Latest news with #U.S.SkiandSnowboard
NBC Sports
2 days ago
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Alex Hall leads first four skiers to make U.S. Olympic team for 2026 Milan Cortina Games
Reigning Olympic slopestyle gold medalist Alex Hall is among the first four skiers to make the U.S. team for the 2026 Milan Cortina Games. Hall is joined by Olympic silver medalists Alex Ferreira (halfpipe) and Jaelin Kauf (moguls), plus aerials skier Quinn Dehlinger in securing early qualification. Each made the team as the highest-ranked American who is also ranked in the top three in the world on International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) lists. Hall, 26, shares No. 1 on the FIS men's slopestyle list with Norwegian Birk Ruud, the 2022 Olympic big air gold medalist and two-time reigning world champion in slopestyle. Hall has won five World Cups between big air and slopestyle since his Olympic title in 2022. Ferreira, 30, shares No. 1 on the FIS men's halfpipe list with Finley Melville Ives, and 18-year-old from New Zealand who won the world title in March. Ferreira won Olympic halfpipe silver in 2018 and bronze in 2022. This past season, he took second at X Games and third at the world championships, each time placing one spot behind countryman Nick Goepper. In the 2023-24 season, Ferreira won all seven of his competitions and became the first U.S. male freestyle skier to have an undefeated World Cup campaign in an event that's on the Olympic program. Goepper, a three-time Olympic slopestyle medalist, is ranked third on the FIS list and this upcoming season can clinch his Olympic spot in his new event of halfpipe. Kauf, the 2022 Olympic moguls silver medalist, is coming off winning the World Cup season titles in moguls and dual moguls, plus winning the world championships title in dual moguls. She shares No. 1 on the FIS women's moguls list with 2018 Olympic gold medalist Perrine Laffont of France. While moguls has been on the Olympic medal program since 1992, dual moguls makes its Olympic debut in 2026, giving Kauf two medal chances. Dehlinger, 22, is tied for fourth on the FIS men's aerials list. For U.S. Olympic qualifying purposes, Dehlinger moves up one spot as Russian Maxim Burov retained his higher ranking while not being eligible to compete. FIS has excluded all Russian skiers from competition since shortly after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Dehlinger is set to make his Olympic debut in 2026. At the last two world championships, he took gold in the mixed-gender team event and silver in the individual event behind Swiss Noe Roth. Dehlinger hails from the same small ski area as Goepper — Perfect North Slopes in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Another aerials skier, 2022 Olympian Winter Vinecki, is ranked third on the FIS list but did not secure early qualification because she retained that ranking due to injury, according to U.S. Ski and Snowboard. She can still make the team — which is expected to include four total female aerialists — closer to the Games. The four skiers join four other athletes across all sports who have made the U.S. Olympic team already — snowboarders Chloe Kim and Red Gerard and the mixed doubles curling team of Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin. The Olympic team will ultimately include around 200 athletes. Nick Zaccardi,
NBC Sports
18-02-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Copper Mountain set to host women's, men's Alpine skiing World Cup races next season
Next season, Copper Mountain, Colorado is set to become the first U.S. site to hold both women's and men's Alpine skiing World Cup regular season races on the same weekend in 23 years. The Stifel Copper Cup on Thanksgiving weekend from Nov. 27-30 will hold women's giant slalom and slalom and men's super-G and giant slalom races, pending International Ski and Snowboard Federation council approval this spring. Killington, Vermont, has been an annual host of Thanksgiving weekend women's World Cup races since 2016 but will not be part of next season's World Cup due to the replacement of their Superstar course lift, according to U.S. Ski and Snowboard. The women's races are expected to return to Killington in 2026. Copper Mountain previously hosted World Cup races in 1976, 1999 and 2001 as a replacement venue. Next season would be the first time it is a primary World Cup venue. It would be the first North American stop of the men's World Cup season in 2025-26 and the only U.S. stop of the women's World Cup. The last time a U.S. stop hosted both women's and men's World Cup regular season races on the same weekend was when Park City, Utah, did so in November 2002. In 2011, Beaver Creek, Colorado, held one women's race on a Wednesday (as a replacement venue) in between days of men's World Cup races there. The U.S. also hosted the season-ending World Cup Finals — where women's and men's races are held on the same day for high-ranked skiers only — in 2017 (Aspen, Colorado) and will do so again this March (Sun Valley, Idaho). This season's Alpine skiing World Cup continues this weekend with women's races in Sestriere, Italy, on Friday (giant slalom), Saturday (giant slalom) and Sunday (slalom) and men's races in Crans Montana, Switzerland, on Saturday (downhill) and Sunday (super-G). In Sestriere, Mikaela Shiffrin will continue her bid for a 100th career World Cup win. Nick Zaccardi,
NBC Sports
11-02-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Mikaela Shiffrin, Breezy Johnson win world championships team combined; Shiffrin breaks medal record
Americans Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson won the first team combined race in World Alpine Skiing Championships history as Shiffrin earned a record-tying 15th career world medal. Johnson, who won the downhill world title last Saturday, had the fourth-fastest downhill run on Tuesday. Shiffrin was third-fastest in the slalom. They prevailed by 39 hundredths of a second over Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami and Wendy Holdener. Shiffrin tied the all-time record with her 15th career world championships medal. Shiffrin already held the modern-era record since worlds became a biennial event after World War II. In the 1930s, worlds were held annually. ALPINE SKIING WORLDS: Results | Broadcast Schedule Shiffrin raced for the second time since being sidelined for two months after tearing oblique muscles in a Nov. 30 giant slalom crash. The other U.S. pairs placed fourth (Lauren Macuga, Paula Moltzan), 10th (Jackie Wiles and Katie Hensien) and 16th (Lindsey Vonn and AJ Hurt) on Tuesday. Vonn placed 21st in the downhill run, 2.51 seconds behind Macuga, as she continues her comeback from a five-year retirement. Vonn plans to retire for good after the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, should she make the team next winter, which would make the team combined her final world championships race. Vonn will not race the last two individual events at worlds, Thursday's giant slalom and Saturday's slalom. The team combined is making its world championships debut this year and its Olympic debut next year, replacing the individual combined. Nations field up to four teams of one downhill skier and one slalom skier for one run each. Final standings are determined by combined times. The U.S. pairings for worlds were determined by what U.S. Ski and Snowboard called 'data-driven selection criteria,' including 'matching the top downhill skier with the top slalom skier based off of season-best results, then moving down the list of athletes to create four potential teams.' Worlds continue Wednesday with the men's team combined, live at 4 and 7:15 a.m. ET on Peacock. Nick Zaccardi,
NBC Sports
11-02-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Mikaela Shiffrin, Breezy Johnson win world championships team combined; Shiffrin ties medal record
Americans Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson won the first team combined race in World Alpine Skiing Championships history as Shiffrin earned a record-tying 15th career world medal. Johnson, who won the downhill world title last Saturday, had the fourth-fastest downhill run on Tuesday. Shiffrin was third-fastest in the slalom. They prevailed by 39 hundredths of a second over Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami and Wendy Holdener. Shiffrin tied the all-time record with her 15th career world championships medal. Shiffrin already held the modern-era record since worlds became a biennial event after World War II. In the 1930s, worlds were held annually. ALPINE SKIING WORLDS: Results | Broadcast Schedule Shiffrin raced for the second time since being sidelined for two months after tearing oblique muscles in a Nov. 30 giant slalom crash. The other U.S. pairs placed fourth (Lauren Macuga, Paula Moltzan), 10th (Jackie Wiles and Katie Hensien) and 16th (Lindsey Vonn and AJ Hurt) on Tuesday. Vonn placed 21st in the downhill run, 2.51 seconds behind Macuga, as she continues her comeback from a five-year retirement. Vonn plans to retire for good after the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, should she make the team next winter, which would make the team combined her final world championships race. Vonn will not race the last two individual events at worlds, Thursday's giant slalom and Saturday's slalom. The team combined is making its world championships debut this year and its Olympic debut next year, replacing the individual combined. Nations field up to four teams of one downhill skier and one slalom skier for one run each. Final standings are determined by combined times. The U.S. pairings for worlds were determined by what U.S. Ski and Snowboard called 'data-driven selection criteria,' including 'matching the top downhill skier with the top slalom skier based off of season-best results, then moving down the list of athletes to create four potential teams.' Worlds continue Wednesday with the men's team combined, live at 4 and 7:15 a.m. ET on Peacock. Nick Zaccardi,
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Jaelin Kauf, Quinn Dehlinger win at Deer Valley freestyle ski World Cup
Olympic silver medalist Jaelin Kauf earned her first World Cup moguls victory in more than six years while extending her podium streak to seven events in a row between moguls and dual moguls. Kauf, a 28-year-old Wyoming native, took the Intermountain Health Freestyle International presented by Stifel at Deer Valley, Utah, on Thursday night. She scored 80.75 points in the super final, edging 2018 Olympic gold medalist Perrine Laffont of France (79.63). She did so in front of family and friends who carried large letter J signs and on the third anniversary of her Olympic medal-winning performance in China. Kauf ranks second in this season's World Cup moguls standings behind Laffont (in the notable absence of injured 2022 Olympic champion Jakara Anthony of Australia). Kauf is ranked No. 1 in dual moguls, which makes its Olympic debut in 2026. On Friday, American Quinn Dehlinger won the aerials event at Deer Valley after missing most of last season due to a knee injury that led to surgery. Dehlinger, a 22-year-old from the Cincinnati area, landed 'the Daddy' — a back full-double full-full — for 122.57 points, topping Dmytro Kotovskyi of Ukraine (115.49) and American Chris Lillis (104.43), who both performed the same trick. 'It's always been a dream to win here at Deer Valley,' Dehlinger said, according to U.S. Ski and Snowboard. 'Winning on home soil is just something different. This is the Super Bowl of aerials. The crowd is always the biggest, the environment is always the best, so to win here is something special.' Before last year's injury, Dehlinger won silver at the 2023 World Championships as the youngest American man to ever make an individual Olympic or world championships aerials podium. He's the only American man to win an aerials World Cup in the last four years. In 2022, he was the highest-ranked American man to not make the Olympic aerials team. Competition in Deer Valley concludes with dual moguls on Saturday. Deer Valley highlights air Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock. 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics: New sport, events on Winter Games program In 2026, the Winter Olympics welcome a new medal sport for the first time since 1964. Nick Zaccardi, Nick Zaccardi,
