Olympic top-10 finisher Kyle Negomir joins Stöckli after the strongest season of his career, highlighted by earning top-30 World Cup Start List (WCSL) rankings in both downhill and super-G and narrowly missing qualification for the World Cup Finals.
Kyle Negomir’s best season as a World Cup skier ended on a mixed note.
The Stifel U.S. Ski Team speed specialist narrowly missed qualifying for the World Cup Finals in super-G, finishing 26th in the discipline standings, one position outside the cutoff. Yet he also recorded the best World Cup result of his career with an 11th-place finish in the Val Gardena-Gröden downhill, climbed to 25th in the downhill World Cup Start List rankings and delivered a breakthrough performance at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Now, the 27-year-old American is taking another step forward.
Negomir has signed with Swiss ski manufacturer Stöckli, beginning a partnership he believes can help him continue building on the momentum he generated last winter.
“I was sort of just feeling like I was hitting a place where I wanted some sort of fresh motivation,” Negomir told Ski Racing Media. “I wanted something fresh or at least to see what else was out there and then feel more confident in my decision.”
The timing is significant.
After years of working through injuries and steadily improving his results, Negomir appears to be entering an important stage of his career. The Colorado native has established himself as a regular World Cup points scorer, earned top-30 World Cup Start List rankings in both downhill and super-G and shown he can compete with some of the world’s best speed skiers on the sport’s biggest stages.
For both Negomir and Stöckli, the partnership begins with the belief that there is more to come.
From Vail to the World Cup
Long before he was racing the world’s most demanding downhill tracks, Negomir was developing his skills in Colorado.
He trained with the Ski & Snowboard Club Vail and graduated from the Vail Ski & Snowboard Academy in 2017 before advancing through the U.S. development pipeline and earning a spot on the Stifel U.S. Ski Team.
The journey has taken longer than he hoped.
Several injuries interrupted important stages of his development and forced him to rebuild more than once. Yet each setback became another step forward. Last season provided the clearest evidence yet.
Negomir finished 26th in the World Cup super-G standings, narrowly missing qualification for the World Cup Finals by a single position. Meanwhile, he posted career-best rankings in both speed disciplines and recorded the best World Cup result of his career with an 11th-place finish in the Val Gardena-Gröden downhill.
Negomir’s World Cup Start List rankings, which determine start positions and bib groups, provided further evidence of his progress. Boosted by his Olympic downhill performance, Negomir finished the season ranked 25th in downhill and 28th in super-G on the World Cup Start List, placing him among the sport’s top-30 racers in both speed disciplines heading into next winter.
Then came the Olympics.
Competing in four events at the 2026 Winter Games, Negomir produced the performance of his career in the downhill, finishing 10th against one of the best fields in alpine skiing.
The result reinforced what his World Cup season had already suggested. Negomir was no longer simply trying to establish himself on the circuit. Instead, he was beginning to show he could challenge many of the sport’s top speed skiers when the stakes were highest.
Why did Stöckli make sense?
The move was not driven by a single ski test.
Rather, it was the result of building relationships and accumulating observations and experiences over time.
Negomir spends much of the year based in Europe and has become increasingly familiar with the people and athletes connected to Stöckli’s race program. As he watched the brand’s presence continue to grow in World Cup speed racing, the opportunity became more appealing.
“Especially with me being in Switzerland so many days and seeing all these guys, the equipment is obviously fast,” Negomir said. “It ended up being a pretty logical next step.”
Following the World Cup Finals, Negomir remained in Kvitfjell, Norway, for training and testing alongside teammates Bryce Bennett and Ryan Cochran-Siegle. The experience helped confirm what he had already begun to believe.
“I’ve always believed that once you choose your path, you go all in,” Negomir said in Stöckli’s announcement. “That mindset shapes how I approach skiing every day. Joining Stöckli felt right from the very first runs. I had immediate confidence in the skis and in the people behind them.”
For a skier trying to move from consistent top-20 results toward regular top-10 contention, that confidence matters.
The margins in downhill and super-G are measured in hundredths of a second. Consequently, trust in equipment, technicians and the overall support structure becomes increasingly important.
What excites Negomir about Stöckli?
For Negomir, one of the most attractive aspects of the partnership was the opportunity to work closely with the people behind the product.
Because his European base is near Stöckli’s Swiss headquarters, he sees the potential for greater direct access to the technicians and developers who build the skis he races.
“I think to be able to have the factory so close to where my home base is in Europe is going to be huge,” Negomir said. “To be able to work with such a small team where you know all of the guys in the factory, it’s such a close-knit group.”
The resources Stöckli dedicates to racing impressed Negomir just as much.
“I don’t think I would be getting support like this from any other company,” Negomir said. “The amount of effort they put into their race team and being so selective about the athletes they take, they’re able to do it where they have guys testing skis almost constantly and doing all the development.”
Negomir also credited the program’s culture and his connection with former Stöckli Racing Director Marc Gisin for making the decision easier.
That belief was shared by Gisin, who said in Stöckli’s announcement that Negomir’s work ethic, focus and Olympic performance made him a natural addition to the brand.
“Kyle represents exactly the type of athlete we want to work with,” Gisin said. “Driven, focused and with a clear sense of purpose. His Olympic performance showed what he is capable of on the biggest stage.”
Looking beyond the World Cup Finals
Despite finishing one position outside qualification for the World Cup Finals in super-G, Negomir does not view the season through the lens of what might have been.
Three late-season super-G cancellations cost Negomir opportunities to improve his ranking and make a final push for the top 25. Nevertheless, his focus remains well above simply qualifying for the Finals.
“My goal’s definitely to not be in any sort of place next year where I’m worried about making World Cup Finals,” Negomir said. “That’s not my goal.”
That answer says as much about Negomir’s future as any result from last season.
At 27, he is entering an age when many downhill and super-G racers produce their strongest skiing. The Olympic top-10 finish, the career-best World Cup season and the move to Stöckli all point toward an athlete who believes his best years are still ahead.
The goal is not to move from 26th to 25th.
The goal is to become a skier who expects to compete with the world’s best every weekend.
After the season he just delivered, that ambition appears increasingly realistic.
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