A handful of World Cup teams will train at the Utah Olympic Park this week. Park City Ski and Snowboard Alpine Director Tommy Eckfeldt said Norway’s men’s World Cup speed team was training at the park Tuesday.
“They're here for a couple days, a tune up, and then they're out,” he said. “Obviously, with the inclement weather today, I think it's put a little bit of a hamper on their plans with the high winds here at West Peak. But they've said they've had really good training at the Spencer F. Eccles Olympic Mountain Center here at the Utah Olympic Park.”
Eckfeldt said Swiss and French teams will arrive to train at the park later in the week, after Norway’s team heads out to compete in the FIS Ski World Cup Finals at Sun Valley Resort.
While the Utah Olympic Park doesn’t have runs as long as typical Word Cup finals downhill tracks, Eckfeldt said it does have tracks that compare in steepness and difficulty.
“Dominik Paris from Italy was up here the other day with the Red Bull team, and he commented saying that, ‘Yeah, it was [a] pretty legit trail,’” Eckfeldt said. “It just kind of keeps breaking over, and just means you've got to be on your game the whole way down … So these World Cup athletes are even seeing the challenges of our trail at our home training venue, which is pretty cool to hear them complaining as well.”
Eckfeldt said some Team USA athletes have also been spotted training at the Utah Olympic Park, including Lindsey Vonn.
He said the mountain operations team also did a good job of preparing runs even with the limited snow that’s fallen this winter season. Eckfeldt said the team has been scraping down to the ice in an effort to maintain the surface.
“Think of, you know, driving on a dirt road that's really bumpy versus a smooth paved road,” he said. “That's what we're trying to give the athletes here.”
The Audi FIS Ski World Cup Finals at Sun Valley are March 20 to 27. Top alpine athletes will compete in the Downhill, Super-G, Giant Slalom and Slalom.
