{"id":2444300,"date":"2019-05-16T23:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T05:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/basalts-hailey-swirbul-encouraged-by-results-after-first-year-on-us-ski-team\/"},"modified":"2019-05-16T23:04:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T05:04:00","slug":"basalts-hailey-swirbul-encouraged-by-results-after-first-year-on-u-s-ski-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/basalts-hailey-swirbul-encouraged-by-results-after-first-year-on-u-s-ski-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Basalt\u2019s Hailey Swirbul encouraged by results after first year on U.S. Ski Team"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery\" readability=\"6.2102564102564\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-306068-316\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/skier-atd-051719-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/skier-atd-051719-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Reese Brown\/U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard | Basalt native Hailey Swirbul competes in the World Cup cross-country skiing finals in Quebec, Canada, this past winter. Swirbul recently wrapped up her first season on the U.S. Ski Team.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"0\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10.56768558952\">\n<p><strong>Basalt native Hailey Swirbul competes in the World Cup cross-country skiing finals in Quebec, Canada, this past winter. Swirbul recently wrapped up her first season on the U.S. Ski Team.<\/strong><br \/>Reese Brown\/U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/aspentimes.mycapture.com\/mycapture\/remoteimage.asp?backtext=Return+to+AspenTimes.com&amp;backurl=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/basalts-hailey-swirbul-encouraged-by-results-after-first-year-on-us-ski-team\/&amp;image=https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/skier-atd-051719-1.jpg&amp;notes=https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/skier-atd-051719-1.jpg\"> Buy Photo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/skier-atd-051719-1.jpg\" alt=\"Basalt native Hailey Swirbul competes in the World Cup cross-country skiing finals in Quebec, Canada, this past winter. Swirbul recently wrapped up her first season on the U.S. Ski Team.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/skier-atd-051719-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/skier-atd-051719-1-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times | Hailey Swirbul on Monday, Oct. 22, 2018 in Aspen. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times).\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.46616541353383\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9.3233082706767\">\n<p><strong>Hailey Swirbul on Monday, Oct. 22, 2018 in Aspen. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times).<\/strong><br \/>Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/aspentimes.mycapture.com\/mycapture\/remoteimage.asp?backtext=Return+to+AspenTimes.com&amp;backurl=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/basalts-hailey-swirbul-encouraged-by-results-after-first-year-on-us-ski-team\/&amp;image=https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/skier-atd-051719-1-1.jpg&amp;notes=https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/skier-atd-051719-1-1.jpg\"> Buy Photo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/skier-atd-051719-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"Hailey Swirbul on Monday, Oct. 22, 2018 in Aspen. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times).\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/basalts-hailey-swirbul-encouraged-by-results-after-first-year-on-us-ski-team\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/basalts-hailey-swirbul-encouraged-by-results-after-first-year-on-us-ski-team\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">From a surprising World Cup start to eating meals with the sport\u2019s elite, Hailey Swirbul got everything she wanted and more in her first season on the U.S. Ski Team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The 2016 Basalt High School graduate and former Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club athlete hopes those experiences will now lead to even greater success down the line.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt was a really good year of learning for me,\u201d Swirbul said in a recent interview with The Aspen Times. \u201cI was really excited with how my season went. I think I made more improvement from last season. It was really awesome to have a lot of new resources with the U.S. team involved and to have tons of new experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Swirbul, 20, is one of the country\u2019s rising stars in cross-country ski racing. She turned heads a few winters ago when she became the most decorated American, male or female, in junior worlds history. She was directly involved with three of the country\u2019s five ever medals at the top-tier junior event at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">This led to her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/hailey-swirbuls-dream-becomes-reality-with-nomination-to-us-cross-country-ski-team\/\">first nomination to the U.S. team last spring<\/a>, where she joined longtime friends Hannah Halvorsen, Julia Kern and Katharine Ogden on the development team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Swirbul spent most of this past winter competing in domestic races here in the U.S. and Canada, but was given quite the surprise when she was tasked with competing in her first World Cup race, a Jan. 12 sprint in Dresden, Germany.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe had come right from the states 36 hours before. It was a little bit of a short-notice, last-minute invite. So that was tough,\u201d Swirbul said. \u201cIt was really intimidating. I won\u2019t lie. It was really crazy to be in the same room as people like Stina Nilsson, the best in the world, and see them eating breakfast \u2014 eating the same breakfast I was and warming up the same way. Stuff like that was really eye-opening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Swirbul finished 41st in that race, which was won by Sweden\u2019s Nilsson, who can be considered the best sprinter in the world at the moment. She is the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the individual sprint. For Swirbul to step on the same track as someone of that caliber was intimidating, as she said, but it was equally as motivating and encouraging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt was really motivating to see I\u2019m within striking distance of earning a World Cup point,\u201d Swirbul said. \u201cI\u2019m glad I got that first experience over with. It was a little bit nerve-wracking and from there I know what it\u2019s like. I know the routine and I know how the U.S. team works in that environment now. So it was much less intimidating the second time around in Quebec.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">From the onset of the season, Swirbul had always expected to get a start in the World Cup Finals, which Canada hosted in late March. She started all three races in Quebec, taking 53rd in the sprint, 41st in the 10-kilometer classic and 41st again in the 10k freestyle pursuit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThe Quebec races were definitely motivating,\u201d Swirbul said, \u201cand moving forward it\u2019s going to be really important for me to set smaller goals to make becoming one of the better skiers in the world more attainable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">U.S. Ski and Snowboard recently announced its nominations for next year\u2019s cross-country ski team, with Swirbul getting tabbed for the B team with Kern and Caitlin Patterson. Halvorsen remained on the D team while the women\u2019s A team will be made of Sadie Bjornsen, Rosie Brennan, Sophie Caldwell and Olympic gold medalist Jessie Diggins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Aspen native and three-time Olympian Simi Hamilton looks to return to the U.S. team alongside Erik Bjornsen as the only two men on the A team next winter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Swirbul, who also trains and races with the Alaska Pacific University club team in Anchorage, hopes to add even more World Cup races to her schedule next winter, not to mention a return to the U23 World Championships, which will likely be her biggest event outside of the World Cups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Regardless of who she is representing, Swirbul plans to continue dreaming big.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI have some big goals, so I\u2019m going to do what I can to get there,\u201d she said. \u201cIn a distant corner of my mind, for sure, I\u2019m thinking about the Olympics, definitely. It\u2019s a goal a little bit down the road. But next year I\u2019m going to focus on under-23s again and getting more World Cup experience and just taking it one year at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:acolbert@aspentimes.com\">acolbert@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/basalts-hailey-swirbul-encouraged-by-results-after-first-year-on-us-ski-team\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Basalt native Hailey Swirbul competes in the World Cup cross-country skiing finals in Quebec, Canada, this past winter. Swirbul recently wrapped up her first season on the U.S. Ski Team.Reese Brown\/U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Buy Photo Hailey Swirbul on Monday, Oct. 22, 2018 in Aspen. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times).Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times Buy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2444300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 10:12:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2444300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2444300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2444300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2444300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}