Copper Mountain Resort opened the first part of the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center – the top portion of the Andy’s Encore trail – on November 4. The full venue is slated to open on November 11.
When fully operational, the Speed Center is the only full-length downhill training facility open anywhere in the world this time of year. It has a vertical drop of 2,300 feet, a length of two miles and a maximum speed of 80 mph. Disciplines served include slalom, giant slalom, super G, downhill and alpine combined.
U.S. Ski Team members expected to train on the Speed Center at Copper Mountain include: Olympic gold medalists Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO), Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, CO), Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) and American Downhillers Steven Nyman (Sundance, UT), Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, NY) and Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley, CA) and their nearly 50 teammates, as well as national teams from around the world.
Now in its seventh year of operation, the world-class training venue has helped propel U.S. Ski Team athletes to early season Audi FIS Ski World Cup dominance.
