Hannah Kearney ‘15, Ali Kariotis ‘17 and Sophia Schwartz ‘13 raced through a challenging moguls course on Saturday in the Visa Freestyle International FIS World Cup in Deer Valley, Utah. Kearney, the defending Olympic gold medalist in the event, won the event, and Schwartz and Kariotis nabbed seventh and ninth place, respectively.
The women competed as part of the U.S. freestyle moguls team in the World Cup event, one of a series of qualifiers and warm-ups before next month’s Olympic games in Sochi.
“Getting to compete in my first World Cup was huge for me because I’ve always wanted to compete at Deer Valley,” Schwartz said.
Schwartz said she likes mogul skiing because it combines multiple elements of skiing.
“You have to be able to do it all,” she added.
The multi-round competition featured 49 skiers from 18 countries. All three Dartmouth women made it to the second round, in which the top 16 took another run down the course — the site of the 2002 Olympic mogul competition. Only Kearney made it to the final round, which featured the top six skiers. Her win guaranteed Kearney, a Norwich native, a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, the third opportunity she has had.
After a second place finish at the World Cup event in Calgary, which Kearney attributes to a lack of speed during the run, Deer Valley was a nice way to bounce back.
“At times I was a bit out of control, but I skied through my mistakes and stayed composed which was a valuable experience,” Kearney said in an email.
The team’s stop in Deer Valley is one of the most exciting of their pre-Olympic tour. Kearney attributes this to the crowd, which she says can be larger than the one at the Olympic games themselves.
“Skiing in front of thousands of people rooting for the American athletes gives the event a unique, positive energy,” Kearney said. “The food, the accommodations and the especially friendly and numerous volunteers at the Deer Valley World Cup make the competition a perennial favorite.”
Kariotis, who has been skiing competitively since she was eight, was recruited for the U.S. Ski Team after her strong 2011 season on the NorAm tour, where she saw one victory and came in fourth at the Junior World Championships in Finland.
“As I did better and better in competitions, I loved it more,” Kariotis said. “Becoming a part of the U.S. Ski team was a surprise at the time, but it’s been fun all the way.”
This is Schwartz’s first year on the national team. She has been skiing moguls since she was 10 years old and qualified for the team after winning the U.S. Freestyle Championships in Heavenly, Calif., last March.
“I think I’m sort of feeling as if now I’m skiing at the level I want to be skiing at,” Schwartz said. “I’m mostly just excited about making it to the World Cup level.”
Schwartz said competing in the World Cup was actually less intimidating than she expected it to be.
“Right now, the level of skiing in the U.S. is so high that even at the lower levels of competing I’ve encountered pretty impressive competition, so that’s made the World Cup less intimidating,” Schwartz said.
In addition to traveling with the U.S. Ski Team on the World Cup tour, Schwartz is keeping up with her winter training schedule, which includes training on the snow four days a week and working out at the gym four to five days a week.
Many of her proudest moments happen when she learns new tricks in training, she said.
Schwartz said that she particularly enjoyed landing a back full, a trick she does during her jumps.
“I like being scared and going through with it anyway and finding out that it was easier than I thought,” she said.
The moguls teams will compete in the USANA Freestyle Cup in Lake Placid, N.Y., today.
