The Winter Sports School has established a Facebook group page at this link. If you have a Facebook account, please fel free to join the group.  We’ll be reproducing blog posts there, yes, but we’ll also use it to announce school events, and group members can use the space to discuss topics and keep in touch.  Group members can also easily share blog posts and other items of note with their other Facebook friends.  Enjoy, and see you online!

Way to go, Ted!  Now you just have to get used to your new introductory soundbite for interviews:  “Ted Ligety, 2006 Olympic gold medalist and two-time World Cup Giant Slalom Champion.”  Ah, that has a nice ring to it.

Steven Holcomb, WSS Class of 1997, Bobsled — sixth place in two-man bobsled, gold medal in four-man bobsled. What a run Steven’s had.  He almost gave up bobsledding a few years ago because of a degenerative eye condition, but after a few years of navigating bobsled tracks almost entirely by feel, he recovered from reconstructive eye surgery and came back with a vengeance.  We only half-jokingly wonder whether his success story will lead other bobsled coaches to blindfold their athletes for training runs, because Steve’s post-surgery touch as a bobsled pilot has led his four-man team to two consecutive world championships in 2008 and 2009, and now an Olympic gold medal in Vancouver.  Oh, and just to put a cap on things, the 2010 four-man bobsled World Cup season won’t end until early April in Lake Placid, but Holcomb already has the points necessary to make him a mathematical certainty for the 2010 championship.  That’ll be three in row.

Julia Mancuso, WSS Class of 2000, Alpine Skiing — 8th in Giant Slalom, 9th in Super-G, silver medal in Super Combined, and silver medal in Downhill. That’s two top-ten finishes, and two silver medals.  Okay, we think it’s officially safe to say that Julia is back from her recent difficult seasons plagued by health and equipment issues.  And, although the most ink has been spilled over her matching silver medals, we think that her gutsiest performance in these games may have been in the giant slalom.  For those who missed this story, Julia’s first giant slalom run was interfered with, leading her to finish the first run in 18th position.  Julia was obviously disappointed, but she picked herself up and turned in the third fastest second run to move up to 8th place overall.  There’s no way to know for sure whether Julia would have picked up a third medal if not for the interference during her first run, but there’s no doubt that her second run performance under the shadow of such a disappointment showed gold medal grit.

Ted Ligety, WSS Class of 2002, Alpine Skiing — DNF in Slalom, 9th in Giant Slalom, 19th in Super-G, and 5th in Super Combined. Ted said in post-Olympics interviews that he was disappointed not to win a medal in Vancouver after he shocked the skiing world with his combined gold medal in Torino four years ago.  After all, he was crowned the World Cup giant slalom champion in 2008 and he leads the World Cup standings in that same discipline in 2010 with only one more race to go.  So no Olympic medal surely felt like a disappointment to him, but the way we look at it, a top-20, a top-10, and a top-5 series of finishes are nothing to sneeze at.  We’re proud of you, Ted!

Elli Ochowicz, WSS Class of 2002, Speed Skating — 17th in 500M, 26th in 1000M. Our veteran athlete.  Vancouver was Elli’s third trip to the Olympics, and the experience apparently hasn’t lost its appeal to her, nor has it robbed her of her sense of humor.  Her Twitter comment on race day before her 500M effort, was: “Hopefully the zamboni works today.”  Ouch.  We love it!  Elli brings home a top-30 and a top-20 finish from these games, and joins a very small, elite group of athletes worldwide as a three-time Olympian.

Andrew Weibrecht, WSS Class of 2003, Alpine Skiing – Bronze medal in Super-G, 11th in Super Combined, and 21st in Downhill. If Ted shocked the skiing world in 2006, it was Andrew’s turn to shock everyone in 2010.  After the race, Andrew said, “My goal this year was just to come to the Olympics, and if anybody had told me how I would have done here, I wouldn’t have believed them… I had strong results in the World Cup all season, but I hadn’t broken through to that podium finish.”  That’s all changed now, and Andrew has officially contributed to the United States’s best Olympic medal performance ever in alpine ski racing.  Andrew’s summary of it all?  “It was a really cool experience.”  Andrew has clearly mastered the art of understatement along with his skiing skills.  Andrew’s next step after this season is to get back to his books at Dartmouth College.

Megan McJames, WSS Class of 2005, Alpine Skiing — DNF in Slalom, 32nd in Giant Slalom. Megan deserves big kudos for coming up from the U.S. Ski Team’s B team and, not only getting selected to make the trip to the Olympics, but getting selected to compete in two events.  The joy she took in the entire experience is obvious — check out her home made video below.  She’ll take you backstage, give you a glimpse of the Olympic whirlwind, and even show you what the opening ceremonies looked like from the athlete’s section of the audience.  Congratulations on your first Olympic experience, Megan!

Anders Johnson, WSS Class of 2006, Nordic Ski Jumping — 49th in Normal Hill, DNQ in Large Hill, DNQ in Team. Anders is our most recent grad and official youngster, yet Vancouver was his second trip to the Winter Olympic Games.  In 2006 he was only 16, the youngest U.S. Olympic ski jumper and the second youngest U.S. Olympic Ski Team member in history.  In 2010, at the ripe old age of 20, he faced the even more daunting situation of battling back from major knee surgery just to make the team.  In August of 2009, Anders stiff-legged a landing on a training jump and tore his ACL.  After an accelerated and grueling four-month rehabilitation, he started the season, as he puts it, “With my knee about 60% of its normal strength and my head about 50%.”  But he battled back against the odds and not only resumed competition, but made it to the Olympics again.  Well done, Anders!

We are so proud of all our Olympic alums, and they are all winners.  At the end of the day, the seven of them brought home 4 of the United States’s total medal haul of 37.  To put all of this in perspective: since opening its doors, the Winter Sports School has graduated 230 students.  The way we think of it is, if the Winter Sports School was a nation, its 230 “citizens” would have stood 18th among all nations in the Vancouver Olympics medal count, just behind Finland, and ahead of nations such as Australia and Croatia.  Way to go, team!  On to Sochi in 2014!

As always, if you’re viewing this message in e-mail and the photo and video inserts do not appear, please click on the headline link above to access them at our blog site.

Steven Holcomb, Winter Sports School Class of 1997, has made history.  For the United States, he has ended a 62 year drought in Olympic four-man bobsled gold medals.  For his old high school, he has become the first alum to win an Olympic medal of any color outside the discipline of alpine skiing — it just happens to be gold.

Steven carried the weight of high expectations coming into the four-man Bobsled competition.  While he finished outside of the medals in sixth place at the Torino Olympics in 2006, he improved over the years to come into these games as the reigning world champion.  And he met those expectations by laying down the fastest runs in the first two heats during the first day of competition, giving his team a cushion of 0.40 seconds coming into the second day.  That’s an eternity in four-man bobsled.

He then came into the second day and blazed yet another run to win the third heat as well, extending his lead to .45 seconds.

Perhaps at that point Steven finally decided he’d sent a strong enough message.  In the fourth heat he seemed content at long last to take a slightly more conservative approach to the run to avoid a crash — the only disaster that could take the gold away from him at that point.  He still finished the fourth heat with the third-fastest time and with a .38 second final margin of victory over the rest of the field.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Steven said of his result. “You dream about it for years, and all the sudden, it’s happening. … I don’t know. It’s just kind of overwhelming.”

You’re the very picture of grace under pressure, Steven, and all of us here at The Winter Sports School are cheering your tremendous accomplishment.  Well done!

Andrew Weibrecht, from the Winter Sports School’s graduating class of 2003, may not yet be as much of a household name as his fellow WSS alums Julia Mancuso ‘00 and Ted Ligety ‘02, but that could change very soon.  In alpine racing circles, Andrew first made the world sit up and take notice with his dramatic 2007 run down the Birds Of Prey downhill course in Beaver Creek, CO.  You can watch a video of that performance at this link, and on that day it was good enough for tenth place.  Yesterday, Andrew attacked the Vancouver Olympic Super G course with the same guts and go-for-broke attitude, and this time it earned him a bronze medal.

Andrew was the third racer to attack the course, and he had another moment reminiscent of his Birds Of Prey downhill as he desperately clung to his center of balance on one ski near the top of the course, but he then recovered to smoke the bottom section and cross the finish in the lead, though he didn’t expect to hold that position for long.  “It’s the first time I’ve ever come down leading a race,” he said. “I figured I’d stay in there until about 10 guys came down and then guys would start putting fast runs. But I kept staying in there.”

In the end, he held off all but two of his rivals, and Andrew took the opportunity in post-race interviews — his big moment in the spotlight — to… deflect attention to others.  “There have been so many people that have supported me,” he said. “This has been a team effort. I want to be gracious with it. I want people to be proud of my Olympic medal.”

On behalf of all of us at The Winter Sports School, Andrew, let me just say: “Done.”

As a side note, since we are a school and should mention notable academic sides of the story as well, Andrew also attends classes at Dartmouth College during the off season, and he currently has completed more than half of the credits required for his degree in Earth Science.  So he’ll be hitting the books again soon.  Keep that brain growing Andrew!  Way to go — in more than one aspect of life.

Wow.  Two races… and two Olympic silver medals in Vancouver.  Julia Mancuso ‘00 followed up a third-fastest downhill run with the slalom performance of her life to win silver in yesterday’s Women’s Super Combined race.  No one expected her to stomp her slalom run like that — not even her coaches.  “She hid it from all of us,” said U.S. women’s coach Jim Tracy of her suddenly resurgent slalom form.

Julia sounded a little shocked herself in post-race interviews.  “I found my slalom!” she said.  “It’s been hiding!   Skiing a good run of downhill and having to follow that up with a good run of slalom, I mean, that’s tough,” she said. “I didn’t think I could do it.”

Surprised or not, Julia is entering some pretty rare territory.  She is now just the fifth United States woman to win multiple alpine racing medals in a single Olympics.  And her two silvers in Vancouver, along with her Giant Slalom gold from Torino in 2006 , combine to make her the most decorated female Olympic alpine athlete in United States history.  That’s officially very big.

Julia’s attitude about it all?  “I think it’s pretty crazy and cool.  Just to be able to ski my best and do my best in the Olympics, that’s really a dream come true.”

Alrighty then — on to the Super G tomorrow, eh?  It goes without saying, but we said it yesterday, we’ll say it again today, and we just may be saying it yet again before all is said and done: all of us at The Winter Sports School are so very proud of you, Julia.  Follow your inner tiara.

WSS Head of School, Rob Clayton, isn’t being asked for stock picks yet, but he soon may be after his prediction at last week’s school fundraiser came true within days.

The Winter Sports School has 7 alumni competing in the Vancouver Winter Olympics, and Rob presented a brief bio on each of them to fundraiser attendees.  When speaking of Mancuso, Rob said, “I know we haven’t heard much from Julia lately, but if I know her she’s got something special in store for these Olympics.  She’s a definite medal contender in several events.”

Well, as of yesterday, we’re one event into the women’s alpine competition in Vancouver.  One event, and one medal for Mancuso.  It’s silver… to match her famous tiara.

In post-race interviews, Mancuso admitted that the last couple of years have been “tough,” as she battled through a long recovery from back surgery.  But now she is officially back in a big way.   “Just being on the podium here is a victory for me,” she said. “I didn’t see myself on the podium in this race. It’s pretty incredible…  I’m not one to think about statistics. I just think that it’s awesome.”

Rob may have called it, but Julia did it.  Way to go, Ms. Mancuso!  All of us at The Winter Sports School, along with so many others,  are very proud of you.

COMMUNITY COMES TOGETHER TO CELEBRATE 2010 OLYMPICS AND SUPPORT SCHOLARSHIP FUND

THE WINTER SPORTS SCHOOL IN PARK CITY HOSTS

VANCOUVER 2010 “NIGHT BEFORE THE OPENING CEREMONIES” PARTY

Got game? We’re bringing together two games—bowling and the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games, for one great cause… The Winter Sports School in Park City. So put on your game face and come out to the Winter Sports School Vancouver 2010 “Night Before the Opening Ceremonies” Party, Thursday, February 11, 6:30-9:30 pm at Jupiter Bowl, Newpark Town Center, Kimball Junction. Your tax-deductible admission is $100 per adult and $25 per child (for up to 2 kids 17 & under when accompanied by an adult) and includes bowling, food, beverages, silent and live auctions, and gold medal fun! This community fundraising event is sponsored by American Express, Park City Tech Center, Park City Board of Realtors, USANA Health Sciences, Zions Resort Bank, and the Youth Winter Sports Alliance.

All proceeds from the “Night Before the Opening Ceremonies” Party will benefit The Winter Sports School Scholarship Fund.  Last year, the fund awarded over $80,000 in scholarships to 22 deserving students.  The scholarships help The Winter Sports School to extend exceptional sports and education opportunities to a wider range of students, creating a diverse and culturally rich learning experience for all attendees.

For event tickets and information, please call Megan at 435.649.8760 or email mdever@wintersportsschool.org.

If you’re viewing this message in e-mail and the event flier image does not appear, please click on the headline link above to view it at our blog site.

As always, if you’re viewing this message in e-mail and the video insert does not appear, please click on the headline link above to view it at our blog site.

As always, if you’re viewing this message in e-mail and the video insert does not appear, please click on the headline link above to view it at our blog site.