By Shannon Lukens.

 

Opening ceremonies for the 2024 NCAA Nordic and Alpine Ski Championships were Tuesday afternoon in Steamboat Square at the base of Steamboat Resort.

The NCAA Men’s and Women’s Skiing Committee has chosen 74 men and 74 women to compete in both disciplines.

 

One of them is Trey Seymour, class of 2019 at Steamboat Springs High School who skis for University of Denver.

“It’s incredibly special to be in Steamboat, competing in my last year. I’m a senior at DU. My last year of competition for NCAA and there’s better place to do it.

 

Four athletes who are from Steamboat Springs or have lived here before have been chosen to compete. They are:

• Trey Seymour, University of Denver (Alpine – West Region)
• Elsie Halvorsen, Harvard University (Alpine – East Region)
• Bode Flanigan, Boston College (Alpine – East Region) (pictured above)
• Hannah Soria, Colby College (Alpine — East Region)

 

The host team is the University of Colorado. Local hosts include the City of Steamboat Springs, Steamboat Resort, and the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club.

The men’s and women’s Giant Slalom is Wednesday at Steamboat.

Howelsen Hill hosts a 7.5K race on Thursday, a night slalom on Friday, and a 20K mass start classic race on Saturday.

This will be the ninth time Steamboat Springs has played host to the NCAA Ski Championships, the most of any one site in the country, breaking a tie with Bozeman, Mont., with this championship.  This is also the 10th time CU has served as the host of the Championships, the most by any school.

The NCAA Ski Championships are one of the top amateur ski events in the world, having a field of skiers filled with past and future Olympians, World Cup skiers and national champions.

The NCAA Championships have recently been dominated by the Utah Utes, who have won four straight titles dating back to 2019 (the 2020 event was cancelled at the half-way point), and will be joined by western powers Denver (NCAA leading 24 national championships) and the host Buffaloes (20 team titles, NCAA leading 103 individual national champions).

CU and Steamboat’s history are somewhat intertwined, as some of the top names in skiing have both places in common, including Buddy Werner, Billy Kidd, Charles Leckenby, Jim Barrows, Roche Bush, Van Card, Norris Durham, and in more recent seasons Scott Wither, Andy LeRoy, Mary Rose, Heidi Hillenbrand, Lisa Perricone,  Tony Cesollini, Lucy Newman, Tyler Terranova, Katie Hostetler, Charlie Von Thaden and countless others.

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