Kyle Negomir: survival of the fittest — and fastest
When it comes to his ski career, the former Ski and Snowboard Club Vail athlete is in it for the long haul
Gabriele Facciotti/AP Photo
If the U.S. Ski Team was in a wilderness survival situation, it’s hard for Kyle Negomir to say who would bow out first. He’s very confident, however, in who would last the longest: Sam Morse.
“I walked in the other day on him reading a 300-page book about different types of knots you can tie to survive in the woods,” Negomir said of his veteran teammate from Maine. Morse embarked on a month-long canoe-and-climbing expedition to the Northwest Territories two years ago and hiked the Long Trail in Vermont with his wife this year.
“It goes straight up the Green Mountains, up all the ski resorts,” Morse said of the route, which climbs and descends 70,000 feet over 270 miles.
Negomir might not win “Alone” someday, but when it comes to his ski career, the former Ski and Snowboard Club Vail athlete is in it for the long haul. He recently moved much of his life to Lucerne, Switzerland, to “commit full-time to this ski racing thing.” The 27-year-old skier just missed qualifying for his second global championship squad in February, but closed out the year with three top-25 World Cup finishes. Even though he finished one spot lower in the super-G standings in 2025 compared to 2024, he scored 10 more points to place 31st. Still, his own teammates know there’s more in store.
“He’s broken out the last couple of years, and it’s exciting to see that rise that he’s taken,” River Radamus said of Negomir. “But I think everyone who’s been training up here the last few days knows how much more he has to give. I think guys like Kyle, Bridger, Isaiah, it’s not a matter of if, but when. It’s sort of an inevitability that they’ll find the success they deserve because they’re proving every day in training they have what it takes.”
Support Local Journalism
“It’s definitely disappointing in that I knew I had more potential than I showed in the World Cup circuit last year,” Negomir admitted. Entering his fourth year on the World Cup, Negomir understands the ingredients he needs from a mental, physical, technical and tactical standpoint. Each year, however, he’s seemed to miss one piece of the puzzle.
“And that piece has shifted around,” he added. “But this year, I’m hoping to put it all together.”
Over the offseason, Negomir emphasized building a bigger base. Now technically a sophomore academically at Dartmouth, he’d put on chemistry and physics lectures or NPR’s Throughline podcast to get him through four-hour bike rides in the summer. The goal? To be fit enough to bounce back during long downhill race weeks.
“The unique part about ski racing is you have to have a well-rounded cardio base, but this sport is almost purely anaerobic,” he said. “There’s not many things where you have to be able to squat 400 or 500 pounds, and also be able to squat 300 pounds for two minutes.”
At Copper Mountain through the rest of the month, Negomir said it’s the longest he’s ever been relegated to the upper third of the downhill track during the U.S. Ski Team’s annual November camp. As of Wednesday, athletes were repping the hamster wheel from Copperopolis to A-Road.
“Which I think is three turns,” Negomir said. Still, athletes from Norway, Austria, Switzerland, France, Germany and a handful of other small nations were in town prepping for the Stifel Copper Cup on Nov. 27-30 and the Birds of Prey World Cup the following week. Negomir said Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who plans to return to racing at Beaver Creek after a life-threatening injury suffered in January 2024, is looking good.
“He’s a great guy to have around as kind of a role model for everyone on the World Cup,” Negomir said. In terms of a competition preview, Negomir said the Copper Mountain races could come down to risk-taking and execution.
“The snow is so dry and aggressive. It lends itself to people who can ski with a lot of power,” he said, adding that Copper’s “dynamic” nature might lend an advantage — even in the super-G — to GS skiers.
“Because it is so much steep, so much pitch and so much turning,” he continued. “Not like so many other super-Gs we have where you’re more gliding for a minute or minute and a half.”
The local races obviously matter for the hometown kid, but Negomir knows that if he wants a shot at making his first Olympic team, every race on the FIS calendar is essential. Up to three of the likely six men’s slots (a number that could change between now and January) will be determined by objective criteria based on individual World Cup results.
“So, you’re going into every weekend knowing this race right in front of you is the biggest race you have,” Negomir said. “And as soon as that race is over, it’s done. You’re not thinking about it. The next race is the biggest race you have. And I think that’s very much the mentality most years, but especially with the Olympics on the line.”
Negomir said the elephant in the room of Olympic qualification is an unspoken reality amongst teammates. In a sport where day-to-day operations are corporate affairs and only the two minutes of high-speed racing are individual, Negomir said there is no choice but to maintain a healthy culture.
“Specifically for speed skiers, there’s an extra level of mutual respect for what everyone’s doing, the risk everyone’s taking and what they’re willing to put on the line that really makes it a supportive culture,” he said.
In other words, no one is getting voted off the island, so to speak.
“I’m glad Kyle is telling my tales,” Morse said with a laugh when asked about his epic outdoor adventures.
“Fortunately, a lot of us have grown up skiing together (and) traveling together so we’re lucky enough to live out our dream and travel the world with a lot of our best friends,” Negomir stated. “I really think that makes it a culture of wanting to push each other up.”
