World Cup Overall Champions !
March 5 ASPEN Colorado turned out to be a special day for Team Vision4Gold. With our second World Cup win in Two days, we were able to climb to the top of the World Cup Overall Standings. THe win gave us 100 more WC points, enough to win the Globe by 60 points.
On the 4th we skied to our first world cup win with a blistering SG run down Racers Edge on Tiehack Mountain. That win gave us enough points to take the SG season title.
Pretty exciting for us and a great way to head to Whistler on a high note. Thanks to all our coaches for the hard work this past week. Also a special thanks to Jared Hawn, our ski tech for putting all the love into our speed skis. Keep up the good work at the Paralympics everyone.
Oh and I almost forgot, Team USA also took the Overall in the team standings. ”Best in the World”
World Cup Racing in Aspen
After two days of racing on Home turf we have tallied two silver medals. Some good skiing in downhill found us in second place on March 2nd and 3rd. These speed races here have been a great tune up for the Paralympics in less then two weeks. We also finished the World Cup Downhill season in second place in the overall standings.
We have two more days of racing here before we take off for Whistler. Super Combined on the 4th and SG on the 5th.
Challenge Aspen has done a great job with these World Cup Finals and it is great to be racing World Cup in the US. Thanks to everyone here in Aspen who has contributed. The spring weather has been a big plus too but it sounds like we may see some snow tomorrow.
First Leg of WC Tour
We have just returned from our 3 week tour in Europe. Sorry we were not able to update this site more but internet connections and time we hard to come by. We wrapped up the races with some solid results in Speed. The 1st Super-G in Sestriere Italy landed us on the podium in 3rd place. Danelle hit a gate and it knocked her pole out of her hand so she had to ski the toughest part of the course with only one pole. A slalom run after the SG made up a super-Combined and we stayed in 3rd place for that as well. So two bronze medals in one day. The next days Super G was the last race of the series and we skied a decent run(but not our best) to a second place result.
Here is a quick summary of our 11 races. One second place, two 3rds, 5 fourths, 2 fifths and 2 DNFs. We are happy with the results from our first races in Europe. It was a great experience and we learned a lot in the last 3 weeks. We are looking forward to a long training block as we get ready for the World Cup finals and the Paralypic games. We really enjoyed our time in Rinn, Aptenau and Sestriere and thank those towns for all there effort putting on great events.
The World Cup tour has started. 1 Giant Slalom and 1 Slalom hosted by the town of Rinn Austria. We skied well enought to get 2 fourth place results but we feel we still have a lot more gas in the tank. Moving on to Aptenau tomorrow for 2 more slaloms and 2 GS’s . The snow in Rinn was some of the hardest snow we have seen. The skis were sharp and holding well. We were racing GS on the same hill that Franz Klammer won the1976 DH, a run that put ski racing on the map in the US. We are enjoying Europe so far and having some success navigating the public transportation system. We will update from Aptenau in a couple of days.
Race Season Under Way
The first Nor Am’s of the season are in the books. Two tech races in Copper and 2 SG’s and a combined at Winter Park. Danelle and Rob started off the season with a GS win and then posted a DNF in slalom at Copper. The first day of Super G at Winter Park was a great day for us. We had a really good warm up and then ripped the Hughes Course to win the race by 8 seconds. Day 2 of speed led to another victory but only a 7 tenths of a second advantage heading into the Slalom portion of the combined. A solid slalom run placed us on top of the podium again with teammate Caitie Serubbi in second. Winning the first 4 out of 5 races of the season is a great way to start. Now a little break for the Holidays and then off to Europe to step up to the big leagues at the World Cup.
Thanks to all our coaches at NSCD and the US Adaptive team for the hard work to help get us ready this fall. Keep an eye on this site in January for more updates from the World Cup. To read more about the Nor Am’s go to http://www.usskiteam.com/adaptive.
Podium Level Sponsorship
The Competition season is about to start and we are searching hard for Corporate Sponsors. Please check out our new “Podium Sponsorship” page on this website. It lists some of the potential benefits for your business if you get involved with Team Vision4Gold.
Our Calendar is set for the season. It includes Nor Am’s in Colorado, World Cups in Europe and the United States and the Paralympics in British Columbia. We will be skiing all over the world and we could help your business get world wide exposure. Should you decide to support us, all of your money will be invested in our racing and training budgets and help us achieve even greater results. Please check out the information at http://www.vision4gold.org/medal-sponsors and contact us with any questions. We encourage you to consider a partnership with us.
The National Sports Center for the disabled has named Danelle Umstead, the Athlete of the Year!
She was nominated by head coach Erik Petersen. “She had an amazing season. She won everything.” said Petersen.
Congratulations Danelle!
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