Waterville Valley, NH, May 2, 2017 - Grace Henderson, a native of Madbury, New Hampshire, was recently named to the U.S. Freeskiing team. Grace is currently ranked 17th in the world in the Big Air and 28th in Slopestyle, by the Association of Freeskiing Professionals.

Grace was second overall in Slopestyle in this year's Revolution Tour standings. She also placed first in the Big Air at the Aspen Open and second in Slopestyle at the USASA National Championships and was named to the 2017 Freeskiing Junior Worlds Team.

Henderson is currently a sophomore at Waterville Valley Academy (WVA) in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire. According to Dan Shuffleton, WVA's Freeski Program Director "Grace is a hardworking and driven student athlete who sets her goals and then stays focused on achieving them. She is very talented, skilled and motivated which makes her successes frequent and fun to watch. I'm lucky to have the pleasure to be a part of it."

"When I found out that I was named to the team I was freaking out in disbelief. I am very excited for this and for the opportunities I will have because of this," said Henderson. "As a member of the Rookie Team, I will have two weeks of training camp at Mammoth in May, two more weeks in June, and a week at Mt Hood in July. Based on my Revolution Tour results, I have received starts in all the World Cups and Olympic qualifiers for next season. My results from those events will determine whether I am qualified for the 2018 Olympics, the top four Americans in the standings will qualify. I am currently in sixth after the first qualifier which was last January."

Each athlete accepting the nomination to U.S. Freeskiing receives world class program support, along with access to the USSA Center of Excellence, as well as athletic benefits including an elite coaching, sport science, sports medicine and high performance staff, and educational opportunities.

"Grace's focus and commitment to her sport motivates our entire WVA and WVBBTS community. We are very proud of her selection to the US Team and look forward to her competing as a national team athlete from our school and the state of New Hampshire," said Peter Stokloza, Waterville Valley Black and Blue Trail Smashers CEO and Head of School for WVA.


Posted 5/2/17