Jeremy Bloom headlined the group of 14 skiers picked for the U.S. Olympic freestyle team Wednesday.
Bloom, a two-sport star at the University of Colorado, is considered a favorite in moguls. The Loveland High School grad has been a magazine cover boy and will turn to football after the games.
He will be joined by 2002 silver medalist Travis Mayer of Steamboat Springs, Toby Dawson of Vail and Travis Cabral. As a sign of the depth of the American team, Nate Roberts, who spent most of the winter ranked among the top 10 in the world, was left off the squad.
On the women’s side, 2002 silver medalist Shannon Bahrke will head to Turin, along with 2005 world champion Hannah Kearney, Jillian Vogtli and Denver’s Michelle Roark.
In aerials, 36-year-old Eric Bergoust will head to his fourth Olympics, trying to bounce back from his stunning disappointment in Utah four years ago when he finished last of the 12 finalists. Joe Pack, who won a silver medal in 2002, is on the team, along with Jeret “Speedy” Peterson and Steamboat Springs’ Ryan St. Onge, who won the Olympic trials last month.
The women are Jana Lindsey and Emily Cook, who qualified for the 2002 Games but wound up watching them from a wheelchair after a devastating injury before the Olympics.
Alpine: World Cup winners Bode Miller, Daron Rahlves and Vail’s Lindsey Kildow head the 19-member U.S. team.
The women’s team features three Coloradans – Kildow and Sarah Schleper of Vail and Caroline Lalive of Steamboat Springs – and Resi Stiegler of Jackson, Wyo.
Also on the team are: Kirsten Clark, Stacey Cook, Kristina Koznick, Libby Ludlow, Julia Mancuso and Kaylin Richardson.
On the men’s team are: Jimmy Cochran, Chip Knight, Ted Ligety, Scott Macartney, Miller, Steve Nyman, Rahlves, Erik Schlopy and Marco Sullivan.
Many of the team members are competing in World Cup races in Europe this weekend, the men in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany; and the women in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
Miller will miss his first World Cup race in almost four years when he skips this weekend’s downhill and super-G.
U.S. ski team officials said Miller is taking a break, ending his streak of competing in 136 consecutive World Cup races.
His withdrawal from the races means Miller has all but given up on defending his overall World Cup title and is focusing on the Turin Olympics, which open Feb. 10.
