Meet the U.S. Development Team’s 2023 female rookies

USSS 2023 Rookie Camp: photo Mike Dawson

The three women joining the Stifel U.S. Alpine Development Team for the 2023-24 season hail from different mountain ranges across the western U.S. They are all teens with obvious talent and big dreams.

Liv Moritz

Liv Moritz watched her twin sister Kjersti earn a spot on the U.S. Team two years ago. They had previously shared the same trajectory growing up in Vail, Colo., learning to ski at 3 years old. Liv is thrilled to rejoin forces with her sibling.

“I get to be on the same team as my twin sister again, which helps push me to new levels athletically,” Liv says. “Being named to the team has given me new opportunities to get stronger in the gym and on the snow.”

Although her parents have alpine racing backgrounds, Liv and her twin initially embarked on the sport under the freeskiing umbrella. They started out competing in slopestyle and halfpipe. They added alpine to the mix and quickly found they preferred it.

“We weren’t fans of the judged aspect of freeskiing,” Liv says. “I really enjoyed the small progressions of ski racing. It felt rewarding to make small improvements that would lead to  better skiing, which is why I became invested in the sport.”

Moritz also plays soccer and was accepted to the University of Denver this fall. She notched a monumental season on the Nor-Am circuit last year. It began with fifth place in a slalom at Copper Mountain. She followed up with top 10s in ensuing slaloms, giant slaloms and super-Gs. The season culminated with her first Nor-Am podium, finishing second in the Whistler, B.C. slalom in March. Then she landed her first National Championship medal, taking bronze in the super-G at Sun Valley.

“My highlights so far have been getting third place in the U.S. Nationals SG this year in Sun Valley, earning a spot at World Juniors in St. Anton, and winning the second run of the Nor-Am slalom in Copper in challenging conditions and a tough hill,” she says.

Moritz plans to spend her rookie season getting faster in GS and building to a stellar performance at World Juniors.

“My goals are, It can be very mentally challenging at times rewarding,” the 18-year-old says. “I would also like to go to the Olympics, win a medal, and be extremely competitive on the World Cup circuit. I want to continue playing soccer and skiing for as long as possible.”

Allison Mollin

Hailing from California, Allison Mollin took her first turns with a ski school at age four on the slopes of Heavenly. Growing up on the coast, her family spent weekends skiing in Tahoe. It wasn’t long before Mollin’s parents realized her skills were quickly advancing past the purview of ski school. So they moved her into the Heavenly Ski Snowboard Education Foundation, where she began racing at age 6.

By age 11, she joined the Palisades Tahoe Ski Team and the family moved to Truckee. Her parents had a rule that she’d need a summer job by 15.  However, her training and competition schedule had become too demanding by that time. Reaching a compromise, Mollin instead earned her Alpine Level 100 Coaching Certification and has dedicated a few weeks to coaching every year since.

“Coaching is a great way for me to stay around the sport without the grind that training occasionally comes to,” she says.

Now 19, when it comes to racing, Mollin focuses primarily on speed, naming her downhill achievements as her career highlights.

“The best parts of skiing are going fast and getting air,” she says. That’s downhill racing. The highlights of my career on paper are being U21 National DH Champion 2023 and U18 National DH Champion 2022.”

As far as results, the standout (so far) was earning her first Europa Cup points this February at a downhill in Châtel, France. Wearing bib No. 63, Mollin narrowly avoided two high-speed crashes during the training run and finished 29^th, navigating a rough course riddled by deep ruts. It was in that race that she earned her first Europa Cup points.

Mollin eagerly anticipates her first season on the U.S. Team and the resources that come with it, namely, her first season with the benefits of a technician on hand and exploring the potential of her equipment.

“Joining the US Ski Team means more to me than I have comprehended yet,” she says. “Ski racing has been something I have loved for over a decade. I loved it before being on the US Team and will love it for the rest of my life. At this stage of my life, career validation and, more importantly, realization of a childhood dream is special. I am ready to channel some of my childlike excitement into my performance on snow.”

Although winning an Olympic medal is “always in the back of your head,” Mollin’s ultimate goal is to win the World Cup downhill globe.

Tatum Grosdidier

Growing up in Wenatchee, Wash., shredding the lesser-known slopes of Mission Ridge when she was 2 years old, Tatum Grosdidier’s parents put her and her siblings in lessons, initially thinking she’d have an aptitude for big mountain skiing. After learning that Mission Ridge had an alpine team, her parents signed her up at age 8. Training with the team once a week and testing her speed in local races, Grosdidier discovered she enjoyed being competitive.

“The thing I love most about this sport is the challenge,” she says. “This sport has challenged me more physically and mentally than anything else in my life. Ski racing challenges me every day to be better, and that’s why I love it.”

As her skill in racing developed, Grosdidier joined Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club and continued to excel. Landing 10^th place in the inaugural Nor-Am race of her career (a GS at Copper Mountain in 2021), she truly hit her stride on the Nor-Am circuit last season, notching back-to-back super-G podiums last January (missing the win each time by less than 0.10 seconds), nabbing a couple more top 10s in GS and top 20s in slalom.

She has proven her merit in all three disciplines, having earned the National Junior Slalom title in 2022, which she names her greatest accomplishment to date.

“It was the first time I felt like I had achieved something major,” she says.

Turning 19 this July, Grosdidier is looking forward to her first season competing for the U.S. Team to hopefully win an Olympic medal one day.

“Making the U.S. Ski Team has been my biggest dream ever since I started ski racing,” she says. “It feels very surreal. I never thought it would be possible to make it on the U.S. team coming from a small mountain in this highly competitive sport.”