2nd oldest in the field, Steven Nyman looking to next season — at least — before retiring

Steven Nyman is not planning on retiring anytime soon, although at this time last year, he was certainly thinking about it.

“I definitely had my doubts,” Nyman said Wednesday at Beaver Creek following a 28th-place finish in the downhill training run of the 2021 Birds of Prey World Cup series, which kicks off Thursday with super G. “To get back to where I want to be physically just in life, I have to have that attitude that I want to come back to race. I want to still be a beast.”

The U.S. Ski Team veteran ended his season before it began last August, tearing his right Achilles tendon in training. In the season-opening World Cup downhill race last week in Lake Louise, Nyman finished 35th. After shuffling through some equipment issues, he’s back on his former standby Fischer setup at Beaver Creek and now just needs to recalibrate his timing. Building back up to beast status, he said, is not going as quickly as he would like.

“The Achilles is fine. The body is fine. I’m just trying to get back in the swing of things, get the timing of my skiing and confidence back,” he said. “I had to get a bigger boot, then I had to go back to my boot, then I had to change some canting. There were new ski models I was skiing in Lake Louise. When I got the boots to where I needed them to be, the skis were really powerful and punching back. I just didn’t feel super aligned. I didn’t feel my setup was delivering the energy I wanted it to. Now I’m going back on my old equipment model that I know works.”

At age 39, Nyman’s World Cup career began nearly half his life ago. He landed his first podium in Beaver Creek in the 2006 downhill and followed up with his first downhill victory a couple weeks later. The following year he repeated on the Beaver Creek podium, missing the win by .05 seconds. He didn’t podium again until 2012 following a series of injuries including a left Achilles tear that sidelined him for the 2011-2012 season. He returned with a bang in 2012-13, notching his second career World Cup victory in Val Gardena and a third win two years later, shortly after his third Beaver Creek podium in 2014. Nyman’s year to shine was 2016, landing four straight podiums, including on the downhill slope that would be used for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. However, the Utah native tore knee ligaments right before those Winter Games and is therefore determined to make careful progress toward competing this February in Beijing.

“Obviously, the Olympics this year are a big focus of mine,” he said. “We were delivered decent training this summer. I felt pretty good. I don’t feel I have that rhythm and timing inside of me, like when I tell the ski to ‘do it,’ I know what it’s going to do and I know the pace it’s going to do it. I don’t feel that. I tell the ski what to do and it reacts differently than I think it will react. I need to find that place. I need to chip away to where I can get a good start. Once I have that, I feel I’m in a good place to push for the top.”

The Beijing Games would mark Nyman’s fourth Olympics, during which he’ll turn 40. If he makes that benchmark, he doesn’t foresee his career ending there.

Teammate Jared Goldberg joked that Nyman will continue racing until he’s 50. Nyman is not denying the possibility.

“If I feel like I can compete, sure,” he said. “Also, if I have that drive. Right now my sights are set to Courchevel next winter. I think it’d be really cool to go to World Champs there.”