United States Ski Team
The U.S. Ski Team, operating under the auspices of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, develops and supports men's and women's athletes in the sports of alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, cross-country, ski jumping, and Nordic combined. Since 1974 the team and association have been headquartered in Park City, Utah.
These individuals represent the best athletes in the country for their respective sports and compete as a team at the national, world and Olympic level.
History
''*The first U.S. Ski Team was officially named in 1965 for the 1966 season, however the United States participated in skiing at all Olympic Winter Games and sent various athletes to World Championships prior to the '66 season.''1860s–1880s early ski clubs and ski tournaments in the U.S.
Ski clubs appeared in the United States starting in 1861, in California. Norwegian "snowshoe" downhill races are noted in Sierra and Rocky Mountain mining camps. The Nansen Ski Club of Berlin, New Hampshire, founded in 1872 by Norwegian immigrants and named in honor of Norway's legendary Arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen, remains active. Annual ski jumping tournaments began in Great Lakes mining and timber regions. The Saint Paul Winter Carnival included skiing events starting in 1888.1891–1893 Central Ski Association of the Northwest tournaments
A regional ski association was formed in 1891 to organize tournaments featuring ski jumping and cross-country competition by the Eau Claire, Ishpeming, Stillwater, Red Wing, and Minneapolis ski clubs, but dissolved after an economic downturn and a couple low snow winters.1905 National Ski Association
The National Ski Association of America, the forerunner of the present-day U.S. Ski & Snowboard, was founded on Feb. 21, 1905 in Ishpeming, Michigan. Club President Carl Tellefsen proposed holding a meeting after the 1905 jumping tournament – a national competition – to found a ski association which, among other duties, would oversee jumping tournaments. In 1905, the association was formally organized during a meeting attended by officers from the Ishpeming, Minneapolis, Red Wing, Stillwater and Eau Claire ski clubs. On Feb. 21, 1905, Carl Tellefsen announced the National Ski Association of America with himself as its first president.1910 International Ski Commission
In 1910, the International Ski Commission was formed at the first International Ski Congress to develop rules for international ski competitions. On Feb. 2, 1924 in Chamonix, France, while what would come to be recognized as the first Winter Olympic Games were being held, the commission gave way to the International Ski Federation ; 14 member nations were present at the founding; 108 are FIS members today.1924 inaugural Winter Olympic Games at Chamonix, France
The first Winter Olympic Games actually were under the banner of International Sports Week, but were renamed the Winter Olympic Games in 1924 after organizers saw how successful they were supported the concept. Only Nordic skiing events were held, including cross country, ski jumping and Nordic combined. Sixteen nations competed.Anders Haugen, a Norwegian immigrant to the United States, was listed as fourth in ski jumping because of a calculation error. In 1974, as Norwegians prepared to celebrate the 50th anniversary of those first Winter Games, a recalculation in Oslo found Haugen was the real bronze medalist and not Thorleif Haug. A medal presentation was arranged in Oslo, where a frail Haugen received the bronze medal from the daughter of Thorleif Haug, who had been dead since the Thirties. Haugen's medal remains the only jumping medal won by an American in the Olympics or World Championships. Originally, the IOC did not recognize the medal exchange and kept Haug listed as its 1924 bronze medalist for years before recognizing Haugen as the legitimate medal-winner.
First FIS World Championships: Nordic (1925) and alpine (1931)
International competitive skiing was still primarily a European sport in the Twenties. Although the United States participated in the Winter Olympics of 1924, '28 and '32 - where there were only Nordic events, there was no U.S. Ski Team.1932 Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid, New York
The 1932 Summer Games were headed to Los Angeles, and Godfrey Dewey – whose father had founded the Lake Placid Club – championed Lake Placid over a half-dozen other candidates for the Winter Games. Then-Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt pledged to build a bobsled run and Dewey, who had arranged a posting as manager of the 1928 Olympic Ski Team, parlayed those contacts to land the 1932 Winter Olympics for the small Adirondacks village. Some 300 athletes from 17 nations competed. Skiing was still limited to Nordic events; top US skier was another jumper, Casper Oimoen, who finished fifth.''*** This was the first major international ski event in the United States''
1935 U.S. sends first alpine team to FIS World Championships
The championships returned to Mürren, Switzerland, site of the first official alpine championships in 1931. Six men, seven women were on that first U.S. squad at Worlds.1936 Alpine added to Winter Olympic Games at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
Alpine skiing was introduced to the Olympics with a single event, the combined. While Nordic remained an all-male province, alpine was opened to men and women. Germans took gold and silver in both the men's and women's alpine combined events; Franz Pfnür and Christl Cranz were the new champions; Dick Durrance, who grew up in Florida but spent several years in Germany learning to ski before Adolf Hitler took power, was the runaway best U.S. skier, finishing 10th.For the only time, the FIS authorized a World Championships in addition to the Olympics with alpine championship races held in Innsbruck, Austria.
1948 Olympics return with first U.S. alpine medals at St. Moritz, Switzerland
The Olympics returned after a 12-year hiatus, with American Gretchen Fraser winning the first two U.S. Olympic ski medals – and they came on the same day, Feb. 5; the combined downhill had been run the previous day and when she won the slalom, it gave her second place in the combined calculation. In addition to the combined, which debuted in 1936, alpine added both elements of combined as individual events, meaning alpine was now equal with Nordic, having three events.Fraser led U.S. skiers, collecting the first medals by a U.S. skier - gold in slalom and silver in combined. The U.S. women's team captain, Dodie Post, broke her ankle in a practice session and was unable to compete. The team also included a talented young teen – Andrea Mead, 15, whose parents owned Pico Peak, near Rutland, VT. Also of note, Gordon Wren qualified for all four individual ski teams. He eventually competed only in jumping. "I was going ragged, bumping into myself, trying to train, ski alpine, cross country and the rest, so I decided to focus on jumping," he explained. He finished fifth.
1950 World Championships in U.S.: Lake Placid, NY (Nordic) and Aspen, CO (alpine)
Poor snow in the Adirondacks almost forced cancellation of the Nordic events, but, alerted by 1948 Olympic cross country racer Chummy Broomhall that there was more than a foot of snow in his hometown of Rumford, Maine, officials agreed to stage opening ceremonies and the jumping events in Lake Placid, then everyone drove to Rumford for the cross country competitions. At one point, Broomhall helped set the race tracks – no machine-setting equipment in those days, so skiers would ski-in the tracks – and then went home to change into his racing outfit; traffic at the site meant Broomhall missed his scheduled start time, but officials let him run at the end of the pack.The alpine Worlds, organized by Dick Durrance, then general manager at the fledgling Aspen Ski Area, included slalom, downhill, and the first appearance of giant slalom. American Katy Rodolph of Colorado led the US, finishing fifth in the women's downhill. Aspen was established as an alpine destination as a result of the successful World Championships.
1960 Olympics return to U.S. at Olympic Valley, CA
The young Squaw Valley resort near Lake Tahoe in California ushered in a new Olympic era under the direction of Alexander Cushing. No bobsled run was built. In cross country, Squaw Valley introduced the initial machine-set tracks; everything had been walked or skied in before Squaw Valley but – with Al Merrill and Chummy Broomhall setting the tone as chief of competition and chief of course, respectively – snow machines were used to help groom Nordic courses for the first time.1962 NSA renamed U.S. Ski Association (USSA)
The 57-year-old National Ski Association got a new name as the U.S. Ski Association. The renamed organization moved from Denver to Colorado Springs, Colorado.Also, the U.S. Ski Education Foundation, designed to "Establish, administer and promote educational programs devoted to the development and training of skiers" and promote ski museums, was founded Oct. 8, 1862. By enabling donors to receive tax deductions for contributions, it would become the fundraising arm of the U.S. Ski Team, the forerunner of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team Foundation.