News & Highlights

Spencer Nelson, Chris Acosta, and Max Lamb headline Team Winter Park's honors on regional and divisional teams. Each have been named to the Rocky/Central Regional Team as well as the Colorado Ski Country USA All-Star Team based on their national and international rankings. All three also have been identified by the US Ski Team as "clear-path" athletes, giving them access to select national training and competition projects. Congratulations!

Winter Park had five skiers named to the Rocky Mountain Division (RMD) Honorary J3 team based on their Junior Olympic performances. Congratulations to Jake Bender, Jack Fordon, Florian Szwebel (pictured), Kelly Balfanz, and Hava Rohloff for making the team.

Six Winter Park racers skied onto the RMD Honorary J4 team: Anna Martin, Andrea Arnold, Brenna Hattler, Sofia Weiner, Logan Martin, and Tucker Gordon.

Great job!!!

Summer is an important time for skiers. It is a time of opportunity. An opportunity to separate yourself from the pack. In the winter, everyone is motivated, training hard, shooting for their goals. In the summer, since there is not regular training, the responsibility falls on you. If you're serious about being a better competitor, you need to pay attention to what you do this summer. The most important thing you can do it to develop some good habits in conditioning and in mental skills training. To stay up with your competition, you'll also need to do some summer skiing.

Winter Park produces summer ski camps for all USSA and FIS racers, starting with A-Basin camp in May. Each of our camps builds on the one before it to best prepare each skier for the next camp or the start of the ski season. Summer camps are the best opportunity we have all year to make breakthrough changes in skiing because of the consistent focus on skills without the pressure of having an upcoming race. Check out our summer camps by clicking here. Hope to see you in the sun and on the snow!

Khyla Burrows, Sarah Williams, Christopher Acosta, Spencer Nelson, and Max Lamb have been named to the Rocky Mountain Division team for the U.S. Alpine Championships, held in late March at Alyeska Resort in Alaska.  Max currently sits second in the season long Surefoot Colorado Ski Cup standings, the elite FIS racing series in our region.  Chris is third in the Colorado Ski Cup standings and Spencer is seventh.  All three have had great seasons so far, with steady performances and improving international ranks.  "They all have had multiple breakout races.  The best part about these guys is that they are really great guys, they are great teammates and have elevated the level of the entire full-time program with their leadership," commented Competition Center Director Jon Nolting.  "They will be ready to compete in Alaska, it will be fun to watch."

Khyla is also having a great season and is currently in fourth in the Surefoot Colorado Ski Cup standings.  "We are all really proud of the way Khyla has stepped it up this season after last year's devastating injury.  She's worked very hard to get back.  Her consistency has been great, and she's improving every race," said Nolting.  Another consistent skier all season has been Sarah, who made Nationals for the speed events and will hope to get into all four races.  According to Nolting,"Sarah is a great example of success coming to someone who works hard and slowly over time gets the results.  She has snuck up on everyone, and she's rightfully very proud of this opportunity."

The Rocky Mountain Division only has ten spots for men and 8 spots for women to go to the U.S. Alpine Championships. 

Winter Park athletes rose to the occasion at the Junior Olympic qualifying events, and will have great representation at their championship events this March.

The J4 team is particularly strong this year, and is ready to challenge the competition on their home hill at the Rocky/Central J4 Junior Olympics at Winter Park March 18-21.  Leading the boy's team with a silver medal in the Super G qualifier at Crested Butte is Florian Szwebel.  He is joined by teammates Chris Morrison, Tucker Gordon, Logan Martin, Owen Foster, and Adam Freeman.  The girls team has been consistently close to each other, and the top of the standings, all season long.  Kelly Balfanz, Maggie Cleaver, Anna Martin, Hava Rohloff, and Raina Galbiati all scored top ten results at the qualifier races in Crested Butte.  

The J3 Junior Olympics team is ready to compete in Vail March 5-11, led by Jake Bender who had a couple top tens in the qualifiers.  Zach Schult, Phillip von Feilitzsch-Hanley, Jack Fordon, Louis Baker, Snap Palmer, and Megan Horner also will be bringing their A-games to Vail.

Rylee Burrows will be Winter Park's lone representative at the National J2 Junior Olympics in Aspen March 6-12.

Congratulations to all of Winter Park's Junior Olympians!  Great job!

Winter Park racer Kristina Krone faced the world's most difficult competition on perhaps the world's most difficult women's GS race hill as she competed in the 2009 Alpine World Championships, representing her birth country of Puerto Rico.  Kristina had a great experience, including inspecting alongside World Cup leader Lindsay Vonn in the slalom.  NBC Universal Sports reporter caught up with Kristina and her father and Winter Park coach John Krone after the races, check out the story here.

Registration is open!  We are excited to announce a new partnership with the Echo Mountain ski area just outside of Evergreen to offer racers weekday night training under the lights that will be close to home for Front Range skiers.  Training will be offered on Wednesday and Thursday nights for alpine junior and Masters athletes.  Programs will be set up for one or two nights a week, starting in December and running all the way until the Loveland Derby. 

"Echo Mountain has great terrain for some really productive training and I'm excited we can offer it close to Denver," said Competition Center Director Jon Nolting.  "Our Front Range families consistently show great dedication, and this training opportunity will go a long way to help those skiers get the extra time they need on snow to excel against their competition.  It is particularly exciting for me, having grown up in Evergreen and remembering all those commutes over the pass for extra training.  This program will be the perfect complement to our weekend offerings at Winter Park."

The program will also be available to skiers in other USSA programs, and to Front Range based high school athletes.  Training sessions will be staffed by Competition Center coaches, with many sessions including video analysis.

The program requires separate registration.  Click here for the program flyer.  For registration paperwork, click here.