Bryce ski8/30/2023 ![]() What made you decide to not quit ski racing after last summer? So, we got all the B-Team members covered this season. We’ve been putting on a B-Team fundraiser in Vail for a couple of years, and there have been a lot of great people who have supported that. The politics are just tough on me, and I’m not the best politician. I’ve been on the verge of quitting for the last four years. All last summer I was thinking I wasn’t going to ski race anymore. It just didn’t shake out the way I wanted it to. ![]() Then they changed it to top-15, and I was 20 last year. Since I’ve been on the team the criteria for making it on the A-Team has been top-25. The whole way the team selection shook out got to me. I started the season unmotivated and pretty bummed out on ski racing. How did that affect you going into the World Cup circuit? : You had an incredible season considering how it started with a nomination to the B-Team. Keep reading: Three Americans Finish in Top 6 at Val Gardena DownhillĪfter some much-needed R&R following the World Cup Finals in Soldeu, Andorra, chatted with Bennett about his season, the ups and downs of being a professional racer, and what’s on the horizon for the rising star on the World Cup downhill scene. At the close of the World Cup circuit In March, Bennett finished the most successful racing season of his career ranked seventh in the world in downhill. From that race on, Bennett continued to post personal best finishes and climb towards the podium, at one point coming within 0.03 seconds of nabbing his first World Cup downhill podium. In his first World Cup downhill race of the season in Lake Louise, Bennett finished 12th, just 0.03 seconds behind teammate and A-Team member Steven Nyman. And yet, the disappointment and frustration seemed to fuel Bennett to the best professional racing season of his career. Photo credit: Neil LandeĪ demoralizing way to kick off a new season, to say the least. Ski Team, and his height can be both a challenge and a unique strength on downhill courses. At 6′ 7”, Bennett is the tallest member of the U.S. Bryce Bennett (right) surveys a training run in Chile with teammate Andrew Weibrecht (left). Bennett accordingly dropped back down to the B-Team and was required to raise the funds to compete on the World Cup circuit this season. Whereas one top-25 World Cup ranking was good enough to qualify both men and women for the A-Team in 2017, the organization changed the A-Team requirement to one top-15 World Cup rank or Olympic Winter Games medal for the 2018 season. Read more: A Day in the Life of Bryce Bennett Ski Team had changed its team selection criteria between the two seasons. But he didn’t make the A-Team cut for the following season because the U.S. Ski Team for the 2017-’18 racing season, ended that same season with six top-20 World Cup finishes and ranked 20th in the world in the men’s World Cup downhill discipline. Ski Team faces a budget gap of approximately $2 million each year, and athletes not named to the A-Team are required to help bridge that gap by paying $20,000 to $25,000 to cover their travel costs for the upcoming season.īennett, who was fully funded by the U.S. Ski Team has a $36 million budget and spends $28 million on elite athlete programs, the organization supports more than 200 elite athletes across all skiing disciplines, and the $36 million is not enough to go around. Men’s Speed Team (l-r): Jared Goldberg, Nick Krause, Sam Morse, Bryce Bennett, Steven Nyman, Travis Ganong, Tommy Biesemeyer Photo credit: U.S. Athletes on the B-Team, on the other hand, receive a bill charging them between $20,000 and $25,000 to be on the team. Not only does an A-Team nomination designate you as an elite racer-one of the best in the nation-but it also means receiving full funding from the U.S. SKI Team for seven years, steadily climbing the ranks from D-Team to B-Team and finally making his debut on the A-Team in 2017 as one of six American men.Īs with any professional sport, rankings matter in alpine skiing. The 26-year-old Squaw Valley native has been on the U.S. Ski Team’s B-Team roster for the 2018-’19 World Cup race season. One minute, Bryce Bennett was skiing for America in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics the next minute, he found his name on the U.S. Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!
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