In a gesture of friendship and solidarity, the Chinese 2022 Winter Olympic destination of Genting Secret Garden, which will host freestyle events, has named the run that will be used for the moguls competition in five years’ time after the Californian ski resort of Squaw Valley, its sister resort in the US.
The naming ceremony took place during a group visit to China led by Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows President and CEO Andy Wirth and Olympic Gold Medalist Jonny Moseley, who grew up skiing at Squaw Valley and today serves as Chief Mountain Host for the resort, as part of the two resorts’ ongoing effort to spur interest in skiing and snowboarding in China in advance of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and as outbound tourism from China to the U.S., and especially to California, grows.
In a nod to Squaw Valley’s successful hosting of the 1960 Winter Olympics, resort managers re-named the trail that will host the mogul skiing competition “Squaw Valley.” The re-naming ceremony concluded with Moseley, who won gold in mogul skiing at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, christening the trail with a blistering run complete with huge airs.
“It was awesome to watch Jonny, who grew up skiing Squaw Valley and whose kids are now skiing at Squaw and Alpine, still crushing it on this world class and Olympic moguls venue! This wasn’t your average trail naming and ribbon cutting ceremony…Jonny threw down an incredible run and a big air over the ribbon, on the very same course where young freestyle skiers training in Squaw Valley today will likely be competing for Olympic gold five years from now,” Wirth said.
“His run was a highlight of a wonderful visit to see our friends in northwest China. We are incredibly honored to have Squaw Valley recognized with the renaming of this trail where history will be made in 2022, and we thank the resort leadership at Genting Secret Garden and everyone we saw in China for being such warm and gracious hosts. We look forward to reciprocating when some of our Chinese friends come to see us later this season in Olympic Valley, where we are seeing record-breaking amounts of snow.”
One Genting Secret Garden Resort season pass holder in attendance for the Squaw Alpine visit, Erin Gao, said it was incredibly exciting to see the international ski community deepening its relationships in China.
“It was very exciting to see Jonny Moseley and his friends from Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows come all the way from California ski at our resort in China,” she said. “I actually skied at Squaw Valley earlier this winter – it has the best snow, the best facilities and the friendliest service of any resort I have visited on my international travels. We are so proud to have Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows as our sister resort!”
