Values

Integrity, Excellence, Team
The Competition Center is one of the oldest clubs in the region, originally founded as The Winter Park Ski Club in 1962! It became an experimental part of Winter Park Resort in 1979 and was completely adopted under the resort’s operations in 1982 as the Competition Center. The club has a rich tradition in alpine racing, freestyle and nordic competition. Now under the Competition Center umbrella are exceptional snowboard, all terrain ski, freeski, and adult programs in addition to alpine and freestyle.

Unlike most other clubs, the Competition Center has the distinct advantage of a close working relationship with the resort’s mountain operations departments and staffs a full-time professional events crew. This greatly enhances our training and competition opportunities. The Competition Center is additionally supported by the Winter Park Ski Education Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports programs and athletes through scholarships and donations.

Philosophy

The philosophy of the Winter Park Competition Center is to offer the opportunity to achieve ones’ highest potential as an athlete, person, and competitor. Through the enjoyment of sport, each athlete’s commitment, desires, dreams, and failures can provide significant life lessons.

We strive to help our participants exceed on and off the slopes. We consider the athlete first, winning second, with a well-rounded approach to sports in order to help our participants be the best version of themselves as an athlete and person – what we call the “total athlete”.

This approach to developing the total athlete is affected by personal objectives and motivation each competitor brings to their participation in Competition Center programs. This philosophy, applied to the most supportive coaching and training environment we can offer, help athletes to develop the most important aspect of the total athlete - a positive, healthy, and confident attitude.

We believe that the total athlete will not only be a successful skier or rider, but excel in all aspects of life with those skills. Cornerstones to our efforts are self-motivation, effort, and commitment. An individual’s success in snow sport competition is directly dependent on his/her approach to these areas.

In an individual sport like skiing and snowboarding, winning as a measure of success would leave us with one person per weekend being successful; the rest might be considered failures. Instead, we use the goal and objective approach in measuring progress. Everyone comes out of this structure winning, and it is a better environment for all. We place equal emphasis on the development of social skills, physical health, and enjoyment of athletic achievement in skiing and snowboarding.