretion of local organizing committees and regional governing bodies. 

As such, these event organizers are no longer obligated to pay prize money equal to national levels of competition, nor will they be sanctioned as National Championship-level or Continental Cup (COC) level events. This will alleviate these organizers of the financial restraints that are tied to hosting a national-level event, which in most cases include attracting a significant number of participants required to balance their event budgets.

This decision has no bearing on NCAA competitions, which are governed separately by the NCAA. We recognize that this comes as challenging news for everyone in our community, but we have been working hard to create strong regional calendars and practical solutions to selection criteria.  

Reasoning and Considerations:

• We recognize that the nature of the sport of the Cross Country ski racing in our nation has special considerations that are dissimilar to other U.S. Ski & Snowboard disciplines:
  • Race Format: Even in individual start racing, social distancing challenges exist in race formats where athletes are in close proximity (i.e. passing each other) and therefore, do not easily allow for combined fields of athletes from different geographical regions.
  • Lead Time: Some of our key Championships and selection events come early in the season, and likely too soon for a vaccine to be in place and widely available.  
  • Host Venue Regulations: A majority of existing cross country host venues have local regulations that create numerous challenges for hosting national level events. These venues cannot tolerate the financial risk in the event of a cancellation (see next point). 
  • Financial Model: The number of competitors required - sometimes in excess of 400 - for events to be financially viable.

·We have heard from multiple coaches and clubs that they don’t have the ability to currently travel to a given race location.  

·By restructuring our national events calendar now, before the race season, local organizing committees, divisions, and regions are better positioned to start planning an effective and motivational race calendar for their area, potentially sanctioning races via U.S. Ski & Snowboard and/or the FIS to attract quality competition. We also assist our SuperTour, U.S. Nationals, and Junior Nationals organizing committee partners by allowing them to suspend portions of their planning and potentially avoiding the commitment of further financial and time investments.  

·By developing strong regional calendars now, we take away some of the uncertainty surrounding the race season, providing athletes realistic targets to train for, while keeping them motivated for racing.  

·We have already modified our selection criteria for all international events to consider regional racing, rather than national-level racing. We have the ability to consider races happening across the country, assess performances from those regional events, and name teams for international trips via discretion. We have already created Discretionary Selection Review Committees for all of these selections, as well as mechanisms to solicit community feedback from the divisions prior to many selections. This system will allow for stand-out regional and divisional competition results to be recognized and considered for international team selection. The move to utilize much more discretion in these selection criteria is intended as a fix during the current pandemic only, and we will return to criteria that focus principally on objective selection when we can.  

Development of Regional, Divisional, and Local Competition Calendars

We have spent the past few months discussing the importance of developing robust regional, divisional and local race calendars with local organizing committees and regional leaders. In many cases, these regional leaders have been extremely proactive in calendaring races. Like all of us, they want to see local race calendars which motivate athletes and coaches, while providing a safe competition environment. I’d like to applaud all of the incredible foresight and creativity of our community in planning calendars. Many regions are in the process of sanctioning races with U.S. Ski & Snowboard and with the FIS to make sure there are high-quality events with point scoring opportunities within reach of every athlete. If you haven’t already, be sure to reach out to your coach or regional coordinator to find out what’s happening in your area. 

Some divisional contacts are:

Alaska                                      Anson Moxness                    anson.moxness@gmail.com

Far West                                   Gus Johnson                         gus@asctrainingcenter.org

Great Lakes                              Yuriy Gusev                         yuriy.gusev@cxcskiing.org

High Plains                              Joe Friere                              leeann.freire@yahoo.com

Intermountain                          Rick Kapala                          rick@svsef.org

Midwest                                   Joe Haggenmiller                 joe.h@cxcskiing.org

Mid-Atlantic                            Shane MacDowell                shanem@nysef.org

New England                          Amie Smith                           amie@nensa.net

Pacific                                     Zach Hill                                coachzachhill@gmail.com

Rocky Mountain                    Adam St. Pierre                       adam.stpierre@usskiandsnowboard.org

Similarly, the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country staff, in conjunction with the Cross Country Sport Committee, have modified the selection criteria to every international competition to allow for selection from racing across the country, including regional and divisional events, and to make sure that we have contingencies built into each criterion that ensure that no athletes nor performances are overlooked.  Details are below.  

Selection to the 2021 Oberstdorf Nordic World Championships

The current draft of the 2021 WSC selection criterion can be found here: https://usskiandsnowboard.org/sport-programs/criteria/cross-country-world-championships-criteria

We are still waiting for the 2020-21 World Cup Calendar to be finalized in late September before this criterion can be completed. However, beyond the objective selections that will be made from World Cup competition, this criterion still includes the ability to select athletes via discretion from regional and divisional racing conducted across the country in the first half of this season. We will fill our starts at the World Championships selecting athletes via discretion from both World Cup and regional/divisional racing from across the United States during the selection period. This criterion also already includes the use of a Discretionary Selection Review Group to analyze and ratify all discretionary selections:

All discretionary selections will be documented and appropriate forms will be available for record keeping purposes. All discretionary selections will be reviewed by a discretionary selection review group comprised of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard President and CEO, the Chair of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country Sport Committee, and the athlete representative from that sport who is a member of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Board of Directors. If the Chair of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country Sport Committee feels that he or she needs to be recused from the discretionary selection review group due to a conflict of interest surrounding the selection of an athlete or athletes, they may delegate their role to the Chair of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country Coaches’ Subcommittee. If the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Board Athlete Representative is also a currently competing athlete then another athlete, who is not actively competing, will be selected by the Athletes’ Council to be the representative in this group.

Current members of the Discretionary Selection Review Group are:

U.S. Ski & Snowboard President and CEO                                                       Tiger Shaw

Chair of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country Sport Committee              Cami Thompson-Graves

Athlete Representative appointed by the AAC                                                  Holly Brooks

Any athlete who feels that they may have had a performance overlooked, also has the ability to petition the Discretionary Selection Review Group directly for discretionary nomination consideration:

Athletes may also petition directly to the Selection Committee to be considered for discretionary selection by submitting, in writing, a petition including any rationale to the U.S. Ski & Snowboard President and CEO (tiger.shaw@usskiandsnowboard.org)before 8:00 AM Mountain time on January 17, 2021. 

Selection to the 2020-21 World Cup

The current draft of the 2020-21 World Cup selection criterion can be found here:

https://usskiandsnowboard.org/sport-programs/criteria/cross-country-world-cup-criteria

Like the Oberstdorf WSC criterion, we are still waiting for the 2020-21 World Cup Calendar to be finalized in late September before this criterion can be completed. Our discretionary World Cup selection methods are already in place, understood by the community, and well-equipped to select a large number of athletes from regional and divisional racing across the country.  As you may know, we have created Working Group Guidelines for discretionary selection, and they can also be found at the link above. 

The Working Group for discretionary selections is:

Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess          U.S. Ski & Snowboard Athlete Rep

Tad Elliott                                       U.S. Ski & Snowboard Athlete Rep

Cami Thompson-Graves                 U.S. Ski & Snowboard XC Sport Committee Chair / Dartmouth College

Austin Caldwell                              CU

Dragan Danevski                            MEA

Erik Flora                                        APU

Joe Haggenmiller                            CXC

Chris Mallory                                  SVSEF

Pepa Miloucheva                             CGRP

Pat O’Brien                                      SMS

Dan Weiland                                     SSCV

Kate Barton                                      U.S. Ski Team

Jason Cork                                        U.S. Ski Team

Matt Whitcomb                                U.S. Ski Team

Chris Grover                                     U.S. Ski Team

Nominations are then reviewed by a discretionary selection review group comprised of:

Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess                     U.S. Ski & Snowboard Athlete Rep

Tiger Shaw                                                U.S. Ski & Snowboard CEO

Bryan Fish                                                 U.S. Ski & Snowboard XC Sport Development Manager

Modification of Development Competition Selection Criteria

Due to the restructuring of the national race calendar, the U.S. Ski Team Cross Country Staff and the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country Sport Committee have been modifying all of our development selection criteria, including the World Junior, U23 World Champs, U18 Nordic Nation’s Champs, and Europa Cup (OPA) criteria. As in the World Champs and World Cup criteria, our goal is to ensure that the development-level criteria are viable and effective in a regional and divisional racing model. As you may know, selection to three of these development trips is traditionally conducted almost exclusively at the National Championships. Please see the finalized criteria which have been approved by the Sport Committee: https://usskiandsnowboard.org/crosscountry

Some of the first changes you’ll see in these criteria are in the formatting or general language of the criteria, where we’ve added language that more clearly mirrors that of our World Championship and Olympic criteria. 

The main change is that we’ve removed language that limits our ability to use discretion to select the team (in some criterion previously no more than 25% of a team could be selected via discretion). We are now prepared for a regional racing model, and the need to use up to 100% discretion to nominate a team. We will be looking across the country to divisional and regional races to select top performers from different events, as well as potentially selecting several top-performing athletes based on results at WJC/U23s/World Cup, etc. the previous season. But in these scenarios, all or nearly all selections will need to be discretionary. To make this process fair, we’ve created a Discretionary Selection Review Committee, much like we have in place for the World Nordic Championships and the Olympic Winter Games. U.S. Ski Team coaches Bryan Fish and Kate Barton will nominate the different development-level teams as normal, and then send the nominations to the Discretionary Selection Review Committee, who will review the nominations and either approve them or reject them. 

Here’s the specific language:

All discretionary selections will be documented and appropriate forms will be available for record keeping purposes. All discretionary selections will be reviewed by a discretionary selection review group comprised of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country Program Director, the Chair of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country Sport Committee, and the athlete representative from that sport who is a member of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Board of Directors. If the Chair of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country Sport Committee feels that he or she needs to be recused from the discretionary selection review group due to a conflict of interest surrounding the selection of an athlete or athletes, they may delegate their role to the Chair of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country Coaches’ Subcommittee. If the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Board Athlete Representative is also a currently competing athlete then another athlete, who is not actively competing, will be selected by the Athletes’ Council to be the representative in this group.

We’ve also added language that allows an athlete to petition the Cross Country Program Director (me) directly if they feel that they have been overlooked by the coaches in the nomination process. I will then document that petition and correspondence and take it to the Discretionary Selection Review Committee for discussion and review. This will ensure that all athletes have a chance to have their results considered. That language is:

Athletes may also petition directly to the Selection Committee to be considered for discretionary selection by submitting, in writing, a petition including any rationale to the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country Program Director (chris.grover@usskiandsnowboard.org) before 4:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time on January 6, 2021.  In the event that U.S. Nationals is cancelled, and the majority or all of the team must be selected via discretion, this petition period may be closed on December 20, 2020, to give nominated athletes time to procure necessary EU entrance visas. 

Note that there are differences in selection dates and petition deadlines depending on which criterion it is (i.e. WJC or U18 vs. U23). Also, at this time it is possible that athletes and staff traveling to Europe this winter may need additional time to procure any necessary travel arrangements or travel documents.

As we look to regional racing to make discretionary selections to the WJC, U23, and U18 trips, we recognize that it is important to have regional representatives review the possible nominations prior to sending them to the Discretionary Selection Review Committee. Our goal is to make sure that no athlete from any division is overlooked and no outstanding local or divisional performance is missed. To accomplish this, we will be sending potential nominations to the divisional representatives listed below for feedback before nominating those teams. Although these Working Group members are not voting, they will be able to share opinions, raise concerns, and bring athletes and performances to the attention of the U.S. Ski Team coaching staff and the Discretionary Selection Review Committee. 

Those divisional representatives are:

Joe Haggenmiller (MW)

Zach Hill (PNSA)

Gus Johnson (FW)

Ja Dorris (AK)

Josh Smullin (RM)

Becca Watson (HP)

Rick Kapala (IM)

Justin Beckwith (NE)

Shane McDowell (MA)

Tom Smith (GL)

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me directly.  

Sincerely,

Chris Grover

Cross Country Program Director

U.S. Ski & Snowboard

chris.grover@usskiandsnowboard.org

(435) 640-8545

The U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country Sport Committee has approved a plan to restructure the cross country national racing calendar into a number of regional events for the 2020-21 season in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This decision has no bearing on NCAA competitions, which are governed separately by the NCAA. Decisions for all other U.S. Ski & Snowboard domestic event calendars will be made independently and based on an assessment of each sport’s unique set of circumstances and variables. 

The events impacted include the SuperTour, U.S. National Championships, and the Junior National Championships. These events will be replaced with high-level regional and divisional competitions, at the discretion of local organizing committees and regional governing bodies. 

“We recognize that cross country skiing has unique challenges in hosting national-level events that are dissimilar to other disciplines,” said Davis U.S. Cross Country Team Program Director Chris Grover. “Together with the input of clubs and regional leaders, we have created solutions that work for our national cross country skiing community pertaining to competition for the 2020-21 season.

This restructuring allows athletes to remain in their respective regions to race while allowing organizers to offer high-level competitions. Additionally, this will help organizers reduce the financial demands that are tied to hosting a national-level event, which in most cases includes attracting a significant number of participants required to balance their event budgets.

National cross country events have unique challenges related to conducting competition in a COVID-19 environment that does not exist in other ski and snowboard sports such as race format (physical distancing), lead time (early season events), host venue regulations, as well as the financial model mentioned above. These event organizers will no longer be obligated to pay prize money equal to national levels of competition, nor will they be sanctioned as National Championship-level or Continental Cup (COC) level events.

“By restructuring our national cross country events calendar now, before the race season, local organizing committees, divisions, and regions are better positioned to start planning an effective and motivational race calendar for their area, potentially sanctioning races via U.S. Ski & Snowboard and/or the FIS to attract quality competition,” Grover added. “We will also assist our SuperTour, U.S. Nationals, and Junior Nationals organizing committee partners by allowing them to suspend portions of their planning and potentially avoiding the commitment of further financial and time investments.”

Selection criteria for all international events have been modified to consider regional racing, rather than national-level racing. In addition, athletes may be considered for international trips via discretion by assessing performances from regional events. Discretionary Selection Review Committees have been established for all of these selections, as well as mechanisms to solicit community feedback from the divisions prior to many selections. This system will allow for stand-out regional and divisional competition results to be recognized and considered for international team selection. The move to utilize discretion in these selection criteria is intended as a fix during the current pandemic only, and selection will return eventually to criteria that focus principally on objective selection. 

Two-time Olympic champion and Land Rover ambassador Mikaela Shiffrin recently joined American soccer player, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion, and Olympic gold medalist Kelley O'Hara on the Just Women's Sports podcast to talk about her love of training, handling pressure, and overcoming heartbreak. 

In her recently launched podcast, Kelley has interviewed some of the world's best athletes, including teammate and soccer star Alex Morgan, Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Chloe Kim, and more. 

Record-breaking ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin sits down with Kelley to talk about the influence of her family on her ski career, how she built her foundation by focusing on training rather than competing (and why, if she could, she’d only train), why she never felt pressure as a teen prodigy but does so now, how she recovered from a near-crash to win Olympic gold, what made the 2018 Olympics such a complicated experience, her record-breaking 2019 season, and what she’s learned about herself in the wake of her father’s passing. 

Mikaela’s creds: 

• 2x Olympic gold medalist (2018, 2014)
• Olympic silver medalist (2018)
• 5x World Champion (4 Slalom, 1 Super G)
• 3x Overall World Cup champion
• Most World Cup wins in a season (17)
• Most all-time World Cup slalom wins (43)
• 2nd most all-time World Cup wins by a female skier (66)
• Youngest slalom champion in Olympic history

Suggested:

• Skiing phenom Mikaela Shiffrin has found her voice (Los Angeles Times)
• Olympian Mikaela Shiffrin on dealing with performance anxiety (People)
• Raising ski great Mikaela Shiffrin, and finding balance (New York Times) 
• Who is Mikaela Shiffrin (Outside TV)

Listen to the podcast via SPOTIFY | APPLE PODCASTS | STITCHER

Brothers Casey and Jesse Andringa of the U.S. Moguls Ski Team are not only known for their skill and talent on the snow, but also for their unique style and exuberant personalities. The two brothers are seeking to re-elevate freestyle skiing into mainstream snowsports culture, and will be showcasing their lives in their new web series “The Andringa Show.”

“The Andringa Show” will treat viewers to an inside look at what Casey and Jesse get up to in training, competing and beyond. “We do a lot of unusual things and have unusual methods to help accompany our training,” said Casey. “A lot of it is pretty funny and we wanted to share it with people. Life on the team is a lot different than most people would think, so we wanted to showcase how we live it.” 

“We already do a lot of filming, so why not make a little show about it?” said Jesse. 

The brothers look forward to sharing the “good times, and not so good times, and the hilarity of it all,” as each works towards competing on the 2020-21 FIS World Cup tour. Jesse recently returned from shoulder surgery to training-as-usual with the Team. Casey, who had just returned to water ramping after undergoing knee surgery last year, unfortunately sustained a wrist injury and will work through that rehab process before getting back to training again. Casey and Jesse hope to be back skiing the world together again soon, with their ultimate goal of making the 2022 Olympic team together. 

If you know Casey or Jesse, you know their show will be anything but ordinary. From demoing campers to building motorbikes, creating the world’s weirdest sandwiches to surfing, rock climbing and camping, and the blood, sweat and tears it requires to be a professional moguls skier, viewers will get to experience it all. 

“The Andringa Show” will air on YouTube and fans can expect at least an episode per month, more depending on content and schedules. For show updates and information, follow Casey and Jesse on Instagram, and be sure to subscribe to their YouTube channel.

In August, the Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team is typically training in the Southern Hemisphere, whether it be in New Zealand or South America. Obviously this year, COVID impacted training outside of the U.S., so U.S. Ski & Snowboard staff worked hard with resort partners to ensure athletes didn't miss a beat. High Performance Director Troy Taylor recently caught up with SKI to talk about it all. 

August marks a time when the U.S. Ski Team usually sends athletes to South America for on-snow training to test new equipment and get ready for early season competitions. This year, things are different. In early March the FIS World Cup Tour came to an abrupt end due to COVID-19. April and May are normally off-months for the athletes, but this year the team worked tirelessly through those months to organize extensive protocols, including reworking their online athlete platform to check and monitor coronavirus symptoms.

Thanks to these efforts and the hospitality of domestic resorts, the athletes have not missed any days on snow this summer. Copper Mountain in Colorado, plus Mt. Bachelor and Mt. Hood in Oregon, are among the ski areas that have found ways to accommodate the U.S. Ski Team.

Troy shared details of the U.S. Ski & Snowboart COVID protocol, which has been stringent and enforced, as SKI reported. 

Due to the pandemic, Taylor and the team initially worked with the Olympic and Paralympic committee to work on testing facilities and protocols. The team’s USADA lab, usually reserved for drug testing, was converted into a COVID-19 testing facility capable of performing a saliva-based coronavirus test that provides results within hours. 

Taylor explained that although rapid testing is extremely beneficial for the team, it is a priority of the team to test in a responsible manner that does not affect the testing capabilities of local hospitals. The team is “respectful of mountain communities and works to avoid any burden on their healthcare,” says Taylor. Athletes are required to have two negative tests within 24 hours of each other after every travel day and before they can attend team events.

The protocols in place have been stringent and enforced. Athletes not only have to report symptoms twice a day, but the team must also complete surveys on a weekly basis for contact tracing purposes. The U.S. Ski Team has fostered a safe environment for athletes to train in, but “everything is ultimately up to the discretion of the athlete—if they don’t feel comfortable at the Center of Excellence or at a camp or joining a bubble, they are not required to,” says U.S. Ski Team athlete George Steffey...

Up next, the athletes will look to travel to Europe for final on-snow training prep camps prior to the much-anticipated FIS Ski World Cup kickoff in Soelden, Austria Oct. 17-18th. 

Read the full article on SKIMag.com.

The road to recovery can be a long, lonely road with many bumps along the way. But when an athlete sees the light at the end of the tunnel, and with the tremendous support from family, friends, and teammates, they know that the hard work will pay off.

Davis U.S. Cross Country Team member Hannah Halvorsen is finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel as she recovers from the devastating injuries suffered when she was hit by a car while crossing a street in downtown Anchorage last November. In addition to head, back, and neck injuries, she also suffered a serious knee injury that required surgery. 

Hannah’s road to recovery, which she has documented on her Instagram feed, began with a trip to the U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s Center of Excellence in Park City, Utah in January where she was able to focus 100% of her attention on recovery and specifically building core and leg strength. All the while, she was following her teammates on the World Cup and Super Tour circuits and taking inspiration from them, knowing that with continued progress, she would be able to rejoin them later in the season. 

 

 

 

 

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Look out huge gains over here.

A post shared by Hannah Halvorsen (@hannah.g.halvorsen) on Jan 15, 2020 at 1:59pm PST

Hannah was excited to cheer her team on at the 2020 Coop FIS Cross Country World Cup in Minneapolis, which would have been the first time cross country skiing World Cup competition took place on U.S. snow in 19 years. However, COVID-19 threw everyone a curveball and forced the cancelation of those plans for Hannah, as well as  the annual spring team training camp in May in Bend, Oregon. Regardless of the pandemic setbacks, Hannah has kept her eye on the prize of returning to 100% health. Earlier this summer, she returned to Anchorage to train with her Alaska Pacific University (APU) teammates, and while she has had to hold herself back at times, she continues to make tremendous progress.

“The biggest mood booster of late has been rejoining team training. I have done countless hours of training and physical therapy on my own over the past months and I have an even bigger appreciation for what it means to be surrounded by a team.”
 – Hannah Halvorsen, Davis U.S. Cross Country Team

But those countless hours of training alone are paying big dividends.

“Hannah has made an amazing return to training,’ said APU coach Erik Flora. “Her incredible hard work and perseverance have brought her back months earlier than I would have projected. The thing that has impressed me the most is that while she is making this impressive return she is coming back with more focus and positively inspiring her teammates to step up their level as well. I see her returning stronger than ever.”

 

 

 

 

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Virtual @alaskarunforwomen up the mountain in honor of all those who are fighting or have fought breast cancer. 💕 #alaskarunforwomen

A post shared by Hannah Halvorsen (@hannah.g.halvorsen) on Jun 23, 2020 at 12:53pm PDT

“I have seen some really positive progress and I am in a much better place than I expected to be at this time of the training season,” Hannah said. “If you asked me two months ago I would’ve said I wouldn’t be able to roller-ski until the fall, but I am able to ski with my teammates and even do low-level threshold.

“I can’t do the high-intensity training...but I can do the warm-up and cool down, and I do a pulled back version that is more focused on technique while my team is doing intervals,” she continued. “That said, having a lot of unexpected improvement has made it hard to stay the course. I am constantly tempted to try to jump into speed or go faster in threshold [workouts]. I have done that a few times now and sometimes I think I get away with it. But after a few times the inflammation in my spine and neck will flare up and then I am set back again with pain.”

Building toward intensity training is the near-term goal for Hannah, but it is a learning process between managing the pain while building strength and speed. 

 

 

 

 

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I want to be the skier who races fast, but drives the speed limit. #thatsthedream #workinonit

A post shared by Hannah Halvorsen (@hannah.g.halvorsen) on Aug 5, 2020 at 12:05pm PDT

“It is a long road,” Erik said. “She is progressing faster than projected. She is getting back to normal training with dry-land including roller skiing, running, and strength. Every week she is improving.”

While there are a number of uncertainties in regard to events as the 2020-21 competition season nears, one thing that is certain is that when Hannah is ready to race, she will return stronger, faster, and mentally tougher. 

“I am on the right end of that curve and starting to get in a productive groove and prioritizing things in the right order so that I can maintain my health for the short and long term,” she said. “Being asked to find more patience when I feel like I have been patient for nine months is hard, but the progress I have made has been motivating and I am excited to see where I can take this if I do it the right way.”

Follow Hannah’s journey on Instagram at @hannah.g.halvorsen

Jesse Andringa returned to snow ahead of schedule after undergoing surgery to correct a shoulder injury he sustained earlier this year. Due to the impacts of COVID-19, Jesse’s return was less conventional than he had planned for, progressing from rehab to stay-at-home mandates, and then straight to snow during moguls’ sanctioned on-snow training camp at Official Training Site Timberline Lodge & Ski Area, Ore. in July. 

“The camp went really well,” Jesse said. “I basically started really easy, just doing flats. I progressed with straight airs and backflips and easier tricks, made sure that it was feeling good. I tipped in on back X and ate it pretty hard and was totally fine, [it was a] relief to know that I could crash on it.”

 

 

 

 

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everyone is posting all their dub 10s.. so heres mine... jk lol i cant be doing that yet with my shoulder @idoneusa

A post shared by Jesse Andringa (@jesse_bare) on Jul 30, 2020 at 11:36am PDT

In March, Jesse underwent surgery for his right shoulder, which he dislocated twice during World Cup competition in the 2019-20 season. During the quarantine period, which coincided with his recovery timeline, Jesse focused solely on the rehab process. “I spent so much time rehabbing, I gained my mobility and strength back quickly, doing two PT sessions a day. Fortunately, my mom is a physical therapist so I was able to do work when I couldn’t get into a clinic [due to COVID-19].”

Most people may think of knees when the words “moguls” and “injury” are put together. However, a moguls skier’s shoulders are crucial. “Every bump jolts your shoulder when you pole plant; you need a lot of strength there. You need 100% mobility to stretch, or to tuck it in, or un-tilt, and if you don’t have that then you’re probably going to eat it. Getting my shoulder fixed is definitely going to be a big confidence boost. I have a nice perspective on the sport now [since being away] and what I need to focus on in order to succeed in the future.”

Jesse is hard at work with the rest of the moguls team on the water ramps at Official Training Site Utah Olympic Park, where the team makes their summer home. Jesse looks forward to continuing to build on his gains this spring, so he’s ready to face whatever comes his way this 2020-21 season. 

Jesse’s brother, 2018 Olympian Casey, is also making a comeback from a year off due to injury. The two are stoked to be back training together. “Casey and I are both coming back from injuries. I’m excited to compete with him [again]. I have World Championships in my sights and we’re hoping that by the end of it this season, we’ll both be stepping onto [World Cup] podiums together.”

Follow Jesse and his shoulder all season long on Instagram.

Learn more about how to support the U.S. Moguls Team.

The U.S. Moguls Ski Team brought the heat and raised some serious funds August 18 via “Moguls and Muffins,” a live virtual fundraising event hosted by freestyle legends and fan favorites Trace Worthington and Sean Smith. To date, the team has raised $120,000, exceeding their annual goal of $100,000, and ensuring they are fully funded for the 2020-21 season. 

Broadcast via Facebook Live on the U.S. Ski & Snowboard page, Trace and Sean hosted a virtual breakfast, including muffins, that took fans behind the scenes of the team’s summer training at the Spence Eccles Olympic Freestyle Pool at Official Training Site Utah Olympic Park. They caught up with several athletes, reminisced about the good ol’ days of freestyle skiing and speculated on what the future holds. Viewers heard from Jesse Andringa, Kai Owens and Nick Page, with walk-by appearances from the rest of the team. Olympic moguls champion and U.S. Ski & Snowboard Athlete Gift Officer Hannah Kearney made a special guest appearance as well. 

 

 

 

 

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Sean stepped away and Smitty came on the set for the @usskiteam “Moguls and Muffins” virtual fundraiser. Fun to get back on air with this guy. Happy to report that we helped raise over $110K for the U.S. Mogul Team. Big props to the donors, athletes and staff who rallied for an incredibly successful event. @seanmsmith94 @utaholympicpark @idoneusa #mogulskiing #fundraiser #usskiteam @hannahkearneysflatstanley

A post shared by Trace Worthington (@trace.worthington) on Aug 18, 2020 at 1:02pm PDT

Being fully funded allows the moguls athletes of the U.S. Ski Team to laser-focus on their training, prep work, and competition. Trace, Sean and Hannah, all U.S. Ski Team alumni, know first-hand what a difference that can make.

“It’s night and day,” said Sean after Trace asked what the impact of being funded as an athlete really means. “The money we’re raising today, and the really throughout the year, [these athletes] don’t have to worry about [whether or not they are funded], they don’t have to worry about money because they get to go and just train, lift, eat properly (like these muffins Chef Steve is making) and really just put forth what they have to do to be Best in the World.”

“The funding is absolutely crucial,” Hannah explained. “Every single one of these athletes’ competitors has government funding from their countries…We’re up against that hurdle. The only way these athletes can train to that level and compete against their peers is through donations from the public. ”

This year would have marked the Third Annual U.S. Moguls Team Fundraiser, graciously hosted by moguls superfans Jim and Jeffy Benedict at their home in Colorado. However, due to the impacts of COVID-19 on travel and gathering, and with the health and safety of its athletes and supporters top of mind, U.S. Ski & Snowboard has moved its fundraising efforts to virtual experiences. “Moguls and Muffins” was created to cap off the team’s annual fundraising season as a way to engage with their supporters and fans, and have a little fun along the way. 

The U.S. Ski & Snowboard Foundation works to raise $12 million annually for U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s athletic programs. U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes receive no direct government funding and rely on the generous support of fans, donors, trustees and corporations to fund their Olympic dreams. The Moguls fundraiser is one fundraising program that enables the freestyle community of donors to support the sport they are most passionate about. Since implementing sport specific fundraisers, the Foundation has seen an increase in revenue to be able to fully fund specific teams. All funds raised directly impact the Moguls Team and anything raised in excess of the goal will either help fill in unforseen gaps this season, or roll over to the 2021-22 season.

To support the U.S. Moguls Ski Team, please click here for more information. 

The 2020-21 FIS Alpine World Cup men’s and women’s calendars will adopt a different structure due to impacts from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

After extended discussions among FIS, the national ski associations and the local organizing committees in Canada and the USA, together with their stakeholders, all parties have come to the joint decision that the Alpine Skiing World Cup tour will remain in Europe in late November. Traditionally, the tour comes to North America during this time of year.

For the women, this schedule shift impacts the HomeLight Killington Cup in Killington, Vt. (USA) giant slalom and slalom events on Nov. 28-29 and the speed week in Lake Louise, Alberta (CAN) on Dec. 1-6. For the men, this impacts the speed weekend in Lake Louise, Nov. 25-29 and both speed and tech events at the Xfinity Birds of Prey in Beaver Creek, Colo. (USA)  Dec. 1-6. The FIS Alpine World Cup will return to these sites for the 2021-22 season.

The objective of FIS is to carry out a full World Cup competition program, protecting the health and welfare of all participants to the best extent possible. The temporary realignment of the FIS Alpine World Cup Calendar in 2020-21 caters to this goal by focusing on athlete safety, reducing travel, and providing competitors with a detailed competition calendar. All parties jointly agreed to make this decision early to aid in developing the adjusted calendars during the next month before the FIS Technical Committee Meetings in late September.

Decisions for all other FIS World Cup events will be made independently and based on an assessment of each unique set of circumstances, including the risks and travel requirements related to each event and host country, as well as time needed between competitions to accommodate for COVID-19 protocols. 

U.S. Ski & Snowboard, the Canadian Snowsports Association, and the Killington, Lake Louise and Vail Valley Foundation local organizing committees would like to express their gratitude to everyone for their dedication, planning, and collaboration in recent months. Attention to detail and thoughtfulness provided a pathway to hold their events this season, but all agreed to make this very difficult, but necessary decision, in order to prioritize the best interest of the alpine world cup athletes, coaches, technicians, volunteers, media, staff, all of the world cup fans and the Alpine World Cup tour, as a whole. The extensive preparation work provides a roadmap to move forward with planning other potential North American domestic events. Although the North American alpine venues and fans will be missed this season, all parties look forward to the Alpine World Cup’s return to the USA and Canada for the 2021-22 season.

The adapted calendars, to be approved in late September, involve the rescheduling of the alpine North American competitions at European sites. 

These will include events in December, with Val d’Isere (FRA) adding two events for the men. The planned giant slalom races will be moved up one weekend to Dec. 5-6, making room for an added downhill and super-G on Dec. 12-13. 

The women’s tour will add a downhill to its traditional weekend in St. Moritz (SUI) on Dec. 5-7. Additionally, Courchevel (FRA) will host a two-race technical weekend in December. 

“The North American races are always a very special two weeks for the entire FIS World Cup tour and we are very disappointed that we could not find a way to have them on this year’s Alpine calendar,” said FIS Secretary General Sarah Lewis. “But if there is a silver lining, it is seeing how all of our stakeholders involved with the FIS World Cup are working together. The willingness of several National Ski Associations, Organizers and resorts to step up, alter their schedules and plans, shows that we truly are a united ski family that is working toward the common goal of carrying out a full and successful season. The engagement and commitment shown by the North American organizers and National Associations throughout the past months continues with both USA and Canada already turning to preparations for their central roles with FIS Freestyle, Freeski and Snowboard events that take place later in the season.”

The Audi FIS Alpine World Cup season will kick off in Soelden (AUT) on Oct. 17-18 for the traditional giant slaloms on the Rettenbach Glacier. The next stop on the tour will be the debut of host resort Lech/Zürs (AUT) on Nov. 14-15, which will feature a men’s and a women’s parallel race.

The revised calendars with the latest adaptations will be approved following the FIS Technical Meetings from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 for ratification by the FIS Council on Oct. 3, and will be published on the FIS website at that time.

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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 2020, 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.
 

As we encounter the many challenges and hardships of the current COVID world, we are also coming face to face with social inequalities that exist in our country, and chief among those at this moment is racial inequality. It’s difficult to know what to do about something like that in our little bubble of alpine ski racing. Is there even anything we can do? How can we chart a path forward that might help address some of the inequalities we see in our sport? It’s hard to know where to begin, but in an attempt to start somewhere Paige Roberts and I sat down with Schone Malliet from the National Winter Activity Center and Winter4Kids in NJ to get some insight.

Many of you know Schone already, and many of you will have seen him as a panelist on the “Discussing Racial Diversity in Snowsports” discussion that took place recently. We’ve worked with Schone as a member of the Eastern Children’s Committee, and we’ve run races and training projects at his facility over the years. Knowing a bit about the mission that they’re working on with Winter4Kids, he seemed like the right person to talk to. 

What follows is a condensed transcript of our interview. I hope that you’ll read it - it’s not long - and brainstorm with your club on some ways that we might all chip in to make our sport bigger, better, more equitable, and more accessible all at once.

Schone started out by giving us some of his personal background, and then we moved through a number of different topics that are relevant to the current moment in all sorts of ways. Of his upbringing in a housing project in the Bronx, Schone said, “When you grow up there, it is not a bad place because it is the place that you know…I am an asphalt kid. I did not grow up skiing. I didn’t think about winter sports at all, except I’d go outside in dirty snow.” 

Schone went on to attend college on scholarship at Holy Cross, and then went on to the Marine Corps as an officer and a pilot. We will pick up the transcript of the interview there:

Schone: I flew jets, and after 8 years 9 months and 11 days give or take a couple hours or so, I got out in California and started my next career in technology from salesperson to CEO of a couple companies. Came back home and started another tech company, didn't work out, went into wealth management and after that I found my way into the National Winter Sports Education Foundation, which is now Share Winter and Winter4Kids, which is programs, people, and a physical facility at the National Winter Activity Center. 

The mission of Winter4Kids is really to use winter activities as a way to improve the life, health, and fitness of youth, and Winter4Kids is the means to an end, not an end itself. It’s a great background and as I think about all those things I experienced and went through, the idea of race has never, ever, been distant. I’ve experienced explicit racism and implied racism, and one thing I realized is that Holy Cross gave me the ability to cope, and that just means getting through it. Some adjustments that I made to be a CEO in a predominantly white world, or be a voice in a predominantly white world - and surely winter sports is one - were to be authentic and to be myself. The second thing is to be overly conscious of making sure that any positions I took or spoke about were well-grounded, and to be able to create an environment for discussions without diminishing who I am. 

And then who I am: First, I am black… Believe it or not! I am a Marine. A Crusader from Holy Cross. I’m a parent of a 20-year old. I’m also a coach, a TD, and run a winter sports facility, and have been a CEO of a number of companies. And in all of that, the experiences have given me the opportunity to grow - which I have. And to learn - and I’ve made a lot of mistakes. But also I’ve gotten the insight to understand the issue of race as we’re talking about it today.

I see it as that there are “issues” and there are “isms.” The issues are ones of race, gender, religion, politics, all kinds of issues. And then racism - like all the other “isms” whether they’re racism or sexism, are really actions taken to hurt physically, emotionally or socially in spite of information that is out there. And it’s a few things about racism that have become important: 

One is that it’s not just the act [of overt racism]. Institutional or systemic racism is to not take actions when something is readily wrong, observed, or heard, and that’s what allows racism to continue. When I saw the pictures of the police officer kneeling on [George Floyd’s] throat, that was traumatic and revolting to me. But even more revolting were the three police officers who stood by and watched because in that case there was something that is wrong, morally repulsive, and to not act is a systemic part of racism no matter what shaped it. 

Two is that the issue of dealing with racism is one of influencing behavior. In order to influence behavior, I think that we have to create safe places for people to ask questions, uncomfortable questions, then once people get answers to those questions then they can process that and then decide what they do. And what they do is up to each individual. It’s that they have to stand up in the environments that we’re in. Should you hear something or see something that you know to be wrong, then to say to the person there, first of all I believe that's wrong, second of all, why do you do that? 

And then the third thing is to make sure that type of behavior is not acceptable to you. The more people that do that individually the less room there is for people who are racist to be comfortable to allow race issues to permeate.

Sam: You mentioned that your experience at Holy Cross had a big impact on your thinking. Can you tell us more about that? 

Schone: They did a very good job at getting us in and providing us with access to an education. At a time when it was politically correct to do that, though, and some of the things that I’ve realized over time is that we’ve had laws for equal rights and civil rights, we’ve had laws that say, “By the way, you can’t discriminate.” And I think even I got lulled into the idea that things were getting better by the accomplishments that I've had, but the reality of it is that we dealt with the policy side of it, not the behavioral side of it. And now what's going on is the behavioral side.

And the other part of it that I have to own is that I've been going through these things but I’ve never communicated to people around me about the things that I've experienced which let people believe that Schone is okay. “Look at what he’s done. Check him out. See him? He’s done it, where are the rest of them?” But, what I didn't realize is that by not talking about it, I am part of the problem. 

We discussed how to approach conversations about race, and how many different starting places there are for people at the beginning of any kind of discussion about something like race.

Schone: I usually go with people's intention. I was once referred to as “the distinguished negro gentleman that we hired at our company.” This was in the ‘80s. I guess in the context of where he came from, that was a compliment. It’s also about perspective because his intention wasn’t to be demeaning, that’s all he knew. All I’m saying is that I have a responsibility, to be willing to take questions and answer questions that people might have.

Paige: With the guy who referred to you as “a distinguished negro gentleman,” and you just said, “Oh, well he meant it as a compliment.” That would be exhausting to me, to always have to come back up from that and give people the benefit of the doubt but still not be quite sure… It's such a huge task to change the thinking of so many people.

Schone: I would say to change it - it’s one person at a time. It’s the conversations, it’s the questions… It is very exhausting!

I realize that somewhere along the line, by not having the conversations, we have not humanized race. So, “they” become a thing. They don’t become a person. I think that’s the issue. I’ve told Sam, sometimes conversations are disrespectful and disregard people on some of our business calls. That needs to be called out and said “That doesn’t work and it’s not appropriate; don't do that.” We have to let people know around us that the behavior is not acceptable and the more you do that the tougher it is for people who stay there to do those things.

Sam: One of the things I’ve experienced is there’s a lot of use of double-entendre. People are like, “wink-wink” and if you call something out as sexism or something like that, it’s like, “Oh no, that’s not how I meant it! It’s this other thing.” And sometimes it’s just pretty hard to believe. People are pretty good at walking the line of plausible deniability, but you can’t help but see this stuff out in the world.
 
Schone: That’s what’s happening now. What people say is, “No more plausible deniability.” If you stand on the sidelines and don’t say anything or call it out, you’re implicitly giving the right and permission for it to continue.

I have hope. I really have hope because now we’re having this conversation. And I’m being as raw, open, and authentic as I can be and I apologize for not being that way before, because I let people stay with assumptions that were probably not correct. 

Sam: I don’t really find fault with you for that because I don’t think it’s fair to necessarily shoulder that burden on one person. All this stuff is so tough to talk about. There are so many social taboos, and real pain, too. I think there is a lot more out in the open now, and everything is on the table for discussion. Personally I feel more free to talk about it… 

Schone: If I don’t do it, and make myself available, who is? I have students at Holy Cross ask me, “Why do we have to be the people who have to be the experts on race?” And I say, “You aren’t the experts on race, you’re the experts on how race has impacted you and if you don't share with people, how do you think they’ll humanize it?”

Sam: One of the things you and I talked about was that I don’t want to put you in a position to speak for every African American person out there because what you can do is speak to your own experience and understanding. “You don't have to be the expert on race, you have to be the expert on you.” You mentioned at the beginning of the call before we started recording that you should go on CNN because your phone is blowing up. Do you feel like you're being asked to shoulder this burden for our entire segment right now? We’re burdening you in a way with this discussion; is there an element where you’re the sort of token African American man we can speak to?

Schone: I hope that there are others who are Black that can be turned to. I was built to do this. It’s part of the responsibility. I’m Catholic, a practicing Catholic, so God has given me the tools and the experiences to get through it, so it's part of who I am. I have lived a great, great life. I think about what I do now and it’s perfect. I’m not the token; I am a person who is here who has experiences which I can share with people, and I should… I don’t sit in judgement, I’m not an expert, but I can at least give you what I think and what I feel and it's up to each one of you as individuals to decide what you do with that. 

We talked more about some of the hurdles they’ve overcome in starting Winter4Kids. Schone gave us some more perspective on the racial issues we’re faced with:

Schone: You know Winter4Kids and the National Winter Activity Center and Share Winter came out of an initiative from U.S. Ski & Snowboard. Share Winter Foundation was the National Winter Sports Education Foundation that was founded by me and based upon Dick Coe and Walt Evans responding to a request from a trustee to create an initiative around Urban Youth, and that’s where all of this has come from. So, when I talked to Tiger about this, I said, “Tiger, I understand you’re looking at this and what you can do, but U.S. Ski & Snowboard did do something to start this and we are a direct result of that. So while it’s not the end result, there was some insight and some listening that went on to be able to do this.” 

Every one of these kids is, when they’re here, around individuals of other races, other colors, other genders, they interact with instructors and coaches. And then, they get healthy meals, they get mentoring… One of the participating organizations said, “Schone, you guys are doing the work of impacting behaviors.” And so, when we talk about healthy lifestyles, that is more than what you eat, and more than activity; it's how you think, and how you feel, and what you understand. 

Paige: Ski racing is a predominantly white sport, and when you created Winter4Kids you were creating opportunities for underprivileged kids who wouldn't normally have these types of opportunities. Did you have the thought in mind that it would affect specifically children of color or was it just kids all together?

Schone: When it was started it literally was started to get urban youth involved in winter sports and it came out of a trustee on the foundation side. That particular person felt that his experience and the experience of his family should not just be limited to individuals of means… We are going to make sure that we open up winter activities that change the lives of kids who traditionally don't have access. “Traditionally don't have access” is interesting because that's a very broad statement. There are rural-agricultural based kids who don't have access. There are suburban based kids who don't know anything about it. There are urban kids who don’t. Yes, there is ethnicity. 33% of our kids are Black, 24% are Hispanic/Latinx, 19% are White, the remainder are Native American and “do not choose to respond”. And all of those kids traditionally do not have access. 

Our customers are not individuals, they are schools and youth-serving organizations. 69 of our nonprofit organizations registered 3,101 kids in our program, which is not just one day it's six sessions over a season, and then we expect them to come for three years. The first year they come, they do two sessions each of skiing, snowboarding, and cross country. The next year they come back and choose a focus. Then we have a curriculum for snowboarding, a curriculum for cross-country, a curriculum for alpine. And now we're starting to introduce the concept of competition through directed turning, and give them the idea behind that. And we go one step further: each one of these entities have to create a winter activity club so they have a community within their schools or organizations so they can go back and talk about what they've done.

Paige: Have you ever had another program director express to you that they’d like to create something similar to Winter4Kids? What would you tell someone who wants to do something similar to this?

Schone: I think that, from an industry standpoint, there are places that should do exactly what we do: focus on nothing but development and competition [for kids who otherwise wouldn’t have access], because it builds a community for the future and grows the sport. Smaller areas that have the opportunity to give access to populations that don't traditionally have access.

Sam: Let’s say I’m a program director up here in northern New England or northern NY - places not known for racial diversity. And yet there are certainly people of color in our communities, not to mention that when a program hires they’re often looking well outside their local community for staff, so there really is an opportunity to have more diversity in our sport. Regardless of where you’re from, you could do it. Tiger has made a commitment to look at how they’re recruiting staff, for example - if they use different channels for recruiting staff, they will likely get a more diverse group of applicants. How can we work to broaden diversity in our clubs at the staff level? I think these efforts could work if we put our minds to it, but how do we start?

Schone: So let me talk about staffing and recruiting especially as it relates to an African American pool of candidates. There is a historical context. Most of those of us who are African American and are skiing are first generation college educated people. So understand that for us getting into society at a different level, the direction is to pursue things that are practical, rather than aligned with our personal passions. And what I’m saying is that the economics of working in the ski industry are not the best in the world. They’re not. So take the NBS, which has been around since 1973. Most of those people are individuals who have jobs and lifestyles that require that they choose another path [other than snowsports professional]. So I guess the first thing is how do you create opportunities for those first-gens who are just getting into college, just getting into education? They’re lawyers, doctors, and they’re going down a different path to fit into society, so they don’t necessarily have the choices of pursuing - and I don’t mean to be generalizing here, but “ski bum” types of things, right? [laughing]

Sam: It’s a funny thing to say but yeah, there is a certain lifestyle that’s not even in the upper tiers of society that you could argue is basically a result of white privilege.

Schone: Yes that’s exactly right. Some people can choose to do it because they don’t have to worry about stuff, but even emotionally and psychologically - coming out of college as a first-gen it’s, “I’m going to be a lawyer,” or “I’m going to be a doctor,” because it’s going on this path towards validation. And so that in itself is a challenge, and it’s interesting because even people who are second-generation feel they have choices and can choose that. But for first-gens it’s a matter of, “Why would you go and do that?” In order to recruit, you have to understand what you’re offering that’s compelling for people to do that. So it’s not just enough to say, “I’m going to hire,” because there may not be an interested pool out there to hire. 

It goes to what privileges and choices we may have. If you grew up in northern New England, there’s a lifestyle that’s comfortable for you. But coming out of New York or Boston there may not be those kinds of opportunities so people aren’t likely to think they can or should move up to Burlington or a different northern far off place. So the recruiting part of this is not that easy! 

We have to be thoughtful about this. It’s the second- and third-gen that have the opportunities because they feel they have choice. 

The weekend programs probably have the best opportunity because that’s the place that people can have their job during the week and pursue their passion on the weekends. They can have both worlds! 

Sam: Does anything jump out at you as things we could do right now to be better on the inclusivity side? How does immersion and equity look best to you in our sport with its current organization? How can we do a better job with immersion and equity right now?

Schone: I think that you already have part of the solution. We came out of USSS, which is interesting because we are the attempt to do that, and in such a way that doesn’t drain the economics of the organization - we stand alongside. I think there are other opportunities for what we do to be replicated by other programs or entities. Look at Sky Tavern in Reno, or Buck Hill which is in an urban area. I think we have places that we can task with doing that without destroying or compromising the current infrastructure. 

Knowing that we have certain barriers to entry, the way to deal with it is to remove those barriers. We’re trying to do that, I think other places can do that. But really the thing about the pyramid is that the more we get in at the base, the bigger the pyramid will become. So the more we can make things available or make things accessible, the better we’ll be. We have 4.5 million kids in a 70-mile radius but we have the lowest athlete population in the Eastern Region. Mountain Creek will do 10,000 skier visits in a single day, but nowhere out there do we have anybody promoting racing. And that’s a very diverse population, but we don’t have it out there. So I think we have to communicate the fact that it exists, and let people try it out. That’s why Buddy Werner and NASTAR became so important and popular, but they got co-opted into a path to elite competition when it was supposed to be fun. I think we need to embrace the fun part at every level. USCSA has done a good job with that, high school racing has done a good job with that. Those are the kinds of opportunities for us to take the steps. 

Paige: Is there anything else that we haven’t touched upon that you feel is important?

Schone: I think that to answer the question of “What do we do now?” That is the key, and I think the answer is to create an environment where people can ask questions and have conversations about uncomfortable things. I think that’s the path toward dealing with this. It seems simple, but it’s not without its challenges. Being uncomfortable means being vulnerable. Being vulnerable means you’re trusting that you’re not going to be judged and that’s tough for human beings. But I think that’s really the next step.

That is where we finished our interview. There is always a lot of work to be done in a society that’s seeking greatness. I am optimistic that our sport can be part of the solution, even if it’s only in a small way. I believe that we can have a positive impact on American life, but we will have to be purposeful, attentive, and diligent in order to do so.

What are the concrete next steps? I believe that everyone has something they can do and it’s important for each one of us as individuals to ask ourselves, “What can I do? What can my organization do?” Then go do it.

Many thanks to Schone for dedicating his time to this with Paige and me. If you’d like to know more about Winter4Kids, you can visit their website at https://winter4kids.org/

Sincerely,
Sam