Featuring Olympian Doug Lewis
The ELITEAM Fitness Challenge is a hands-on, interactive, physical fitness, fun area where kids of all ages can play, train, and test themselves on agility and challenge courses. Two-time Olympic ski racer Doug Lewis is your guide and coach as he and his staff help you through the ELITEAM Challenge area.
It is never too late to get yourself in shape for skiing and riding this winter. If your goal is to make a jump this year in your skill level, it starts with upping your physical fitness level. More strength equals more power and control on the slopes. More agility means better movement and technique in the moguls, trees and race course. And better cardio fitness means you will be able to ski and ride all day long.
Come over to the ELITEAM Fitness Challenge area and learn what you can do today to boost your fitness. Run the Obstacle course to get a workout in. Test your vertical jump, sit-ups or broad jump and see how your compare to US Ski Team heroes and big mountain riders.
Everyone who stops by can pick up some information about Ski and Ride specific workouts as well as sign up for a chance to win Raffle Prizes. Fun for the entire family!
Two-time Olympian and World Championship Bronze Medalist Doug Lewis will be on hand to lead the kids through the courses and talk about how important Physical fitness is to every skier and rider. Doug competed on the World Cup Downhill circuit for 8 years and now runs ELITEAM Conditioning camps for kids ages 8-14. Kids of any age and ability are welcome to try all the agility exercises and parents can come watch, cheer, and also ask Doug about what they can do right now to get bigger, stronger and faster.
***At each Challenge there will be a list of Olympian Records for each exercise. Plus there will be a daily list of the best scores from participants who have come through and challenged themselves.
Two-time Olympian and World Championship Bronze Medalist Doug Lewis and his wife Kelley, also a World-Class ski racer, will be your coaches and mentors. They run ELITEAM Conditioning camps for young ski racers and brings their knowledge, expertise and energy to the Minneapolis, Denver and Boston Ski Shows. They will educate and motivate all who visit the ELITEAM Challenge area. Assisting Doug & Kelley will be a staff of 3 at all times helping the participants make their way through the challenges.
As participants enter the Challenge area they will be given a manual that not only explains all the challenges and what they test, but it will have information on the importance of physical fitness, sports psychology and nutrition for the young skier and rider. The first page will be an Athlete Profile and that is where the participants will fill in their scores from all the challenges on hand.
Doug began bombing down Vermont’s mountains at age three and began racing at age eight. He enrolled at the Green Mountain Valley School Ski Academy in 1978, and won his first title at the Junior Olympics in 1980. The following year, at age seventeen, he jumped to the International level and competed in his first World Cup at Aspen.
Doug joined the USST in 1981 and competed in the 1984 Olympic Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia and the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary, Canada. Doug’s greatest moment came at the 1985 World Championships when he won the Bronze Medal in the Downhill. Doug also collected two U.S. National Downhill Championships in 1986 and 1987. In 1994, Doug won the inaugural JEEP King of the Mountain Championship and it’s $25,000 first place prize.
After retirement from the U.S. Ski Team in 1988, Doug graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in Small Business Mngt. He is now actively involved in every level of the ski industry as coach, trainer, product consultant, celebrity, journalist and racer.
Doug and his wife Kelley own and run ELITEAM Conditioning camps in Vermont, the nation’s top conditioning camp for young athletes.
Doug still slips into Crazy Downhiller mode every now and then.
-won the longest Airtime award during the Legend’s Downhill, jumping 178 feet in the middle of a race run;
-out-jumped 20 Olympians in Battery Park in New York City off a 60 foot ski jump. He still holds the record for biggest air caught in NYC;
-gap-jumped 50’ over a John Deere tractor over Bragg Hill Rd in the Mad River Valley. Judging speed was tough as he had to be pulled in by a snowmobile. On the first try he landed short and ate it. On the second attempt he landed long and head-planted. The third time he got it just right;
-skied the 1992, 1994, and 2002 Olympic courses with a video camera strapped to his body for Television;
-skied through the glades in Killington shooting an Ouzee at another stunt-skier. At the end of the scene he had to ski into a tree and die. It only took three takes.
What do you love about your sport? “I am so lucky. I still get to ski every day. The chairlift is my office and my job is to turn people on to skiing and ski racing. Whether you are going 24 mph or 94 mph that feeling you get in your stomach and brain is the same – that’s why I love taking people to the GS course and teaching them how to rip it up.”
What do you do when you’re not on the snow? “Besides ELITEAM conditioning camps where we teach kids about sport physiology, psychology and nutrition, you can find Kelley and I running biking, hiking, pushing ourselves in triathlons, running races, or just hanging out with our dog and cat at our house in Vermont.”
Scariest moment on skis? In 1991, three years after retiring from World Cup, I found myself standing in the starting gate of the Val d’Isere World Cup downhill as a fore-runner. It was the first time that they were ever running the course designed for the following year’s Olympics. I was there to interview course designer Bernhard Russi and write a piece on the course for a magazine. What better way to check out the course than to run it. All my old racing buddies, Girardelli, AJ Kitt, Daniel Mahrer came over to wish me good luck and then got front row seats to watch me be the guinea pig. The first 300 yards was a straight on freefall, accelerating to over 60 mph in only a few seconds. Then the course turned and went out of sight of the start. Knowing everyone was watching, I punched out of the start and hopped into my bully. But, as soon as I got around the corner, out of sight, I quickly stood up and made a few check turns to slow down!
Most Memorable Moment? Crossing the finish line at the 1985 World Championships Downhill and immediately looking up to the giant scoreboard and seeing the number three beside my name. At first I was excited to be in the top three. Then, as I slowed to a stop and heard the crowd, I realized that third meant I had won a Bronze Medal. Harold Schoenhaar ran over to hug me and the next five hours were a blurr - seeing my parents, interviews, getting drug-tested, the awards Ceremony, the press conference, the TV shows and then sleeping with my medal around my neck.
Most Memorable Olympic Moment? There are so many, from Olympic Village experiences to rooming with Gold Medallist Bill Johnson in Sarajevo to watching Debbie Armstrong and Christin Cooper win in GS. But, overall, the most memorable moments came for me at the Opening Ceremonies. Walking into the stadium representing the United States and hearing the crowd brought tears to my eyes both in 84 & 88. You dream as a kid about it – you watch it on TV as a teenager and hope for it, but when it happens it surpasses anything you imagined. Incredible!