World-Class Athletics
SBA’s athletic program promotes hard work and discipline, emphasizes a positive environment, and stresses long-term athlete development through sports science. Our coaches push athletes to be their best while ensuring they have the support necessary to succeed.
Our coaching team includes former World Cup athletes and coaches, the co-founder of the Tahoe Junior Freeride Series, and a blend of European and American coaches. SBA athletes compete on national and international stages. They go on to ski in the Olympics, World Cup, Freeride World Tour, and college.
Sugar Bowl Academy offers Alpine, Cross Country, Freeride, Park, and Snowboard. Our youngest athletes, ages 5-9, start in either Cross Country or one of our downhill disciplines - Alpine, Freeride, Park, or Snowboard - and learn the foundational skills needed to become proficient skiers or snowboarders before moving into specific disciplines. Athletes ages 10-18 select their discipline during registration. Athletes enrolled in a combined academic and athletic program also receive performance training as part of their program.
Cross Country
Cross Country is the original form of skiing. The sport originated more than 6,000 years ago in far northern Europe and central Asia as a way to keep social contact during hard, snowy winters across the long distances between the small, isolated northern communities. Skiing for sport started in the mid 1800s with men’s cross country skiing joining the Olympics in 1924. Today’s Cross Country is modernized, but the sport still draws from its heritage.
Alpine
Alpine ski racing is designed to reward the fastest athletes as they navigate a series of gates down the hill. Alpine racing is where Michaela Shiffrin, Lindsey Vonn, and Ted Ligety made their fame representing the United States at the Olympic Games and competing in the World Cup. Alpine racing takes grit, grace, and courage every time you stand at the start gate.
Freeride skiing is performed on natural, ungroomed terrain without a set course. The event is about celebrating the natural terrain features on the mountainside in the most elemental format. Skiers choose impossible lines through cornices and cliff faces with big jumps and lots of excitement. Freeride athletes look for the bumpy, rowdy freeride terrain that challenges them to be the best athletes they can be.
Our park program provides a unique and advanced environment where freeski athletes can progress through the ranks—mastering everything to get from rookie to pro. Sugar Bowl Parks launched in 2024-2025 and is committed to tailored progression, partnering with some of the top minds in terrain park design to craft a facility that allows athletes to develop their skills at every level.
Our snowboard program is a freeski/freeride program for snowboarders, with more focus on park terrain. Freeride snowboard is about celebrating the natural terrain features on the mountainside in the most elemental format. Riders choose impossible lines through cornices and cliff faces with big jumps and lots of excitement. In the park, they use park features like rails, jibs, boxes, and a pipes to deliver their big air tricks.
