Today was a celebration at Sugar Bowl as they held their ribbon cutting and launch party for their new Sugar Bowl Park.
It's a full-sized park focused 100% on the youth of Tahoe and California to give them the chance to train to be a world-known athlete.
Bridget Legnavsky, the CEO of Sugar Bowl says, "It’s so important - these kids are so good at skiing and they won’t get to this level without these facilities. Interestingly, when you come out here and you wonder why… why are there no kids from Tahoe going to the World Cup? And it’s because we haven’t been building them the facilities they need.”
David Wise, a professional half pipe skier and Sugar Bowl Ambassador says, "Kids that want to be at the top of the game in skiing or snowboarding, they need opportunities to progress their skiing - and that’s been something that’s been lacking in this area for the last few years… myself, I travel to train. I have to travel somewhere."
Many of the bigger mountains like Mammoth and Park City have big full-sized facilities that the kids have to travel to to train if they want to be a more skilled athlete. Sugar bowl thought: "Why not build it here and give the kids a space where they can train and get to that high level?"
Legnavsky adds, "In such a beautiful environment where it’s kind of consolidated, it’s got really short lift times. The Alpine racing is right next to it, the free rides right next to it, and we’re building a real community of athletes."
Wise also says, "I’m super excited to be a part of it because I grew up in Tahoe skiing all over, competing in big areas: slope style and half pipe. And I’ve become a professional half pipe skier over the years, but it all started with things just like this big jump behind me."
Legnavsky describes the park to us: "So we’re standing next to the full-sized park which is 45, 55, 65 feet - these are big jumps. These are jumps where kids will do doubles and triples, upside-down inverted and sideways tricks on. But to get them to one of these you have to have a safe progression first. So we start on the Falconry which is on the hill; which is little jumps, teaching them how to ride rails, teaching them how to clear knuckles, teaching them how to jump."
That's just scratching the surface - there are many more features for the kids to train on too.
Wise adds, "This whole day, this park launch day has been amazing because it’s sort of like a reunion. Some of the old guys I grew up skiing with are here, and then we’re also getting to watch the young up and comers, so multigenerational park and pipe snowboard and ski scene is out here at Sugar Bowl.”
This project has been years in the works.
They also have a space where you can listen to music and hang out - in the athlete lounge, there's a place to do yoga and stretch or even just chill out andf watch themselves on tv.
