Krupka top step of the New Zealand Winter Games podium Photographer Neil Kerr

Racing independently and sponsored by SYNC Performance , Jimmy Krupka aims high with World Racing Academy

SYNC independent athlete Jimmy Krupka believes his most significant mark so far in alpine racing is his podcast – Arc City. However, the New England native is about to embark on a new chapter, racing in his first World Cup in Gurgl, Austria, on Saturday, November 18th. His journey to the big leagues has included many twists and turns and he recently shared some of the details with Ski Racing Media.

“Ever since I was 5 years old, I told myself, I’m going to make the US Ski Team. I don’t know why I was so sold on it. But I always said, my dream is to be on the US Ski Team,” says Krupka, 25, who could have never foreseen the rollercoaster that his involvement with the U.S. Team would become.

Growing up in Massachusetts, Krupka’s grandmother had a timeshare near Cannon Mountain, where his family would ski on weekends. Krupka began racing and, around age 8, stepped up to training and competing at Sugarbush. By the time he hit 7th grade, he had joined the winter program at Green Mountain Valley School (GMVS).

“It was a lot of hard work at GMVS. I had an excellent community of athletes and teachers,” he recalls.

By the time he graduated, Krupka had earned a spot with the U.S. Ski Team’s National Training Group (NTG), which, at the time, was combined with the development team. He received a U.S. Ski Team jacket. However, the sponsor patches had been removed. This diminished the accomplishment and made Krupka feel like that dangling carrot – his childhood dream – was still out of reach.

“I didn’t stop to think, oh, I’ve made it. It felt like such a tenuous position,” he says. “It constantly felt like we were far from making it.”

That’s not to say he didn’t enjoy the team itself.

The criteria struggle

“The two things that stick out to me from those two years: No. 1, just trying as hard as possible to meet the criteria,” he says. “Criteria felt so huge because of the drastic difference in resources available to non-team members. Getting cut terrified me in those early years. The second thing I remember is much more important – that it was a really good team. The team supported each other. When one person succeeded, the others found success because of it. We had a great team culture. There was nothing cooler I could have been doing. I loved being with the US Team

This was back in 2019. By the time that race season wrapped up, Krupka narrowly missed the results needed to keep him on the U.S. Team.  

“I missed the criteria in a few different ways. I was sixth at World Juniors and I should have been fifth. I missed the NorAm ranking by a couple of points. Whatever it was, I missed the mark by a smidge. But the team allowed me to be an invitee the following year. They made it clear I was not on the team, but I got to go to the camps. The athletes were always like family. It was hard to navigate my boundaries and how I was defined within the U.S. Team.”

During 2019-2020, Krupka trained under the tutelage of Coach Sasha Rearick and attended Dartmouth College. It did wonders. He landed his first NorAm victory (in super G) and won or landed on the podium in several FIS slalom and GS events.

“It was awesome. It was like suddenly going to school and having another opportunity to race. I learned how to loosen up and have fun,” he says. “I had so much more flow and everything worked better that year.”

Sidelined and a sore return

Thus, Krupka returned to the U.S. Team for 2020-2021. However, he ended the season abruptly when he broke his left leg (tib-fib fracture) at an FIS race in Italy in January 2021. He tried to come back right away that November. It was a bad idea.

“I did a couple days of free skiing and was like, I’m back. I jumped right into the gates. A couple of weeks later, I raced the first NorAms of the season, just getting smoked. I had these glimpses of my old skiing, but for the most part, I was just behind. It was the second year I was officially named to the team. It was a hard setup with criteria to re-qualify for the team, like a NorAm title. If I skipped those first races of the season, I was at a big disadvantage. I tried to commit. It was tough to make that happen,” he says.

There were points that season when Krupka wondered if he had already reached his peak. He notched his first-ever Europa Cup slalom points and threw down a couple of fast slalom races on the NorAm circuit. Otherwise, his results were lackluster. By the time the 2022 season wrapped up, he braced himself to get kicked off the team again. He was prepared to simply ski for Dartmouth and look forward to whatever the next chapter in life would bring. What happened surprised him.

“The U.S. Team was basically like, hey, we realized we mismanaged you and didn’t give you time to recover, so threw you in. We’ll give you another shot,” he says. “They made me pay and didn’t put my name on the website as an officially named member, which was a little déjà vu. The nice thing was I got everything else. They wrote a contract. You must pay travel expenses and lane fees, but you get all the jackets, all the suits, everything at the [Center of Excellence]. You’re a member. They learned from their mistakes.”

The breakthrough season

Last season was the best of Krupka’s career to date. He launched into it with a win and a pair of podiums at NorAm tech races at Beaver Creek and followed up with solid results on the circuit, including another slalom podium in March.

“Last season felt really good. I did it the way I wanted to do it, too,” he says. “I pieced together some extra skiing, went for a week in Mt. Hood. I worked hard. I had the mentality like, if I don’t do something really good this year, then maybe I am officially washed. I had a little extra fire under my butt. I was very determined to win a NorAm title.”

The season proved a valiant battle for the NorAm slalom title, but Krupka came up short. In the final race, the three top contenders straddled a gate. Krupka lost the title.

“It was this crazy, anti-climactic end to the slalom season,” he says. “I’d had the best season of my life by a mile; then I was one race away from the fixed World Cup spot and being back with the team. I was crushed.”

Once again kicked off the U.S. Team, Krupka is facing another season of earning his way back, this time if he lands enough points for a World Cup spot. With that goal in mind, he joined the World Racing Academy this summer. As he has throughout his “off” years with the U.S. Team, he’ll be racing in a SYNC uniform.

“World Racing was a great option because I did a camp with them, another of my supplemental camps, in October 2022. I loved the camp, coaches, and atmosphere,” he says. “I’ve known the people at SYNC for a while. They’ve always been good to me. When I was not with the U.S. Team, I needed a suit. I wanted to wear a suit I believed in. It was a very natural partnership. The beautiful thing about SYNC is their history of supporting independent athletes.”

Krupka has discovered that off-season training and as many on-snow camps as he can manage are the keys to success. He proved it this August and September at Coronet Peak, NZ, when he landed a slalom victory against a stacked international field.

“All these World Cup racers show up, but only half of them are really prepared. I’d been skiing hard, getting ready for race mode. That result was pretty awesome,” he says. “When you make a plan and it happens, it’s surprising even when you’ve been manifesting it.”

Eyes on the World Cup

This fall, Krupka has been training in Europe with the World Racing Academy. He’s aiming to prove his worth on the Europa Cup circuit and earn a World Cup spot.

“I want to keep the momentum flowing,” he says. “I’m back out of race mode again, taking a breather. You can’t stay in race mode for a gazillion months. I’m staying true to my process, my ideology. When it comes to ski racing, that’s what’s important.”

On pause as a junior at Dartmouth, Krupka plans to go all-in with his World Cup goal this season.

“I just know that at some point I’ll have to get a real job. All of my peers are working in the real world or studying,” he says. “It’s very clear to me that no matter how hard ski racing feels sometimes, no matter how hard a couple early wakeups feel or hard workouts, no matter how hard breaking my leg was, how hard it is to put together a budget and spend a lot of money – no matter how hard that all is, I absolutely love