USSA NEWS
NINE OLYMPIANS HEADLINE 2007 U.S. FREESTYLE TEAM
PARK CITY, Utah (Sept. 28) - Reigning moguls world champions Nate Roberts (Park City, UT) and Hannah Kearney (Norwich, VT) plus former Olympic medalist Shannon Bahrke (Tahoe City, UT) are among a 30-member U.S. Freestyle Ski Team for the 2007 season.
Program Director Polly-Jo Clark said the squad includes 14 men and 16 women; nine athletes are Olympians.
"I'm excited for this season. We've got a great crew of athletes who've been working hard all summer and are looking forward to the competition season," Clark said. "It's a great mix of veterans and young guns who will keep everyone on their toes."
The 2007 U.S. Freestyle Ski Team (with age, hometown, event and * if an Olympian):
A Team - Men: David Babic (27; Washington, VT; moguls), Jeret Peterson (24; Boise, ID; aerials*), Nate Roberts (23; Park City, UT; moguls) and Ryan St. Onge (23; Steamboat Springs, CO; aerials*). Women: Shannon Bahrke (25; Tahoe City, CA; moguls*), Emily Cook (27; Belmont, MA; aerials*), Hannah Kearney (20; Norwich, VT; moguls*), Michelle Roark (31; Denver; moguls*), Laurel Shanley (23; Squaw Valley, CA; moguls) and Jillian Vogtli (33; Ellicotville, NY; moguls*)
B Team - Men: Jeremy Bloom (24; Loveland, CO; moguls*), David DiGravio (19; Farmington, ME; moguls). Women - Kelly Hilliman (28; Amherst, NY; aerials), Jana Lindsey (22; Black Hawk, SD; aerials*), Kate Reed (22; Montrose, CO; aerials) and Shelly Robertson (27; Reno, NV; moguls)
C Team - Men: Zac Amidan (24; Ogden, UT; aerials), Jay Bowman-Kirigin (19; Salt Lake City; moguls), Austin Cummings (22; Heber City, UT; aerials), Landon Gardner (21; Park City, UT; moguls), Sho Kashima (19; Zephyr Cove, NV; moguls), Tim Massucco (23; Park City, UT; aerials), Michael Morse (25; Duxbury, MA; moguls) and Tim Preston (22; Campton, NH; moguls). Women - McKenzy Golding (19; Reno, NV; moguls), Heather McPhie (22; Bozeman, MT; moguls), Eliza Outtrim (21; Hamden, CT; moguls), Lacy Schnoor (21; Draper, UT; aerials), Kayla Snyderman (18; Winchester, MA; moguls) and Emiko Torito (24; Denver; moguls)
"These athletes are fantastic people with a lot of character to go with their talent. It's fun to be a part of it and we're expecting some intense competition for the World Cup spots and for the World Championships Team in January," Clark said. "Some will need to gain experience on the World Cup and everything that comes with it. And the veterans know exactly what it takes - it's time to do it."
Although named to the Ski Team for the '07 season, Bloom, Peterson - the 2005 World Cup aerials champion, Reed and Hilliman are not expected to compete this winter, Clark said. Hilliman is recuperating from injury, Peterson and Reed are taking the year off, and are expected to return for the 2008 season. Bloom, a two-time Olympian, two-time World Cup moguls champion and 2003 dual moguls world champion, is attempting to play in the NFL but has been sidelined by a hamstring problem.
Several headline athletes retired: Olympic bronze medalist and current dual moguls world champ Toby Dawson, 2002 Olympic aerials silver medalist and two-time World Championships bronze medalist Joe Pack, 2002 Olympic moguls silver medalist Travis Mayer, 2003 moguls World Cup champion Travis Cabral and aerialist Eric Bergoust, the 1998 Olympic champion, '99 Worlds gold medalist and a two-time World Cup aerials king.
The World Cup aerials season lost its season opener Sept. 2-3 because of poor snow conditions at Australia's Mount Buller. The aerials season resumes Dec. 9-10 at Jilin Beida Lake, China, and the first moguls contest is Dec. 14 in Tignes, France. U.S. World Cups are Jan. 11-13 at the Chevrolet Freestyle International at Deer Valley, Utah, and the Nature Valley Freestyle Cup Jan. 18-20 at Lake Placid, N.Y.
The World Championships will be Jan. 23-28 in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy.
SNOWBOARD NEWS
OLYMPIC MEDALIST, TWO-TIME WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS MEDALIST FLETCHER RETIRES
PARK CITY, Utah (Sept. 28) - Following a storied career spanning 10 years and three Olympic Games, Rosey Fletcher (Girdwood, AK), the 2006 Olympic parallel giant slalom bronze medalist and two-time World Championships medalist, is retiring from World Cup competition, U.S. Snowboarding announced Thursday.
"It's all gone by so fast," said Fletcher, who collected eight World Cup wins and a dozen other World Cup podium finishes since 1996, plus PGS silver medals at the 1999 and 2001 World Championships. "Throughout those years, I was so busy chasing after goals and dreams, that now when I look back on all the places I was able to visit, all the great friendships I've formed and all the wonderful life experiences I've had, all because of snowboarding, it's just - Wow!"
A proud Alaskan, Fletcher's first official season with U.S. Snowboarding was in 1999 following the Nagano Olympic Games, where she was the first U.S. rider named to the first U.S. Olympic Snowboard Team.
"I joined the program because of Jan Wengelin; he was the best coach I'd ever had and he was heading the first U.S. alpine snowboarding program. I was always looking for a medal, but after my results in Salt Lake City [26th] I thought I was done," said Fletcher, who knocked herself out of competition in both 1998 and 2002 by falling.
"It was devastating to put every cell, every hair into something and not accomplish it. Not once, but twice, I had stood in the start gate, wearing a tight suit mind you, and failed. Nobody tells you how that feels. So going into 2006, I approached the Olympics like I was a fan. I suppose the old saying holds pretty true; 'there's nothing more dangerous than having nothing to lose.'"
Fletcher converted that relaxed approach into an Olympic team birth just one month before Opening Ceremonies with a second place World Cup finish in Kreischberg, Austria. She then went on to shock the alpine snowboarding world with a bronze medal in Bardoneccia that was inches away from gold, narrowly losing to Daniela Mueli of Switzerland, who would go on to become the Olympic champion.
"Rosey works very hard at what she does, and in snowboarding she took her craft very seriously," said U.S. Snowboarding Head Coach Peter Foley. "It was such a joy for me to see her succeed in Torino; that kind of payoff happens to very few people in their lives."
Yet instead of kicking back and easing into retirement, Fletcher found herself with a job offer from Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich and is working as a community development specialist for the Alaskan urban hub.
"I was speaking at a fundraiser just a month after the Games and said something in the speech about 'not being sure what my next career move was.' The Mayor came up to me after and asked me to call him, saying he had 'the perfect opportunity for me.'
"So I went from wearing snowboarding boots everyday to heels, but that's not the hardest part. It's much more difficult going from doing something I'm really good at, to doing something where I have to ask questions about everything. But it's fun and I know that I am making a difference, which is important to me."
Fletcher plans to continue "being a part of the snowboarding family" and will reside in Alaska.
USSA
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Snow New Zealand
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The Mt.Ruapehu Moro Spring Fest kicks off this weekend and there will be some amazing fireworks Saturday night round at Whakapapa thanks to Coke Zero.
NORTH ISLAND
Tongariro;
Friday - Cloudy periods, with scattered rain and mist. Snow above 2100 metres. Northwesterlies at low levels and 50 km westerlies about the tops, easing a little late in the day.
Saturday - Cloudy periods, with some rain or showers and poor visibility at times. Snow above 2100 metres. Northwest winds 30 km/h at all levels.
Sunday - Outbreaks of rain, falling as snow above 2000 metres.Winds tending northerly 35 km/h
Monday - Further rain, and snow above 2100 metres. Winds tending easterly and strengthening.
SOUTH ISLAND
Canterbury; Mackenzie;
Friday -Fine apart from increasing cloud about the Divide.
Saturday - Cloudy periods, with scattered rain about the Alps. Northwest winds, rising to 40 km/h about the tops.
Sunday - Scattered outbreaks of rain. Northwesterlies dying out and Southeast breezes developing.
Monday - Some rain or drizzle east of the foothills, becoming fine further west. Winds becoming light.
Wanaka; Queenstown;
Friday - Early morning rain clearing and becoming fine.
Saturday -Some rain, and snow above 1400 metres, spreading to most places.Northwesterlies dying away later in the day.
Sunday - Rain and snow gradually clearing with light winds.
Monday -Mainy fine with light winds
www.snow.co.nz
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Val Nevado // via Babel fish
Photo: Val Nevado
Children of the Telethon return to the Snow-covered Valley fields As it is already all a tradition from 1999, the children of the Institute Telethon of Santiago could again enjoy the fields of the winter center Snow-covered Valley, like part of the program of ski for discapacitados physical that is every year made in order to support its rehabilitation. Tuesdays 5 and 12 of September, a group of minusválidos minors was welcomed by the professors of the school of Snow-covered Valley ski, who with special equipment taught the main techniques to them to ski. Another group of 10 children could enjoy all the facilities of the center in one estadía of 4 days between the 26 and the 29 of September. The most important objective of this initiative is to develop to the practice of the ski in the patients of the Institute Telethon, but mainly to promote its autovalencia. Marriage in the Snow-covered Valley fields The Snow-covered Valley fields were witness of the union between the North Americans Mark Anderson and Katrin Laird, who in an unusual act decided to contract marriage in the heights of the mountain range of The $andes. In order to celebrate this event, the pair enjoyed a spectacular supper in the Restaurant the Fourchette D'or of the winter center and to relax they enjoyed kindness of the SPA Without a doubt, a good idea that we hoped is imitated by enamored others! Snow-covered valley made World-wide Glass "FIS Masters" By second consecutive year, the first date of the World-wide Glass "FIS Masters" was carried out Snow-covered Valley, in which the best exponents of the ski participate to world-wide level (greater of 30 years). In the activity, 70 competitors took part from the United States, Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Norway, Swiss Austria and Chile, in the specialties Giant Slalom, Super Slalom Gigante and Special Slalom. The champion was the Norwegian Andreas Dimmeny and the second place adjudged the North American to it Bob Skinner. The next date of this glass 2006 will be made in the United States.
Championship of snowboard in tribute to Atilio Cremaschi was made successfully in Snowpark de Snow-covered Valle A spectacular championship of snowboard made Snow-covered Valley in tribute to the instructor of snowboard Atilio Cremaschi, that was killed to the being catched by an avalanche when this specialty in the west of the United States practiced. The activity was carried out Saturday 16 of September from the 10:00 hours in the Snowpark of the winter center and summoned to the best snowbordistas of Chile. The winner of the championship was Manuel Diaz, whereas the second place was into the hands of Iñaqui Irarrázabal and third it was occupied by Pablo Aristegueta.
Valle Nevado / Of: Avenida Vitacura 5250 - #304, Vitacura, Santiago - Chile
www.vallenevado.com
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