The Team USA Winter Champion Series will feature big air snowboarding, ice hockey and luge.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The United States Olympic Committee, in partnership with USA Hockey, USA Luge and U.S. Ski and Snowboard today unveiled the details of the first-ever Team USA Winter Champions Series, a single-day television event to be broadcast on NBC and NBCSN on Dec. 17.
“The Winter Champions Series is an opportunity to feature the great winter athletes of Team USA, many of whom are already working toward a spot on the U.S. Olympic team that will compete in the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games,” said Lisa Baird, USOC chief marketing officer. “With more than four hours on live national television, this event will thrill fans of Team USA and winter sport – and kick off the Road to PyeongChang in grand fashion.”
On Dec. 17, three Olympic sport events will be featured in a celebration of Team USA’s Road to PyeongChang. The broadcast schedule is as follows:
| Time | Event | Network |
| 2:30 – 4:30 p.m. ET |
Big Air Snowboarding (Copper Mountain, Colo.) | NBC |
| 2:30 – 4:30 p.m. ET |
FIL Luge World Cup (Park City, Utah) |
NBC |
| 4:30 – 7 p.m. ET |
USA vs. Canada Women’s Hockey (Plymouth, Mich.) |
NBCSN |
The broadcast of the new Olympic event of big air snowboarding will also serve as the opening event of the 21st season of the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix. Expected to compete are top American athletes Jamie Anderson (South Lake Tahoe, Calif.), Kyle Mack (Detroit, Mich.) and Ty Walker (Long Island, N.Y.) along with a strong roster of international competitors. Copper Mountain – home to the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center – will play host to the big air event.
The women’s Viessmann FIL Luge World Cup returns to Park City and the Utah Olympic Park sliding center that hosted the events of the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games. The Park City event is the fourth stop on the 2016-17 Viessmann FIL World Cup tour, and the U.S. team will look to build on their 2015 performance when Summer Britcher (Glen Rock, Pa.) and Sochi bronze medalist Erin Hamlin (Remsen, N.Y.) captured the top two spots.
The U.S. Women’s National Hockey Team will welcome Canada to USA Hockey Arena in the Detroit suburb of Plymouth, Mich. for a preview of the upcoming 2017 International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship to be staged there in early April 2017. The game will feature several Olympians and is likely to include Hilary Knight (Sun Valley, Idaho), the MVP at the 2016 IIHF Women’s World Championship. Every game between these two rivals provides world-class hockey and since the Sochi 2014 Games, the U.S. has played Canada in four international events (two IIHF Women's World Championships and two Four Nations Cups), winning three of four titles.
About the USOC
Founded in 1894 and headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the U.S. Olympic Committee serves as both the National Olympic Committee and National Paralympic Committee for the United States. As such, the USOC is responsible for the training, entering and funding of U.S. teams for the Olympic, Paralympic, Youth Olympic, Pan American and Parapan American Games, while serving as a steward of the Olympic and Paralympic movements throughout the country. For more information, visit TeamUSA.org.