U.S. Ski & Snowboard has announced today that Timberline Lodge and Ski Area will serve as an Official Training Site for American ski and snowboard athletes through January 2023. This agreement will see athletes from U.S. Ski & Snowboard, the Olympic National Governing Body (NGB) of ski and snowboard sports in the United States, training at Timberline Lodge and Ski Area through the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, China, and beyond, providing invaluable snow access as athletes train to reach podiums.
As the only North American ski resort to stay open 12 months a year, Timberline will provide consistent, world-class access to snow for elite athletes on the alpine, moguls, halfpipe, slopestyle and snowboardcross teams. Timberline will play an integral role in the training of many future U.S. Ski & Snowboard Olympians.
“This partnership with Timberline provides our teams with the benefit of easy access to world-class on-snow training throughout the summer. Timberline is well-known for its great conditions throughout the year, and is so accessible for our teams, allowing them to gain critical on-snow training time at multiple points throughout the summer. Training at Timberline is a mainstay for our athletes, supporting the summer training they need, and is a critical component of our drive to be Best in the World,” commented U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s Chief of Sport, Luke Bodensteiner.
The partnership with Timberline will give U.S. Ski & Snowboard a solid basis to work from in laying down training strategy for the next four-year cycle in preparation of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games. Access to a domestic, year-round snow surface is invaluable for athletes competing in seasonal sports including ski and snowboard disciplines.
As an official U.S. Ski & Snowboard training site, Timberline will host an estimated 160 U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes and personnel across 45 days each year. Because Timberline has extensive terrain and year-round snow coverage, the resort is ideal for setting up the many courses necessary for training multiple sports disciplines. The alpine team will have access to two lanes, primarily slalom with some terrain build as conditions allow. The moguls team will have access to flats, a bumps lane and a jump. The freeski and snowboard team will have access to the halfpipe as constructed, an airbag, park jumpline and rails, one 55-65 foot jump as constructed (with the option for more as space and snow allows) and access to three variations of down rails and six other rail features – side and straight on entrance as constructed.
In addition to providing training for national team athletes, Timberline is also instrumental in supporting U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s talent development pipeline. Each year the U.S. Snowboard Team’s Project Gold program brings together the top junior athletes in the country in snowboarding and snowboardcross for an annual progressive talent development camp. The top juniors in the country, selected from Hole Shot and USASA Nationals, get the opportunity to train with the U.S. Snowboard Team’s national team coaching staff. Three development camps for Alpine are held at Timberline each year: Women’s Development Team, Men’s Development Team and U16 National Development. These camps focus on skills development in slalom and giant slalom.
“Timberline has a long and storied history as a summer training site for U.S. Ski & Snowboard. From Tony Sailer, Billy Kidd, Steve and Phil Mahre to Ted Ligety; from Cindy Nelson and Picabo Street to Julia Mancuso, Mikaela Shiffrin, Red Gerard, Shaun White and Maddie Bowman - all have trained at Timberline in the summer, as well as virtually all other U.S. Olympic Alpine athletes," commends Timberline's president, Jeff Kohnstamm, "We are very proud of this tradition and have worked with U.S. Ski & Snowboard to formalize our relationship. This will further meet the needs of U.S. athletes and promote the world-class summer ski and snowboard training that is Timberline’s Palmer Snowfield."
