A group of student/athletes from the Lowell Whiteman School and neighboring Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club recently returned from a month long study/training excursion in Europe enjoying record snowfall at Hintertux and getting to run elbows with the U.S. Ski Team at Soelden where they watched the season opening World Cup races.

The idea was to get these young ski racers some quality pre-season training opportunitites without slowing down their rate of academic study. That side of things was set up through an elaborate series of scanners, email, video and Google documents allowing for real time lectures and demonstrations from teachers back in the States.

What made the program unique was the timing, in the middle of a semester. Gina Wither, the Lowell Whiteman Ski Coordinator and science teacher accompanied the group, explained, "The idea is to mesh the schoolwork seamlessly so when they walk into class they'll be good to go."

Some lessons were taped for the students to view on-line and tests were administered according to the usual academic schedule.

What the students also got was the chance to meet with Ted Ligety and cheer on the team from the sides of Soelden course as well as share training lanes with some of the best young ski racers of Europe.

This was the first of what is expected will be a continuing program.