Top Five Fridays: December 27, 2024
Another FIS World Cup halfpipe event, another round of dominance from the U.S. men's team. Much more on that below! Image: US Ski and Snowboard Team on Facebook
#1: FIS World Cup Alpine Updates - Vonn is Back, Macuga's Career is Trending Up, and the Men Find Another Podium:
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the December 27, 2024 edition! This week, we’ve once again got a ton of FIS and competitive results to cover, as there was action happening in both men’s and women’s alpine skiing, as well as in freeski halfpipe, and the first ever USST and X-Games collaborative Street Style event. After we take you through each of those exciting results, we’ll bring you up to speed on the latest from both the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association, who are ratcheting up their rhetoric as they threaten to strike, and the National Ski Patrol, who is clawing its way back to relevancy. Finally, because it is the holiday season after all, we’ll round out the week with some charitable news coming to us by way of Stratton in Southern Vermont. We’ll tell you all there is to know about those topics shortly, but first, let’s see what happened in the world of World Cup Alpine Ski Racing!
Jumping right into the women’s alpine action, let’s take a look at what went down in St. Moritz, Switzerland last weekend, where the circuit had plans to complete two super G races on the 21st and 22nd. For the first time since 2019, all eyes were on Lindsey Vonn, who was slated to make her return to competition. Leading up to this moment, questions were swirling around Vonn’s ability to perform at the level she was previously known for. While we might never know whether or not Vonn was asking herself the same questions, what we do know is that she answered them this weekend with resounding affirmation. In her first race since coming out of retirement, Vonn earned a top 15 finish, finishing 14th. Making the feat even more impressive, is the fact that it was a particularly choppy course, emphasised by the fact that out of a field of 59 competitors, 11 did not finish the race. All things considered, going from a nearly 6 year retirement to a top 15 finish in a World Cup race is wildly impressive, and certainly piques our interest in regards to Vonn’s potential.
While Vonn’s return was certainly a story worth watching, there was another U.S. athlete who also had an attention grabbing performance in St. Moritz. That athlete is none other than Lauren Macuga, who is having something of a breakout year. Over the first two years of competition, Macuga’s results slowly but steadily improved. Initially earning a trio of 49th, 49th, and a DNS in her first three races of the 2021/2022 season, Macuga ended last season with 5th place and 7th place finish in two of her last three races. This season, she’s continued finding that level of success, earning a career best 4th place finish in Beaver Creek just two weeks ago. This week, she followed that result with a tie for 7th place in last weekend’s races in St. Moritz. Going back to last year, Macuga has finished in the top 15 of her last six races, the top 10 in four of them, and the top 5 in two of them. So while she’s still chasing her first career podium, if recent results are any indication, we have to suspect one will come her way in due time. Regardless, she certainly solidified herself as someone to watch as this season continues.
As for other competitors in the first St. Moritz super G, we owe Tricia Mangan a shoutout for 25th place finish, as well as Keely Cashman who finished 30th. Unfortunately, due to snowy weather rolling in overnight, the second of the two super G’s in St. Moritz was cancelled. Looking ahead, the circuit now finds itself in Semmering, Austria for a giant slalom and slalom race this weekend. You can preview those events here.
On the men’s side of things, we make up for the cancelled women’s race with a trio of men’s races as the circuit competed in races for four consecutive days, starting last Friday. When we left off last week, we were all fired up over Jared Goldberg’s surprise second place finish in the Super G race, which occurred mere hours before publication. Looking ahead, we were excited to see if Bryce Bennett could continue his winning ways at the Groeden downhill venue, with the chance to earn his third win there. Ultimately, he could not, as he ended up finishing 8th in that race. That said, it was still a darn good day for Team USA, as Ryan Cochran-Siegle held it down, earning a third place finish and the second podium for the team in as many days. All season long, and most of last season, we’ve talked about wanting to see the men’s team make the jump from solid representation in the Top 15’s of races, to podium appearances. Last weekend in Groeden, that’s exactly what happened. Of course as always, we want to acknowledge all point earners in each race, so a quick shout out to Erik Arvidsson who earned himself a 23rd place finish in the downhill.
After wrapping things up in Groeden, the men’s circuit quickly moved to nearby Alta Badia, Italy, for a giant slalom and a slalom race on Sunday the 22nd and Monday the 23rd. While the team was unable to keep the podium streak going, we do have some athletes deserving recognition for their performances. In the giant slalom race, River Radamus held it down for Team USA in the points, with a 15th place finish. A day later, in the slalom race, Jett Seymour led the way with a 13th place finish, followed by River Radamus in 27th. All in all, it was a strong four day stretch of races, with points earned in each event, and podiums in half of them. Looking ahead, they’ll race in Italy again this weekend, with a super g and downhill happening in Bormio. You can preview those races here.
#2: FIS World Cup Alpine Updates - It's Groundhog Day in the World of Halfpipe Skiing. Plus, the X Games and USST Debut Their New Collaborative Street Style Event:
Next up in competitive coverage this week is freeskiing, where we’ve got a ton of action to cover, as the FIS hosted a men’s and women’s halfpipe contest at Copper Mountain, while the X Games and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team hosted their first ever collaborative event, with a Street Style competition. With so much to cover, let’s drop right into halfpipe results.
If you’ll remember, the last time we recapped a halfpipe event was just two weeks ago, when China’s Secret Garden resort hosted the second event of the season. In that competition, the U.S. Men absolutely dominated the results, sweeping the podium and claiming five of the top six results. While this week’s results weren’t quite as dominant, they weren’t far off. Coming in first this time around was the U.S.’s Alex Ferreira, followed by Canada’s Brendan Mackay in second, and the U.S.'s Nick Goepper in third. From there, New Zealand’s Finley Melville Ives snuck into fourth place, before places 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 10th were all claimed by members of Team America. In other words, while the U.S. Team didn’t pull off back to back podium sweeps, they did claim first and third, while also occupying 7 of the top 10 spots. It bears repeating once again, the U.S. Freeskiing Team is absolutely dominant in the discipline of halfpipe. Further supporting this claim are the overall standings for halfpipe, where Alex Ferreira sits in first, Nick Goepper sits in third (despite only competing in two of the three competitions so far this season), and Hunter Hess sits in fourth. Beyond the top 5, the men’s team now also owns 6 of the top 8 positions. Again, dominant. Looking ahead, there are two halfpipe events left in the season, with Aspen scheduled to host one on February 4th, and Calgary set to host one on February 15th.
On the women’s side, we have a similar story of dominance, although with a completely different cast of characters. There, as you likely already know, one Eileen Gu continues to dominate the field, as all it took was her first run to earn the highest score of the day. For her part, Gu put down yet another run that looked completely effortless - and likely was, as her fourth hit featured a switch 360 japan which could easily be boosted to a 720 had she needed a higher score. It is worth noting though, that despite winning the contest seemingly with ease, Gu did take a hard fall on what was essentially her victory lap. Fortunately she was able to pop back up and appears to have avoided any catastrophic injury. As for other results, the top three was rounded out by Great Britain’s Zoe Atkins in second place, and Canada’s Cassie Sharpe in third. Holding it down for Team America was Svea Irving in fourth. Just like the men, the women also have two more halfpipe events this season, sharing the same dates and locations as the men.
Finally, before rounding out competitive freeskiing coverage, we want to quickly share some news from the X Games and the USST, as they hosted their first ever collaborative competition last weekend with the Street Style event, also in Copper. We’ve talked about the X Games’s evolution at length already, as well as their partnership with the USST, so we won’t dive too deeply into that here, but we did think this event was worth highlighting as it ushers in a new era in competitive freeskiing. While we had a basic concept of what this new Street Style event might look like, it was interesting to see it come to fruition last weekend in Copper. Ultimately, what the two organizations treated us to, was an event that takes a slopestyle approach to rail jams. That is, while rail jams traditionally feature one or two rail plazas for athletes to prove themselves on, this event bumped that number up to 3, introducing both more opportunity and risk than a traditional rail jam might have. As a result, spectators were treated to a 30 minute jam session style event, where athletes continually attempted to one up each other’s runs via a variety of creative and technical rail tricks. At the end of the session, winners were determined, and the top 3 athletes who weren’t already invited, received invites to the upcoming Street Style event at X Games Aspen.
As for the results? On the women’s side, it should once again come as no surprise that Eileen Gu took home the gold as she continues to set the standard for women’s freeskiing. Following her with a second place finish was Eleanor Andrews, followed by Marion Balsamo in third. On the men’s side, while many questioned the final results, it was the inarguably talented Colby Stevenson and Alex Hall taking home first and second places respectively, followed by Mikkel Brusletto Kaupang in third, Evan McEachran in fourth, and Siver Voll (the people’s favorite) in fifth. Due to the fact that Stevenson and Hall already have X Games invites, that means that Mikkel Bang, Evan McEachran, and Siver Voll all earned invitations to the Aspen X Games. All told, while the event itself had many questioning the judging, the level of competition made for an incredibly enjoyable event to watch, suggesting that the X Games may have firmly found their fifth discipline for the foreseeable future. For more on this, check out the full replay of the women’s event here, or the men’s event, which is attached to this highlight.
#3: Updates from the World of Ski Patrol: Park City Patrollers Ratchet Up Rhetoric, While National Ski Patrol’s CEO Explains the Organizations Important Role:
Considering an offer to scab at Park City? The Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association politely asks that you decline the offer. Image: Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association on Instagram
Moving on from competitive ski news, up next we’ve got a two-in-one ski patrol double highlight, starting with the very latest from Park City, where last week we reported on rising tensions between the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association (the unionized ski patrol work force at the mountain), and Vail Resorts. At the time of our reporting, the PCPSPA had authorized a strike, escalating the situation to about an 8. Despite the rising tensions, president of Vail Resorts’ Mountain Division Bill Rock stated that he felt good about progress being made, citing the two groups’ decision to bring in a moderator to help negotiations. When we hit “publish” last week, the situation was feeling hopeful.
This week however, it feels like that “8” has become a “9” on the escalation scale, as the PCPSPA has once again ratcheted up the rhetoric on their Instagram, claiming that Park City had already started bringing in scabs from other resorts to replace them if they began striking. In the posts, the PCPSPA pleads with other patrollers to rebuke Park City’s advances, reminding them that scabbing hurts their efforts towards a shared cause. Additionally, the PCPSPA points out the patrollers from other mountains will be less familiar with Park City, and are often less medically trained, ultimately making the resort less safe. Now, because we’re trying to fit two highlights into one here, we’re going to leave it at that, but we encourage you to check out their Instagram posts to get a better idea of what’s going on.
The second ski patrol story we want to share comes to us by way of the Colorado Sun, where Jason Blevins landed an interview with the National Ski Patrol’s CEO Stephanie Cox. If you’re one of our year round readers, then you’ve already heard us talk about the NSP’s challenges with declining memberships, so we won’t get into that again today. Instead, what we want to focus on is the new information we learned from the interview with Cox. Specifically, one of our biggest questions in recent years has been “what makes the NSP a different or better option for patrollers than unionization?” In this interview we get the answer in just one word: volunteerism. Whereas outfits such as Park City’s PCPSPA hope to provide career opportunities via patrolling, the NSP under Stephanie Cox’s guidance seems to be positioning itself as an indispensable resource for the roughly 27,000 volunteer patrollers who are members of the organization. Rather than support patrollers who are fighting to make it a viable career path, Cox aims to make the NSP a valuable resource for the types of patrollers who already have separate careers, and volunteer to patrol for personal reasons rather than financial ones.
In addition to this insight, we also learn quite a bit about Cox’s perspectives and methodologies in reimagining the NSP brand. From taking lessons from Old Spice’s marketing efforts, to improving online resources for members, Cox hopes to reinvent the National Ski Patrol brand giving it a more youthful flair, and establishing it as an important organization to be a part of for volunteer patrollers everywhere. To give the interview a read in full, and to learn about Cox’s vision for the NSP, click here.
#4: In the Spirit of Giving, Stratton Loans High Power Snow Guns to Local Community Ski Hill:
Not shown in this shot are the two high efficiency HKD snowmaking guns loaned to Brattleboro Ski Hill by Stratton. What is shown, is an incredibly important community ski hill that offers an opportunity for people to discover their love for skiing and snowboarding. Image: Brattleboro Ski Hill on Facebook
Finally, we’re rounding out this week’s highlight reel with some holiday cheer coming to us from just about 135 miles south of us, in Brattleboro, VT. There, earlier this week, Stratton ski resort loaned the community ski area, Brattleboro Ski Hill, two high powered HKD snowmaking guns in an effort to help the ski hill open with plenty of snow.
Located in a town park directly in the heart of Brattleboro, the Brattleboro Ski Hill is your quintessential community ski area. Featuring one T-Bar, one beginner trail, one intermediate trail, $5 lift tickets, and $1 pre-packaged snacks, the beauty of the ski area isn’t found in its vertical drop or technically challenging runs. No, the beauty of the Brattleboro Ski Hill is in the culture and opportunity it provides for locals in the area to discover and fulfill their love for skiing. Whether these locals are young skiers or veterans who’ve been doing it for years, the ski hill plays an important role in strengthening the community’s connection to skiing and snowboarding.
It’s a connection that Stratton sees the value in, and decided to support in a big way this season. As we mentioned, the highlight of that support is lending out two high powered snowmakers for the ski hill to use earlier this week. If you’re in the area, then you know how cold it got in the days leading up to Christmas, which provided the perfect opportunity to produce prolific amounts of man made snow. By upgrading their snowguns for a few days this week, Stratton was able to help Brattleboro Ski Hill produce a much higher volume of snow than they would have been able to with their own guns, increasing the chances that the ski area will be able to operate on their planned opening day of 12/31. While we do have some wet weather rolling in that could put those plans on hold, Stratton also announced a second contribution to the ski hill this week: they will cover the cost of the first 50 lift tickets on opening day, whenever that might be. While tickets will remain ultra affordable after that, at just $5 a piece, it’s still an amazing gesture from Stratton, and a great way to churn up excitement ahead of the season at Brattleboro Ski Hill. To learn more about these charitable efforts, check out the post made by Stratton on Instagram.