New Mexico’s Rasanen named to Finnish national team

By Published On: May 19th, 2014Comments Off on New Mexico’s Rasanen named to Finnish national team
Joonas Rasanen at the 2014 Adelboden World Cup. GEPA/Wolfgang Grebien

Joonas Rasanen at the 2014 Adelboden World Cup. GEPA/Wolfgang Grebien

World Cup alpine team selections for the 2014-15 season have been confirmed by Ski Sport Finland, and 2013 NCAA and World University Games slalom champion Joonas Rasanen of the University of New Mexico has been named to the men’s B-team. Rasanen, a sophomore on the Lobos squad, had three World Cup starts in 2014, at Adelboden, Kitzbuehel, and Schladming, but he has yet to qualify for a second run on the premier stage.

Rasanen joins University of Vermont graduate Jonathan Nordbotten, who was named to the Norwegian World Cup team, and University of Utah’s Mark Engel, a member of the U.S. Alpine B Team, as NCAA skiers promoted to their respective national teams for the 2014-15 season.

The Finnish women’s national team will consist of a single athlete since Merle Soppela was the only skier to meet criteria for the B-team and Tanja Poutiainen has retired.

Ski Sport Finland’s alpine national teams for 2014-2015

Women’s B-team: Merle Soppela

Men’s A-team: Marcus Sandell, Andreas Romar, Santeri Paloniemi, Samu Torsti.

Men’s B-team: Eemeli Pirinen, Victor Malmstroem, Jens Henttinen, Joonas Räsänen, Juho Dahl, Max Luukko.

Coaches: Janne Haarala, Alessandro Serra, Mitja Zupan, Jukka Leino, Sergej Poljšak.

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About the Author: C.J. Feehan

Christine J. Feehan is a USSA Level 300 coach who spent more than a decade training athletes at U.S. ski academies - Burke, Sugar Bowl, and Killington - before serving as Editor in Chief at Ski Racing Media through 2017. She worked for the FIS on the World Cup tour for three years and then settled into her current home in Oslo, Norway.