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USST Alpine Team 2018-2019 Announced.....

Muleski

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Here it is:

https://www.skiracing.com/stories/u-s-ski-team-announces-alpine-nominations

The U.S. Ski Team has announced its alpine nominations for the 2018-19 season. The top ski racers in the United States are named each year to the U.S. Ski Team. Nominations to the team come from objective selection criteria based on international rankings and head-to-head competition.

Olympic champions Mikaela Shiffrin, Lindsey Vonn and Ted Ligety will lead a team of 41 nominated athletes into the upcoming 2018-19 season. In an impressive 2017-18 season, Shiffrin earned an Olympic gold in giant slalom, silver in alpine combined, as well as the FIS Ski World Cup overall title for the second-straight year and her fifth slalom title. Her transition to speed events proved a success, as she now has her first downhill victory – won at Lake Louise, Canada – under her belt. On top of that, her career season record of 12 World Cup victories brings her win total to 43 victories – at just 23 years old.

Meanwhile, team veteran Vonn won an Olympic bronze medal in the downhill and five World Cup races this season, bringing her World Cup victory total to 82 and that much closer to Ingemar Stenmark’s once elusive record of 86 victories. On the men’s side, keep a close eye on Ligety, who is feeling healthy and strong, and team veterans Travis Ganong and Steven Nyman to return to the slopes from injury. A promising crew of young athletes, including AJ Hurt and River Radamus will look to capitalize on the opportunity to ski amongst the best in the world and make their mark, too.

Athletes accepting their nomination to U.S. Ski Team receive a high level of world-class program support, along with access to the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Center of Excellence in Park City, Utah, and numerous athletic benefits including an elite coaching, sport science, sports medicine and high performance staff, and education opportunities.

An official team announcement will be made in the fall.

U.S. Ski Team
2018-19 Alpine Team Nominations
Name (hometown; home club; birthdate)

A TEAM
Men
Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley, Calif.; Squaw Valley Ski Team; 7/14/1988)
Ted Ligety (Park City, Utah; Park City Ski and Snowboard; 8/31/1984)
Steven Nyman (Sundance, Utah; Park City Ski and Snowboard/Sundance Ski Team; 2/12/1982)

Women
Breezy Johnson (Victor, Idaho; Rowmark Ski Academy; 1/19/1996)
Alice McKennis (New Castle, Colo.; Sunlight Winter Sports Club/Rowmark Ski Academy; 8/18/1989)
Laurenne Ross (Bend, Ore.; Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation; 8/17/1988)
Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.; Burke Mountain Academy/Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 3/13/1995)
Lindsey Vonn (Vail, Colo.; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail/Buck Hill Ski Team; 10/18/1984)
Jacqueline Wiles (Aurora, Ore.; White Pass Ski Club; 7/13/1992)

B TEAM
Men
Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley, Calif.; Squaw Valley Ski Team; 7/14/1992)
Tommy Biesemeyer (Keene, NY; New York Ski Education Foundation; 1/30/1989)
Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, Vt.; Cochran’s/Mount Mansfield Ski & Snowboard Club; 3/27/1992)
Tommy Ford (Bend, Ore.; Mt. Bachelor Ski Education Foundation; 3/20/1989)
Jared Goldberg (Holladay, Utah; Snowbird Sports Education Foundation; 6/15/1991)
Sam Morse (Carrabassett Valley, Maine; Carrabassett Valley Academy; 5/27/1996)
River Radamus (Edwards, Colo.; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 2/12/1998)
Luke Winters (Gresham, Ore.; Sugar Bowl Academy; 4/2/1997)*

Women
Stacey Cook (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.; Mammoth Mountain Ski & Snowboard Club; 7/3/1984)
AJ Hurt (Carnelian Bay, Calif.; Squaw Valley Ski Team; 12/5/2000)*
Alice Merryweather (Hingham, Mass.; Attitash Race Team/Stratton Mountain School; 10/5/1996)
Nina O’Brien (Edwards, Colo.; Burke Mountain Academy/Squaw Valley Ski Team; 11/29/1997)
Resi Stiegler (Jackson, Wyo.; Jackson Hole Ski Club; 11/14/1985)

C TEAM
Men
Cooper Cornelius (Glenwood Springs, Colo.; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 6/20/1999)*
Nick Krause (Northboro, Mass.; Stratton Mountain School; 5/12/1993)
Kyle Negomir (Littleton, Colo.; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 10/3/1998)*
George Steffey (Lyme, N.H.; Stratton Mountain School; 8/8/1997)

Women
Abi Jewett (Ripton, Vt.; Green Mountain Valley School; 1/10/2000)*
Patricia Mangan (Derby, N.Y.; Holimont Race Team; 3/7/1997)
Katie Hensien (Redmond, Wash.; Rowmark Ski Academy; 12/1/1999)
Galena Wardle (Aspen, Colo.; Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club; 4/24/1998)

DEVELOPMENT TEAM
Men
Andrew Miller (Park City, Utah; Park City Ski Team/Dartmouth College; 12/18/1998)*
Isaiah Nelson (Wayzata, Minn..; Buck Hill Ski Racing Club; 4/3/2001)*
Ben Ritchie (Waitsfield, Vt.; Green Mountain Valley School; 9/5/2000)*
Jett Seymour (Steamboat, Colo.; Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club/University of Denver Ski Team; 11/5/1998)
Trey Seymour (Steamboat, Colo.; Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club; 10/13/2000)*

Women
Keely Cashman (Strawberry, Calif.; Squaw Valley Ski Team; 4/4/1999)
Cecily Decker (Saranac Lake, N.Y.; New York Ski Education Foundation; 5/16/1998)
Ainsley Proffit (St. Louis, MO; Sugar Bowl Ski Team & Academy; 3/21/2001)*
Nellie-Rose Talbot (Vail, Colo.; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 8/24/1999)
Nicola Rountree-Williams (Edwards, Colo.; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; 7/7/2002)*
Zoe Zimmermann (Gilford, N.H.; Burke Mountain Academy; 5/16/2002)*


A few surprises. Keep in mind that the Development Team inso so much of a TEAM. These are those identified as being super high potential, etc. in those birth years.

Some interesting nominations, etc. as always. BTW, these are those who were nominated AND ACCEPTED the nomination.
 

QueueCT

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If USST is providing full funding to B team athletes (don't know if that was confirmed or if it's still the $10k plus flights contribution) then the A/B differential is more about pride, I think, than anything else. Still irritates me, though, to have so few men on the A team.

The other question I have is regarding the women's speed team. While there are great skiers there and they certainly upped their game over the season, I don't think they meet the top 15 rule (other than Vonn), do they? Or am I misunderstanding? Wiles and McKennis are certainly close but not Ross. I'm not saying they don't deserve to be on the A team but trying to reconcile. There was the "coach's discretion" rule that may be in play here and if so, mostly well used.
 
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Muleski

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The full funding for the B team is, I hear, done but not confirmed. The money is coming from a few sources, but it’s committed. I had heard that one man had told Tiger that if needed, he’d pick it all up. {And, no it’s not Dan Leever}.

So that in effect means no practical difference between the A and B teams. Could combine them, and just call it something else?

I am already hearing that a mens A team of three, and those three, looks strange. Two are coming off injury, and I guess, were not dropped to the B team. So that’s a discretionary call. Ligety is, I guess, still our top guy based on his career achievements. This could be a tough season for him. He has not adapted either due to his back, or due to the skis and sets to GS 2018 that well. I was kind of surprised that Tommy Ford did not show up on the A team, as a discretionary pick.

It was just mentioned to me that we may be trying to motivate guys to reach the A team next season. Seems old school. Shocker.

On the W’s side, yes a lot of discretionary picks, for sure. LV and MS made A team criteria. I have not looked at the current WCSL, but A Team criteria is top 15 in any one discipline. Not sure who fits it, but since all of the WC speed group is capable of a top 10, or better on any given day, I think those discretionary picks make sense. Of course Stacy Cook was dropped to the B team. I still think she could retire. We’ll see.

Without the discretionary picks, The A team athletes would pretty much be Ligety, LV, and MS. Alice McKennis, Breezy and Jackie Wiles are close. Depends on the WCSL, and last year the field was light.

Thar’s A pretty small team, in numbers. Keep in mind the question of “what is the D team?” It’s not the same as it was a couple of years ago. It’s project and event based.

We’ll see. Re-booting. Lots of work to do.

Some interesting omissions. The SL thing perplexes me......
 
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Muleski

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OK....I've had some time to digest this, and I have a lot of questions and some raised eyebrows, as do many people. I'm not going to detail every single one. However there is one, which I think is a glaring omission, and I frankly can't believe that he's not on the team, given the various party Iines and alleged promises of change coming forth from Tiger, the grand high Poobah in the grand COE.

Brian McLaughlin. Brian has been a member of the D team, back when it was a team. He was later a member of the USST University Team. He is now one quarter short of his degree at Dartmouth....where I believe he's been an engineering major. He has raced four seasons for Dartmouth, two year captain, AA.

This past year, he was the NCAA champion in GS. He was second at Nationals....while in school. Dartmouth is "real school". No offense, or not much, to the RIMSA. You need to be there. He also was the NorAM season winner in GS, which guarantees WC GS starts for the upcoming season.

He wound up the season with a 6 point profile. In December, BTW, he won a time trial against a lot of frequent WC skiers, and made his first WC start in the GS at Beaver Creek. So his world rank is somewhere between 30-34. What more could an American NCAA skier so?

He is ancient by the age old USST thinking. He turns 25 in a month. With a 1993 birthday, to "make criteria" he needs to be in the top 30. The Catch 22 is that it's impossible to score under 6 points other than in a WC.

Something is seriously broken. This is a great young guy, and he is athletic, big, strong, hard working, smart, coachable......the works. Tiger and his crew keep talking about using the NCAA more as a pipeline. Sure you are. Put your damn budget money were you sissified mouth is. This was a chance to show that you really do believe in this. Make the discretionary pick. Do it. Even if you have to eat crow.

I think it's insane. We waste money holding on to people like Mancuso. We keep skiers who are going downhill in their careers. But the old guard will not pick a guy like this.

I do not get it. I'm going to dig in on this one. The guys making the descision on this are very much old guard, old school and I would venture than all four IQ's don't add up to Brian's.

There was a time when the USST hated anybody who somehow qualified out of college. You were expected to blow off college until your ski career was over, or chip away off season. See Tiger Shaw, Chip Knight, and Jesse Hunt. I won't go through the numbers of college guys who made criteria, and the names of the coaches who instead of trying to make them succeed started right out by saying that they snuck in the back door and had no business being there.

One was Warner Nickerson. A friend of his, guy named Miller {who did pretty well in the sport} has been quoted before as saying that nobody in the team system had more upside and was more ignored and stepped upon than Warner.

I'm seeing the same old crap. I hope that the USST blows up. Implodes. We don't need it. We need fully supported athletes, skiing on independent or factory teams. They'll get better everything. I think it's on the way.

We only need some version of the USST once every four years. The USOC can figure this out.

This omission has "really bad optics", all things considered. There are similar deals on the women's side, but none this glaring to me.

Good thing we are funding rising stars like Resi Steigler..........and not pushing retirements by cutting people.

It's such a huge mess. An the board.....seems to be 100% disengaged. I thought more like 80% in the spring. Nope, I now think it's worse.

Rant over......I can't wait to see how Brian handles this. Dan Leever's Team America? Others? I wish him the very, very best of luck.
 
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S.H.

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On the W’s side, yes a lot of discretionary picks, for sure. LV and MS made A team criteria. I have not looked at the current WCSL, but A Team criteria is top 15 in any one discipline. Not sure who fits it, but since all of the WC speed group is capable of a top 10, or better on any given day, I think those discretionary picks make sense.

Without the discretionary picks, The A team athletes would pretty much be Ligety, LV, and MS. Alice McKennis, Breezy and Jackie Wiles are close. Depends on the WCSL, and last year the field was light.

Based on the current WCSL, which I believe is the relevant one, LV, MS, Breezy, and McKennis are top-15 in DH. Wiles (19th in DH) and Ross (27 DH 28 SG) are discretionary.
 
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Muleski

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Based on the current WCSL, which I believe is the relevant one, LV, MS, Breezy, and McKennis are top-15 in DH. Wiles (19th in DH) and Ross (27 DH 28 SG) are discretionary.

Thanks! Have a horrible time searching for that document, so I didn't!! Those four were my guess. Jackie Wiles would probably have been there with a full season if she kept skiing as she had been {quite fast, good results.}

I bet both Laurenne and Jackie are considered injury/recovery with some USST thinking that it takes a solid two years to come back in speed for most mortals, unlike LV.
 

4ster

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I'm seeing the same old crap. I hope that the USST blows up. Implodes. We don't need it. We need fully supported athletes, skiing on independent or factory teams. They'll get better everything. I think it's on the way
Along with factory teams & NCAA perhaps it's time for the big ski corps ie Vail & Alterra, to step up with major funding for & sponsorship for US ski racers development & racing? They obviously believe in it for the fact that they seek WC events & have racers like Shiffrin & Vonn on the payroll.
 
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Muleski

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Along with factory teams & NCAA perhaps it's time for the big ski corps ie Vail & Alterra, to step up with major funding for & sponsorship for US ski racers development & racing? They obviously believe in it for the fact that they seek WC events & have racers like Shiffrin & Vonn on the payroll.

I've heard the following one recently discussed, by some savvy folks....not on the USST board, or on the management team. These are men very familiar with how funding is done with some other Euro federations{and with the USST}. BTW, these other federations are not always "government funded", as many throw out and assume. In Austria, I believe that 2 euros, for every ski ticket/pass sold is passed on to the federation, and that generates a lot of cash.

So, the question posed to me was, what if Alterra and Vail Resorts were approached with a pitch to donate a very small amount for each Epic Pass sold, and each Ikon pass sold.....and maybe even a dollar for each exorbitantly priced day ticket sold? If you think big, say it's $5 for each pass. That's $5Mil from VR alone. So make it $2. There's a way to raise at lot of money. You could expand it to the ski areas association...in small amounts. Not sure how MTN would look at lowering their profit, but these would be donations and there are many ways to skin that cat.

Put your marketing and PR hat on, and every single pass holder becomes some type of "partner and supporter" of the USSSA. This would have all sorts of options and tentacles. It might even generate more awareness and interest.

Not shocker to me that it took two guys with some brain power to throw this out at me.....rather than the "old guard" in the COE.

I'm getting sick of thinking of how things cold be done. New thinking is SO long overdue. Instagram posts don't raise money as needed. The USSSA marketing group appears to me to also need a lot of change.

BTW, the interest and support for skiracing and the USST might be quite a bit different at Alterra and Vail. SSCV is based at Vail, but has nothing to do with MTN. Different entity entirely. Birds of Prey has existed since Rob Katz was in kindergarten. Would he start it today? Did Vail Resorts have a lot to do with the 2015 FIS WC's, or was it the local organizing committee?

My hunch is that Alterra might be interested in this, and that VR might then be "forced" to play. Seems to be a lot of that happening.

This would be bold. Of course the other concern by many, including I bet those who would make this kind of call, is HOW effectively are they using the resources they have. Many questions.
 
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Muleski

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I was not sure whether to past this on the "Project 26" thread, or on this one.

SkiRacing.com has a new article in their Premium section, "Rethinking the College Option." Written by Sean Higgins, a fairly recent NCAA AA at Vermont, and skiracing.com's senior editor. It's nothing new, IMO. It has the same content covered, and quotes from Chip Knight of the USST. Same old stuff, IMO.

Basically the party line. Of course one subject they discuss is Brian McLaughlin, who is 24, ranked 31st in the world in GS, and is the 2018 NCAA and NorAm GS champ. Chip explains that HIS BEING 24 is a problem, and the reason that he didn't make team criteria.

The comments are pretty close to my thinking. "Chip, take your big head and just SHOVE YOUR F***ING outdated, ancient age based criteria". And quit explaining how Brian will be supported and welcomed by the USST on the WC as an independent. It never works that way. Ask ALL of the recent independents with similar WR's. They feel like they are not part of any team. The team coaches make it awkward. Brain needs to be groomed for the WC, not proven to be a failure after a one year half baked attempt.

Skracing.com is desperate for content. They are basically putting out press releases, and making them look like articles. Sean should take a MUCH stronger position, but he can't. Skiracing.com is absolutely the mouthpiece of the USSSA and USST. Nothing that they can be to be too conflictual about.

But the comments are good. The guy with the Facebook account named "Tom Ba" pulls few punches when commenting on SR.com.

Brian has done EVERYTHING that we could expect. It's insane to not have him on the team. It's insulting. But then again, I become more convinced that this group is 110% incompetent and unable to navigate through change. Chip Knight must be the dumbest person to graduate from Williams {after his USST career}. He comes from a very wealthy family, and typifies US ski racing. He does this, and has coached, "because he could afford too." He and Tiger likely assume that Brian's family can {and therefore should} just shell out the $100K plus to keep him going. No need to make a precious discretionary pick.

It's like they are saying that NCAA racing is important, because they know people want to hear that. BUT, it's not really important, right now, as we haven't figured it out. If we want kids to use the NCAA as a pipeline, we're talking at the USST about the kids who will be entering college this fall and next, and then we'll deal with what we do with them when they are graduating, in four years.

A 2018, 24 year old graduate, who was formerly a USST D team member and a USST-Uni team member? Now ranked 31st? No, that's kind of messy with our age old criteria. We'd have to do some real thinking.

Why the hell was he NOT a discretionary pick? We still fund a lot of real has beens, on our A and B teams. This guy has upside. Real, genuine upside. He needs a couple of years to get developed to perform on the WC, and THEN he could have a long successful career. But that's not the way every single person in the USST system has grown up. Nope. Weed them out early and often.

I'm done. Actually this is my final post related to the WC, NorAM, NCAA, FIS, or high level junior racing, on PugSki. I'm more close to this than ever, and I can't post and broadcast increased knowledge and insight which simply is not for public consumption. I've been specifically asked NOT to. So, I'm "going dark."

I just could not resist this one. The topic makes my blood boil, and I think that the USST communications group, as well as skiracing.com are useless. I can't read crap that is essentially fiction any more.

I may post of some really important stuff, like goggle lenses. But since I only tend to post about things that I do have some insight and knowledge about, probably not! I can't post about anything to do with real race product, who's on what, who's moving to what and why. Been asked not to, by people I care a lot about.

Cheers. Best to all. Enjoy your summer.....on snow or not.

Out on race posting. It's been fun, most of the time.
 
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Jack skis

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I understand your feelings about the USST, and agree with most of them. Lucky enough to have known the parents of an ex-Dartmouth racer who worked his way onto the USST, and observed the barriers he had to overcome. Would he have gone further with more, or real support from the USST? I think it's quite possible he could have. He's retired now, but I really admire what he did as a ski racer.

As to Ski Racing, I've read it and it's predecessors for many, many years. Sometimes it's been better, sometimes not so much, but it's all we've got so I'll keep subscribing and hoping for the best.

Sorry to see Muleski leave race posting. He's been interesting and informative. Keep going downhill (in the best way) Mule.
 
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Muleski

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Thanks.

@Jack skis, my niece was a classmate and very close friend of Daver's at Dartmouth. I'm very proud of what he accomplished as well. But, he spend far too much time proving that he belonged, and fighting that internal fight. He also had the benefit of having gotten long with college early, so that he had some chance with this crazy age based criteria {which kept getting harder to meet each year for Dave.} Two of our close family friends were caught in the same mess. As you know it's nothing new. But I firmly believe that it should be new, and new RIGHT NOW for Brian. He can't make criteria at his age because he has not been skiing on the WC. How else can he have a top 30 ranking? He can't. How legitimate and "wise" is the criteria? It's not. USST speaking out of every side that they can find in their mouths. Incredibly disappointing that Tiger Shaw can't figure this one out. So simple.

@4ster, I may be at Soelden. Even better chance of Levi. Killington, for sure.

Just need to be quiet on this front. I'm made promises that I will be. On all social media, all forums. Has zero to do with PugSki, at all. This is a fun, and enjoyable community. Keep up the good discussion!

Cheers!
 

Primoz

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@Muleski two thing... first and most important... if you really show up in Soelden, let me know, so we go at least for a beer :D
Two... all this what you wrote is 100% true, but it's also true exactly same sh**t is happening pretty much anywhere on the world, probably in every sport (but I can't say for sure for this last part). You have people who have good connections, who understand good with right people, who do I don't know what, and they are in team no matter what. I have seen this in bigger and better teams then USST is. I don't mean anything bad with this, but USST has few stars and rest are not all that great. Few years ago, Austrians had team of 15 guys who could finish top 10, yet half of them were not on WC due FIS quotas, and you had some old guys still on team taking spot (and money, as also in Austria if you are not A/WC team you need to pay some part yourself) purely on their "past achievements". Some 15 years ago, Germany was ruling biathlon. But their old(er) guys like Kirchner, Gross, Fischer... were getting slow, and they had some 10 guys in B/Europa cup team, who were constantly beating them, but never got space on WC team (these damn quotas :) ). Yet instead of getting old guys out of team they rather lost whole generation of top class guys, while keeping old guys in WC because of their past achievements, and after few years of winning European cup races, young guys just decided to quit racing as they realized they will never manage to qualify for WC team as long as these old stars won't decide themself to quit racing.
So these sh**t with different criteria for different people is everywhere, and unfortunately has absolutely zero to do with normal sport, but just plain damn stupid politics.
 

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