Ski Racing Media’s female Junior of the Year: AJ Hurt

AJ Hurt jokes that she used to beg her mom to let her go skiing. Surely, if Hurt could keep her grades high she would get extra time on snow at her home hill in Squaw Valley, Calif. Her negotiation tactics played off well as she quickly progressed in her junior rankings.

In her first season of FIS races Hurt was finishing top 30 in NorAms. Then came FIS victories, NorAm cup titles, and World Cup starts. Now at the age of 20, Hurt adds World Cup rankings to her resume of acclaim across four events. Hurt joins the elite group of recipients of Ski Racing Media’s Junior of the Year for a second time in her career. She was first awarded the distinction in 2019.

“I definitely came into the season really focused on the World Cup and scoring World Cup points. In Courchevel I was finally able to accomplish that. And then I was able to score in three more events. I’ve always wanted to be an overall skier, it seemed like it happened really fast,” she said.

Hurt can’t deny last season was the best of her career. It happened in a blink of an eye, transitioning from her NorAm Cup titles in downhill and alpine combined in 2019 to a U.S. national championship in 2021. In between, her life fluttered between balancing speed races with one team and tech races with another, focusing on balancing her time and energy on being an accomplished multi-discipline skier. 

She kicked off her season in Copper by winning the national title in slalom after the 2020 U.S. National Championships were postponed from March. She picked up an additional podium in downhill before migrating to Europe for four months on the World Cup. Her first World Cup race, the parallel, she finished 25th. Then in her next World Cup, she finished 18th in GS creating momentum for her to continue scoring World Cup points at an additional five races, adding super G and slalom to her diverse portfolio. 

Then came her final junior world championships. Hurt recalls going into the series exhausted and nutrition-depleted in the midst of an eight-day run where her name was on a start list for seven races across three events and in three different countries. Despite the exhaustion that consumed her going into the junior world championship series, Hurt maintained high expectations. But those expectations were met with disappointment when Hurt finished out of the top 20 in GS and did not finish in super G. Her last race of the series was the slalom. She let the expectations go, and with relief and joy, she finished third. 

“I was so exhausted,” she said. “I was putting a lot of pressure on myself in the super G and GS and it wasn’t what I wanted. I know when I ski good slalom, it’s good, but sometimes it’s a hit or miss, so I tried to keep expectations low and enjoy the last world junior race. (The podium) is definitely what I wanted.” 

Hurt returned home after her final two days of World Cup racing in Sweden in early March. She was met with spring snow and warm conditions in the California sunshine where she recalls falling in love with free skiing again, skiing almost every day for three weeks straight. After a long season she wrapped up at the 2021 U.S. national championships in Aspen, where she finished just off the fastest mark to land second in downhill. 

“The end of the season felt good; it felt like I did what I wanted. It is kinda crazy to have to set new expectations, but I still want to keep having fun and keep trying to move forward in every single discipline while not expecting too much from myself,” she said. 

With sights set on the Olympics and advancing her rankings in the World Cup, Hurt plans on focusing primarily in tech next World Cup season while competing in super G races that fit her schedule. 

“It’s really important to have a tech base, and I really focus on slalom and GS,” Hurt shared. “Then just being able to have a few really good days of speed training is really all I need for me. Getting the fundamentals down translates from GS to super G.”

With warm temperatures rising, Hurt looks to her first in-person college schedule at Dartmouth this summer, mixed with an intense training regimen and quick ski trips before she travels to Europe late summer with her U.S. teammates to begin their on-snow progression leading up to Soelden. 

Stay tuned as we announce the male Junior of the Year in the coming days. 

Ski Racing Media Juniors of the Year

1975 –  Leslie Leete Smith          Steve Mahre

1976 –  Christin Cooper              Eric Wilson

1977 –  Heidi Preuss                    David Stapleton

1978 –  Tamara McKinney         Scott Hoffman

1979 –  Tamara McKinney         Mike Farney

1980 –  Noel Lyons                      Mark Tache

1981 –  Brenda Buglione             Tiger Shaw

1982 –  Eva Twardokens             Steve Hegg

1983 –  Eva Twardokens             Jesse Hunt

1984 –  Diann Roffe                     Jesse Hunt

1985 –  Carter Payne                    Tim Curran

1986 –  Hilary Lindh/Krista Schmidinger

1987 –  Sally Knight                      Tommy Moe

1988 –  Heidi Voelker                  Jeremy Nobis

1989 –  Kim Schmidinger           Tommy Moe

1990 –  Julie Parisien                  Ryan North

1991 –  Kathrine Davenport       Paul Casey Puckett

1992 –  Kathrine Davenport      Michael Makar

1993 –  Kristina Koznick            Chip Knight

1994 –  Kjersti Bjorn-Roli          Forest Carey

1995 –  Sarah Schleper               Wisi Betschart

1996 –  Kirsten Clark                  Justin Johnson

1997 –  Jonna Mendes                John Minahan

1998 –  Jonna Mendes                Brad Hogan

1999 – Caroline Lalive                Marco Sullivan

2000 –  Julia Mancuso               Marco Sullivan

2001 –  Julia Mancuso                Jake Zamansky

2002 –  Julia Mancuso               Steven Nyman

2003 –  Julia Mancuso               Jeremy Transue

2004 – Lindsey Kildow              Ted Ligety

2005 –  Resi Stiegler                   Tim Jitloff

2006 –  Megan McJames          Christopher Beckmann

2007 –  Leanne Smith                Will Brandenburg

2008 – Kiley Staples                  Tommy Ford

2009 – Julia Ford                       Tommy Ford

2010 –  Mikaela Shiffrin            Will Gregorak

2011 –  Mikaela Shiffrin             Ryan Cochran-Siegle

2012 –  Mikaela Shiffrin            Ryan Cochran-Siegle

2013 –  Mikaela Shiffrin            Ryan Cochran-Siegle

2014 –  Mikeala Shiffrin

2015 –  Mikaela Shiffrin           AJ Ginnis

2016 –  Mikaela Shiffrin           Erik Arvidsson

2017 –  Alice Merryweather/Breezy Johnson     Sam Morse

2018-  Patricia Mangan           River Radamus

2019-  AJ Hurt                          River Radamus

2020- Keely Cashman             Bridger Gile

2021- AJ Hurt                            ???