US Ski & Snowboard is continuing work to support their world class athletes pursue their goals.
Ahead of the start of the 2019-2020 season US Ski & Snowboard hosted their Gold Medal Gala in New York City. US Ski & Snowboard CEO Tiger Shaw says they set a record fundraising at the event.
“About 650 guests, a lot of corporate support there also, as well as our donors and our trustees,” Shaw said. “This year we did gross nearly two million dollars and that is a record for us. It's really our marquee event. We bring 30 plus athletes there. Kikkan Randall was a keynote, we honored Lindsey Vonn in her retirement at the beginning of the show, Jonny Moseley did a great job telling the story about the athletes. We have tons of videos and it's an exciting night.”
Shaw says that this year US Ski & Snowboard was able to increase athlete travel funding by more than a million dollars.
“That has made a huge difference it relieves a lot of the burden and the worry,” Shaw explained. “Once your named to the US Alpine ski team all of your travel is covered. That has not been true in the past and so we've made huge strides that way and we continue to make more and more. It's always a challenge finding enough corporate sponsors and fortunately we have a huge number of very very supportive donors that make this all happen and allow us to reach the budget levels we do. So, we continue to increase our athletic funding each year and we're committed to continuing to do that to support our athletes.”
Another fundraising project the organization has an interest in is the Park City Ski & Snowboard UOP Mountain Expansion.
“We’re very excited about that,” Shaw continued. “So, when our Alpine teams are in town and can utilize that, freeski snowboard and freestyle of course any of the facilities there. What we love about that is the Park City Ski & Snowboard teams and Rowmark and the University of Utah and all the teams in the area will benefit from a facility like that; and that's our pipeline. So, we’ll have future Olympians sliding down those hills over there at the UOP.”