Oregon Public Broadcasting

This week, the U.S. Ski Team makes a series of announcements about which athletes have earned spots in the Vancouver Winter Olympics. 

The way things are shaping up, the Northwest will be well-represented when the Olympics come to our backyard. 

Sun Valley alone has six to eight legitimate contenders to make the 2010 Olympic Team.  How did that happen?  Tom Banse went to Sun Valley to find out.

Sun Valley has a wide reputation, but a relatively small population.  What locals call the Wood River Valley is home to fewer than 20,000 year-round residents.  Yet this place is on track to produce more 2010 Olympians than some whole countries.

Olympic hopeful Kaitlyn Farrington

Rick Kapala: "We don't have the Denver Nuggets.  We don't have a pro sports team. What we've got is a community that values skiing."

Rick Kapala directs the Nordic program for the Sun Valley ski club.  I asked him, why the bumper crop of Olympic hopefuls.  Kapala credits top notch coaching and easy access to ski slopes and trails to train... A LOT.

Rick Kapala: "You don't have to fight to get on snow or you don't have to drive an hour each way to find a place to ski or to train.  We've got in our town here you know like thirty miles of separated bike path that we can use for roller skiing for summer training.  That means our kids don't have to be on the roads out roller skiing in traffic.  Almost anywhere in this valley, they can walk out their front door, put on their roller skis in summer and roll over to the bike path and then ski for hours and hours and hours."

In winter, school ends at lunchtime for the dozens of students who ski competitively.  That gives them time for daily ski or snowboard practice.

The system is producing Olympic caliber athletes such as snowboarder Graham Watanabe and freestyle skier Shane Cordeau. 

Cross-country skier Morgan Arritola says it's almost "too perfect" here.

Olympic hopeful Morgan Arritola

Morgan Arritola: "It's so perfect that you get out there and it's hard to adjust when the trails aren't groomed well and it's terrible conditions and you have to make it work."

But then in the next breath Arritola says she wouldn't be in contention for an Olympic spot without the financial support from local Sun Valley donors.  The 23-year-old doesn't have a paid job.  Training for the World Cup and the Olympics is her full-time job.

Morgan Arritola: "It's really expensive.  I mean, we're not Norwegians.  We are not making multi-million dollar contracts every year, you know."

About four years ago, the Sun Valley ski club started a formal Olympic Development Team, which is what is now bearing fruit. 

Its primary purpose is to help aspiring local athletes cross a gap when many others have to drop out.  That gap generally spans the several years between high school or college graduation and full sponsorship from the U.S. national team. 

Sun Valley's Bald Mountain ski area

Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Director Don Wiseman says Olympic development entails significant fundraising.

Don Wiseman: "The way that I look at it is, for each kid we take on it's a $20,000 deal. That's what you actually in some way have to support through facilities, training, coaches, travel.  That's minimum."

Fortunately for Wiseman, Sun Valley is one of wealthier pockets of the Northwest.

A bubbly 20-year-old snowboarder is one of the select beneficiaries.  Kaitlyn Farrington comes from a ranching family at the south end of the valley.  She's been named to the rookie squad of the U.S. national team, but she still has to pay her own way to competitions.

Kaitlyn Farrington: "When I first started to go on trips and stuff it was expensive. My dad ended selling a cow each time I had to go on a trip.  We don't have any cows at the moment because my dad had to sell them all so I could snowboard and go on trips.  If I didn't have the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, I think we wouldn't have any horses either."

This year's Olympics aren't even in the history books yet.  But Sun Valley team managers have already set their sights on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.  They expect even greater success in stocking the U.S. team then.

Online:

Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation ñ Olympic Development Team

You Tube video: Sun Valley snowboard team early season training in foam pit