RACING NEWS

Highmount , NY ~ Belleayre Racers take 7 top 10 spots in Skier Cross
Saturday, March 25, seven competitive athletes from Belleayre Mountain headed to Catamount for the Skiercross event. Despite the 20-30 mile per hour winds and 3” of fresh powder over the night into morning, over 200 competitive athletes ran the course and all seven Belleayre athletes finished in the top ten.

Joshua Cohen took Gold; Matt Markowitz took Silver and Julia Schneider the Bronze in their respective age brackets. The other four finishers were Joseph Strauss in 4th place, Jon Strauss in 7th place, Sam Markowitz in 4th and JQ Depaiva in 6th in their respective age brackets. Competition was fierce.

Six out of seven of the kids had not previously raced in Skiercross and just like with any sport, Skiercross takes time to master. Despite the disadvantage of never racing Skiercross, they managed to capture the top 10 spots.

JQ, John and Joseph were in some of the toughest age brackets for their races.  All other athletes they had raced against have accumulated points throughout the series (they have raced Skiercross numerous times), which gives them a leg up in competition. Also, their respective age brackets had approximately 75 competitors, which meant elimination heat after elimination heat.

For those of you who don’t know, Skiercross or Skier-X is a type of skiing competition based on the snowboarding discipline of Boardercross. It is a timed racing event, often considered part of freestyle skiing because of its incorporation of terrain features traditionally found in freestyle skiing.

The concept for Ski Cross originated from Jim of Recreational Sports Marketing in the late 1980's. Skiercross is a concept that uses a similar format to Nascar and Motocross placing skiers on a course simultaneously.

In time trials or qualification rounds, competitors ski down the course, which encompasses both naturally occurring terrain like flat sections and traverses and artificial features like jumps, rollers, banks and anything else imaginable.
 
In 2010, the Winter Olympics program included Skiercross for the first time (a decision made by the International Olympic Committee in November of 2006.

USASA is a national organization that holds events for 5 different disciplines – one of which is Skiercross. USASA organizers believed that forming a national association for competitors would allow for the rules of competition to be standardized allowing for National events to be established.

USASA holds a Catskill Mountain Race Series which is a Pro/Am race series that has events based on skill development in a “relaxed” competitive environment. The Catskill Mountain series events are held at 5 Mountains: Hunter, Windham, Belleayre, Plattekill, Catamount and Campgaw.

The athletes will head to Windham Mountain in two weeks for competition finals. Please check back to see how they do!

High School Races:
2010-11 Season TBD

USSA/NYSSRA Races:
TBA