US to focus on tech disciplines in team criteria revision

Julia Mancuso at the 2013 Are World Cup giant slalom. GEPA

VAIL, Colo. — At a Tuesday evening presentation for prospective NCAA alpine athletes and their parents at the Manor Vail hosted by Ski and Snowboard Club Vail, U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association President and CEO Tiger Shaw announced that a working group assembled to examine development in the country has concluded that the national team criteria needs to focus more on the technical disciplines of slalom and giant slalom for younger ages.

“Through research, the working group found that we have focused too much on results in the speed disciplines, which were easier to obtain because other nations aren’t competing at the younger ages, they are developing their tech in giant slalom and slalom and then adding speed later.”

American athletes therefore have had an advantage in securing a lower world ranking in super G and downhill against their international peers who weren’t even competing in those disciplines at comparable ages. Shaw also noted that the vast majority of current speed skiers with World Cup rankings in the top 30 posted impressive technical rankings in earlier years before they developed into specialists.

With a greater emphasis placed on the technical disciplines in the U.S. in coming seasns, Shaw hinted at the door potentially opening wider for athletes to take less traditional paths to the national team.

“One of the things that I’m very interested in is in changing and adapting the ski team to basically being completely agnostic to where things come from,” said Shaw. “If you make criteria and if you’re skiing fast, in terms of getting invited to a camp, it doesn’t matter whether you’re at an academy or a club, doing a PG year, not in school, taking time off, or actually enrolled and competing on a college ski team.”

The 2014-15 U.S. Ski Team nomination criteria outlines the necessary markers for those born in 1994 to be named to the men’s and women’s C Teams. For men who pursue a speed track, they must have a world ranking of at least 350 in either giant slalom or slalom in addition to one world ranking of 155 or better in either super G or downhill plus a three-event world ranking average of 245. Technical specialists need a 155 or better world ranking in one discipline plus a second event world ranking of 290 or better.

Shaw believes firmly in the premise, supported by the research of the development task force, that a strong fundamental base in the technical disciplines at younger ages will lead to success in the speed discipline as athletes mature. The 2015-16 criteria may look significantly different from the current season’s by the time it is finalized.

When discussion moderator Brandon Dyksterhouse, athletic director at SSCV, quipped, “I want to be Lindsey Vonn and win every super G I enter. Tiger, what should I do?” Shaw was quick to retort, “Ski a lot of GS.”

The concept of adapting criteria to better facilitate success in slalom and GS may also help narrow the seemingly wide gap between the U.S. Ski Team’s superstars (Miller, Ligety, Vonn, Shiffrin, Mancuso) and the 35 other athletes on the national team roster.

“Ultimately, the U.S. Ski Team is after World Cup results, Olympic medals and World Championship medals. That’s what our elite pipeline and teams are for. That is a major goal of our organization, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t pay attention to the rest of the athlete.”

By focusing more on technical skill development and rewarding those who pursue a route that was – at least until now – the path of greater resistance to the national team, the U.S. Ski Team hopes to create a deeper talent pool comprised of athletes with the ability to podium at the highest level across all disciplines.