Men's GS kicks off World University Games

The alpine skiing portion of the World University Games opens on Thursday in Bardonecchia, Italy, and many of the top college racers in the United States will be on hand representing their home countries.
THE ALPINE SKIING portion of the World University Games opens on Thursday in Bardonecchia, Italy, and many of the top college racers in the United States will be on hand representing their home countries.
    The World University Games are open to university student-athletes from around the world and have been held every two years since 1960. Since 1981, the Winter Universiade has been held in odd-numbered years. Innsbruck, Austria, hosted the last Winter Universiade in 2005. The last Italian city to host the event was Tarvisio in 2003.
    Competition begins with the men’s giant slalom Thursday, followed by the women’s GS on Friday. Slalom races are scheduled for Saturday (men) and Sunday (women). The speed events begin Jan. 24 with downhills for both men and women, followed by the super G races on Jan. 25.
    University of Colorado coach Richard Rokos is leading the U.S. squad, which includes 16 athletes: Claire Abbe (University of Denver), Charles Christianson (Williams College), Adam Cole (Denver), Greg Hardy (Vermont), Megan Hughes (Middlebury), Stefan Hughes (Colorado), Jamie Kingsbury (Vermont alum), Katie Lyons (Nevada), Eric Mann (Williams College), Lindsay McClure (Denver), Lisa Perricone (Colorado), Drew Roberts (Colorado), Rachel Roosevelt (Colorado), Joseph Swensson (Middlebury), Tague Thorson (Utah) and Evan Weiss (Dartmouth).
    A number of U.S. collegiate racers will be competing for their home countries in Italy including Cameron Barnes (Nevada), Scott Hume (Nevada) and Carmel McElroy (Montana State) for Canada; Francesco Ghedina (Denver) for Italy; Lucie Zikova (Colorado) for the Czech Republic; and Chirine Neim (Utah) for Lebanon.