U.S. Ski Team Women’s Alpine Guide

By Published On: December 13th, 2014Comments Off on U.S. Ski Team Women’s Alpine Guide

After Lake Louise, the women look toward stepping it up again on home turf for World Champs

Dec. 6 was a historic day for the U.S. Ski Team, with three racers sweeping a woman’s World Cup podium for the first time ever: Lindsey Vonn in first, Stacey Cook in second and Julia Mancuso in third. Alice McKennis, who was injured after winning her first World Cup in 2013, also skied to a top 20 result in Lake Louise.

That’s a huge confidence booster after last season’s ups and downs — the ups mostly coming from Mikaela Shiffrin (pictured above in Aspen), who added an Olympic gold medal and a second consecutive slalom globe to her hardware.

The downs were felt more among the downhillers, as the women’s speed team struggled to meet high expectations after finishing No. 1 in the world in 2012-2013.

Sure, there was the high of the bronze medal in Sochi from Mancuso, who salvaged a tough season that also saw the low of Vonn going down with an injury for the second consecutive year. That left Vonn unable to defend her Olympic gold. The remaining speed specialists, all of whom found the podium in 2013, managed a total of only nine top-10s the entire season.

Can the American women do it again when the Vail/Beaver Creek 2015 World Championships bring them back home after a European swing?

A TEAM: Stacey Cook


Hometown: Mammoth Mountain, Calif.
Birthplace: Truckee, Calif.
Birthdate: July 3, 1984
Club: Mammoth Mountain Ski Team
School: University of Nevada, Reno

Cook, a Tahoe native who moved to Mammoth Mountain in 2002 to pursue her ski racing dreams, is beginning her 12th year on the U.S. Ski Team. She is now a three-time Olympian after competing in Sochi last winter, and just secured her third World Cup podium on Dec. 6 in the opening speed races on her favorite hill, Lake Louise. It’s now the site of her four career-best results, including two back-to-back second place finishes in 2013. That season also saw a fourth in the overall downhill standings for Cook, who had high expectations for and, ultimately, disappointment in her 2014 results. With a new coach and team structure, Cook looks to be back on track and hopes to add to her resume with strong results at World Champs in Vail/Beaver Creek.

Julia Mancuso

"2014-15 U.S. Alpine Ski Team  Photo: USSA"
Hometown: Squaw Valley, Calif.
Birthplace: Reno, Nev.
Birthdate: March 9, 1984
Club: Squaw Valley Ski Team
School: Winter Sports School

At Sochi, Julia Mancuso continued her under-pressure prowess, coming away from the super combined with her fourth Olympic medal. She now has a total of nine Olympic and World Championship medals, which ranks her first all-time for American women. She missed the podium at the World Cup in Beaver Creek, but the big-game skier should step it up when World Champs come to the same venue in February.

She has shown promising results across three disciplines at the start of the season. Between a third place finish in the second downhill in Lake Louise, a sixth in super G and a 17th place in the opening World Cup giant slalom in Soelden, Austria, Mancuso should give fans plenty to cheer about this winter.

Alice McKennis

"2014-15 U.S. Alpine Ski Team  Photo: USSA"
Hometown: Glenwood Springs, Colo.
Birthplace: Glenwood Springs, Colo.
Birthdate: Aug. 19, 1989
Club: Rowmark Ski Academy
School: Westminster College

Alice McKennis missed last winter because of elective surgery to remove the hardware from her knee that came from a horrific crash in Garmisch/Partenkirchen in March 2013. Having shattered her right tibial plateau into some 30 pieces, she had attempted a comeback with hopes of qualifying for the Sochi Olympics, but high levels of pain caused her to call it quits after only two FIS races in early season at Copper.

McKennis is a six-year veteran of the U.S. Ski Team and has one World Cup win under her belt from a downhill in St. Anton in 2013. She finished 10th in the downhill standings that season, despite the broken leg cutting the winter short. A long period of rehab and strength training has her focused on strong results in front of her home-state fans at the Vail/Beaver Creek World Championships.

Mikaela Shiffrin

"2014-15 U.S. Alpine Ski Team  Photo: USSA"
Hometown: Eagle-Vail, Colo.
Birthplace: Vail, Colo.
Birthdate: March 13, 1995
Club: Burke Mountain Academy
School: Burke Mountain Academy

The results read like those of a seasoned veteran: 10 World Cup wins, two World Cup overall slalom globes, one Olympic gold medal and one World Championship gold medal. But 19-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin is beginning only her fourth season on the World Cup tour — and has already notched another win the giant slalom opener in Soelden, Austria.

Shiffrin wrapped up a weekend of respectable results in Aspen over thanksgiving weekend with a fifth and sixth place in slalom and giant slalom. She will look to continue her success as the tour moves to Europe before returning home to defend her world championship slalom gold in February.

Leanne Smith

"2014-15 U.S. Alpine Ski Team  Photo: USSA"
Hometown: North Conway, N.H.
Birthplace: North Conway, N.H.
Birthdate: May 28, 1987
Club: Mount Washington Valley Ski Team
School: University of New Hampshire/ Westminster College

New Hampshire’s Leanne Smith is the only woman on the ski team to come out of the NCAA ranks, after spending her freshman year competing for UNH before being named to the development team. She had her best season in 2013, during which she notched two podiums in downhill in Val D’isere and Cortina. Smith did not meet her own expectations last season, despite finishing 19th in the super G standings. She plans to rebound this season, but an early season partial tear of her quadriceps has her race plans on hold. She says she plans to be back around the first of the year with her sights on Vail/Beaver Creek.

Lindsey Vonn

2013-14 U.S. Alpine Ski Team Photo: Sarah Brunson/U.S. Ski Team
Hometown: Vail, Colo.
Birthplace: St. Paul, Minn.
Birthdate: Oct. 28, 1984
Club: Ski and Snowboard Club Vail/ Buck Hill

The most successful American ski racer in history, Lindsey Vonn made one of the most anticipated comebacks in all of sports in Lake Louise last weekend. Questions about her health and comeback were quickly answered when she came away with her first win of the season — the 60th of her career — and then followed it up with a second place finish in the super G on the final day of racing. Now the questions all revolve around whether she can break the women’s World Cup win record by the end of the season?

Last winter was a no-go for Vonn, who re-injured the knee damaged by a crash in the 2013 World Championship super G in a fall in Copper. She decided last December to undergo surgery again, giving up chance at defending her Olympic downhill gold medal.

The four-time overall champion needs only two more victories to tie the mark of 62 held by Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell.

B TEAM: Abigail Ghent

"2014-15 U.S. Alpine Ski Team  Photo: USSA"
Hometown: Edwards, Colo.
Birthplace: Vail, Colo.
Birthdate: Feb. 25, 1992
Club: Ski and Snowboard Club Vail
School: Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy

Last year, Abby Ghent was the NorAm super G overall winner; this year, she’s banking on that NorAm success for a World Cup start in the discipline. She may also be banking on genes: both of her parents were U.S. Ski Team members, and her two older sisters were ski racers, too. Ghent plans to travel among NorAm, Europa Cup, and World Cup races throughout the year. If she wins the overall NorAm title, she’ll give herself a World Cup start in every discipline for 2016.

Anna Marno

"2014-15 U.S. Alpine Ski Team  Photo: USSA"
Hometown: Steamboat Springs, Colo.
Birthplace: Steamboat Springs, Colo.
Birthdate: Nov. 23, 1992
Club: Steamboat Winter Sports Club
School: Westminster College

Ann Marno grew up in Wyoming and learned to ski at Snowy Range before she could walk. Her family moved to Steamboat in 2004 so she and her brother could pursue their ski racing careers. Five years later she was in her first season on the ski team as a member of the development team. Anna Marno begins her fifth year on U.S. Ski Team with career-best results from last season. She finished in the top 10 in the NorAm standings in every discipline but slalom. Her first World Cup was a super G on the World Championship track in Beaver Creek.

Paula Moltzan

"2014-15 U.S. Alpine Ski Team  Photo: USSA"
Hometown: Lakeville, Minn.
Birthplace: Minneapolis, Minn.
Birthdate: May 7, 1994
Clubs: Ski and Snowboard Club Vail/ Buck Hill

Following in the footsteps of Lindsey Vonn, slalom ace Paula Moltzan moved from Buck Hill to Ski and Snowboard Club Vail in 2010. That paid off with two top-10 results last season at the Junior World Championships in Jasna, Slovakia: a fourth in slalom and sixth in GS. This season, she’s already started in a World Cup event, during which she missed qualifying for a second run by a mere eight hundredths. Moltzan plans to race in more World Cups with the goal of qualifying to race at her home resort for the Vail/Beaver Creek World Championships.

Katie Ryan

"2014-15 U.S. Alpine Ski Team  Photo: USSA"
Hometown: Aspen, Colo.
Birthplace: Dallas, Tex.
Birthdate: Jan. 3, 1993
Clubs: Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club
School: Westminster College

Texas-born Katie Ryan has been rounding up results on the NorAm circuit: seven wins, including six in downhill. She also placed fifth in the downhill at the World Junior Championships in Jasna, Slovakia, last season. Now, the two-time NorAm downhill champion gets guaranteed World Cup starts in super G and downhill. Having moved with her family to Aspen at age 5, Ryan won’t be far from home during the Vail/Beaver Creek World Champs.

Laurenne Ross

"2014-15 U.S. Alpine Ski Team  Photo: USSA"
Hometown: Bend, Ore.
Birthplace: Edmonton, Alberta
Birthdate: August 17, 1988
Club: Mt. Bachelor Ski Education Foundation
School: University of Oregon
Olympics: 2014

After a World Cup podium at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 2013, Laurenne Ross had high expectations going into 2014. But her season-best result in the World Cup was 17th, accompanied by a more promising 11th place at the Sochi Games. Having learned to ski in Alberta with her father, a former racer, Ross relocated to Oregon and rose through the Mt. Bachelor Ski Education Foundation ranks. This season, she has already risen on the results sheet with an exciting fourth place finish in the opening downhill in Lake Louise.

Jacqueline Wiles

"2014-15 U.S. Alpine Ski Team  Photo: USSA"
Hometown: Aurora, Ore.
Birthplace: Portland, Ore.
Birthdate: July 13, 1992
Club: Pacific Northwest Ski Association/ White Pass Ski Club
School: Westminster College
Olympics: 2014

Jacqueline Wiles surprised many —including herself — last season with her 15th-place result in the Cortina World Cup downhill. It was one of three straight days of results in the points in the final qualifying races before Sochi. Those results punched a ticket to her first Olympic team in her first year as a member of the U.S. Ski Team. The two-time national downhill champion has her eyes set on not only Vail/Beaver Creek but also more consistent top-30 performances.

C TEAM: Katharine Irwin

"2014-15 U.S. Alpine Ski Team  Photo: USSA"
Hometown: Vail, Colo.
Birthplace: Vail, Colo.
Birthdate: June 5, 1994
Club: Ski and Snowboard Club Vail
School: University of Denver

Vail’s Katharine Irwin, who started racing for Ski and Snowboard Club at age 6, begins her fourth season as a member of the U.S. Ski Team. It’s her first as a member of the C-team, though, after spending three years on the development team. She made an impressive jump from 2013 to 2014 in the NorAm downhill standings, going from 23rd to 3rd. She now has three NorAm podiums under her belt, including one win — a super G in Panorama, B.C., in December 2012. An impressive eighth-place finish in the super G at the Junior World Championships in Jasna, Slovakia, should give her international confidence moving into the 2015 season.

Lila Lapanja

"2014-15 U.S. Alpine Ski Team  Photo: USSA"
Hometown: Incline Village, Nev.
Birthplace: Truckee, Calif.
Birthdate: Dec. 3, 1994
Club: Diamond Peak Ski Team/ Sugar Bowl
School: Forest Charter School

Lila Lapanja’s father was on the Slovenian national alpine team, giving her not only dual citizenship with Slovenia, but also a predilection for racing. Lapanja competed for the Diamond Peak Ski Team before moving onto Sugar Bowl and now begins her fourth year on the U.S. Ski Team. Last season saw with the best results of her career: five NorAm podiums, the 2014 slalom NorAm title and a sixth in the slalom at the World Junior Championships in Jasna, Slovakia. The second youngest member of the U.S. Ski Team, Lapanja spent her summer training in Park City and on snow with Mikaela Shiffrin with high hopes of improving her slalom skills to prepare herself for the World Cup tour.

D TEAM: Stephanie Lebby

Hometown: Big Bear Lake, Calif.
Birthplace: Laguna Beach, Calif.
Birthdate: Feb. 19, 1997
Club: Squaw Valley Ski Team
School: USSA Team Academy

Breezy Johnson

Hometown: Victor, Idaho
Birthplace: Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Club: Rowmark Ski Academy
School: Rowmark Ski Academy

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About the Author: Jessica Kelley

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Ski Team, Kelley collected three NorAm titles, won GS silver at the 2002 World Junior Championships, and was a member of the 2007 World Championships team during her professional career. She resides in Park City, Utah, with her husband, Adam Cole.