PARK CITY, Utah (April 25) -The U.S. Ski Team wrapped up an amazing year with the close of the 2008 season. While U.S. athletes captured 29 victories (six from disabled) and an incredible 92 podiums across all six ski sports, there were several high water marks during the competitive season. photo Doug Haney/US Ski Team The most notable historic results include five alpine World Cup titles by three different Americans - Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO), Bode Miller (Bretton Woods, NH) and Ted Ligety (Park City, UT), the first women's cross country World Cup win by Kikkan Randall (Anchorage, AK) and the best American nordic combined ranking by Bill Demong (Vermontville, NY) who was third in the World Cup standings. "This was one of our best seasons in recent memory, with at least two athletes in each of our sports achieving podium results," said Associate Athletic Director of High Performance Luke Bodensteiner. "That kind of broad-based success is indicative of a system that's effectively moving talented athletes into elite-level programming, and pushing their performance to world-class levels. "The focus of the coming year for those athletes will be to prepare the technical, tactical, physical and mental capacities that they will put into play in 2010. What we do this year will determine what we're capable of in Vancouver." Overall highlights include: ALPINE The USA permanently marked the pages of ski racing annuals with what was one of the most successful seasons for American skiers who captured five of 12 World Cup titles; no other country won more than two titles. In addition, seven different athletes were responsible for 37 World Cup podiums including 15 wins by Vonn, Ligety, Marco Sullivan (Squaw Valley, CA) and Miller. Vonn, with her six wins for a total of 10 podiums, became only the second U.S. woman to win the downhill and overall World Cup titles. She also finished the season as the second most successful American woman in ski racing history. Ligety started the season strong with a podium at the opening World Cup and wrapped up the year with six including two wins. He consistently never placed lower than fifth in giant slalom races he finished and went on to take the GS globe. Miller, who trains independently from the U.S. Team, won his fourth discipline title and second overall title to join Vonn as the first American duo to win overalls since Phil Mahre and Tamara McKinney in 1983. While there was a magnificent glow of World Cup success, the future also looks bright as the U.S. Team secured nine NorAm titles for additional World Cup starts. Junior racers coming up the pipeline also showed their determination by winning the Nations Cup for the first time at the Whistler Cup competition. The young squad of pre-teens had five wins, 12 podiums and 33 top-10 finishes. "It has been a historic season for the U.S. The athletes at the World Cup managed to bring home five titles in addition to seeing seven different athletes on the podium," said Alpine Director Jesse Hunt. For complete details click here. CROSS COUNTRY Pushing the limits was a consistent for the U.S. Cross Country Team in 2008 as both the World Cup and Continental Cup squads saw success. Two athletes collected two World Cup podiums for the second year in a row. Most notable result for the Team was Randall's historic win in December, the first for a U.S. woman. In the final stretch of the race, Randall figured 'no guts, no glory' and took the win with gusto. Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, VT) topped off the World Cup season with a second place in March. His second career top-3, it was the fifth World Cup podium by U.S. sprinters in the last three years after a 23-year drought. Success continued at the Continental Cup level with athletes like Liz Stephen (East Montpelier, VT) who won a bronze medal at the international U23 Championships. "We saw top-level results with Kikkan, Liz and Andy collecting podiums. And we saw a great group of young athletes start to distinguish themselves as real international contenders," said Nordic Director John Farra. For complete details click here. FREESTYLE It was a year of new beginnings, rookie advancement and personal bests for the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team as 12 different athletes collected 24 podiums in the four freestyle disciplines (moguls, aerials, ski cross and skier halfpipe) including six wins by six athletes. The season was topped with several firsts including inaugural World Cup wins by veterans Shelly Robertson (Reno, NV) and Emiko Torito (Steamboat, CO) in moguls, and Emily Cook (Belmont, MA) in aerials. Rising moguls stars Kayla Snyderman (Winchester, MA), Landon Gardner (Missoula, MT), and World Cup Rookie of the Year Pat Deneen (Cle Elum, WA) captured their first top-3 results as did alpine veteran turned ski cross expert Casey Puckett (Aspen, CO). For complete details click here. NORDIC COMBINED The U.S. Nordic Combined Team reached historic heights this season and most notably with a team effort backing Demong who finished the season third in the World Cup overall standings. It was the best ranking for an American in the history of the sport. The Team captured seven podiums by two athletes on the World Cup. Demong led the count with a record six podiums including a win. His results surpassed Todd Lodwick's previous U.S. best of four podiums in one season. However, a healthy Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Spring, CO) started the momentum with a second place in November. It was his first top-3 in nearly five years. For complete details click here. SKI JUMPING The U.S. Women's Ski Jumping Team kept the pressure on their competition throughout the 2008 season. Lindsey Van (Park City, UT) had four second place finishes on the Continental Cup tour including back-to-back podiums in 24 hours. Sidelined with an halfway through the season, Van's teammate Jessica Jerome (Park City, UT) found her rhythm and finished the international tour with a third place in Japan. She also grabbed two U.S. championship titles in a sweep performance at the Utah Olympic Park. The U.S. also saw progress at the Junior World Championships level where a young squad marked the best finish since 2002 in the men's Team event finishing eighth. For complete details click here. DISABLED The U.S. Disabled Ski Team had another solid year as they build towards the 2010 Games. The Team collected 22 podiums including six wins - five in alpine and one in cross country. Paralympic champion Chris Devlin-Young (sit-ski; Campton, NH) who rallied from a less than stellar 2007 to win the 2008 super G title and finish third in the GS and super combined standings was a dominate standout all year. Focus and hard work contributed to his success in collecting nine podiums including four wins. In his second year on the U.S. Team, Chris Klebl (sit-ski; Heber City, UT) led the small and lean U.S. cross country squad with two podiums and finished the season fourth in the overall standings. "The Team really stepped up this season to meet the goals that we had laid out," U.S. Disabled Ski Team Program Director Sandy Metzger said. "It took a lot of perseverance for the athletes to come together and face the challenges of having a smaller team because of injuries and they succeeded in every level of competition." For complete details click here. |
