US women’s Europa Cup team ends summer on high note

By Published On: October 3rd, 2014Comments Off on US women’s Europa Cup team ends summer on high note
The Europa Cup team wraps up on the final day of camp. Katie Ryan

The Europa Cup team wraps up on the final day of camp. Katie Ryan

The U.S. women’s Europa Cup team wrapped up their third and final training camp of the summer last week in Valle Nevado, Chile with high volume training and perfect snow conditions for the entire two-week block. The camp had a strong technical focus with several double sessions beginning with speed and then followed by giant slalom.

“They were long days, but well worth it,” said women’s Europa Cup head coach Trevor Wagner. “We trained a couple days of downhill but the rest was just technically based … we need to keep working on that (tech) because the (course) sets have been more controlled (in speed) and we have to be better in that area.”

The team, which is relatively small this year with only four nominated athletes, includes NorAm downhill and super G title champions Katie Ryan and Abby Ghent along with Anna Marno and Katharine Irwin. Sochi Olympian Julia Ford and development team member Breezy Johnson round out the group as two invitees, and Wagner served as the sole coach on the trip.

“We knew that (of the small group) from the beginning, Trevor sat us down in May and said that we need to be a family and we need to be united and luckily that is exactly what we’ve become,” commented Ryan, who plans to focus on gaining experience with more World Cup starts after racing her first in Lake Louise in 2013.

“Our team has been awesome,” added Marno, who will race primarily in NorAm and Europa Cup events, with the hope of adding to her lone World Cup start from Beaver Creek last season. “It’s a small group and everyone gets along really well and is really motivated to work and stick together.”

With the small numbers, Wagner chose to consolidate training and look for the best snow and training opportunities throughout the summer. After a May camp in Mammoth, Calif., the Europa Cup group took considerable time off to focus on physical training in Park City at USSA’s Center of Excellence. They started to ramp things up on snow during a short 10-day camp at Mt. Hood just a week before leaving for Chile. The physical training and time off of snow has already been paying dividends and the strength of the group is clearly evident.

“They (the athletes) were able to handle the volume of double sessions because of the physical training they put in this summer,” said Wagner. “We had a Hood camp close to Chile to prep the ski legs going into the Chile camp … (they) skied eight days of GS at Hood. That’s a lot, with super technical sets across the hill. It was really good for us, getting 10-12 runs a day, it was a lot of skiing leading up to Chile.”

Katie Ryan training in Chile. Pepi Culver

Katie Ryan training in Chile. Pepi Culver

“It was the most productive prep period I’ve ever had,” raved Ryan. “We were training (in Chile) from 7 a.m.-1 p.m. and then going out again from 4-5 p.m. to slip the hill … it made the super G track that we were training on the best surface I have ever seen in Chile … it was rock hard and bulletproof.”

While many teams changed their plans at the last minute due to reports of low snow levels in Chile, Wagner stuck to his schedule and trusted that a storm leading up to the camp in Valle Nevado would maintain a sufficient enough base for excellent training.

“We got lucky, (Valle Nevado) said three weeks before the camp that they were shutting down, then the storm came. … We’ve always had luck in Valle Nevado,” noted Wagner. “They were never grooming, we were having the girls come out and slip the hill in the afternoon. … It was warm and wet and then was cold at night leaving a hard, slick surface. It was the real deal.”

With the small group, Wagner has been able to gain valuable time with the athletes and is pleased with the results that he has seen thus far.

“They are skiing good … as far as the group, everyone was putting down fast runs. Some are still figuring stuff out, doing bootwork, trying different ski models, stiffness, and mounting positions,” he said. “We are trying to get that stuff dialed in on hard snow so that it is dialed in for the race season in Colorado.”

The Europa Cup team is currently focusing on the final steps of physical training before returning to snow on Oct. 24 in Colorado at the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center at Copper Mountain.

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About the Author: Jessica Kelley

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Ski Team, Kelley collected three NorAm titles, won GS silver at the 2002 World Junior Championships, and was a member of the 2007 World Championships team during her professional career. She resides in Park City, Utah, with her husband, Adam Cole.