14 SKIERS NAMED TO BC SKI TEAM TRAINING GROUP: HPP group identified

VANCOUVER, B.C. (May 23, 2014) – BC Alpine Ski Association is proud to announce 14 athletes named to a summer and fall Training Group with the goal of qualifying for full inclusion in the BC Ski Team for the 2014-15 season.

Led by returning veterans Dominic Unterberger (Revelstoke Ski Club), Alix Wells (Prince George Ski Club), Patrick Carry (Fernie Alpine Ski Team) and Blake Ramsden (Whistler Mtn Ski Club) – and pushed by an impressive up-and-coming crop of young racers – the group will be focussed on refining technical skills and overall fitness levels over the summer and fall months in preparation for the 2014-15 season.

“With the high turnover of athletes this year, this summer will have a steep learning curve for most, starting with understanding what it means to be part of the BCST, learning how to train, and how hard to push,” said Johnny Crichton, head coach. “We are going to rely on our returning veterans to be leaders in this process and show the new athletes the ropes.”

The group will be on snow at Mt. Hood, Oregon, in early July, followed by a centralized fitness block in Whistler for portions of July and August, a ski camp in Chile in September, followed by Nor-Am race preparations.

BC Alpine is also pleased to congratulate four skiers recently promoted to the Alpine Canada’s National Development Team: Broderick Thompson (Whistler Mtn Ski Club), Martin Grasic (Windermere Valley Ski Club), Brodie Seger (Whistler Mtn Ski Club). In addition, rising star James (Jack) Crawford (Whistler Mtn Ski Club) made the jump to the national development team, which commences immediately.

The BCST men’s program had a stellar season in 2014, highlighted by six Nor-Am junior podiums and six athletes invited to the Alpine Canada Development Team camp.

As an added bonus to the BC summer training plan, recently-retired World Cup slalom star Mike Janyk, will come back to his roots to help with preparing the BC Ski Team for the season as a guest coach at select projects.

The High Performance Program (HPP) and group of 17 skiers is also announced today. The club enhancement program, consisting of young racers aged 15 to 18 years representing eight BC Alpine clubs, will be highlighted by a training camp in Hintertux, Austria, in October, including a stop to spectate the World Cup opener in Solden, Austria, on Oct. 25th.

“The talent pool is getting deeper in BC and that means the clubs are doing a good job!” said Crichton. “Having four of the five men named to the development team shows we had a pretty good season, but we are far from done. We will continue to build our top tier system that provides our athletes with all the tools they need to reach their goals.”

The BCST Training Group was selected according to the BCST Selection Guidelines (http://bcalpine.com/pages/BCST_Selection/ ). The HPP Group was identified by provincial ranking system (PRS), head to head, and observations made by coaching staff at the Talent ID Camp in Whistler in late April.