Beyond the X: Snow schools for Olympic hopefuls

Xander Guldman wants nothing to calm him down. 

The high-energy 15-year-old sophomore from Truckee is in the freeride program and thrives on any big mountain competition or slope-style terrain.

He was thrilled that the 2014 Olympic Games implemented slopestyle and halfpipe events and must have been doing snow cartwheels Thursday when Joss Christensen, Gus Kenworthy and Nick Goepper swept the slopestyle event at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. To that point, USA had won four gold medals, all on the slopes.

"It's really exciting," he said on Jan. 30. "It's not exactly the discipline I do, but it's a step in the right direction. It's giving more recognition to our sport and that's a great thing."

Guldman attended a charter school before transferring to Sugar Bowl.

"This school is completely dedicated to us," he said. "Whereas public school gives you an outlet to ski, this school is centered around skiing. Everything is designed here to make skiing easier. That's cool."

And though it sounds like school is secondary, Guldman said the opposite is true. 

"All this program teaches you is how to be a well-rounded student and not just excel at skiing. The whole physical side helps your mental side."

Third-year Sugar Bowl Academy nordic coach Martin Benes gets it.

Before SBA, he coached and studied on the east coast and was a member of the ski teams at Bates College and Dartmouth. He attended high school in the San Francisco Bay Area at Marin Academy (San Rafael, Calif.), so he's very impressed with how SBA operates. 

View a photo gallery from a day at Sugar Bowl Academy

"The sacrifices are great. Getting up at 5:30 to get to the weight room. No proms or dances," he said. "At the same time, there are pretty unparalleled opportunities. The support system is great. The students get to pursue what they are passionate about and at the same time they have a chance to challenge themselves with a great education.

"If I could go back, I wish I could come to a place like this."

Hudson agrees. He said SBA isn't only developing Olympic dreams, but something much more important.

"Whether these students are nordic skiers or in freeride or alpine, they are going to be skiers for life," Hudson said. "They may not go to the Olympics. They may not be on the U.S. Ski Team. But they're going to live that lifestyle — healthy and mountainous."