Brad Wilson got a little emotional on the last day of Deer Valley Resort’s Freestyle World Cup in mid-January when he was asked how he felt about taking his final competitive run down the Champion course. The Park City moguls athlete, who grew up skiing that mountain, is retiring at the end of the season.
“I’ve been doing this for the last 20-plus years,” he said. “So it’s a lot of emotions to call it quits after this year. And that was so fun.”
Wilson said one bit of solace was that he was able to slide in as one of the last finals qualifiers and snag what he believed was a bonus run.
Well, how about a couple more on the house?
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brad Wilson of the United States reacts as we watches a replay of his finals run during a World Cup moguls skiing event at Deer Valley Resort, Friday, Jan. 14, 2022.
Elite freestyle competition will unexpectedly return to the Champion course later this month after Deer Valley stepped up to take over hosting the 2022 U.S. Freestyle Championships. The event, scheduled for March 25-27, was originally slated for Palisades Tahoe in California, but that resort lacked the snowpack to host the moguls and dual moguls races. US Ski & Snowboard announced the hasty relocation Wednesday afternoon.
Palisades Tahoe had committed to hosting the event prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, according to a press release.
“Deer Valley is honored to step in and host the 2022 U.S. Freestyle Championships on our 2002 Olympic and World Cup mogul ski run,” Mark Brownlie, the COO of Alterra Mountain Company, which owns Deer Valley, said in a press release. “We look forward to hosting the athletes and supporting them as they close out their competition season.”
Wilson should be there as well as several other local athletes who joined him in competing at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. Among them are silver medalist Jaelin Kauf, who also happens to be Wilson’s girlfriend, and her teammates Olivia Giaccio and Hannah Soar, both Salt Lake City residents. Nick Page and Cole McDonald, two athletes who like Wilson grew up skiing at Deer Valley and who also competed in Beijing, could compete as well.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Olivia Giaccio (USA) competes in women’s moguls at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in Zhangjiakou, China, on Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022.
Women’s moguls qualifying will start at 12:50 p.m. on March 25. Action resumes at 10:15 a.m. on March 26, with the women’s finals set for 1 p.m. and the men’s for 1:30 p.m. Dual moguls action — which was missing from the January races because it is not yet an Olympic event — will begin at 10:40 a.m. on March 27.
The Deer Valley Freestyle World Cup stop typically also incorporates aerials competition but that was not among the events scheduled to be held at Palisades Tahoe. The U.S. Aerial Freestyle Championships will instead be held at Bristol Mountain in New York on Sunday.
