Joey Young

Photo by: Evan Wang

Photo by: Ed Kosmicki

Photo by: Tim Benko, Benko Photographics

Photo by: Dan Madden

Photo by: Roger Carry

Position:
ALPINE
Height:
6-0
Class:
Senior
Hometown:
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
High School:
National Ski Academy
Prev School:
Treble Cone Race Academy

Career Best GS Finish: Fourth (2020 RMISA Qualifier #1)
Career Best Slalom Finish: First (Twice, last 2020 RMISA Qualifier #2)

Honors

Four-Time National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022; 3.5 GPA, Participation In Regionals)
Two-Time Academic All-American (2021 honorable mention, 2022 second team)
Two-Time CoSIDA Academic All-District 7 (2021, 2022)
Five-Time NCAA Championship Qualifier (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)
Two-Time All-RMISA (First Team 2020; Second Team 2019)
RMISA Skier of the Week (2020 RMISA Qualifiers Nos. 1-2)
Two-Time Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll (2021, 2022)
Male Scholar Athlete Award (2021; Top GPA among senior male student-athletes)
Ceal Barry Leadership Award (2021)
Two-Time CU Athlete of the Week (Jan. 14-20, 2019; Jan. 6-13, 2020)
Finalist for Male Career Athletic Achievement (CUSPYs, 2022)
4.0 Club (2021)
Laura Sharpe Flood Award (2018)
Buddy Werner Award (2019)
Spencer Nelson Award (2021)
Career Athletic Achivement Award (2022)
Five-Time Letterwinner (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)

Career—The CU Ski Team’s first five-time letterwinner, Young finished his career skiing in 61 of a possible 63 career races with 49 finishes. In those 49 finishes, he had 39 top 20, 20 top 10, and seven top five finishes including three podium appearances and two race wins. His 61 races started and 49 finishes are the most known for a CU skier since skiers began to specialize in one discipline in the 1960s (at times skiers could earn up to seven finishes in one meet prior to specialization, Young never earned more than two finishes per meet). He qualified for the NCAA Championships in all five seasons and skied at the NCAA Championships three times for the Buffs. He was named All-RMISA twice, and is one of the top academic performers in program history picking up National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team honors four times, Academic All-America honors twice and was the Male Scholar Athlete Award winner for having the top GPA among male senior student-athletes. He was a member of the 4.0 Club, won the department’s Ceal Barry Leadership Award and the team’s Laura Sharpe Flood, Buddy Werner, Spencer Nelson and Career Athletic Achivement Awards.

2022 (Graduate)—Young took advantage of the extra season of elibiliby afforded to all NCAA student-athletes due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and set new CU records for races started and finished while becoming the program’s first five-time letterwinner. In his fifth and final season, he skied in all 12 races, finishing eight of them with six top 20 finishes and one top 10 performance, which came in the final race of his career, taking 10th in the slalom in a qualifier race after the RMISA Championships. He only hiked once and that was his only finish lower than 22nd. In six slalom races, aside from that one hike, ht einished the other five in the top 14 and finished all five of them between 10th and 14th place. In two slalom races at Montana, he finished 11th and 13th before taking 14th at the slalom race at Utah. In the DU meet, he finsihed 13th before closing his career out with the 20th top 10 performance of his career in his final race. He also took advantage of the situation to work on a graduate degree and he earned a perfect 4.0 GPA in the fall leading into his final season. He was a finalist for the CU Career Athletic Achivement Award and won the ski team’s Career Athletic Achivement Award. He earned mention on the National All-Academic Ski Team for the fourth time, the Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll for the second time (it began in 2021), and earned CoSIDA Academic All-America and All-District 7 Honors for the second straight season.

2021 (Senior)—The first day of his senior season got off to a great start as he finished seventh in the first of two GS races in Aspen as part of the DU Invitational, the second best GS finish of his career behind a fourth place on the same mountain to open the 2020 season. But later in the day in the second GS race, he fell and hit the base of a gate, earning a DNF for that race and then ultimately holding him out of the two slalom races two days later in Eldora as part of the CU’s Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational. He came back for the Utah series, perhaps not 100 percent, and finished five of those six races with two top 20 performances, taking 16th in a slalom race at Snowbird in the RMISA Invitational at Westminster and 12th in a GS race at Park City for the RMISA Invitational at Utah. The early season DNF and DNS’s hurt his seeding for the rest of the season. At the NCAA Championships, he had an unfortunate series of events that included a fall on his second GS run and a disqualification in the first slalom run. After the season, he was barraged with a plethora of awards, including the Ceal Barry Leadership Award, the team’s Spencer Nelson Award while winning the Male Scholar Athlete Award for having the highest GPA among all male senior student-athletes at CU. He was also honored on the National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team, the Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll and on CoSIDA’s Academic All-District At-Large team.

2020 (Junior)—His junior campaign can essentially be broken into the first and second halves. In the first seven races, he had six top 10, three top five and two podiums with one win, the slalom qualifier race in Eldora. After injuring himself and gutting it out the rest of the season, over the final six races, he finished four with one 11th, two 12th and a 25th place finish. Still the rock of the men’s alpine team, he earned first-team All-RMISA honors and was sixth in the final RMISA MVP rankings and the No. 2 slalom and No. 10 GS seeded skier out of the RMISA for the NCAA Championships. He finished as the team’s top performer three times and in the top three in all 11 finishes, earning his third letter. He opened the season with a fourth-place finish in the slalom race in Aspen ahead of the DU Invitational and then finished 9th in the slalom and 22nd in the GS as part of the meet, earning CU Athlete of the Week honors. In Eldora, he finished eighth in the GS and then turned it on, taking third in the slalom as part of the CU Invitational and then winning his second career race in the slalom qualifier there and he was named the RMISA Skier of the Week for the two qualifier races in Aspen and Eldora. In Park City, he finished ninth in the first of three races, the GS race, and then didn’t finish his first race in 24 tries in the slalom race, injuring himself. Skiing through injury, he finished 12th in the slalom qualifier the next day. In Bozeman, he didn’t finish the GS qualifier race and then took 11th in the GS and 12th in the slalom as part of the RMISA Championships. He finished 25th in the GS race at the NCAA Championships before the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was named to the National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team for the second straight season.

2019 (Sophomore)—He picked up where he left off in 2018 and early in 2019 became the most consistent men's alpine skier for the Buffaloes. He is one of just two alpine skiers to finish all 14 races of the season. In those 14 starts, he finished in the top 15 a total of 13 times with eight top 10 and two top five finishes and one podium, which was his first career win in the slalom race as part of the Montana State Invitational at Bridger Bowl. He scored for the team in each of the 12 races that were part of team competition and was the Buffs top finisher seven times, including three of four races in the post season. His win at MSU earned him the CU Athlete of the Week award. He earned second-team All-RMISA and was the Buffs top seed for the NCAA Championships, qualifying 10th while being seeded No. 6 in slalom and No. 15 in GS for the NCAA Championships out of the RMISA. He was given the team's Buddy Werner Memorial Scholarship after the season and earned mention on the National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team. He narrowly missed two All-America honors, given to the top 10 finishers at the NCAA Championships, with an 11th place finish in the giant slalom and 13th place finish in the slalom.

2018 (Freshman)—Enjoyed a fine rookie season, one in which he scored for the Buffs in six races … In 12 races through the RMISA Championships, he finished 10 of them and was 10th or better five times … Most impressive race of the season was his slalom one at the MSU Invite in the first meet to start the year; there he had a starting position at No. 45, but worked himself into the top 30 with his first run and had a killer second run time of 49.06, the fastest in the field by over a half second that allowed him to finish in fourth place overall for the race … He twice finished 10th in giant slalom races, first at the Utah Invitational and later at the Denver Invitational … At the end-of-the-season banquet he was presented with the Laura Sharpe Flood Award, which has been given each year since 1991 to a skier who best exemplifies the spirit, enthusiasm and dedication, both on the mountain and in the classroom.

Prior to CU—Young raced with the Treble Cone Race Academy (TCRA) from 2014-17 and with the National Ski Academy from 2010-14 ... For the 2016-17 season, he ranked fourth in the world in podium finishes with 18 ... That season, the one prior to his arrival at Colorado, he won six races (four slalom and two giant slalom) ... His two GS wins in 2016-17 were in FIS races heled at Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort in California while his slalom victories included a national junior race in Pampeago-Tesero, Italy, a pair at Loch Lomond in Canada at the end of January 2017 and one at the Spirit Mountain Recreation Area in Minnesota ... He had a total of 14 victories over the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons, but from 2014-17 he recorded 35 total podium finishes (21 slalom and 14 giant slalom) ... Two of his other highlight finishes include a second-place showing in the slalom at Cardrona, New Zealand on Jan. 8, 2017 and a sixth-place showing in the giant slalom in the Aspen/Highlands Spring Series on April 7, 2017.

High School—He graduated from National Ski Academy High School in Collingwood, Ontario.

In the Classroom—He graduated with a double degree in Finance and Accounting from the Leeds School of Business and then pursued a master’s degree in Accounting his fifth season. He was named the Senior Male Scholar Athlete for having the highest GPA among all senior student-athletes at CU, was a four-time member of the National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team for maintaining above a 3.5 grade point average, twice named to the Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll (the first two times skiing was eligible for the honor) and was twice named a CoSIDA Academic All-American and All-District 7 performer. He was also an honor roll student throughout high school.

Personal—Young was born Dec. 2, 1996 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada ... His hobbies include hockey, basketball and hanging out with friends ... After college he would like to ski on the World Cup circuit or become a financial advisor ... He is the middle child of Bill and Jane Young, and said he “grew up skiing on a hill that has less elevation than the bed I currently sleep in” .. He came to Colorado to “be on a winning team with the best athletes who push me to become a better skier and person” .. He has a strong hockey connection as his older brother, Billy, plays for Salem State in Boston while his younger, Bobby, plays in the Alberta Junior Hockey League for the Bonnyville Pontiacs.