By Austin Colbert, The Aspen Times
Wiley Maple wasn’t going to miss the Dec. 30 Audi Ajax Cup, the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club’s annual fundraiser.
Even though his flight from Chicago was delayed and he spent the night of Dec. 29 sleeping in a random nook at Denver International Airport, he was able to catch a 7 a.m. flight the following morning, have his parents pick him up from the Aspen airport and take him straight to Aspen Mountain in time for the races.
“It was pretty fun, but I was whooped after that,” Maple said. “I went to the after-party for, like, one drink and then went home.”
Only two days prior, on Dec. 28 in Bormio, Italy, Maple finished 24th in a World Cup downhill race for his first World Cup points in almost two years after missing the entire 2016-17 season because of injury. He said the Bormio finish will keep him “solidly in the running” to represent the U.S. on the alpine Olympic team.
Maple, the 27-year-old Aspen native, has been on and off the U.S. Ski Team since his first World Cup races in 2011. This season, he is not an official member of the team, although fellow Aspenite Johno McBride, the men’s head speed coach, has kept Maple around.
And it seems for good reason.
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