Dec 7, 2009

 

Alpine Snowboarders to Train as America's Snowboard Team

 

America’s Snowboard Team (AST),  an independent team eighteen freestyle, boardercross and alpine snowboarders, has put together an independent training  program designed by the athletes.  With the success of American freestyle and boardercross, competition is fierce for Olympic hopeful alpine boarders. There will likely be only two or three spots slotted for men and one or two slotted for women on this year’s U.S. Olympic alpine snowboard team. This led the AST boarders to establish their own program designed to provide a premier training environment, stronger coaching, and support in preparation for the race season and Olympic qualifying competitions. Each athlete has secured World Cup start positions for the Olympic qualifiers.

 

Four U.S. National and World Cup Snowboard Champions are among the AST athletes:  Chris Klug (Aspen, Colo.), two-time U.S. Olympian and Olympic Bronze Medalist; Zac Kay (Mt. Shasta, Calif.), U.S. National Parallel Giant Slalom and Parallel Slalom Champion; Josh Wylie (Stratton Mtn., Vt.), 2009 U.S. Slalom Champion; and Erica Mueller (Steamboat Springs, Colo.), U.S. National Parallel Giant Slalom Champion.

 

Chris Klug, who is seeking to compete in his third Olympics, said,  “We’ll stand in that start gate with confidence, knowing we have created the best training environment possible and challenged ourselves to work as hard as we could to ride fast.  I believe that we have put ourselves in a position to perform at our best, now it comes down to getting the job done when it counts.” 

Four Olympic quality athletes forming a new organization to train for the Olympics might make you think something is wrong with USSA's and the USOC's approach.

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