Turns out we won’t have to wait until 2030 or 2034 to see Olympians shredding Park City area slopes.
In Park City, there’s always a chance that the person whizzing by you on the hill is an incognito Olympic athlete. But the chances of that happening in the coming years in the terrain parks of Woodward Park City just shot through the roof.
On Wednesday, Woodward announced it was an official training center for U.S. Ski and Snowboard through 2025. That means athletes training for the 2026 Games in Italy will very likely be honing their craft between Pinebrook and Summit Park.
Matt Peterson, director of marketing and brand for Woodward Mountain Centers, said the organization was proud to have earned the designation.
“It's a big deal,” Peterson said. “We're so pleased to have the designation as the official training center for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard teams. Woodward’s got a long history of empowering and enabling the next generation of action sports athletes. And to get the designation from kind of highest in the land, it's just, it's something we're really proud of.”
Woodward Park City joins Woodward’s facility in Copper, Colorado, in being named official training centers.
Peterson said it isn’t a paid sponsorship, but something that was bestowed because of the investment Woodward has made in its facilities. He spoke about the Olympic-grade 22-foot halfpipe, big air jumps and other training grounds that set Woodward apart.
“We earned the designation outright because we've invested in these facilities that are unique in the world of action sports,” he said. “So, for instance, Park City’s 60,000-square-foot indoor facility is unlike anything the world has seen.”
He mentioned the investments Woodward has made in the next generation of freestyle athletes. Those include smaller terrain parks — called progression parks — all the way up to competition-size jumps.
“What's so unique about Woodward and this new relationship is you'll have a kid, a local kid, who is an aspiring athlete but just new to the sport and a young person, and they'll be training right alongside someone who's headed right to the Olympics, like a Joss Christensen or a Red Gerard,” Peterson said.
Qualifying for the men’s snowboard slopestyle competition, in which Gerard is expected to compete, begins Sunday.
