Colorado University Athletics
Ghent Earns Gold Medal For Overall Performance At WUG
ERZURUM, Turkey - University of Colorado sophomore Erika Ghent was awarded a gold medal for her overall performance at the 25th World University Games, acknowledging that her results proved to be the best of any women's alpine skier throughout the games.
Ghent also won a silver medal in the Super G race, making her the first CU skier to earn two medals in WUG competition. She is just one of three to have ever won a medal, as she joins senior Katie Hartman as the only two skiers to earn a gold medal. Hartman won a gold in the Super G race to open this competition and former Buff Erika Hogan won a bronze medal in the slalom in 2003.
"This is the most prestigious medal given out at these games," USA team leader and CU head coach Richard Rokos said, who has led Team USA seven times at WUG. "It's a testament to Erika's consistency and stability and says a lot about what she was able to accomplish throughout the competition."
Ghent was the only alpine skier at the event to finish all four races in the top 10 on both the men's or women's side. Along with her silver medal in the Super Combined, she took fourth in the Super G and ninth in both the giant slalom and slalom races.
"It was a good week, it started out interesting with the weather but we pulled everything off and I felt good about how I skied," Ghent said. "I was skiing consistent and solid in all the events. It was a really neat experience."
Along with Seppi Stiegler, who earned a silver medal on the men's side for combined performance, the United States brought home seven medals in all with five gold and two silver. That represents seven of the eight medals won by the U.S. in the entire games, which included 22 sports handing out nearly 200 medals. It also signifies this team as the most decorated United States alpine team abroad in a world-level competition in history, a feat that includes such competitions as the Winter Olympics, Pam-Am Games and World Championships, among others.
In all there were 12 skiers on the U.S. squad, six in each gender. The women's side was represented by Ghent, Hartman and freshman Kirsten Cooper along with Lindsay Cone, Sterling Grant and Jennie VanWagner from the University of Denver as the two school's split the representation equally.
On the men's side, Team USA was represented by junior Taggart Spenst, who was joined by Grant Jampolsky and Stiegler from Denver, Ace Tarberry from Dartmouth and Jeremy Elliot and Tague Thorson from Utah.
"It's a huge event," Ghent said. "It's not really something the U.S. makes a big deal about, but in Europe it is. It's televised and there were a lot of big time athletes there. We had a great experience and the results for the U.S. alpine team made the trip worth it."
If there was a down side, it was injuries sustained by both DU and CU skiers, an ankle injury by Jampolsky and knee injury to Hartman, who will miss the remainder of the 2011 season.
"It sucked that happened, we're good teammates and friends and you never want to go through that," Ghent said. "She was really supportive and continued to be supportive the whole trip. She was just like, 'Do me a favor and go kick some butt tomorrow,' so that was motivating. It meant a lot."
CU also had three skiers participating for their home countries with Gabriel Rivas suiting up for France on the men's side and Sara Hjertman and Carolina North both skiing for Sweden on the women's side.
All the western collegiate skiers return to action Thursday in Winter Park with an RMISA Alpine Qualifier giant slalom race ahead of the Denver Invitational, which will have a GS race on Friday followed by a slalom race on Saturday. The Nordic teams travel to Aspen where the classical races will be held Saturday and the freestyle races Sunday.
See Ghent and Hartman in the Super G race! |
See Ghent race in the Super G portion of the Super Combined race. |