Freestyle skiing returns to Whiteface / Lake Placid
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PARK CITY, UT (News Release)- World Cup freestyle skiing will return for the second year in a row to Steamboat Springs, CO, and Lake Placid, N.Y., this season, sandwiching the World Championships in late January on the Olympic venue at Deer Valley, Utah.
NBC, America’s Olympic network, will televise coverage of both World Cups and the World Championships. “The United States is one of the cornerstones of the freestyle World Cup schedule, but this will be an even more special season,” said U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association VP-Events Annette Royle. “We’re looking to build on the excitement of three Olympic silver medals and having network television provide coverage of the events will add to the energy and excitement.” U.S. Olympic medalists from last February included moguls skiers Shannon Bahrke (Tahoe City, CA) and Travis Mayer (Steamboat Springs, CO) plus aerialist and hometown hero Joe Pack (Park City).
The schedule:
Jan. 17-19 – U.S. Freestyle Grand National at Lake Placid, N.Y.
Jan. 26-Feb. 2 – FIS Freestyle World Championships at Deer Valley Resort, Utah
Feb. 7-8 – U.S. Freestyle Grand National at Steamboat Springs, CO
Lake Placid will host the Sprint U.S. Freestyle Grand National Jan. 17-19 with two aerials contests at the MacKenzie-Intervale Ski Jumping Complex (Jan. 17, 19) and a moguls event at Whiteface Mountain (jan. 18).
NBC will broadcast coverage froom Lake Placid Jan. 26 at 4 p.m. EST.
Ted Blazer, president and CEO of the Olympic Regional Development Authority, which owns and operates the Lake Placid facilities, said, “ORDA and Lake Placid are very pleased to once again host World Cup freestyle skiing. Our community has a prominent Olympic legacy and this event will add to that. It will be an honor to have many of last year’s Olympic medalists competing here, particularly as they seek to qualify for the 2003 World Championships.”
In the first phase of Utah’s post-Olympics legacy activity on the 2002 Olympic venues, the World Championships are Jan. 26-Feb. 2 at Deer Valley, which saw huge, enthusiastic crowds cheering U.S. silver medal-winners Pack, Mayer and Bahrke. (Bahrke’s silver on Opening Day of Olympic Winter Games XIX was the first medal won by a U.S. athlete as U.S. skiers and riders collected a record 10 medals while American athletes overall earned 34 medals.) NBC will televise freestyle action from the Worlds Feb. 1 at 3-5 p.m. EST and Feb. 2 at 1:30-3:30 p.m. EST.