USSA names alpine team: Ligety, Miller, Kildow, Mancuso are back

OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS Ted Ligety and Julia Mancuso plus reigning downhill and super G world champion and former World Cup overall champion Bode Miller headline the 2007 U.S. alpine ski team.
    Alpine Director Jesse Hunt said the group includes 23 men and 18 women; 18 are Olympians, including 16 who were on the 2006 Olympic team in Torino, Italy. In addition, there are three women invited to train with the C team and 11 development team athletes. Among those retiring was Daron Rahlves, the all-time best U.S. men's downhiller (nine World Cup wins, three more in super G), 2001 super G world champion and double medalist at the 2005 worlds.
    "No question, this is one of our strongest teams in terms of talent and depth," Hunt said. "This is the key ingredient for reaching our team goal of winning at every level of international competition. The past few years we've been very focused on Olympic performance and now we are recentering our program and once again critically evaluating support at every level.
    "We have young skiers coming up who are pushing the veterans … and we've got young skiers like Ted and Julia with their Olympic gold medals, Lindsey Kildow with three World Cup wins last season, and we've got outstanding experience. Bode will go into the World Championships as the current downhill and super G world champion, Erik Schlopy and 'Clarky' [Kirsten Clark] have shown their leadership every season."

Named to the 2007 alpine squad (age, hometown and * if an Olympian):

Men's A team
Ted Ligety (22; Park City, Utah*), Bode Miller (28; Bretton Woods, N.H.*); Bryon Friedman 26; Park City, Utah), Scott Macartney (28; Redmond, Wash.*), Steve Nyman (24; Orem, Utah*), Erik Schlopy (34; Park City, Utah*) and Dane Spencer (28; Boise, Idaho*);

Men's B team
Roger Brown (24; Norwich, Vt.), Jimmy Cochran (25; Keene, N.H.*), Erik Fisher (21; Eagle, Idaho), Kevin Francis (24; Bend, Ore.), JJ Johnson (29; Park City, Utah), T.J. Lanning (22; Park City, Utah), Paul McDonald (22; Bellevue, Wash.), Warner Nickerson (25; Gilford, N.H.), Tom Rothrock (28; Cashmere, Wash.*), Marco Sullivan (26; Squaw Valley, Calif.*) and Jake Zamansky (25; Aspen, Colo.),

Men's C team
Chris Beckmann (19; Altamont, N.Y.), Tim Jitloff (21; Reno, Nev.), Tim Kelley (20; Starksboro, Vt.), Jeremy Transue (23; Hunter, N.Y.) and Andrew Weibrecht (20; Lake Placid, N.Y.)

Women's A team
Kirsten Clark (29; Raymond, Maine*), Stacey Cook (22; Mammoth, Calif.*), Lindsey Kildow (21; Vail, Colo.*), Caroline Lalive (27; Steamboat Springs, Colo.*), Libby Ludlow (25; Bellevue, Wash.*), Julia Mancuso (22; Olympic Valley, Calif.*), Sarah Schleper (27; Vail, Colo.*) and Resi Stiegler (20; Jackson Hole, Wyo.*)

Women's B team
Katie Hitchcock (21; Carmichael, Calif.), Jessica Kelley (23; Starksboro, Vt.), Megan McJames (19; Park City, Utah), Kaylin Richardson (22 on Thursday; Edina, Minn.*) and Lauren Ross (24; Stowe, Vt.)

Women's C team
Caitlin Ciccone (21; Bethlehem, N.H.), Sterling Grant (18; Amery, Wis.), Keely Kelleher (22; Big Sky, Mont.), Jenny Lathrop (23; North Conway, N.H.) and Julia Littman (22; Vail, Colo.)

Women's C team invitees
Laurel Carter (19; Norwich, Vt.), Chelsea Marshall (20; Pittsfield, Vt.) and Jilyne McDonald (20; Bellevue, Wash.)

Development team – men
Will Brandenburg (19; Spokane, Wash.), Travis Ganong (18; Olympic Valley, Calif.), Max Hammer (18; Jackson Hole, Wyo.), Bump Heldman (17; Auburn, Maine) and Todd Thibodeau (20; Freedom, N.H.).

Development team – women
Lindsey Cone (18; Killington, Vt.), Courtney Hammond (19; Mercer Island, Wash.), Lyndee Janowiak (19; Manistee, Mich.), Laurenne Ross (18; Klamath Falls, Ore.), Leanne Smith (19, Conway, N.H.), Kiley Staples (17; Park City, Utah) and Elizabeth Woods (18; Aspen, Colo.)

    "Having 'D' [Rahlves] move on presents a challenge, but I'm confident we have the talent to help fill that gap," Hunt said. "One of our goals is to get closer to Austria in the Nations Cup [where the U.S. Ski Team has been second for the last two seasons]; realistically, they just have so many numbers and such depth to stay ahead, and especially losing Daron and Kristina [Koznick] to retirement takes away a lot of points for us, but we want to keep chipping away, maintain our position on the other nations … and keep moving forward."
    Preseason training has been "outstanding," he said, as the men's and women's squads head to South America for their traditional speed camps in Chile. "Bode's back with a good focus, that group of '84s' [athletes born in 1984 — Ligety, Mancuso, Kildow plus Lanning, Richardson and Cook] is coming on strong … and we're looking for another strong season on the World Cup and at the World Championships."
    The World Cup season begins Oct. 28-29 on the Rettenbach Glacier above Soelden, Austria. North American World Cups will be Nov. 25-26 with women's racing (two giant slaloms and a slalom) during the Aspen Winternational in Aspen, Colo., plus men's downhill and super G at Lake Louise, Alberta; Nov. 28-Dec. 3 for the VISA Birds of Prey races (DH, GS, SL and super combined, i.e., one run of DH and one run of slalom in the same day) at Beaver Creek, Colo.; and two women's downhills and a super G Dec. 1-3 at Lake Louise. The FIS World Alpine Sk
i Championships will be Feb. 3-18 in Are, Sweden.
    In addition to Rahlves and six-time World Cup winner Koznick, retirement claimed former worlds medalist Jonna Mendes and downhiller Bryna McCarty.

— USSA