We are excited to announce that Challenge Aspen, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the Department of Veterans Affairs have partnered, making Aspen the home base for the USOC Veterans’ Paralympic Performance Program (VP3) Alpine Skiing program.   This will afford Veterans a full time residency program in Aspen and one of the top coaching programs available in the world, under Kevin Jardine, Challenge Aspen Director of Skiing, 2006 USSA International Disabled Coach of the Year and former Head Coach of the U.S. Disabled Alpine Team.

The mission of this competition development program is to provide disabled veterans the opportunity and skill to compete regionally, nationally and internationally.   The program will provide training and coaching for athletes with visual impairments and physical impairments in accordance with the rules set out by the International Paralympic Committee.

To be eligible for the program you must be able to:

• Ski independently
• Load and unload from the lift independently
• Pick yourself up independently after a fall
• Have a desire to take your skiing to the next level and be willing to commit the time and energy into the training

We also recommend that you have your own equipment.

Our goal is to train individuals for competition at an elite level; therefore age and physical conditioning will be taken into consideration for acceptance into this specialized training.

Note:   Challenge Aspen also offers many learn to ski and snowboard programs for individuals who do not meet the above criteria but are interested in competing in the future.

For more information, please contact Kevin Jardine at (970) 923-0578 ext 226 (voicemail ext 222) or or apply online with the U.S. Paralympics Military Program (VP3) http://workshop06.usoc.org/vp3.aspx