“We are what we repeatedly do.”
“Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” — Aristotle
Walking into the U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s Center of Excellence it is easy to see that Aristotle’s words have truly resulted in excellence. One step into the main room reveals its
impressive scene. Extra wide treadmills, ski simulators and a beautiful kitchen (What athlete doesn’t need to have food on hand?) tell all who enter that place means business.
Troy Taylor, the High Performance Director for the Center, says this facility also invites athletes to “cross-pollinate across all sports.” Megan McJames, former women’s alpine athlete and current independent athlete, loves the Center for the support it gives her. “It’s inspiring to train next to other people who are also pushing themselves to the limit!” Taylor likes that the Center provides a home to the athletes as well as ownership over what and how they train, and as he oversees all sports science, medicine and education between athletes, sharing in that ownership is imperative to his athletes’ success.
Women’s ski jumper Abby Hughes has experienced great success thanks to the Center and Dr. Jim Stray-Gundersen and his BFR training system. Hughes says that after battling injuries in past seasons, Dr. Stray-Gundersen and the Center have helped her become stronger, leaner, healthier and happier with her training, performance and life overall.
Trampolines and a track straight-away, squat-racks galore and an ISO-Inertia training rehab machine (it’s fancy and one of Taylor’s favorites) work wonders on those athletes’ enviable physiques, while USSA Chef Allen Tran keeps the kitchen stocked and loaded so his athletes are nourished and capable of anything the Center throws at them.
U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s Center of Excellence is a training center, a classroom and a gymnasium. It’s also a place of healing, growing, laughing and passion. Its name is fitting because it embodies excellence in every way. Those who enter devote everything they have to their sport, creating habits that inspire the next generation of the world’s best.
