SAM Magazine—Salt Lake City, Utah, June 8, 2023—Qualifying paralympic ski and snowboard racers will see their names on the official roster of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard team (USSS) for the first time beginning with the 2023-24 season. Sophie Goldschmidt, USSS president and CEO, told SAM that her team started working with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOP) to integrate Para into USSS after the Beijing Olympics in 2022.

“Incorporating Para into USSS was a natural evolution around being more inclusive, and fully supporting and celebrating all skiing and snowboarding athletes,” said Goldschmidt.

The move comes four years after the U.S. Olympic Committee, which formerly managed Para ski and snowboard racing, changed its name to USOPC with the aim of promoting inclusion. 

When asked what impact adding Para events may have on World Cup events being held at U.S. ski areas, Goldschmidt said there are opportunities to combine existing events or add more events to the calendar. 

“We see this as an opportunity to collaborate further with the resorts and see efficiencies in combining events,” she said. “It’s (hosting an event) a significant investment on their part, as well as ours, and one from which we all see huge results year after year. We will be discussing this with our resort partners and others over the next few months, but it’s important that we have a long-term plan around this, not just for next season.”

The USSS had extensive discussions with the USOPC “to ensure it happened in the right way,” said Goldschmidt. “The key point was that we wanted to ensure we could integrate the sports and commit to the long term with resources to handle the transition appropriately.” 

In addition to continuing existing sport-specific cross collaborations, the USSS’s goal is to provide additional support across media, partnerships, sports science, coaching, and conditioning. 

Erik Leirfallom will lead the U.S. Para Alpine and Snowboard teams as the newly named Para sport director. Leirfallom has been a Para Alpine race coach at Park City’s National Ability Center since 2016 and a Para Alpine ski team coach from 2007 to 2010.

“The integration of our internally managed Para Alpine and Snowboard teams within U.S. Ski and Snowboard is a monumental step for inclusion, development and growth of the sports,” Julie Dussliere, the USOP chief of paralympics and internally managed sports, said in a press release. “We believe the governance transfer will serve as an important model for more national governing bodies to follow in the years to come.”

The USOPC also manages Paralympic Nordic skiing, which includes two sports that have different national governing bodies for the Olympics. Cross-country skiing is part of U.S. Ski and Snowboard, while biathlon is under U.S. Biathlon. Paralympic Nordic skiing is in discussion for future involvement with U.S. Ski and Snowboard.