[Olympic Valley, Calif.] March 20, 2013 – World champion skiers are descending up Squaw Valley this week for the 2013 Nature Valley U.S. Championships. A Sierra snowstorm has postponed Wednesday’s race and the Championships will move forward with a revised schedule with races every day Thursday through Sunday this week. The most up-to-date revised shedule is below.


Thursday, March 21: Women's Giant Slalom (8:45 a.m. & 10:30 a.m.) / Men's Giant Slalom (1 p.m. & 2:30 p.m.)
Friday, March 22: Ladies' Super G (9 a.m.) / Men's Super G (1 p.m.)
Saturday, March 23: Men's Slalom (9 a.m. & 12 p.m.)
Sunday, March 24: Ladies' Slalom (9 a.m. & 12 p.m.)

World Championship gold medalists Ted Ligety and Mikaela Shiffrin will be at Squaw Valley this week for the Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships, as will be hometown Olympic gold winner and record setting major championship medalist Julia Mancuso. Mancuso cut her teeth with the Squaw Valley Ski Team, has eight Olympic and World Championship medals and a record 15 U.S. Championships – a number she will be gunning to boost this week in Squaw.

Over 500 top racers from U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) programs will descend on the legendary 1960 Olympic host mountain this week for the annual championships. Click here for a full list of athlete bios.
Also racing on home turf at Squaw Valley are U.S. Ski Team athletes Travis Ganong, Bryce Bennett, Nick Daniels, Foreste Peterson and Keith Moffat. California’s own double World Cup downhill podium finisher Stacey Cook and Mark Engel will also be competing.

Squaw Valley is proud to announce that the ski resort has worked with Carbon Lighthouse to make the U.S. Alpine Championships a carbon neutral event for the first time in history. Squaw Valley estimated the event’s footprint and enlisted Carbon Lighthouse to purchase carbon allowances on the California carbon exchange in June to offset the impact from the event which will represent 273 tons of CO2 in total generated by car travel for spectators, air travel for athletes and coaches, mountain operations including grooming, snowmaking and chairlift operations, and hotels and events.

“We are committed to being responsible environmental stewards as this mountain and our environment are absolutely central to the Squaw Valley experience. Consequently, we are very concerned about the impact that climate change could have on our community and business,” said Andy Wirth, Squaw Valley’s president and CEO. “We hope that by undergoing this effort, we will encourage guests and members of the community to evaluate their own impact on the environment and advocate for addressing climate change at a regional, national, and global level.”


Quotes from U.S. Ski Team athletes on the U.S. Alpine Championships at Squaw:

Julia Mancuso

I’m really excited to have Nationals at Squaw Valley. It’s an awesome place. I grew up training there on the run that’s now Julia’s Gold, so that’s very exciting and I really look forward to it.

I’ve raced on the race hill in Squaw a few times, but it’s U.S. Nationals. My team is fast so I have to try to do my best so I can get some more national titles.

Squaw Valley is an incredible place full of Champions and growing up there just made me inspired to be the best skier I could possibly be. I didn’t even know if it would be racing. I looked at people like Shane McConkey and on the race side Tamara McKinney. I had these aspirations of just having fun and skiing and playing outside. At Squaw Valley, that’s what it’s all about, just getting out on the mountain and having fun and expressing yourself in whatever way you want.

I’m racing two races at Nationals at Squaw so I’m hoping to bring in two more national titles to add to my 15. I love racing Nationals. It’s springtime. It’s the end of the year and I have a lot of fun, especially with it being at home.

Marco Sullivan (Note: Marco Sullivan will not be competing due to a recent injury.)

The best part about having the Champs at Squaw is going to be skiing around with all these people that I travel with all year. We ski around a lot of cool ski areas but next week I’ll finally bring them to my home area and get to show them the ropes. We’ll go do some good freeskiing and hopefully have some good racing in the middle and just show off what we have with all these folks from the U.S.

My first national title was actually at Squaw in 2002 so I have good memories from that hill. It’s really not too difficult of a track, pretty straightforward; you’ve just got to make some nice turns. There’s a couple little secret spots but I’m going to keep those to myself.

Squaw is just a good family of people, lots of families that are into racing that live around the area. It’s a little bit cutoff from the other parts of the U.S. that are always racing against each other. The East Coast has a big community and Colorado/Utah too. We kind of get shut out sometimes in the west, but growing up there you just build around that centralized family that you have in Tahoe. Everyone comes out of there just having fun and skiing well. When you get up onto the national stage you realize that we really have a good thing going.

Travis Ganong

The best part about racing U.S. Nationals back home is that it’s at home. I get to sleep in my own bed for the first time all season, ski the best mountain in the world, get to be with all my friends and actually get to ski in front of my family and all my friends. It’s the first time I’ve raced at Squaw probably since I was a Mighty Mite. I don’t even know. I haven’t raced there in a long time. It’s really fun to come back and ski at home.

There’s so many people on the U.S. Ski Team from Squaw Valley. That mountain just breeds good skiers. I have a lot to give back to the mountain. That mountain taught me how to do what I do now. So it’s fun to come back home and show all my other teammates that place, if they’ve never been there, and end the season with some good California sunshine and some good powder hopefully.

-------------

About Squaw Valley
Host of the 1960 Winter Olympics, Squaw Valley is internationally renowned for legendary terrain that spans 3,600 skiable acres, six peaks and 30 chairlifts, and ranges from an expansive mountaintop beginner area to unrivaled expert steeps, trees and bowls. Off the mountain, families relax in The Village at Squaw Valley around the cozy fire pits or enjoy a host of restaurants, bars, boutiques and art galleries. Guests can stay in one of The Village at Squaw Valley’s one, two or three bedroom suites, each with a fireplace, kitchen and balcony, for the ultimate slopeside lodging experience.

Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows recently joined forces, bringing the two ski resorts under common ownership. Skiers and riders can now access 6,000 skiable acres, 43 lifts and 270+ trails at Squaw and Alpine Meadows on the Tahoe Super Pass or any lift ticket.