Team USA’s freeskiing and snowboarding squads ready for the PyeongChang Games.
VILLAGE» After an SNOWMASS intense training camp at Copper Mountain during the last week of December, U.S. Freeskiing and U.S. Snowboarding coach Mike Jankowski asked if any of his Olympic aspirants wanted one more weekend of halfpipe laps to prepare for the Grand Prix at Snowmass.
“Nobody wanted to ride that weekend and I’ve never seen that,” said the longtime coach. “Everyone is satisfied with their preparation and no one is wanting to cram for the test.”
The preparation — which included training sessions on the glacier at Switzerland’s Saas Fee in the fall — paid off for several American athletes who secured their Olympic berths this past week at Snowmass, where the penultimate Olympic qualifying contests gave shape to the American Olympic freeskiing and snowboarding team.
Silverthorne snowboarder Red Gerard punched his ticket to the PyeongChang Games in South Korea with a victory on the slopestyle course. He joins Silverthorne’s Chris Corning on the slopestyle team. In the halfpipe, Shaun White, Ben Ferguson and Jake Pates — the first Olympian to hail from Eagle — secured spots on the four-man team at Snowmass, leaving Danny Davis, Chase Josey, Gabe Ferguson and Greg Bretz battling this week at California’s Mammoth Mountain for that final berth.
Reigning Olympic gold medalist David Wise of Nevada locked down his spot on the halfpipe ski team. Aspen’s Alex Ferreira and Crested Butte’s Aaron Blunck joined Wise in an American sweep of the pipe at Snowmass, giving them podiums that meet U.S. Freeskiing’s criteria to make the Olympic pipe skiing team.
Montana’s Maggie Voisin, who was 15 at the Sochi Olympics four years ago when she broke her ankle during practice before the Games began, was the first skier to lock in her spot on the Olympic slopestyle ski team with a podium at Snowmass. Telluride’s Gus Kenworthy won the Snowmass Grand Prix’s second slopestyle contest Sunday, putting him just behind Nick Goepper in the race to land on the Olympic slopestyle team.
The athletes now head to Mammoth this week for the final Olympic qualifier. Watch for Olympic medalist Devin Logan to vie for her spot on both the slopestyle and halfpipe ski teams. Basalt’s Torin Yater-Wallace, who sat out Snowmass because of an injury, will need a podium to land on the Olympic team. Kenworthy, Winter Park’s Birk Irving and Avon’s Taylor Seaton could find a spot on the Olympic halfpipe ski team with a victory at Mammoth.
Jankowski has high hopes for his teams.
“We have worked so hard with the preparation. I am more satisfied as a coach than I have ever been,” he said.