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Title: |
World Cup Qualifier in Telluride! |
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Author: |
Martinique Davis |
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Date: |
06/25/2009 |
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World Cup Qualifier in Telluride!
by Martinique DavisJun 24, 2009 | 222 views | 0 | 1 | |
(file photo)
slideshow Snowboardcross and Parallel Giant Slalom Events Dec. 17-20 on Misty Maiden
MOUNTAIN VILLAGE – For the world’s preeminent winter sports athletes, all competitive roads lead to one shimmering finish line: Vancouver, Canada, the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
But before they can get there, they must prove themselves elsewhere. And for the world’s best snowboarders, the road to the 2010 Olympics may begin here in Telluride, as the Telluride Ski Resort will be the site of the only U.S.-hosted World Cup Olympic Qualifying event for snowboarding this coming winter.
The Telluride Ski Resort announced last week that it would host the 2010 Visa U.S. Snowboardcross Cup December 17-20, representing the sole U.S. stop of the LG FIS (Federation International de Ski) Snowboard World Cup tour. The event, which will be televised nationally on NBC and Versus, will feature Snowboardcross (SBX) and Parallel Giant Slalom (PGS) competitions during what will be the second in a series of five Olympic qualification events for the two sports.
“This is a really big deal, on several levels,” said Telluride Ski and Golf CEO Dave Riley in an interview this week. To start, hosting a nationally and internationally publicized event of the World Cup’s caliber puts Telluride in the international sports spotlight. “From a longer-term point of view, it’s one of the most effective things a ski area can do to get on the international radar,” Riley said, adding that he hopes this winter’s inaugural World Cup event at Telluride – the first World Cup ever hosted here – will be the first of many to come.
The fact that it’s an Olympic winter means the event will get even more attention than usual, in terms of the caliber and number of internationally ranked athletes that will attend, as well as the publicity it will receive since it is a precursor to the Olympics. Up to 500 athletes, coaches, and support staff are expected to converge upon the slopes at Telluride for the four-day event. U.S. snowboard luminaries including Seth Wescott, Nate Holland, Shaun Palmer and Lindsey Jacobellis will be among the many American snowboarders vying for spots on the United State’s 2010 Olympic Team at the Telluride event; they will face off against athletes from other international teams who will also compete for berths onto their country’s Olympic teams.
The event’s governing bodies (the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) and FIS) sent representatives including technical delegates and the World Cup snowboardcross course builder to Telluride last week for on-site review of the Telluride venue.
“They were thrilled with the venue sites,” reports Telski’s Executive Director of Resort Services Elizabeth Howe, who spent a full day touring the future SBX and PGS courses with the event’s organizers. The PGS course will be located on Upper Misty Maiden, with the finish line near Gorrono Ranch restaurant, while the SBX course will be build where the Jeep King of the Mountain course had been located in the past (starting below Gorrono and ending near the bottom of Lift 4.)
In addition to putting Telluride on the international snowboard competition map, this winter’s early season World Cup contest boasts the added benefit of bringing a major event to Telluride during a normally slow period. More importantly, Telluride will get early season television coverage thanks to the World Cup competition. The Jeep King of the Mountain once provided that early season traffic and publicity, but the pre-Christmas period has been quiet since the Jeep Series was cancelled at the start of last season.
“This is an even better event, because it has that international connection,” Riley said of the upcoming World Cup.
The Telluride-hosted World Cup has been in the making for many months, with a buzz about Telluride emerging after some of the country’s best snowboarders attended an early season snowboardcross camp here last winter.
It didn’t hurt that Telski CEO Riley is old friends with U.S. Snowboarding Head Coach Peter Foley, whom he knows from his prior post at Oregon’s Mt. Hood.
According to Foley, Telluride Resort will make a perfect home in the west for an early-season World Cup stop.
“We are very excited to be having our World Cup at Telluride. The hill they have is so good, and the snowmaking system is perfect for that time of year. No place in the world can get those kinds of courses done at that time of year,” Foley said. “We almost hate to share it with the rest of the world, but I think everyone is going to be amazed at the level of quality. I think it's going to be one of the best, if not the best, World Cup of the year – and we're going to be able to do it before Christmas.”
In addition to the support the Ski Area has already garnered from local lodgers and other early supporters (Telluride Town Manager Frank Bell and the Telluride Tourism Board’s Scott McQuade both sit on the event’s organizing committee), the event will also require upwards of 200 volunteers, Howe reports. Stay tuned for more information and coverage as the event date nears. |
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