Park City, UT (Friday, May 14, 2004) - The U.S. Freestyle Ski Team feels its "Fly With Us" program, designed to recruit athletes for aerials, is starting to pay dividends.

The program was undertaken a year ago in an effort to help keep the U.S. squad among the leaders in aerials. Part of the recruiting campaign continues to be advertisements in two leading gymnastics publications, spotlighting the obvious potential to reach the Olympics. New this summer is expanding the ads to USA Diving magazine in an effort to attract divers.

The Fly With Us program, which stresses that no prior experience in skiing is necessary, involves summer training camps at Utah Olympic Park in Park City, Utah, and at the Kodak Sports Complex in Lake Placid, N.Y.

"We've been talking about gym-based programs for years but never acted on it. When the Ski Team went to China [for an exhibition in 2003], and saw what's going on there, that motivated us," said U.S. Aerials Development Coach Brian Lake.

"In this country, not many aerialists come with an acrobatic background. They're skiers, for the most part, who have learned the twists and flips," Lake said. By tapping into gymnasts who are well-grounded in the acrobatic side of aerials, the Ski Team looks to strengthen its depth in aerials.

Head coach: "We don't want to ignore..."
U.S. Freestyle Head Coach Jeff Wintersteen said the program is patterned on the success that China is having in converting former gymnasts into aerialists.

"We can't compare with their numbers, with the thousands of gymnasts China has," he said, "but the concept is valid and we certainly don't want to ignore any possible talent pool which can help our program."

China is still relatively new to aerials "but when we went to China, we saw the future...and unless we responded, it could be dominated by Chinese aerialists," Wintertsteen said, noting he watched one training session where 40-plus aspiring aerialists were going through drills. "Australia has had outstanding success, too, in taking former gymnasts and converting them to aerials." Alisa Camplin, the 2002 Olympic champion, 2003 World Championships gold medalist, and back-to-back World Cup champion is a former gymnast who switched to aerials when she was 19.

"There's a great opportunity out there," said Chris Haslock, a former World Cup aerialist and U.S. coach who is freestyle program manager at Utah Olympic Park (UOP). He conducts the ongoing training camps at UOP where the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team bases its aerials training. The complex has a splash pool and assorted trampolines and other training apparatus.

In the summer of 2002, Haslock said, only Rachael Pack (Park City, UT), younger sister of 2002 Olympic medalist Joe Pack, was enrolled in his fledgling program. Last summer, with the "Fly With Us" campaign underway, 10 women from New England - including Pack - were enrolled. Pack has been named to the 2005 U.S. freestyle squad, making her - at 12 years old - the youngest athlete named to any U.S. Ski Team. Also named to the Ski Team from the UOP program: Jill Priest, who at 31 is a late arrival in aerials.

"I think the big plus," Haslock said, "is we've identified these athletes who've gone through gymnastics, carry a lot of the skills needed for aerials and it's a good step for them when they're done with gymnastics and are wondering what else they can do."

Said Lake, "It's important people in other acrobatic sports are aware of this opportunity." As a corollary, he said, two other former U.S. coaches, Frank Bare and Bruce Erickson, are taking the aerials program into two renowned acrobatic centers - the Woodward camps in California and Pennsylvania.

Exposure could boost aerials' recruiting appeal
"In addition to taking former gymnasts into skiing, now they're taking skiers into gymnastic environments so they can work on their acrobatics," said Lake, who skied as a kid but grew up as a gymnast in Lakewood, Colo., where his father owned a gym. "Hopefully, we'll get some gymnasts who decide to cross over [to skiing]. They may see an ad that says aerialists jump 50 feet into the air and figure, 'I can't throw myself 50 feet up.' But when they see athletes doing it, they could look at the aerialists and say, 'Hey, I can do that. I can be an aerialist.'

"We want to make them aware of the opportunity. I was a gymnast all my life and knew at 14 I wanted to be an aerialist, but I didn't know how to do it. At about 18, as I was graduating from high school, I started doing uprights [i.e., a skier's feet never go above his or her head] at Winter Park.

"If we use these programs to get gymnasts at 12 or 13, we have that much longer to work with them and make them aerialists. The 2006 Olympics may be out of the question," Lake said, "but who knows what a committed athlete can do by 2010."

He pointed to Nikki Stone, a former gymnast who turned to aerials after leaving gymnastics. She went on to win two World Cup titles, the 1995 world championship, 11 World Cup victories and the 1998 Olympic aerials gold medal. He also noted Camplin and 1994 Olympic champion Lina Cherjazova of Uzbekistan also came to aerials with gymnastics backgrounds.

"All three women's Olympic gold medalists were gymnasts before they won their gold medals. Nikki's the perfect example. Kids who want to go to the Olympics have a good opportunity in aerials," Lake said.