Bryce Bennett
Towering over his competition at 6’7”, Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley, California) is the tallest guy on the world cup circuit. Currently ranked 14th in the alpine combined and 18th in downhill standings in the world, the 25-year-old has proven that he can be a consistent performer in the top 30 at multiple venues. With nine top-30 performances in 2018, highlighted by two top-15 performances, Bennett will head into his first Olympic Winter Games with confidence and the mentorship of Steven Nyman, fellow alpine teammate and veteran Olympian.
Ted Ligety
Ligety (Park City, Utah) redefined the giant slalom discipline, earning the nickname “Mr. GS.” The two-time Olympic champion won the combined event at the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy, and in 2014, became the first American man to win a giant slalom gold medal and the first in U.S. history to win two Olympic gold medals in alpine skiing. In giant slalom, Ligety is second only to the great Ingemar Stenmark (46 wins) in world cup victories, with 24. He has been steadily building towards PyeongChang throughout the 2018 season and will be a strong contender to win gold again at the 2018 Games.
Steven Nyman
Now four-time Olympian Nyman (Sundance, Utah) has yet to win an Olympic medal but will have a chance to do so in 2018. In the Olympic test event in 2016, he finished third in downhill at the Jeongseon Alpine Center. Filled with big jumps and a lot of terrain, the newly developed course in Jeongseon fits Nyman's skill set perfectly. According to Nyman, the Olympic course feels like a combination between the dry, grippy, buttery smooth snow at Beaver Creek, Colorado, and the flow at Val Gardena, Italy.
Laurenne Ross
After finishing fourth and sixth in the downhill and super-G Olympic test events in PyeongChang in 2017, two-time Olympian Laurenne Ross (Bend, Oregon) sustained a knee injury at U.S. Alpine Championships. Words can’t appropriately convey the extent of Ross’ injury. Torn ACL/LCL/medial meniscus/lateral meniscus/popliteal fibular ligament, dislocated tibiofibular joint, and a broken tibial plateau – it was extensive. At one point, Ross was uncertain she’d return to competition. Sacrificing everything to focus on rehab over the summer, it was challenging for Ross, but it was worth it. She did something quite incredible. Just eight months after her injury and in her second start back, she finished eighth in the super-G in Val d’Isere at the world cup. With top-30 finishes in every world cup during the 2018 season, Ross will go into PyeongChang with consistency and confidence.
Mikaela Shiffrin
At age 18 in 2014, Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colorado) became the youngest athlete in history (male or female) to win an Olympic slalom gold medal, and she’s poised for another slalom gold in 2018. With world cup victories across four disciplines – slalom, giant slalom, alpine combined and downhill – it’s safe to say Shiffrin is not only a medal threat in every event she’ll enter in the Games, but also one of the most dominant athletes in the world.
Lindsey Vonn
When she’s healthy, Vonn (Vail, Colorado) is the best in the sport – and she’s healthy heading into PyeongChang. The winningest female ski racer of all-time owns Olympic gold (downhill) and bronze (super-G) medals from 2010. The four-time Olympian was sidelined due to injury during the 2014 Games in Sochi, and is looking to head into PyeongChang with a vengeance, while also serving as an honorary Olympic Ambassador. At the PyeongChang test event in 2016, Vonn finished second to Italy’s Sofia Goggia in both the downhill and the super-G – by a mere 0.11 hundredths of a second total – making her even more hungry for gold in PyeongChang. With two more victories under her belt in 2018, she’s been taking calculated risks with her eyes on the prize in PyeongChang. Gold or bust!
Andrew Weibrecht
A two-time Olympic medalist, Weibrecht (Lake Placid, New York) is coming off his most successful world cup season in 2016. He grabbed the 2010 Olympic super-G bronze medal and then in 2014, produced a truly inspirational run to claim silver. The result added his name to the elite two-time Olympic medalist club for American men, along with Bode Miller, Ted Ligety, Tommy Moe and Phil Mahre.
Jackie Wiles
Two-time Olympian Jackie Wiles (Aurora, Oregon) is the first-ever Lindsey Vonn Foundation ambassador and she’s going into PyeongChang with a positive outlook and her signature risk-taking “Wiles style.” With two world cup podiums under her belt, including one recently at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, where she shared the podium with teammate and mentor Vonn, Wiles is heading into PyeongChang with serious podium potential. The classic downhill on the Jeongseon Alpine Centre track is much like the track in Cortina, with big, sweeping turns, flow and terrain to boot – which our women’s speed team thrives on.
