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Vail’s Green named to U.S. Adaptive Ski Team

Byron Hetzler/Sky-Hi Daily News
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VAIL, Colorado – Ralph Green of Vail has been named again to the U.S. Adaptive Alpine Ski Team.

Green, 32, was named to the “C” team.

The U.S. Adaptive Alpine Ski Team kicks off its 2010 season with the Ski Spectacular races at Copper Mountain on Dec. 14 and 15.



“I am excited for our program as we head into this Paralympic season,” said Adaptive Program Director Sandy Metzger. “We have a very strong team with talented veteran skiers returning to the team as well as new faces who are all going to be vying for a place at the Paralympics.”

The roster features nine Paralympians, including Green. In addition, Stephani Victor (Park City, Utah), Allison Jones (Colorado Springs) and Chris Devlin-Young (Campton, N.H.) have won World Championship medals

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“This is a really big year for us with the Paralympics in Vancouver. We’re looking to build the momentum that we started in our summer camps, carry it through the fall and just keep building toward March,” U.S. Adaptive Alpine Head Coach Ray Watkins said. “We know that we have people ready to go.”

Leading the way for the women on the adaptive alpine squad is Paralympic gold medalist Victor who marked her return to competition in 2009 with three gold and one silver World Championship medals. She also had six World Cup podiums and finished the World Cup-season second in the giant slalom and super G standings, and third in the slalom.

“A really important event in our sport is World Championships and she rose to the occasion and dominated over there,” Watkins said. “We’re looking forward to her repeating and hopefully besting her Torino results.”

With two World Championship silver medals, summer and winter Paralympic gold medalist Jones, who notched two World Cup podiums in during the 2009 season, is eager to get her journey to Vancouver started.

Heading the pack for the U.S. men is World Championship bronze medalist Devlin-Young, who knocked three World Cup podiums off the list to finish out the season first in the World Cup super G standings and third in downhill.

Pushing his way up to the A squad this season is Tyler Walker , who received the nod for a promotion after garnering two World Cup downhill victories as well as the World Cup downhill title in 2009.

“Chris and Tyler are definitely at the top of the game in the sport and we just want to keep building and challenging them in different events,” Watkins said. “We’re excited and I think the sky is the limit for both of those guys.”

But, according to Watkins, the fans can expect to see new faces giving the veterans a run for their money at all competitive levels.

“We’ve got some up and comers that we are really excited about,” Watkins said. “I won’t name any names, but I can say with certainty that we’re going to see some new names popping in there.”


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