U.S. Ski & Snowboard has announced today that Jesse Hunt has returned to the organization as Alpine Director, a role he last held with U.S. Ski & Snowboard in 2009 after 16 years with the organization. Jesse takes up the role with immediate effect, returning to U.S. Ski & Snowboard after nine years with Park City Ski & Snowboard where he was Program Director and General Manager.

During Jesse’s previous tenure with U.S. Ski & Snowboard, the U.S. Ski Team enjoyed arguably its most successful run of results in alpine racing in its history, including four FIS Overall World Cup titles, 12 Olympic medals and 18 World Championship medals.

“Jesse is re-joining our team at a pivotal time,” said Luke Bodensteiner, U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s Chief of Sport. “Some of our alpine team’s greatest successes have been propelled by the work that Jesse accomplished during his first tenure with us. He’s the right person to lead our team right now, as we continue to maximize the capability of our elite team, while also activating the roadmap in our development efforts to build our team for the future. The nine years that Jesse has spent at Park City Ski & Snowboard, one of our largest club programs, allows him to return to us with a fully rounded perspective of all levels of the sport, and positions him uniquely to lead our collaboration with clubs nationally, and our efforts internationally.  He will bring a unique, comprehensive, and American perspective to the position, and we’re incredibly happy to welcome him back to the team.”

“Firstly, I want to thank everyone at Park City Ski & Snowboard for being such an incredible group of people to work with over the last nine years. I leave with many happy memories, but I am delighted that Tiger, Luke, and the whole U.S. Ski & Snowboard team have given me the chance to come back home,” added Jesse, originally from Burlington, VT and a Park City resident since 1990. “We have an exciting challenge ahead of us to give our alpine ski racers the chance to be Best In The World, but that is precisely the challenge that motivates me the most, helping athletes achieve everything that they are capable of. We have a strong mix of highly experienced athletes and those coming up through the ranks in both the men’s and women’s teams, in speed and tech, and the chance to help all of them achieve greatness is one I could not turn down.

“Additionally, the recent announcement the team made that Sasha Rearick is joining Chip Knight in the alpine development program means we have a very strong team in place to help us achieve our goals in the World Cup program for years to come, and, in particular at the 2022 and 2026 Games, and beyond. I cannot wait to start work and am thrilled to be back.

“Our whole alpine program will benefit tremendously from the leadership and clear direction Jesse will bring,” said Tiger Shaw, CEO and President of U.S. Ski & Snowboard. “We had a successful 2018 Winter Olympic Games, but we know we did not achieve all our goals in alpine. Jesse’s appointment adds an incredible amount of value to our elite athlete alpine program, but he will also be a key part of the plan we have been activating for some time now in development. I am confident that we have the right mix of experience, passion, dedication and a strong plan that will help our alpine program achieve more than they think possible, both internationally and back home in the USA.”

The United States sent six top Western Region U16 and 12 U14 athletes to this year’s Whistler Cup April 12-15, 2018, where first-year U16 athlete Ryder Sarchett (Ketchum, ID; Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation) led the way for Team USA, snagging first in the giant slalom and second in super-G. Additionally, Team USA emerged victorious in the mixed gender team event – a first for the nation at the Whistler Cup.

Whistler Cup is the only FIS-sanctioned event of its kind in North America, enabling U16s to see how they stack up against the best in the world in their age group. Acting as a sort of Who’s Who of international skiing, U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes have enjoyed great success at the event in the past. Olympic champions Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.), Lindsey Vonn (Vail, Colo.) and Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, Calif.) have competed at Whistler Cup in past years.

Team USA returned to the Whistler Cup last season after a brief hiatus from the event. When the FIS age changed from 15 to 16 years old, U.S. Ski & Snowboard acknowledged the importance of elevating the quality and intensity of the U16 program. With the ability to compete on a world stage, these athletes get a glimpse into the depth that exists, further preparing them as they develop into FIS-level athletes.

Ryder Sarchett competes in the super-G at Whistler Cup (Jon Hair, Coast Photo).

The renewed focus on and commitment to exposing U16s to international competition is paying off. Sarchett snagged two podiums and the highlight of the event was Team USA coming out on top in the mixed gender team event over Switzerland in the big final, with France third and Canada fourth. In total, Team USA went home with 11 top 15 individual results. The U14 athletes also enjoyed success, taking home 10 individual top 10 performances, highlighted by Jessica Blackburn's (Ketchum, ID; Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation) victory in the slalom by over 3.5 seconds. 

“We returned to Whistler Cup last year with our first-year U16 athletes to provide initial international exposure as they develop toward the FIS-level,” noted alpine development director Chip Knight. “It’s a well-organized event with high-level competition that is a highlight for everyone who attends. Congratulations to Ryder Sarchett and Team USA for their outstanding results! We will look to build on them in the junior ranks during the years to come.”

In the overall Whistler Cup nation standings, Switzerland scored its second consecutive win, with Team USA taking second and Canada in third. 

2018 WHISTLER CUP U16 TEAM
Name, Hometown; Club (Birthdate)
Justin Bigatel, Park City, UT; Park City Ski & Snowboard (4/29/2003)
Mary Bocock, Salt Lake City, UT; Rowmark Ski Academy (10/7/2003)
Aidan Robin, Stowe, VT; Burke Mountain Academy (4/2/2003)
Dasha Romanov, Thorton, CO; Loveland Ski Club (5/3/2003)
Ryder Sarchett, Ketchum, ID; Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (7/28/2003)
Isabelle Washburn, Steamboat, CO; Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club (1/7/2003)

Coaching Staff:
Ben Brown, Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club
Kathy Okoniewski, Eastern Youth Development Coach
Gunner Sorenson, Loveland Ski Club
Angela Worrell, Rocky Central Youth Development Coach

2018 WHISTLER CUP U14 TEAM
Name, Hometown; Club (Birthdate)
Jack Abuhaidar, Park City, UT; Rowmark Ski Academy (2/13/2004)
Kacey Benjaminson, Tahoe City, CA; Squaw Valley Ski Team (8/17/2004)
Jessica Blackburn, Ketchum, ID; Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (4/9/2004)
Levi Brown, Lake Oswego, OR; Mt. Hood Academy (2/4/2004)
Dillon Bush, Park City, UT; Park City Ski Team (6/13/2004)
Paige Dehard, Hailey, ID; Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (4/25/2005)
Finnigan Donley, Anchorage, AK; Alyeska Ski Club (2/28/2005)
Annaliese Frohlich, Mercer Island, WA; Crystal Mountain Ski Club (11/14/2004)
Nils Galloway, Snoqualmie, WA; Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (9/8/2004)
Saba Grossman, Sun Valley, ID; Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (5/24/2004)
Colin Hanna, Portland, OR; Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (12/15/2004)
Logan Lindstrom, Sun Valley, ID; Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (4/9/2004)

Coaching Staff:
Jim Hudson, Squaw Valley Ski Team
Karen Lundegren, Mt. Hood Academy
Troy Price, Rowmark Ski Academy
James Tacktus, Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation

Complete results from Whistler Cup are available here.

After keeping fans wondering for nearly two years, Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) officially announced his retirement in November 2017. For his fans and the ski racing community as a whole, it was a sad day. With two overall FIS Ski World Cup globes, six World Cup discipline titles, six Olympic medals, five World championship medals, 33 World Cup wins, and an unorthodox, renegade, "Bode-Style" - he was a rockstar in the world of ski racing. 

Often misunderstood, Miller didn't race for the win. Instead, he wanted to ski his best and do it his way. “Winning is not the only thing I was focused on," reflected Miller. "I think that’s confusing for a lot of people, except for that when you look at your own life you’re not solely driven by one thing, you’re driven by a lot of things.”

Having worked as an NBC commentator alongside Dan Hicks at the PyeongChang Olympic Games, Miller continues to be a strong voice in the ski racing community. In an interview with Reuter's in early January, Miller commented on the upcoming Olympics, pointing out 2017 and 2018 Overall winner Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.) specifically, noting, "I think she’s maybe the best ski racer I’ve ever seen, male or female. She’s so balanced, dynamic, intense and focused, so for me, I think she’s got a chance in any event she skis in."

Check out the full American Downhiller: Episode 6, by Ski Racing Media. 

It was a chaotic scene in the finish area of Axamer Lizum outside of Innsbruck, Austria. Two 20-year-old men stood locked in an embrace. One was this clean-cut young man from Stowe, Vermont wearing a stocking cap, the other a powerful looking Basque from Lake Tahoe, California.

Between them stood their coach. The two athletes looked stunned after their come-from-behind Olympic medals on the final day of the 1964 Olympic Winter Games. Their coach carried the broadest smile - a bit of relief but more a deeper understanding and intense pride in what that moment would represent in the history of the U.S. Ski Team.

They simply called him Coach or Beats. An icon of the sport of alpine ski racing and one of its most passionate pioneers, Bob Beattie passed away last week at the age of 85. That moment on February 8, 1964, when Vermonter Billy Kidd won silver and teammate Jimmie Heuga took bronze was a seminal moment in a topsy-turvy Olympics where Beattie’s Vince Lombardi-like leadership style came full circle to meet up with success.

“I had a hell of a team in Innsbruck,” said Beattie. “Of the four guys in slalom, any of them could have won! They were that good - Kidd, Heuga, Werner, Ferries.”

The symbolic nature of that day 54 years ago still resonates in the sport decades later. It was literally the birth of the U.S. Ski Team we know today, founded by a brash young coach from New Hampshire who just happened to stumble into ski racing. But like everything in his life, he took it on with fervor.

Life was a battle for Bob Beattie. While he had his detractors, he blazed new territory every day of his life - pioneering a way for futures stars like Phil Mahre, Picabo Street, Julia Mancuso, Bode Miller, Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin.

He generated excitement at every turn and brought the sport of alpine ski racing to television. His voiceover with Frank Gifford of Franz Klammer’s legendary 1967 downhill gold at Innsbruck was a singular moment that every skier of that generation will never forget.

Beattie often credited NFL football coach Vince Lombardi as one of his most notable role models. "It was his strong will that made him successful - 'This is the way it is and the way it is going to be,'" said Beattie last summer while reminiscing about his own career. "He was sensational. He’s what made it work. I still feel strongly about that. I don’t know if I accomplished that, but I tried."

Such was Beattie’s style. Whether it was battling Austrian ski officials over race seeding in that historic 1964 season or taking on a community to find a better way for 1,800 young Aspen kids to get involved in the sport, Beattie did it with fervor and passion. He remained true to his principles and never stopped pounding the table to make things better for little kids who found joy in the sport or veteran athletes who needed support to achieve their goals. Fear was not in his vocabulary. He would take on anyone or any organization to give his athletes a fair shake.

He wasn’t daunted by roadblocks to new ideas. His vision of a global series of ski races resulted in the birth of the World Cup in 1967. Today, nearly every sport has a global tour. Ski racing was one of the first. Today we watch ski racing on our phones. Bob Beattie got it on television. Every winter in Aspen, thousands of new kids get on skis. Bob Beattie started that. Each season at resorts across America, tens of thousands run racing gates in NASTAR. Bob Beattie popularized that.

And it all stemmed from that day in Innsbruck in 1964. A year of medal promises had come to a close with the first U.S. men’s ski racing medals in Olympic history.

“Billy Kidd and Jimmy Heuga did not fall down the mountain. On the second run over a more open course, they skied better than any Americans had before,” wrote the legendary Dan Jenkins in Sports Illustrated in his cover story In and Out of a Jam. When the disbelieving throngs stared up at the IBM scoreboard, they saw that Kidd, a whirling figure in cap and goggles, and the bare-headed Heuga had clocked the second and third fastest times overall—and the U.S. had its first men's medals ever … and celebrate the Americans did when Bob Beattie skied down from the top of the run, shouting, waving his poles, literally aflame with pride and joy—was the fact that Kidd finished third in the unofficial alpine combined standings. No American had ever done that, either.”

When Beattie reflected on what success meant, he always came back to focusing on the concept of team. "Winning was about discipline and physical conditioning," said Beattie. "It was about team, team, team - you have to have a team."

If there was one favorite within that team for Beattie it was Buddy Werner from the Colorado cowboy town of Steamboat Springs. Buddy became the first American to win the fabled Hahnenkamm downhill in Kitzbuehel, Austria in 1959. He would die in an avalanche on the slopes of Tre Fleur at St. Moritz, Switzerland just two months later.

Last summer Beattie spent a day thinking back on stories of his career. It seemed like every other one was about Buddy. Despite his acclaim and Hahnenkamm glory, Buddy never won an Olympic medal. It was his last race that day in Axamer Lizum. He finished eighth - his best career Olympic finish.

As Beattie talked about the celebration that day, including his own harried descent to the finish to greet his team, he kept coming back to Buddy. He was the guy everyone expected to be on the medals stand. But this was about a team. And Buddy was the first to greet his teammates and to celebrate their success - the team’s success.

“We made the expectations, recalled Beattie. “Along the way, we were our best friend and worst enemy. But we believed in it. And we achieved it. It was not a matter of individual success, but that of our team.”