Freestyle coach Smalley named to Colorado Hall of Fame

Freestyle coach Smalley named to Colorado Hall of Fame{mosimage}USSA — Park Smalley, the first fulltime head coach of the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team, was inducted Saturday night into the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame, the first freestyle individual named to the hall.

Smalley called the induction a “huge honor,” adding he was pleased to see freestyle getting recognition at the Hall of Fame. Smalley, who lives with his family in Steamboat Springs, turned from competing to coaching in the late 1970s. He started the Great Western Freestyle Camp and among his students were Olympic moguls medalist Nelson Carmichael and World Cup aerials winner Kris Feddersen.

Smallyey coached the U.S. team from the 1984 season until resigning in 1989. Among others whose careers he helped influence were 1992 Olympic champion, ’91 world champ and five-time World Cup moguls champ Donna Weinbrecht and four-time Olympian, two-time World Cup champion and 1999 world champ Ann Battelle, who didn’t start skiing moguls until she moved to Steamboat in 1989 after graduating from Middlebury College in Vermont.

Smalley stopped coaching in 1996 but was the voice of freestyle for years on television — providing World Cup and Olympic analysis.