Lindsey Vonn to attend 2024 Colorado Snowsports Hall of Fame celebration
Annual event is Sept. 7 at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail
Lindsey Vonn is confirmed to appear in person at the 2024 Colorado Snowsports Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail on Sept. 7 starting at 3 p.m.
Lindsey Vonn will be present when she’s inducted into the Colorado Snowsports Hall of Fame on Sept. 7, hall of fame organizers announced this week.
The Colorado Snowsports Hall of Fame induction ceremony is an annual event held at Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail, hosted by the Colorado Snowsports Museum.
This year’s class of hall of fame inductees includes Vonn, Ross Anderson, Bjorn Erik Borgen, John McBride, and Sigurd Rockne.
Vonn told the snowsports museum that she’s excited to return home to Vail where she can celebrate with her friends and family.
“I spent most of my formative years in Colorado,” she said. “It’s where I learned to ski downhill, and is such a special place.”
Vonn is best known for her accomplishments in downhill, where she earned 43 of her 82 total World Cup wins. She also won four World Cup overall championships — including three straight in 2008, 2009 and 2010. In 2010, she also took gold in downhill at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, a first for an American woman. She is third on the all-time World Cup wins list, with 82 victories, and is just one of six women to have won World Cup races in all five disciplines of alpine skiing — downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom, and super combined.
In recent years, Vonn has also been instrumental in the successful bid for the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the snowsports museum noted in announcing her accomplishments.
“As the Chief of Athlete Experience on the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games Governing Board, Vonn played a crucial role in advocating for the needs of athletes and their families,” according the the snowsports museum. “Her insights and experience were invaluable in shaping the vision for the 2034 Games.”
Other inductees
Vonn isn’t the only speed skier from the Class of 2024.
Native American Ross Anderson became the fastest skier in the Western Hemisphere in 2006 when he set the record (154.06 miles per hour) for the fastest American ever on skis.
Anderson was born in New Mexico but grew up in Durango and started racing at an early age.
“He was on skis by 3 at Purgatory Resort, where his father was on the ski patrol,” according to the Snowsports Museum. “By 6, he was ski racing but was drawn to speed skiing. He later became one of the top U.S. Speed Skiing Team athletes, winning bronze at the 2005 World Championships, and is an eight-time national champion.”
Anderson is also known for leveraging his athletic success to bring skiing to Native American youth.
“He began engaging in programs, initially at Purgatory Resort, together with the Southern Ute tribe, as well as the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma and the Mescalero Apache tribes of New Mexico,” according to the Ski Museum. “Over the years, he has also partnered with former ski racers like Suzy Chaffee and Billy Kidd, an Abenaki (northeastern tribe), at Chaffee’s Native Voices Foundation, to advocate for native youth.”
Two sport builders — John McBride and Bjorn Erik Borgen — are also set to be inducted into the Colorado Snowsports Hall of Fame.
The museum describes Borgen as a force in elevating the sport of skiing through a lifetime of providing leadership and support for athletes, venues, and major events.
Borgen’s efforts have resulted in the successful completion of major projects in the U.S. and abroad, from the Ski & Snowboard Club Vail Clubhouse and race venue expansion to the USSA Center for Excellence in Park City to the expansion and enhancement of Kvitfjell Resort in Norway.
“His efforts and persistence were pivotal in bringing the FIS World Championships to the Vail Valley in 1989, 1999, and 2015,” according to the Snowsports Museum. “He consistently supported athletes in the United States, and his home country of Norway, making it possible for athletes to achieve their dreams on and off the snow through the creation and funding of educational scholarships.”
McBride is most well known as the former U.S. Ski Team coach during the glory years of Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves, coaching Miller to two Alpine ski overall titles and Rahlves to 28 World Cup podiums and 12 World Cup victories.
Raised in Aspen, McBride trained with the Aspen Valley Ski Club and went on to race for the University of Vermont.
“He coached AVSC from 1989-1995 and then the U.S. Ski Team for a decade where he led his athletes to a U.S. record number of wins and podium finishes on the World Cup in addition to Olympic and World Cup medals,” according to the snowsports Museum.
After 10 years with the U.S. Ski Team, McBride “returned to Aspen and coached at Challenge Aspen, a competitive ski team for individuals with cognitive or physical impairment,” according to the Snowsports Museum. “A year later, the Canadian Team recruited him to lead their speed team through the 2014 Sochi Olympics. He led the Canadian team to 20 podiums in addition to Eric Guay’s gold medal at the 2011 World Championships and a bronze medal by Jan Hudec in the super-G at Sochi.”