National champions O’Brien, Duffy honored with Golden Ski Award

By Published On: April 20th, 2015Comments Off on National champions O’Brien, Duffy honored with Golden Ski Award

Nina O’Brien of Burke Mountain Academy and the National Training Group (NTG) and Drew Duffy, a Green Mountain Valley School alumnus on the U.S. Ski Team, have been selected by the North American Snowsports Journalists Association – East Region (NASJA-East) as this year’s winners of the Don A. Metivier Golden Ski Award.  The award is given to the most promising male and female junior alpine racers in the eastern U.S.

Nina O'Brien

Nina O’Brien

O’Brien and Duffy will be presented with their awards at the New England Ski Museum’s annual spring reception on Friday, June 12 from 5 to 7 p.m. in Franconia, N.H.

The 2014-15 ski season was a stellar one for O’Brien as consistency was the name of her game. She started out strong and kept it going all season long, culminating in late March by winning the U.S. Alpine Championship title in giant slalom at Sugarloaf, Maine. She followed that up in April with second-place finishes in both GS and slalom at FIS competitions in Vail, Colo. In February, she won the slalom title at the U18 National Junior Championships at Copper Mountain, Colo., and was the first junior in GS and slalom races at Passo Rolle, Italy, in early January.

Duffy had a rockier start to the 2014-15 season, recording a number of DNFs, as skiing on the edge can do. He finished ninth in a December NorAm super G in Panorama, B.C., and 16th in the FIS World Junior Championships super G at Hafjell, Norway. Then things started to come together for him. He won the U.S. Alpine National Championship super G title in March at Sugarloaf, Maine, (incredibly from starting position 30), and followed that up in April with fifth in the Super G at Sunday River, Maine. He then placed first in the super G and second in downhill at FIS races in Aspen, Colo.

Drew Duffy

Drew Duffy

The Golden Ski Award has been presented to the top junior male and female skiers in the East since 1969, the year after the modern World Cup circuit scoring system started. Many of the Golden Ski winners have gone on to World Cup and Olympic fame. In 1975, the actual Golden Ski trophy was “lost.” In 2007, the New England Ski Museum was given some artifacts, and in that donation was the original Golden Ski Award. ESWA revitalized the honor, and named it in memory of long-time snowsports journalist Don A. Metivier, former editor of Ski Racing.

“The Golden Ski Award is the oldest honor given to junior alpine ski racers that exists today,” says Jim Gregory, Chair of the NASJA-East Golden Ski Award Committee. “We are proud this year to honor Nina O’Brien and Drew Duffy, two extraordinary athletes, and we look forward to watching them pursue their goals and set the bar even higher in the sport we all love so much.” The Golden Ski Award is underwritten by the generous support of Doyle & Doyle Communications and K2 Skis.

Previous Golden Ski Award Winners

1969:         Tyler Palmer, Karen Middleton

1970:         Charles Bent, Karen Middleton

1971:         Rod Taylor, Judy McNealus

1972:         Laurent Gaudin, Jody Palmer

1973:         Jerry McNealus, No female winner

1974:         No award

1975:         Scott Light, Holly Flanders

1976-2007: Award Lost

2008:         Bump Heldman, Julia Ford

2009:         Nolan Kasper, Julia Ford

2010:         Ryan Cochran-Siegle, Julia Ford

2011:         Ryan Cochran-Siegle, Mikaela Shiffrin

2012:         Ryan Cochran-Siegle, Mikaela Shiffrin

2013:         Kieffer Christianson, Mikaela Shiffrin

2014:         Sam Morse, Alice Merryweather

Release courtesy of NASJA-East

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