Athlete News, May 13, 2021
Snowboarding
The U.S. Team has announced its nominations! Congratulations to Taylor Gold, Cody Winters, and Mick Dierdorff!
See the full list of nominations here
Taylor Gold joins the US Team for his 8th year in a row this year, and grew up in the SSWSC programs, starting his life of competitive snowboarding at age nine. Highly decorated from being a two-time Rev Tour Champion, Copper Mountain Grand Prix/World Cup Champion, Burton US Open Champion, and Red Bull Double Pipe Champion, Taylor pushed further and attended the US 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics as the first snowboarder to qualify for the men’s USA Team. Congratulations on your longstanding career on the US Team, Taylor!
Cody Winters continues his path to athletic stardom, as he has now been nominated into the US Snowboardcross Pro Team. With the results of Silver Medal at Junior World Championships in Austria in December and Gold at a Europa Cup in Switzerland in January, Cody proved his speed and grit this last winter. Cody has been an SSWSC athlete since age 6. He has always excelled at every discipline in snowboarding, whether it be freestyle, race, or sbx. Cody’s true successes the past few years have been in PGS and PSL. There is no shortage of talent coming from Cody Winters. Congratulations Cody!!!
Homegrown Olympian Mick Dierdorff is entering his 8th year on the US Snowboardcross Team. In the 2018 Bejing Olympics he earned himself 5th place, and he was named the 2019 World Champion. He’ll be going into this next Olympic season with his board blazing! Way to go Mick!!!
Freestyle
Congratulations to Jaelin Kauf, Landon Wendler, and Olivia Giaccio for their Freestyle Team Nominations!
See the full list of nominations here
The SSWSC represented 4 athletes on the US Ski Team in moguls during the 2021 season. Jaelin Kauf finished 5th in the world in the final standings and Olivia Giaccio finished 26th just coming back from an ACL reconstruction and skiing limited events. Olivia expects to make a full comeback for the 2022 season with a full spring / summer / fall of training. Landon Wendler and Avital Carrol, (formally Shimko), skied various FIS events making their way to understanding what it takes to compete at the highest international level. More training is on their horizons and they’re both looking at upcoming success in 2022!
Freeskiing
Congratulations to Riley Jacobs and Sammy Schuiling for being nominated on the U.S. Rookie Teams! Both athletes now train with Ski & Snowboard Club Vail. Sammy left the SSWSC programs 8 years ago and Riley left 2 years ago. We continue to cheer for them in their successes!
See the full list of nominations here
This is Riley’s second year on the US Team, and Sammy’s FOURTH! Riley was born in Oak Creek and was 5th in the Youth Olympics halfpipe and is a USASA National Champion! Riley won her first Rev tour event this last season finishing 3rd for the season also top 10 for the season in slopestyle. Sammy was born in Steamboat and was one of the youngest members of the U.S. Freeskiing’s rookie teams for men’s halfpipe and is a NorAm Cup Champion. Sammy had several NorAm podiums in 2019 and both will be getting starts on the World Cup and in US Grand Prix events.
Both athletes now train with Ski & Snowboard Club Vail. Sammy left the SSWSC programs 8 years ago and Riley left 2 years ago. We continue to cheer for them in their pursuits!