With winter upon us and the ski season in full swing I hit the slopes to find out just what’s on offer for women in the world of snow sports.
Source: 3news.co.nz. For the full story, click here.

In a windy and dramatic final day, the Quiksilver National Freestyle Ski and Snowboard Championships were run to completion, with action and excitement aplenty on the slopes of Tiffindell Ski Resort.
Source: Global Surf News. For the full story, click here.

More than 200 of the world’s best action sports athletes will be competing at X Games 14 for $1.65 million dollars in prize money. ESPN has increased the prize purse each year of the 14-year event.  With the overall purse for X Games 14 increased by six percent from last year, the total prize purse for all X Games events, domestically and internationally, to be held in 2008 now exceeds $3.3 million dollars.  This year, X Games events will be held in Los Angeles, Mexico City, Dubai, Aspen, Sao Paulo and Shanghai. Globally, the X Games has awarded a total of more than $18 million in its 14-year history. Click here to read the rest of the article →

Australian ski resorts turn it on for the sheilas with a series of women’s only ski improvement programs in New South Wales and Victoria.
Source: On the Snow. For the full story, click here.

Tiffindell Ski Resort – Quiksilver South Africa is proud to announce the fifteenth edition of Quiksnow, the country’s premier snow sports event.What is this? The SA National Freestyle Ski and Snowboard Championships. Competitors from all over South Africa converge on the slopes of Tiffindell Ski Resort to compete in various disciplines. The competition revolves around the ski and snowboard disciplines of Boardercross, Big Air and Slopestyle. Snowboard Cross and Skier Cross are the other additions to this year’s event.
Source: Global Surf News. For the full story, click here.

Alpine World Cup overall skiing champion Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) and reigning X Games gold medalist snowboarders Gretchen Bleiler (Aspen, CO) and Lindsey Jacobellis (Stratton Mountain, VT) have all been nominated for a 2008 ESPY Award. In its 16th year, ESPN’s ESPY Awards will commemorate the most exciting moments, greatest achievements and top performances in athletics around the globe. In only it’s fifth year of doing so, the ESPY Awards will be determined solely by the fans who can either vote online at www.espys.tv, or through text message at espn.mobi. Voting began July 1 and runs through July 12.
Source: First Tracks. For the full story, click here.

Following Canadian Allison Forsyth’s announcement last week that she was retiring from World Cup-level ski racing, five other Canadian women have decided to pursue other careers and will not return to the national team ski racing programs this winter, Alpine Canada Alpin announced on Friday.
Source: First Tracks. For the full story, click here.

Allison Forsyth, one of the intrepid women Alpine skiers who “kept the link to excellence alive’ through tough times for Canadian skiing, made her retirement official yesterday. The 29-year-old native of Nanaimo, B.C., said in a telephone interview from Calgary yesterday that the knee injuries that cost her the past two seasons on the World Cup circuit have also cost her the Vancouver Olympics and, ultimately, her career.
Source: Globe Sports. For the full story, click here.

The tears started flowing even before Allison Forsyth stepped up to the microphone. “She’s been a trailblazer for women,” proclaimed teammate Emily Brydon, wiping an eye, “. . . an amazing team figure.” And with that, Forsyth took centre stage in the second media conference of her career. The first was in Torino, in 2006, after a crash in training resulted in a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.
Source: National Post. For the full story, click here.

This past week, the U.S. Ski Team took some time with alpine skiing’s rising stars. The National Development System (NDS) camp brought together the country’s top junior racers (ages 14 and up) at Mammoth Mountain in California for a week’s worth of training, conditioning and overall guidance. The system, which has been in place since 2002, allows future stars to learn from some of the top staff in the sport before they make it to the national team.
Source: Park Record. For the full story, click here.