Recognizing the U.S. Ski Snowboard Team

Floor Speech

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Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the U.S. Ski & Snowboard teams as they prepare for the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Milano-Cortino, Italy.

For nearly 120 years, U.S. Ski & Snowboard has provided leadership, support and direction for young athletes as they work to achieve excellence in their sports. U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes participate in 10 different Olympic sports, including alpine skiing, para snowboarding, cross county skiing, ski jumping, and many others. At a typical Winter Olympics, U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes compose more than half of Team USA. In the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes won 60 percent of Team USA's medals. These able-bodied and adaptive athletes share a commitment to excellence, team work, and fair competition.

To Coloradans, skiing and snowboarding are more than just sports; they are part of our State's rich history. During World War II, 15,000 soldiers traveled to Camp Hale--located between Leadville and Red Cliff, CO, in the high alpine terrain of the Rocky Mountains--to train to defeat the Nazis. These Americans formed the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division. Among them were the best skiers in America. The men of the 10th Mountain Division trained relentlessly in 10 feet of snow and temperatures of 50 below zero. In 1945, 10th Mountain soldiers climbed more than 1,800 feet up a Riva Ridge and scaled Mount Belvedere to surprise the Germans who believed their position in the Alps was unassailable. The 10th Mountain Division took the skills they learned in the Colorado mountains and punched a hole through the German line to clear the way for Allied victory in Europe.

After the war, veterans of the 10th Mountain Division founded Colorado's ski and outdoor recreation industries, including ski resorts like Steamboat Springs and Vail. As a result of their hard work, Steamboat Springs has produced more Winter Olympians than any other town in the United States, and Vail is now known as the birthplace of the most decorated ski racer of all time, Mikaela Shiffrin.

I ask my colleagues to join me in expressing our deepest gratitude and appreciation to the U.S. Ski & Snowboard team and its able-bodied and adaptive athletes for inspiring all of us as they compete on the international stage and for their positive representation of American ideals throughout the world.

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