RMD Colorado Ski Cup and SYNC Series Advancement Guidelines - Updated October 2022

Congratulations to all RC athletes!!

US Nationals Selections

U18 National Selections

• Women
• Men

U16 Selections

• Women
• Men

U14 Selections

• Women
• Men

RMD U14 Seeding

• Women
• Men

Rocky/Central U16 National Championship Athletes

• Women
• Men

Rocky/Central Selections to US Nationals - 

Rocky/Central quota to USN National Championships is 14 men and 14 women.

1.     Automatics – Top – 2 RC USA athletes, who are not already selected in the National US Nationals selection, ranked at the intent deadline by an NTSM of World Cup points in SL, GS and SG in the Nor Am. (2 men and 2 women from Nor Am Standings). All Automatic athletes will be purged before the Regional Selections are put together. Automatics are considered those that qualify from the National qualification lists.

2.     The regional selection, consisting of 10 Men and 10 women, will be filled by using a standard double board selection method. The board has two sides. The first side is a ranking using World Cup Points for results earned in head to head competition. There will be two series of races: 2SG/2GS in RMD and 3SL in Central, the slalom column will be determined by using the best 2 of 3 slalom results. The results will be purged of all non-Rocky/Central competitors. The second part of the board is based on U.S.Ski & Snowboard National points from the list valid on the selection date. A column is established for each event on each part of the board. The column will be listed in the order SL, GS, and SG; which will be the order of selection. The Rocky/Central Ski Cup portion of the board will be first, followed by the USSA points portion of the board. (See example below) Selections will be used from events to be contested.

Ties will be broken by selecting the athlete with the best result first.  If a tie still exists the athlete with the higher seed points at the Selection Events in the discipline will be ranked on the selection board before the racer with lower seed points.

3.     One spot per gender will be awarded to the RC Junior FIS Champion. Overall Champion will be determined by using World Cup points in the 2GS/2SL, all non-RC athletes will be purged. In the event the Overall Winner has already qualified for US Nationals the spot will revert to Regional Selection method in #2 and the next RC athlete on the ranking list that has not been selected will be awarded the spot.

4.     Discretionary/Development spots awarded to one for each gender to be decided by Rocky/Central Director, Central Manager.

Example of double board

WC point system summary:

Place Points 1st-100, 2nd-80, 3rd-60, 4th-50, 5th-45, 6th-40, 7th-36, 8th-32, 9th-29, 10th-26,11th-24, 12th-22, 13th-20, 14th-18, 15th-16, 16th-15, 17th-14, 18th-13, 19th-12, 20th-11, 21st-10, 22nd-9, 23rd-8, 24th-7, 25th-6, 26th-5, 27th-4, 28th-3, 29th-2, 30th-1

The top 30 competitors will receive place points based on World Cup Point Ranking System (100, 80, 60, 50, 45, 40, 36, 32, 29, 26, 24,22,20, 18, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1). In the case of a tie for one of the top 30 places, each tied racer receives the points corresponding to that position. The following racers receive the points for their finish position. (E.g. a tie for 2nd: racer 1 – 100 points, racers 2 and 3 - 80 points each, racer 4 - 50 points, etc.)

All races contested per event will be used in calculating each racers World Cup points in that event. If a tie remains after all results have been considered, a racer who started the series with higher seed points will be ranked in front of racers who started the series with lower seed points in the event. Placing the racer with the best ranking on the New World Cup point board first breaks a tie on the seed point board.

Selection Procedure

Selection proceeds from left to right on each row starting with World Cup points and ending with seed points. When a racer who has already been picked is encountered in a column, the column is skipped and the selection continues with the next column in the same row. When the last column in a row is reached, selection continues with the first column in the next row. Only events scheduled in the Championship Event will be part of the selection board.

New World Cup Point Board      USSA Seed Point Board

DH SL GS  SG                                DH SL  GS  SG
A    B    E     D                                  A    X    D    C
G    D    Q    E                                  F    E    X     Z
R    Z     D    Q                                 Z    M    Q    D
T    Q     B    M                                 T    D    C    Q

Selection for a 12 person, four-event team would be: (without taking Nor Am Automatics into consideration)
A, B, E, D, X, C, G, Q, F, Z, R, M

Rocky/Central Selections to U18 National Championships

U18 National Championships 

U18 Nationals - March 2-8 - Jackson Hole

Qualifying Races: 

GS/SG races at Breckenridge, January 19-22, 2024

3 SL races at Duluth, Minnesota, Feb 9 -11, 2024

Rocky/Central Quotas: 

20 men, 20 women

Automatics: 

U18’s with 1 or more Nor-Am Points are automatics at the time of selection. Automatics do count toward regional quotas.

Rocky/Central Selections to U18 National Championships

1. 18 men and 18 women will be selected using the Regional Selection Board Method, using National points list valid at the time of selection and results from the Qualifying races.
2. Automatics will fill the quota first, remaining spots will be filled by the following method:
3. The results board will be first, ranked using World Cup points earned by event/discipline in the Selection Events, with all non-Rocky/Central U18 racers purged. National automatics (US Ski Team athletes and athletes who have scored NorAm Cup points in the 2023/24 season will also be purged. Since there is an additional SL race in the Selection Events, the World Cup points in the SL column will be total of the racer’s best 2 finishes. Ties will be broken by selecting the athlete with the best result first.  If a tie still exists the athlete with the higher seed points at the Selection Events in the discipline will be ranked on the selection board before the racer with lower seed points.
4. The second part of the board is based on U.S. Ski & Snowboard National points in SL, GS and SG, from the points list valid at the time of selection. National automatics as described in (a) above will be purged.
5. Using the double board above, the first six (6) first-year U18 racers (2007 YOB) will be selected in an ITS Selection method first. Then, without removing these racers from the list, the remaining quota spots will be selected in an ITS Selection Method starting at the top of the board and skipping the six racers above.
6. The final 2 men and 2 women selections will be reserved for development consideration by the Rocky/Central staff including the Rocky/Central Director, the Rocky/Central Regional Coach, and the Central Division Manager. Considerations may include injury, illness, access to the qualification process, or other factors that kept the racer from qualifying by the method above. Development quota will consider looking at all 4 events this is a four-discipline National Championship.

Example of Regional Selection Board Method

WC point system summary:

Place Points 1st-100, 2nd-80, 3rd-60, 4th-50, 5th-45, 6th-40, 7th-36, 8th-32, 9th-29, 10th-26,11th-24, 12th-22, 13th-20, 14th-18, 15th-16, 16th-15, 17th-14, 18th-13, 19th-12, 20th-11, 21st-10, 22nd-9, 23rd-8, 24th-7, 25th-6, 26th-5, 27th-4, 28th-3, 29th-2, 30th-1

The top 30 competitors will receive place points based on World Cup Point Ranking System (100, 80, 60, 50, 45, 40, 36, 32, 29, 26, 24, 22, 20, 18, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1). In the case of a tie for one of the top 30 places, each tied racer receives the points corresponding to that position. The following racers receive the points for their finish position. (E.g. a tie for 2nd: racer 1 – 100 points, racers 2 and 3 - 80 points each, racer 4 - 50 points, etc.)

Regional Selection Board Method

Selection proceeds from left to right on each row starting with World Cup points and ending with national seeding points. The order of events is SL, then GS, then SG. When a racer who has already been picked comes up in the row, the racer is skipped and the selection continues with the racer in the next column of the same row. When the last column in a row is reached, selection continues with the first column in the next row.

New World Cup Point Board      USSA Seed Point Board

DH SL GS  SG                                DH SL  GS  SG
A    B    E     D                                  A    X    D    C
G    D    Q    E                                  F    E    X     Z
R    Z     D    Q                                 Z    M    Q    D
T    Q     B    M                                 T    D    C    Q

Selection order would be: A, B, E, D, X, C, G, Q, F, Z, R, M, T

Rocky/Central U16 Junior Championship

The Rocky/Central U16 Junior Championships are open to all qualified U16 RMD and Central competitors and will be held in Vail, CO March 14-18, 2024. The R/C U16 event brings together the top racers in Central and Rocky in all four disciplines. All events DH,SG,AC,GS,SL, will be National point scored.

Selections

1. Each Division will fill the field by identifying a total of 50 male and female competitors.
2. Each Division will utilize its own approved selection method.

Athletes that qualify and attend either the National Opa Cup or Alpe Cimbre Projects will be an automatic to the Rocky/Central U16 Junior Champions and will count towards their respective Division's quota.

Selection Criteria:

1. Boys and girls will be selected based on their performance in the U16 qualifying events.
   1. The are three qualifying events,  –
      1. Aspen DH's - Wednesday, Jan 17th
      2. Aspen SG's - Thursday, Jan 18th
      3. Colorado SYNC Cup Series in Winter Park - Feb 11-14
   2. Only the top 3 places in the DH are eligible to receive points for qualification purposes.
   3. Only the best Super G or DH result is eligible to be considered for qualifying purposes.
   4. A modified World Cup point system using the best 3 of 6 races.  Only one SG or DH result is eligible to use towards qualifying and ranking. 
   5. Athletes will be ranked in ascending order of their accumulated modified World Cup points in their best three (3) races, only one SG result is eligible to use toward qualifying and ranking. If needed, ties will be broken using the best result(s). All races are available for tie-breaking purposes, the second SG will count as the last result used to break a tie.  An athlete would not need to finish all three races to qualify as it would be a sum of their best 3 results. 
   6. Final quotas for boys and girls will be established based on athletes who competed on the first day of races at the Vail Qualifying Series. 
2. Two (2) boys’ and two (2) girls’ quota positions will be reserved for discretionary consideration to be filled by the RC Regional Director and Ability (U16 and Older) Committee. The Committee may also consider an athlete's seeding as a part of the discretion discussion.
3. Once the quota has been filled, no alternates should be considered.
4. Foreign USSA member athletes (X license) who are training and competing in Rocky or Central may qualify for the Rocky/Central U16 Junior Olympics through the respective division’s quota. RMD and CEN will each have 4 quota spots total (men and women) for foreign athletes.

Seeding for RC U16 Junior Championships

1. Seeding for Rocky/Central Championships will be done by TRS seeding for all events.
2. TRS Seeding will be in place for all events.
3. The first run will be randomly drawn. The second run will be a flip (reverse) of the first run start order. First run results will have no bearing on second run start position, including if the skier has a DNF or DSQ. 
4. DH Training and DH will have it's own set of TRS
5. SG and SC will be a 2 run TRS
6. GS and SL will be a 4 run TRS
7. In the case of two or more races in a series, the third run (start of the second race) will be a butterfly of the first run (split the field in half and run the last half first followed by the second half) and fourth run will be a reverse of the third run.  A fifth run or third race will be a completely new random draw.
8. Golden Rule athletes will be inserted at 16 after the random seeding has been done for all runs and will start in either 16 or in their random spot, whichever is a better start position.

Selections from RC U16 Junior Championships to the U16 National Championships 

Athletes will be selected to the U16 National Championships through performance at the U16 NPS or at the RC U16 Junior Championships

Selection

U16 Athletes

1. Athletes qualified and attended the National U16 European projects. These athletes will not count toward their region's quota.

2. A ranking list will be made by adding the World Cup points of the best two results from SG, GS, and SL at the respective U16 Regional Championships. If one or more Regional Championship competitions are canceled, the ranking will be made by adding the World Cup points of the best result per event from the remaining contested competitions across SG, GS, and SL. Ties will be broken by using the single best result. If a tie still exists, the next best result would be used, and this process will continue until the tie is broken.

3. There are discretion spots available if needed. Requests for discretion must come from the Regional Directors and coaches to the Alpine Development Directors.

Quota

15 Girls and 15 boys per region from the Regional Championships ranking. Athletes who qualified and attended the National European project will not count towards their Regions quota.

Seeding

Seeding at U16 National Championships will be TRS Seeding.

The Rocky/Central U14 Junior Championships is open to all qualified U14 RMD and Central competitors and will be held at Winter Park, CO March 5-9, 2024. Events contested are 1 SG, 1 Duals, 2 one-run GS, 2 one-run SL.

1. The Rocky Mountain Division will have the opportunity to fill 50% of the field at the Junior Championship with the Central Division filling the remaining 50%.
2. The Age Class Subcommittee will fill the RMD quota by identifying 95 RMD male and female competitors.

Selection Criteria:

1. Boys and girls will be selected based on their performance in the U14 qualifying events.
   1. The are two qualifying events,  –
      1. U14 Open SG's at Breckenridge –  Jan 15, 16, 2024
      2. Vail – SL and GS - Feb 25th - 26th
   2. Only the best Super G result from either of the Breckenridge SG's can count
   3. A modified World Cup point system using the best 3 of 6 races.  Only one SG result is eligible to use towards qualifying and ranking. 
   4. Athletes will be ranked in ascending order of their accumulated modified World Cup points in their best three (3) races, only one SG result is eligible to use toward qualifying and ranking. If needed, ties will be broken using the best result(s). All races are available for tie-breaking purposes, the second SG will count as the last result used to break a tie.  An athlete would not need to finish all three races to qualify as it would be a sum of their best 3 results. 
   5. Final quotas for boys and girls will be established based on athletes who competed on the first day of races at the Vail tech qualifiers.
2. Two (2) boys’ and two (2) girls’ quota positions will be reserved for discretionary consideration to be filled by the RC Regional Director and Age Class Committee. The Committee may also consider an athlete's seeding as a part of the discretion discussion.
3. Once the quota has been filled, no alternates should be considered.
4. Foreign USSA members athletes (X license) who are training and competing in Rocky or Central may qualify for the Rocky/Central U14 Junior Olympics through the respective division’s quota. RMD and CEN will each have 4 quota spots total (men and women) for foreign athletes.

U16 National Championships

Athletes will be selected to the U16 National Championships through performance at the U16 Regional Championships.


Athletes will be selected to the U16 National Championships through performance at the U16 NPS or at the RC U16 Junior Championships

Selection

U16 Athletes

1. Athletes qualified and attended the National U16 European projects. These athletes will not count toward their region's quota.

2. A ranking list will be made by adding the World Cup points of the best two results from SG, GS, and SL at the respective U16 Regional Championships. If one or more Regional Championship competitions are canceled, the ranking will be made by adding the World Cup points of the best result per event from the remaining contested competitions across SG, GS, and SL. Ties will be broken by using the single best result. If a tie still exists, the next best result would be used, and this process will continue until the tie is broken.

3. There are discretion spots available if needed. Requests for discretion must come from the Regional Directors and coaches to the Alpine Development Directors.

Quota

15 Girls and 15 boys per region from the Regional Championships ranking. Athletes who qualified and attended the National European project will not count towards their Regions quota.

Seeding

Each region will have 5 spots in each seed of 15 athletes. A final seed of fewer than 15 athletes may be necessary, depending on the number of athletes.  Each seed of 15 will be randomly drawn. Each Region will rank its selected athletes, including its foreign athletes, by National points in each event in order to fill the seeds.

U16 National Performance Series

U16 NPS Quota

                                                         Men                     Women

         National*                                 6                               6

         Western                                  7                               7

         Rocky/Central                         7                               7

         Eastern                                   7                               7

         Development                     Up to 3                     Up to 3

*6 boys and 6 girls ranked nationally using 2023 U16 Nationals results

• YOB 2007s will be purged and WC points are reassigned to YOB 2008s
• Athletes will be ranked by total WC points in SL, GS, and SG
• The top 6 athletes will be selected from that list
• Ties will be broken by the most WC points in an event to be trained and/or contested. If a tie still exists, the next most WC points will be considered until the tie is broken. If necessary, all events will be considered.
• Foreign athletes can qualify to compete in the U16 National Performance Series through published national quotas. For each qualified foreign athlete, the published quotas will extend to the next U.S. athlete. Foreign athletes are not eligible for regional quotas or discretionary development selections.

Athletes qualifying for National European projects through the U16 NPS Series will be automatics to their respective Regional Junior Championships and to U16 National Championships.  These athletes will count towards their Divisional quotas for their Regional Championships, but will not count towards their Regions Quota to U16 National Championships

Rocky/Central Selection Method to U16 NPS

RC Regional Quota is 7 Men and 7 Women

1. Utilizing the National U16 NPS list from the previous season U16 Nationals the next three (3) 2008 athletes will be selected.
2. Utilizing the RC U14 Junior Championship Overall Standings from the previous season the first two (2) 2009 athletes will be selected.
3. There will be two spots per gender to be selected by discretion, to be decided by the Rocky/Central Regional Development Director, Rocky/Central Regional Coach and Central Division Manager. 

Rocky/Central Selections to U16 NPS

Selections of 3 men and 3 women will be selected utilizing the National OPA Cup Selection list for the National OPA Cup Trip from the U16 NPS results. Athletes will be selected by continuing down the National U16 OPA Cup selection list.

• RC Regional Team Selection Criteria Criteria for 24-25 Season Selections    
• All-Star Team Selection Criteria Criteria for 24-25 Season Selections
• RMD Team Selection Criteria  Criteria for 24-25 Season Selections     2023-24 Named RMD TEAM

Eastern U14 CAN AMs

Rocky Mountain Division will not be sending athletes to the Eastern Can Am for 23-24 season. They will instead be hosting a camp for their athletes. 

Project YOG 2024 Camp 

Dates: April 1-4, 2024

Selection: ITS - 5 event - SL, SL, GS, GS, SG

Selection from RC U14 Junior Championships

• Central athletes will be purged after the ITS ranking list has been made
  • 15 per gender for a total of 30
• Top 4 from each Year of Birth
• Next 7 regardless of Year of Birth
• Foreign athletes must meet the same qualification method to attend, but would not take a quota spot. *funding would not be applied to the foreign athlete