- Utahns Lindsey Van and Raelene Davis were elected to the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame on Tuesday.
- Van fought for the inclusion of women's Olympic ski jumping, while Davis expanded skiing's reach, introducing programs for children and diversity.
- Van and Davis will join six other inductees in the Class of 2025.
SALT LAKE CITY — Two Utahns were named to the U.S. National Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame class of 2025, including one who fought tirelessly for the inclusion of women's ski jumping in the Olympics.
The eight inductees' achievements have shaped and elevated skiing and snowboarding in the United States.
Jump start
Lindsey Van, of Park City, is a pioneering ski jumper who won her sport's first World Championship in 2009 and was among those who paved the way for the women to compete in the sport in the Winter Games.
Van was among 15 internationally ranked female ski jumpers who sued the organizers of the Vancouver Olympics to force them to include female ski jumping in the 2010 Games after the International Olympic Committee had ruled against including the sport. It was the only sport in the Olympics to not include both genders.
While sympathetic to the plight of the women, the Canadian court ruled VANOC didn't have jurisdiction over the decision about which sports to include. Although unsuccessful, the lawsuit brought attention to the discriminatory nature of the exclusion.
In 2011, the IOC announced women's ski jumping would be included in the 2014 Sochi Games. Carina Vogt, of Germany, won gold, while Van finished 15th in the field of 30.
During her career, Van had eight Continental Cup wins and 44 top-three finishes and 13 U.S. national ski jumping championships.
Van tried to articulate the rush she gets from ski jumping in a 2011 ESPN story: "The closest I can come is to say it feels like flying. You are up in the air and for a minute it's as if you can fly. It's a feeling like nothing else I've ever felt, and as soon as I land, I just want to go back up to the top and do it again."
After retiring from competitive jumping in 2015, Van, 40, has worked as a ski jump official, an FIS technical delegate and an advocate for gender equality in ski jumping.
Marketing genius
Raelene Davis, of Salt Lake City, is considered one of skiing's and snowboarding's most impactful marketers, responsible for bringing countless people into the sports.
As marketing chief of Ski Utah for 40 years, she introduced elementary-school learn-to-ski/ride programs and helped introduce ethnic diversity through Discover Winter. Her fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade passport and fourth-grade learn-to-ski/ride programs annually introduce more than 15,000 children to the sport.
Davis' creative advertising and promotions helped place Utah on a competitive level with the world's leading ski areas and generated billions of dollars in media exposure.
Davis was a torchbearer for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. She was inducted into the Utah Tourism Hall of Fame in 2010 and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the North American Snowsports Journalist Association in 2014.
Lasting legacies
- Chris Cushing, of Franconia, New Hampshire, is regarded as one of the world's foremost mountain planners. He has shaped mountain resort design over four decades, with over 200 ski‑area projects on five continents, including Deer Valley and Steamboat Springs.
- Nancy Gustafson, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, earned seven gold and three silver medals in Alpine skiing at the Paralympic Winter Games from 1988-1994, including a gold-medal sweep in Lillehammer. She won nine world championships and took 25 national titles in her career.
- Hugh Harley, of Burlington, Vermont, was a key leader at Rossignol and Nordica for 36 years, helping Rossignol gain a 30% U.S. market share and led efforts to build three North American factories.
- Douglas Pringle, of Orangevale, California, launched 42 adaptive learn-to-ski programs around the country, helped lead Disabled Sports USA and played a formative role in the evolution of the Paralympics over his half-century career.
- Kikkan Randall, of Anchorage, Alaska, catapulted the U.S. Ski Team cross-country skiers onto the world stage. She claimed 29 World Cup podiums with 11 wins and took three consecutive season sprint titles. In her final Olympics in 2018, she took gold in the team sprint with Jessie Diggins, a first for Americans in the event.
- Todd Richards, of Boulder/Vail, Colorado, transformed snowboarding, rising from halfpipe pioneer to champion with multiple U.S. Open wins, X Games gold medals, and world slopestyle titles. A member of the first U.S. halfpipe team at the 1998 Olympics, he went on to become an Emmy-winning commentator for every Winter Games since 2006.
