Ski Racing Media’s male Junior of the Year: Ben Ritchie

In the eyes of Ben Ritchie, everyone wants to be winning Europa Cup races, competing on the World Cup, and eventually winning the Olympics. For the 20-year-old Vermont native, many of those wishful seventh-grade dreams have come true. A junior world champion, Europa Cup victor, U.S. national champion, and World Cup point scorer in one year, Ritchie joins many of his icons as Ski Racing Media’s male Junior of the Year in the best season of his career. 

Ritchie spent his early years traveling every weekend with his family to Jay Peak, just north of his hometown in Williston, Vt. His older brother had enticed their parents to let the boys join the racing program for a day, which Ritchie recalls as a tactic likely used to have a kid-free ski day. At the end of the day, his brother was done and Ritchie had found his new passion. 

Growing up in a family of athletes, Ritchie was quick to learn that his success was not determined by his results or expectations. Although no one in his family had a ski racing background, his dad was keen to show that, in his years as a triathlete, pressure can be one’s greatest foe. When Ritchie moved to Green Mountain Valley School in seventh grade, his goals did not revolve around results or podiums, he was focused on seeing how good he could be. His belief has given him confidence throughout his career and helped him achieve some of his biggest goals. 

“I tried not to put any ranking results on myself or World Cup results on myself,” he said. “I want to be consistently scoring World Cup points and based on how I’ve been skiing and training at the end of the last season, I’m very capable of that.”

In his final year as a junior racer, Ritchie won his first Europa Cup alongside teammate Jett Seymour in second, scored his first World Cup points two days later, and two weeks later captured the junior world champion title, all in slalom. After what he described as a tough start to his season — with nine straight World Cup DNFs — being able to turn around his trajectory and improve through the end of the season was his true gold medal. 

“I feel like I have a lot of room to improve on the World Cup,” said Ritchie reflecting on his next season’s goals. “I felt I never really skied my best and that’s part of the mental side of things and getting comfortable. Some goals were ticked off the list and some were still left there, but that’s good; I’m hungry for more.”

While Ritchie considers himself a slalom specialist for now, putting the bulk of his focus on the single event, he plans to keep working on GS to eventually move into a two-event tech skier. 

Being an event specialist comes with added pressures. Ritchie recalls going into the junior world championships with a lot of pressure to excel in “his event.” Even though he competed in the GS after a two-month hiatus from training, his primary goal was his final junior world championship slalom the next day. Knowing he raced against most of his competitors weeks early in the Europa Cup that he won, and his coach would set the opening course, Ritchie approached the slalom with added confidence. 

“I felt relaxed and confident,” Ritchie recalls. “It’s quite a bit different feeling than every race the rest of the year. Going into your first World Cups and Europa Cups, you’re not a favorite to win. I don’t know if it’s easier or harder, it just feels different.”

As Ritchie reflected on his junior career, he highlighted the big goals he hit last season by scoring World Cup points and winning junior world championships alongside his team experience in the 2019 junior world race and first World Cup start. While reminiscing on his previous season, which he described as “a lot of fun and pretty weird,” Ritchie hopes to bring more consistency into his skiing, training, and mental game going into the Olympic season. 

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                            Ben Ritchie