Park City, UT (Thursday, May 29, 2003) - The U.S. Freestyle Ski Team is looking to gymnastics as one possible way to maintain its spot in the front ranks of aerials skiing, debuting its new 'Come Fly With Us' program to attract new athletes.

The team, which includes 1998 Olympic and '99 World Champion Eric Bergoust (Missoula, MT) and 2002 Olympic medalist Joe Pack (Park City, UT), has designed a pair of advertisements which will be rolling out in the nation's top two gymnastics magazine this summer. The obvious intention: to attract gymnasts, who may have outgrown their sport but still might be interested in aiming for the Olympics via skiing.

The ads urge "Come Fly With Us" and stress no previous skiing history is required to learn about aerials at two mini-camps this summer. One will be held July 18-20 in Lake Placid, NY, and another Aug. 14-17 at Utah Olympic Park in Park City.

Jeff Wintersteen, U.S. freestyle head coach, said a trip to China with U.S. aerials skiers earlier this year for a couple of exhibitions convinced him to try the unconventional approach to recruiting potential aerialists.

"You certainly can't take skiing out of the equation," he said. "However, we don't want gymnasts to think they can't be aerialists if they've never skied. We want to introduce them to aerials and show them how exciting it is."

OLD WAY "CHANGED DRAMATICALLY," COACH SAYS
China, the world's most populous country with more than a billion people, is still a relative newcomer to freestyle skiing with several men and women aerialists competing since the late Nineties. But, the population base and the nation's historic support for sports, makes it a potential contender to dominate the sport.

"The reality is we've been competing primarily against Canada and a few Europeans. We run a grassroots program and try to attract athletes," Wintersteen said. "But that's changed dramatically now. China has almost limitless potential. We were at one training session and they had 40 or more young kids on the hill, learning to perform aerials.

"China's not a factor in moguls - yet - but they've converted some of all these young gymnasts into divers as well as aerialists. You can't ignore that potential."

He recalled the impact former gymnasts have had on the U.S. aerials program. Nikki Stone, who turned to freestyle after she grew too tall for gymnastics and eventually retired in 1999, had one of the most glittering careers in aerials - 1998 Olympic aerials gold medalist, two-time World Cup champion and World Championships gold and bronze medalist.

Other gymnasts include three-time Olympian and 2002 U.S. aerials champion Tracy Evans and former U.S. champion Emily Cook (Belmont, MA), who is recovering from a foot injury that knocked her out of the 2002 Olympics. Current U.S. team members Jana Lindsey (Black Hawk, SD) and Lacy Schnoor (Draper, UT) who joined the U.S. Ski Team a year ago and come from gymnastics backgrounds.

NATIONWIDE PROGRAMS MEAN OPPORTUNITY FOR EX-GYMNASTS
"We're competing against the biggest country in the world and we have to do something. We have great athletes in this country, we have great coaches and we need to get more athletes into the program, to realize they can find success in aerials," Wintersteen said.

"We're calling the campaign 'Come Fly With Us' and we're not trying to raid gymnastics, but we hope to educate young gymnasts that there's clearly a terrific alternative for them when - for whatever reason - their gymnastics career is over," he said. "We want them - both men and women - to know there are freestyle programs at clubs across the country and, of course, if they proceed as Nikki and Emily and the others have, they could be in the Olympics as an aerialist...

"We want them to realize, of course, there's some great opportunity in aerials. Obviously, they need the skiing skills, too, but they could go into a development group and progress from there. We're not going to change how someone makes the national team - it's unlikely they'd just go from being a gymnast, even one who skis, to the national team - but," Wintersteen said, "when they develop and demonstrate the appropriate ski skills, there's a great opportunity for them."

In addition to the ads, Wintersteen said he was looking to broaden relationships with USA Gymnastics. "We'd be pretty foolish if we didn't look a little more deeply into an obvious talent pool," he said.

"We've talked about this for a few years but when I came back from China, it was clear it was time to get beyond talking and to do something. This ad campaign - and the recruiting/training camps - is the two-prong first step."