U.S. ALPINE SKI TEAM NEWS

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Duke Second in Coronet Peak Slalom

Hailey Duke rails to slalom second in New Zealand (Coronet Peak/Michael Thomas)

CORONET PEAK, New Zealand (Aug. 17) - Olympian Hailey Duke (Boise, ID) sliced through soft snow and difficult visibility Tuesday to finish second in an Australia New Zealand Cup slalom held at Coronet Peak.

Canadian Marie-Michele Gagnon, who was second in giant slalom on Monday, won the race with teammate Madison Irwin grabbing third. Coronet was also good to the Canadian men as they repeated the U.S. giant slalom performance with a podium sweep led by Patrick Biggs.
Nolan Kasper (Warren, VT), who raced in the 2010 Olympic slalom, nabbed the top American slot with fifth followed by David Chodounsky (Crested Butte, CO) in sixth.

Duke made an equipment switch earlier this spring to Fischer boots and the fit is working well with her ski set-up from Voelkl.

"Hailey was struggling a bit last season with her equipment and the boot change has helped quite a bit," said Head Coach Alex Hoedlmoser. "She's doing a good job adjusting. It's been a solid camp for her."

The race closed a nearly two-and-a-half week training camp for U.S. women. Next up is an extended on snow camp in Chile where the focus will move toward speed training with downhill and super G.

Australia New Zealand Cup
Coronet Peak, New Zealand
August 17, 2010
Men's Slalom

1. Patrick Biggs, Canada, 1:30.28
2. David Donaldson, Canada, 1:30.74
3. Trevor White, Canada, 1:31.74
4. Tim Lindren, Sweden, 1:31.42
5. Nolan Kasper, Warren, VT, 1:31.42
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Women's Slalom
1. Marie-Michele Gagnon, Canada, 1:36.49
2. Hailey Duke, Boise, ID, 1:38.73
3. Madison Irwin, Canada, 1:40.60
4. Sarah Jarvis, New Zealand, 1:41.19
5. Madison McLeish, Canada, 1:41.93

is settling back into the Pacific time zone following two weeks of training in New Zealand. In between the obligatory repair projects on his long-time home in Mammoth, he reflected on the success of the Team's on-snow camp down under.

U.S. SKI TEAM: The team bounced around a bit in New Zealand this time around, how did varying training locations go?

WHITE: It went really well. I went down to New Zealand a few days before the rest of the team arrived to scope out Cardrona. Normally we spend most of the camp at Coronet Peak, but Cardrona worked out to be an excellent location. It's good to mix things up in order to get the athletes training on varied terrain, so we ended up spending three days training super G at Cardrona.

U.S. SKI TEAM: How'd the athletes react to the change of scenery?

WHITE: As with any camp, we had good days and bad days where everyone get's a little frustrated, but for the most part things were awesome. More than anything, we spent a lot of time on super hard injected snow, which is something we struggled with last season. As a group, I know we're all much more confident now on hard surfaces.

U.S. SKI TEAM: There's been some equipment shuffling among the athletes, how did the girls look on their new skis?

WHITE: That was definitely a highlight. Julia [Mancuso, Olympic Valley, CA] looked great on her Voekl's and Chelsea [Marshall, Pittsfield, VT] was super strong on her new setup from Head, Leanne [Smith, North Conway, NH] made the jump to Rossignol and seems to be settling into it nicely. Plus Lindsey [Vonn, Vail, CO] spent a lot of time working with her tech skis and left feeling really confident. Alice [McKennis, Glenwood Springs, CO] didn't switch from Atomic, but it's worth noting the huge strides she made in giant slalom at this camp.

To see Vonn, Mancuso and Marshall rip New Zealand, check out the U.S. Ski Team YouTube Channel.

U.S. SKI TEAM: Any other group victories of note?

WHITE: For sure, the atmosphere among this team is great. From the athletes to the staff, everyone is really energized. Across the board, there wasn't a single bit of drop off in terms of effort throughout the camp. For the athletes, that has a lot to do with the time they've put in on their conditioning and it definitely is paying off. For the staff, it's a good dynamic. This was the first time we were all together and it worked out great. There isn't a slacker among us, that's for sure.

U.S. SKI TEAM: Aside from some home repair, what's on deck?

WHITE: We're booked and ready to go to Portillo, Chile next month, so I'm working on some more planning there. They don't have a ton of snow right now. I've been monitoring the weather pretty closely, but I'm confident we'll have a good camp. I remember six or seven years ago, we went to Portillo on a tough snow year and just got creative with our training. It turned out to be an incredibly productive camp. Plus, we'll be moving over to Valle Nevado partway to do some technical training with Trevor's [Wagner, Technical Head Coach] group. In total, we're spending a week longer this time around in Chile, but that's going to save us a trip to Austria in early October, which the athletes are really excited about.

CORONET PEAK, New Zealand (Aug. 24) - American men capped four days of FIS Southern Cup alpine racing Tuesday with a giant slalom podium sweep led by Will Gregorak (Longmont, CO). In four races, the U.S. Ski Team hauled nine of 12 podium spots from a pair of slalom and giant slalom races at Coronet Peak.

Joining Gregorak on the series' closing podium was 2010 Olympian Tommy Ford (Bend, OR) in second followed by Warner Nickerson (Gilford, NH). Gregorak also stood atop the podium on Aug. 23 during the first GS with Nickerson in third.

In the opening slalom races held Aug. 21-22, reigning Junior World combined champion Colby Granstrom (Lake Stevens, WA) captured victory in the first race followed by Ford and fellow Olympian Tim Jitloff (Reno, NV).

Jitloff, who opted to focus his World Cup training for the 2011 Audi FIS Alpine World Ski Championships season on slalom, upgraded to second the following day before the races moved to GS.

Hosted by Japan, the FIS Southern Cup traditionally attracts the strongest ski racing fields in the Southern Hemisphere along with a deep pool of racers north of the equator who make New Zealand their August training grounds.

The U.S. Ski Team is no exception as they wind down a nearly three-week training camp later this week. The women's U.S. Ski Team returned home following the Continental Cup races last week to refuel before moving to Chile in early September.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS Southern Cup
Coronet Peak, New Zealand
August 21-24, 2010

Men's Slalom - Aug. 21
1. Colby Granstrom, Lake Stevens, WA, 1:24.27
2. Tommy Ford, Bend, OR, 1:24.90
3. Tim Jitloff, Reno, NV, 1:25.10
4. Charles Christianson, Anchorage, 1:25.74
5. Nolan Kasper, Warren, VT, 1:25.89
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Women's Slalom - Aug. 21
1. Lena Duerr, Germany, 1:30.18
2. Mizue Hoshi, Japan, 1:31.84
3. Elena Prosteva, Russia, 1:33.31
4. Kaori Mizukushi, Japan, 1:33.50
5. Chloe Fausa, Norway, 1:34.17
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Men's Slalom - Aug. 22
1. David Donaldson, Canada, 1:31.01
2. Tim Jitloff, Reno, NV, 1:31.16
3. Erik Read, Canada, 1:31.38
4. Grant Jampolsky, San Rafael, CA, 1:32.79
5. Andreas Knauss, Austria, 1:33.39
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Women's Slalom - Aug. 22
1. Mizue Hoshi, Japan, 1:34.94
2. Anastasia Kedrina, Russia, 1:37.11
3. Anna Sorokina, Russia, 1:37.11
4. Sarah Jarvis, New Zealand, 1:37.56
5. Kaori Mizukushi, Japan, 1:38.08
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Men's Giant Slalom - Aug. 23
1. Will Gregorak, Longmont, CO, 1:38.67
2. Benjamin Griffin, New Zealand, 1:38.90
3. Warner Nickerson, Gilford, NH, 1:38.94
4. David Chodounsky, Crested Butte, CO, 1:39.94
5. David Donaldson, Canada, 1:39.20
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Women's Giant Slalom - Aug. 23
1. Christina Geiger, Germany, 1:47.14
2. Fanny Chmelar, Germany, 1:47.56
3. Elena Prosteva, Russia, 1:48.18
4. Mizue Hoshi, Japan, 1:48.60
5. Vladislava Bureeva, Russia, 1:48.74
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Men's Giant Slalom - Aug. 24
1. Will Gregorak, Longmont, CO, 1:43.02
2. Tommy Ford, Bend, OR, 1:43.24
3. Warner Nickerson, Gilford, NH, 1:43.50
4. Colby Granstrom, Lake Stevens, WA, 1:43.61
5. Jon Olsson, Sweden, 1:43.62
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Women's Giant Slalom - Aug. 24
1. Chloe Fausa, Norway, 1:46.50
2. Christina Geiger, Germany, 1:47.92
3. Mizue Hoshi, Japan, 1:48.28
4. Vladislava Bureeva, Russia, 1:48.61
5. Kaori Mizukushi, Japan, 1:48.98

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