Ski home: US Ski Team feels on top at new headquarters/training center in Utah

US Ski Team celebrates grand new home in Utah

PARK CITY, Utah — All that’s missing is snow.

Anything else that the members of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association need — or want — is on site at the new USSA Center of Excellence, an 85,000-square-foot sports palace for skiers and snowboarders to train, heal or just hang out when they’re not on snow.

Alpine, cross-country, Nordic, freestyle — every discipline that involves skis or a snowboard is included.

“It’s cool just to have everybody here under one roof,” said alpine skier Ted Ligety, who has been breaking in the physical therapy wing while recovering from a right knee injury.

USSA president and CEO Bill Marolt says he envisioned something grand to celebrate the team’s success, highlighted most recently by two-time World Cup overall champion Lindsey Vonn. The $22 million center sits like a manor on the hill where USSA’s youngest members can work out with America’s best.

“This is a magnet. When they walk in here, they know it’s serious business and they want to be part of the serious business,” Marolt said.

Banner-sized images of top U.S. skiers and snowboarders are draped high in the main lobby, just before glass doors open to a weight room/physical fitness center chock full of the latest advances in sports medicine. Anybody in need of inspiration while sweating through a weight or cardio workout only has to look up, where large photos of America’s Olympic medalists line the walls.

With the 2010 Vancouver Olympics just seven months away, USSA hopes to start adding soon.

“It’s pretty incredible that we have a place like this,” said Ligety, already part of the Ring of Fame for his 2006 Olympic gold in the combined. “Not a lot of other teams have this.”

Ligety has been nursing his right knee in the vast weight room, which is geared heavily toward lower body strength. Snow sports require mainly legs and lungs, and those are the areas that are focused on during the high-tech workouts.

Each athlete’s heart rate can be tracked on computers that detail who is doing what and how well on free weights, stationary bikes or the giant treadmill — where the Nordic skiers can strap on a set of roller skis and go until they drop.

“It’s just a massive hill that they have to climb until they literally go splat onto the treadmill,” said Troy Flanagan, USSA’s sports science director. “This is where we unlock what’s going on inside their bodies and then we can tell them very specific programs to exploit their strengths and work on their weaknesses.”

Flanagan can take blood samples and test them on site as the athletes recover from whatever grueling feat they have been assigned.

“It’s now Disneyland for a sports scientist here compared to what we had,” Flanagan said. “Everything’s instrumented. Everything’s a test and everything’s measured so the athletes are always monitored and made sure that they’re on progress.”

Ligety, who was injured during a downhill practice run at the U.S. Alpine Championships in late March, remembers the earlier incarnations of USSA’s training facilities, from a rented space in a concrete plant to a larger warehouse in an industrial park across the highway.

This is no warehouse.

“To have a facility like this is unbelievable. It’s really cool to see the progression,” Ligety said. “Ski racing is such a dangerous sport. There’s always basically a third of us injured at all times, so it’s such a big component of it. It’s such an important piece in trying to get us healthy again quickly.”

Just off the weight room is the medical wing, where the latest equipment helps athletes target any area of their bodies that needs attention.

There is also hydrotherapy: Up to five athletes can work out at once in the largest pool, which features two underwater treadmills and has an adjustable current to create resistance in the water.

The other two pools are for soaking — one a comfy 100-plus degrees and the other at about 50 degrees for the athletes whose therapy regimen includes gasping through a few minutes in the cold soak.

Simpler methods are also used. Part of Ligety’s rehab included balancing on his right leg on an unstable platform while tossing a ball against a mini-trampoline and catching it. It’s difficult to stand still on the platform using two feet, let alone one.

The center has a full-time physical therapist and exam rooms for visiting doctors to evaluate how well the injured athletes are recovering.

“One of the problems that was occurring was athletes would get hurt and go to their own places for rehab,” said Richard Quincy, USSA medical director. “They can come here every day, get treatment and rehab, and be here five, six, seven days a week if they need to do their programs.”

The center also features a strip of running track, double the usual thickness to avoid stress on the muscles and bones, and a full-sized gymnasium. Next to the gym is Ramps & Tramps, an indoor sanctuary for anybody with an inkling to shred.

It includes a skate park with ramps and a giant kicker where boarders can fling themselves high into the air and begin their series of twists, turns and flips before flopping into the landing pit full of foam blocks.

“Just getting the feeling of the rotation in the air,” snowboard director Jeremy Forester said. “It will have an impact for sure.”

There is also a trampoline area, where the freestyle skiers and snowboarders can get some time in the air, and a mock starting ramp where ski cross and snowboard cross racers can practice getting out of the gate — one of most essential parts in the free-for-all events.

The force the racers use to push off is measured as they slide down the slick synthetic surface on skis or snowboards.

Opposite the physical therapy wing is an extra-large kitchen. Guest chefs will show the athletes how to prepare healthy meals during the long season on the road.

“The last thing we want is for them to be traveling on the road, come home and put a pizza in the oven,” Flanagan said.

The center opened in May, when USSA moved from its offices in a Park City strip mall to the third floor of the new facility.

Marolt said it’s been great to be on site with the athletes.

“We want this to be a place where the athletes and the coaches and the staff come together and work and create a world class organization,” Marolt said. “As we’ve had the opportunity to move in to it and really start to work here, it’s even better than we thought it was going to be. That’s a really, really good feeling.”