USSA, Trentino team up for European training base

U.S. Ski Team athletes will take advantage of a new on-snow training opportunity beginning this winter. The U.S. Ski Team and the tourism office of the Italian province of Trentino have announced a partnership that will provide the team exclusive on-snow training at the northern Italian resort of Paganella near Andalo and Lago di Molveno.

U.S. Ski Team athletes will take advantage of a new on-snow training opportunity beginning this winter. The U.S. Ski Team and the tourism office of the Italian province of Trentino have announced a partnership that will provide the team exclusive on-snow training at the northern Italian resort of Paganella near Andalo and Lago di Molveno.
    The three-year partnership with Trentino S.p.A. is the first of its kind for the team, providing exclusive on-snow training between European World Cups. It is part of an ongoing effort by the team's parent organization, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, to develop training facilities worldwide for its athletes. The team also recently announced a partnership with Keystone Resort in Colorado for early season training. The Keystone partnership was noteworthy for the team's unique ability to control its snowmaking for early season training through Keystone and York Snow.
    "The Trentino partnership greatly expands our scope of training venues and provides us with a much-needed home base in Europe," said USSA President and CEO Bill Marolt. "There's also a lot of passion and support from the Trentino officials directed to help our athletes — it's exactly what we're looking for in partnerships such as this."
    "It's important for us to build alliances with international organizations like the U.S. Ski Team to create awareness and exposure for what the Trentino region has to offer in winter sports," said the president of Trentino S.p.A., Tito Giovannini.
    Under the terms of the partnership, U.S. Ski Team athletes will have lodging and training facilities for selected periods during the World Cup season. U.S. alpine coaches will wear advertising marks promoting the Trentino region.
    Paganella is located immediately off the Italian autostrade south of the Brenner Pass, just an hour south of Innsbruck, Austria, and just norththwest of Trento, Italy. It is easily accessible via the international airport in Verona.
    "This will be a great training facility for us during the season," said U.S. Ski Team Alpine Director Jesse Hunt, who inspected the area in October. "It will provide us with slalom and giant slalom training, and possibly some super G."
    "Our region's winter sports program has grown tremendously in the past few years," said Eduino Gabrielli, president of the Paganella regional skipass company. "This partnership testifies to the quality of our resorts and will allow us to greatly increase our visibility." The team plans to use Paganella's Olympica (Olympic) run, as well as Nuvola Rossa (Red Cloud).
    The partnership grew out of several long-term relationships, including Italian bicycle manufacturer Francesco Moser's work with American skiers, as well as USSA's relationship with Italian businessman Tito Giovanini, the president of Trentino S.p.A. Giovanini, who is presently an executive with Media Partners which manages USSA's international television rights, is a past employee of the International Ski Federation and was past director of the FIS Nordic World Championships in nearby Val di'Fiemme, Italy.
    "One of the keys with the Paganella partnership is that it provides us with both lodging between races and the opportunity to train," said Hunt. "We have had other relationships but rarely one with both lodging and training. We'll continue to live and train in other locations, as necessary, but we look to find an important home base in the Trentino region for the next three years leading up to Vancouver."
    The facility will be used primarily by the men's alpine team in 2006-07 including World Cup, Europa Cup and development-level teams. The team hopes to expand the relationship in future years.
    "Many people don't realize how long we're on the road compared to European teams," added Hunt. "Some of our athletes never get home at all during the season, while our counterparts often go home every week. Having a home base like this, where the resort makes us feel welcome, is really important in building our team."

— USSA