Pack, Cabral retire, leaving huge holes on men's freestyle team

Former Olympic aerials silver medalist and two-time World Championships medalist Joe Pack and 2003 World Cup moguls champion Travis Cabral have retired from World Cup competition.

"It's time to do something else," Pack said. "I've had a good, long, fun run and I've got no regrets about retiring. It's been a blast."

Pack, a ski jumper while growing up in southern New Hampshire, was silver medalist at the 2002 Winter Games in front of his family and hometown fans and friends when the event was held at Deer Valley Resort.

He rebounded from a knee injury that kept him out of the 1998 Olympics to earn the bronze medal in aerials at the 1999 World Championships in Meiringen, Switzerland. In 2001, he was bronze medalist again when the worlds were held in Whistler, B.C. Pack also won three World Cup events and is a two-time U.S. champion.

Cabral, who recently turned 23, was the 2003 World Cup champion when he won three World Cup contests. He remains the youngest U.S. moguls national champion in history, having won the moguls title when he was 15 in 1999. In 2004, he swept the U.S. moguls and dual moguls titles.

U.S. head coach Jeff Wintersteen said they represent "a big loss. They've been outstanding role models and it's been an outstanding run, but nothing goes on forever, so now we have to rebuild … and we are.

"Joe's been a real team leader over the last three or four years as we rebuilt the aerials program after the 2002 Olympics. He's been the de facto team captain … and he's doing a great job with FLY [Freestyle Lives Year-round, a Park City aerials club], so he's still helping lead," Wintersteen said.

"Travis is an extraordinarily talented athlete," the coach added. "His personality, his humor — he's a tough one to replace; he was always in the mix and part of the core of what, for quite a while, was the best men's moguls team in the world. We'll miss 'em, but we obviously wish both of them the best."

— USSA