Who will be the next Vermont-bred Olympian?

A man in a U.S. Ski Team coat stands with a megaphone just outside the vendor village at the Killington World Cup. In front of him are nearly 1,000 junior ski racers from two dozen ski clubs. He uses the megaphone for roll call, yelling out names like Pico Ski Club, Mount Snow Academy and Burke Mountain Academy. With each name, another section of the crowd waves small American flags and screams gleefully in preparation for the parade that kicked off Saturday’s giant slalom race.

The man in charge is Pete Davis, former executive director of the United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association (USASA). At the first Vermont World Cup in nearly four decades, he served as parade marshal.

“To have this come back to the state of Vermont is absolutely wonderful,” he shares. “It’s such a wonderful thing for Vermonters. We’re passionate about ski racing, and to be able to showcase the kids who are going to be the next generation of skiers, why wouldn’t you want to be parade marshal?”

It was not lost on Davis, the commentators or USSA that among those athletes in the parade might be the next Mikaela Shiffrin, the ski racing superstar who won Sunday’s slalom race. The night before the parade, USSA CEO Tiger Shaw talked about the races’ impact on junior athletes in the country.

“This is really the center of ski racing in the United States and so many Olympians have come out of this part of the world, and the neat thing here is to have a chance for all these kids tomorrow to watch the world’s best, and there’s going to be a future medalist in that crowd somewhere,” Shaw predicts.

How does Vermont produce so many elite ski racers? Tao Smith, president of the Vermont Alpine Racing Association (VARA) and headmaster at Killington Mountain School (KMS), grew up skiing at nearby Suicide Six and later raced for the University of Vermont. He speaks from experience when sharing insights into the area’s development system.

“The clubs have gotten really good at — and I think have really embraced the role — of being part of the development pipeline,” shares Smith. “They create a wide range of interest. They get lots of young kids involved. They create a really fun and conducive atmosphere to introduce kids to the sport.”

As the clubs build up excitement about the sport and help create lifelong fans, academies help athletes like Rebecca Clark push their own careers to a higher level.

Junior Vermont athletes get ready for the parade at the Killington World Cup.

Clark is a senior alpine racer at KMS. Her ski career makes her a prime example of how the clubs and academies in Vermont work together. Clark began her ski racing career at Pico Mountain, where she trained from age six through 15. Eventually, she wanted to take her skiing to the next level and sought out a local academy, so she could have the opportunity to train full time. As one of the top three female FIS skiers at KMS, she was afforded the opportunity to forerun the World Cup giant slalom, representing junior racers from Vermont on the hill.

“It’s awesome,” she says, out of breath after finishing her run. “It’s just a crazy experience. It’s very exciting.”

Like many Vermont racers, her passion for racing was ignited and continues to be fueled first and foremost by the sheer enjoyment of the sport, which started at Pico Mountain.

“My dad grew up ski racing there, so he knew everyone really well,” she says. “I made a lot of lifelong friends there. There it was just about having fun and going out skiing with your friends and your family.”

That intertwined existence between clubs and academies is part of the reason for Vermont’s success as a ski racing community. Athletes grow up seeing the possibilities for growth in the sport whether they have Olympic dreams or goals of racing on the USCSA circuit. Even with a great support system, it takes personal passion and persistence for athletes to rise to the top.

What advice does the Beast World Cup slalom winner have for young skiers?

“I hope they can find some passion in the sport, and passion in the repetition, in doing the drills, in taking run after run,” Shiffrin shares. “It can get very monotonous because you’re basically doing the same thing, but if you can find the excitement in making really minuscule changes like getting more on your outside ski through one turn you’ve been struggling with in a course, and if that’s the only improvement you make in a day, try to take something away from it and try to make another improvement tomorrow.”