The Winter Sports School in Park City is a college preparatory school

University-preparatory school

A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...

, with students from 9th through 12th grades, located in Park City

Park City, Utah

Park City is a town in Summit and Wasatch counties in the U.S. state of Utah. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake City's east edge of Sugar House along Interstate 80. The population was 7,558 at the 2010 census...

, Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

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General information

The Winter Sports School was founded in 1994 by a group of parents whose children were dedicated students and elite winter sports athletes. Because winter sports disciplines require considerable travel from venue to venue, and because the training and competition schedules during the winter – and during the heart of the traditional academic calendar in the United States – are so intense, the founding parents were determined to find an alternate way to allow the students to focus on their athletics during the winter season and on their academics during the remainder of the year. The school was developed around that concept, and its academic calendar therefore begins in mid-April and ends in mid-November.

The Winter Sports School's campus is located at the Utah Olympic Park

Utah Olympic Park

The Utah Olympic Park is a winter sports park built for the 2002 Winter Olympics, and is located east of Salt Lake City near Park City, Utah, United States. During the 2002 games the park hosted the bobsleigh, skeleton, luge, ski jumping, and nordic combined events. It still serves a training...

, site of the 2002 Olympics'

2002 Winter Olympics

The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event that was celebrated in February 2002 in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Approximately 2,400 athletes from 77 nations participated in 78 events in fifteen disciplines, held throughout...

 Nordic Ski Jumping, Bobsled, Luge, and Skeleton events. Their campus is also within an hour's drive of the 2002 Olympic venues in all other winter sports disciplines.

Academics

The Winter Sports School’s academic program is centered around preparing its students for college. Over 90% of The Winter Sports School’s students go on to college after graduation – most attend NCAA member schools with a strong presence in winter sports. Students from the last several graduating classes have attended such institutions as Bates College

Bates College

Bates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...

, Colby College

Colby College

Colby College is a private liberal arts college located on Mayflower Hill in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1813, it is the 12th-oldest independent liberal arts college in the United States...

, Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

, Middlebury College

Middlebury College

Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...

, Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

, University of California at Berkeley, University of Utah

University of Utah

The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...

, Westminster College, and Williams College.

Williams College

Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...

Accreditation

The Winter Sports School is accredited by the Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools (PNAIS) and the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools (NAAS)

Northwest Association of Accredited Schools

The Northwest Accreditation Commission , formerly named the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools, is an organization based in Boise, Idaho which accredits a variety of schools, including K-12, elementary, middle, and high schools; schools offering distance education; non-degree-granting...

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Athletics

The Winter Sports School is notable and unique from other ski and sports academy in the United States in that their coaching staff provides group summer conditioning only – the students do not compete as school teams during the winter competitive season itself. Instead the students are free during the winter season to work with whichever coaches in the world they may choose. Despite the school’s small size and a total alumni base of around 200, a higher percentage of its graduates go on to compete on the national and world stage than from any other secondary school in the United States. Approximately 20% of the U.S. Ski Team

United States Ski Team

The United States Ski Team, operated under the auspices of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association , develops and supports men's and women's athletes in the sports of alpine skiing, adaptive alpine, freestyle skiing, cross country, adaptive cross country, ski jumping, and nordic combined....

 is Winter Sports School alumni.

Six Winter Sports School alumni competed in the 2006 Winter Olympics

2006 Winter Olympics

The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Turin, Italy from February 10, 2006, through February 26, 2006. This marked the second time Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games, the first being the VII Olympic Winter...

, in Torino, Italy, and two (Julia Mancuso ’00

Julia Mancuso

Julia Mancuso is an alpine ski racer with the U.S. Ski Team. She was the gold medalist in the giant slalom at the 2006 Winter Olympics and the silver medalist in both downhill and combined at the 2010 Winter Olympics. She has also won four medals at the World Championships and five races in...

 and Ted Ligety ’02

Ted Ligety

Theodore Sharp "Ted" Ligety is a champion alpine ski racer from the United States. He was the 2006 Olympic gold medalist in combined and the three-time World Cup champion in giant slalom . Ligety won the gold medal in the giant slalom at the 2011 World Championships...

) won gold medals – the only two gold medals captured by the entire U.S. Ski Team during those games. Ligety also won the World Cup Giant Slalom title in 2008.

Seven Winter Sports School alumni competed in the 2010 Winter Olympics

2010 Winter Olympics

The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University...

 in Vancouver, B.C. Julia Mancuso '00 won silver medals in the women's downhill and women's super combined. Andrew Weibrecht '03

Andrew Weibrecht

Andrew Weibrecht is an American alpine ski racer who has competed since 2002.-Skiing career:...

 won the bronze medal in men's super-G. Steve Holcomb '97

Steven Holcomb

Steven Holcomb is an American bobsledder who has competed since 1998. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, he finished sixth in the four-man event and 14th in the two-man event...

 led the four-man US bobsled team to a gold medal victory.

The 2011 Winter X Games saw Alex Schlopy '09

Alex Schlopy

Alex Schlopy is an American freeskier from Park City, Utah. He was the winner of a gold medal at the 2011 Winter X Games in the big air contest...

take the gold medal in the mens' Skiing Big Air event. Ashley Battersby '05 finished in fourth place in womens' Slopestyle.

In the 2011 FIS Freestyle Skiing World Championships Alex Schlopy took the gold medal in the mens' Slopestyle event. Ashley Battersby took sixth in womens' Slopestyle.