Building Dreams with Ski Legend & Coach Todd Wilson

Meet our Ski Jumping & Nordic Combined Program Director Todd Wilson, who just so happens to be a 2-time Olympian who stumbled into coaching as a way to temporarily give back to the sport he loves so much. 30 years later he has given back more than he could have ever imagined. 

 

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Today we cover the following and so much more:

• Todd's early years growing up on skis in Winter Park, Colorado
• His first big jump in Steamboat at age 8 (spoiler: it was not pretty) & why he decided to try again (spoiler: life lesson alert!)
• A short walk down ski history lane
• What it was like to compete as a pro nordic combined athlete for a decade and why he decided to stop
• The importance of having role models: how having heroes helps kids build dreams
• The down-low on Steamboat's amazing ski jumping facility
• And about a hundred life nuggets thrown in for good measure :)

For more Todd Wilson:

Todd oversees a professional staff of twenty-five coaches involved in the training of over 150 athletes. He started jumping with the Winter Park jumping program at the age of five and took his first jumps at Howelsen Hill at age eight. In 1984 he was named to the U.S. Nordic Combined Ski Team and competed internationally for nine seasons, which included the Winter Olympic teams of 1988 and 1992 and the World Championship Teams in 1985 and 1987. Todd began coaching with SSWSC in 1993 while he attended college at Colorado Mountain College. His first tour of duty with the SSWSC was as head coach for the U10 Team and then he was named Nordic Combined Head Coach the following year. In 2000 he was promoted to Nordic Program Director to oversee all the club’s Nordic sports of ski jumping, cross country, nordic combined and biathlon. With growth in the club’s nordic sports, in 2010 Todd was named Ski Jumping/Nordic Combined Program Director. This is Todd’s 29th season with SSWSC. Todd served as chairman for the USSA Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Coaches Subcommittee for 12 years and was a finalist for the 2003, US Olympic Committee’s Development Coach of the Year Award. The SSWSC SJ/NC program has won the US Ski & Snowboard’s SJ/NC Club of the Year Award the last four years. Todd and his wife, Stephanie, live in downtown Steamboat Springs with their two daughters, Maggie and Ella.

As always, please share your questions, comments, feedback and requests. Go to sswsc.org! Now get out there and support, lead or be a champion on and off the mountain!