Photo: GEPA pictures

In his second season with Global Racing, the New Hampshire athlete charges to next level

George Steffey has faced mental and physical hurdles over the last two years, including getting kicked off the U.S. Ski Team.

However, this season he has turned things around and raised his rank and some eyebrows

The 25-year-old was the only American to score points in the recent World Cup giant slalom race in Palisades Tahoe. His 21^st place marked the long-awaited inaugural Cup points of his career.

“I definitely feel I broke the ice,” Steffey says. “It was an unbelievable experience to do it at home in the U.S. in front of a lot of friends and family. It gives me a lot of confidence to punch it in there deeper next time and to know I can mix it up with some of the best guys on difficult hills.”

Early success

Growing up in Lyme, New Hampshire, Steffey graduated from Stratton Mountain School in 2015 and joined the U.S. Ski Team the following season. During the 2016 season, he became National Junior Slalom and Giant Slalom champion. He defended his GS title in 2017 and started landing on Nor-Am podiums in GS, super-G and combined. He wrapped up the 2018 season as National Junior GS and slalom champ, but a knee injury sidelined him the following season. For 2019-2020, he worked his way back, re-establishing his prowess on the Nor-Am circuit, winning another GS race and finishing in the top five in slalom and parallel.

In the following 2020-21 season, Steffey was named to the U.S. B Team. However, his results hit a bit of a lull.

Kicked off U.S. Team

“I struggled with a few things, especially in GS,” he says. “But that year wasn’t terrible for me. I got it going in slalom, had a Europa Cup top 10, and I still had a World Cup spot the following year. I herniated a disc in my back in February 2021.  They kicked me off the U.S. Team in spring of ’21.”

After a series of injections in his back, Steffey began feeling better. That summer, he realized that if he wanted to continue racing, he’d have to take everything into his own hands. Truly, everything.

“Getting kicked off the U.S. Team was pretty tough for me because I’d been on it for several years, since nearly high school. It was kind of a kick in the ass. But it was cool to take over every aspect of my program, from the physical conditioning side of things, hiring a serviceman, planning out some of my travel, preparing myself for races,” he says. “All the things that get done for you when you’re on the U.S. Team, you have to figure out on your own. I think that was really good for me. It forced me to take ownership of every little piece of my ski racing.”

Self-management

He joined Global Racing in the summer of 2021 and set up a fundraising page at World Cup Dreams. He launched into last season with a series of top-five Nor-AM results and what was at the time a career-best sixth place in a Europa Cup GS. In spring 2022, he switched equipment to Völkl/Marker/Dalbello.

His career has skyrocketed this season. Despite starting the fall with some nagging back pain, Steffey overcame it by December to land his first Europa Cup podiums back-to-back in a pair of GS races in Obergurgl, Austria. This February, he notched his first Europa Cup win, a Global Racing podium sweep in Folgaria, Italy, with his teammates Harry Laidlaw and Hannes Zingerle finishing second and third, respectively.

“It’s pretty freaking awesome to get a podium sweep with your team, especially for your first Europa Cup win,” he says. “Europa Cups, in general, especially that series with a lot of World Cup guys, are definitely more competitive than Nor-Ams. If you make a mistake and you’re two seconds out, a Nor-Am might put you in the top 15 or top 10. At a Europa Cup, it could land you well outside the top 30.”

World Cup breakthrough

A few weeks later, Steffey competed against the sport’s stiffest competition. Although he had notched several World Cup starts (his debut in Beaver Creek 2019), safe one parallel race in which he finished 59, he had never finished or qualified for a second run. At Palisades, however, starting with bib No. 38, Steffey took 26^th in the first run and finished the race 21st. He followed up with a Nor-Am GS win in Tremblant this month and a fifth and seventh in slalom.

Now, back in Europe, where Steffey has a seasonal home near Innsbruck, Austria, where he and his teammates have easy access to on-snow training, the men’s World Cup approaches its last (pre-finals) tech races of the season in Kranjska Gora this weekend. The New Hampshire skier is hoping to keep his momentum going. Also, he’s planning on re-joining the U.S. Team next season.

“It will be nice to not have to spend all this time raising money in the off-season and be able to focus on some other things,” he says, adding that last season’s expenses totaled around $90,000. “It’s no small order, but I’m extremely fortunate to have a lot of people who have been really helpful and supportive in donating and also showing me how the hell to raise money.”

Lessons learned

He’ll return to the national squad with fresh wisdom.

“I definitely learned some things from Global that I can take with me,” he says. “For example, it’s important to have a home base here in Europe, especially in the fall when you’re here so much. It gives you the option of running a different style of training as opposed to just going from hotel to hotel. You can return to a place where you can unwind a little more and sleep in what feels like your own bed.”

In the meantime, Steffey has a season to wrap up and gratitude to convey.

“I’m just going to stay focused on skiing as fast as I can, hammer down the rest of the season and see where it takes me,” he says. “I want to thank  Global Racing, all the people who have made my season possible, and the people at Völkl, Marker, Dalbello. The equipment has been really important and they support us well. I couldn’t have done it without a lot of people helping me out.”