The U.S. Team for the upcoming December World Cup races in Canada has been announced.
Luke Bodensteiner addressed a large conference room packed full with several hundred skiers and coaches at the Holiday Inn in West Yellowstone on Saturday night, just after the completion of the second of two SuperTour races:
“Back in 2002, our Olympians set a new standard of team performance at an Olympic games, placing fifth in the men’s relay just one stride behind the fourth place team of Austria in a performance that I think a lot of you guys witnessed.
We also saw superlative performances from John Bauer, Patrick Weaver, Kris Freeman…and those performances then were enabled in a lot of ways by a small group of race organizers who allowed those guys to continue to train and prepare at home, and still find races where they were challenged which would bring them to a higher level. The West Yellowstone Ski Education Foundation was one of those organizers, and they played a key role in helping our athletes to prepare on their home turf for the Olympic games.
And now we find ourselves on the eve of another Olympics—this time in Torino, Italy. And we’re going to field and fund a team of a dozen or more men and women who we believe for the first time in 30 years can really say with legitimacy that they’re out to hunt for olympic medals. And once again, the West Yellowstone Ski Education Foundation is playing a role in making that mission come true, this time by helping us finalize our team selection for the World Cup in Canada, beginning in two weeks.
This team is going to be led by some great coaches—Trond Nystad, Pete Vordenborg, Vidar Loefshus, Chris Hall—who are in a van right now driving north, heading to Silver Star. We’re going to name the team here tonight, we’re going to bring these kids up here so you can congratulate them and wish them luck. Not all of them are here–some are racing in the World Cup in Kuusamo tomorrow; some are on their way to Silver Star as we speak. But to name them now—first with the U.S. Ski Team’s Women’s Squad for the World Cup in Canada:
-Wendy Wagner
-Alison Crocker
-Sarah Konrad
-Kikkan Ranall
-Brooke Hovey
-Kate Whitcomb
-Tazlina Mannix
-Lindsay Williams
-Rebecca Dussault
-Abigail Larson
-Lindsey Weir
