Colorado’s Most Internationally Diverse PG Ski Club Roster

Featured image Photo Credit: Johannes Schmidt

Of all the ski and snowboard clubs in Colorado, the club with the most diverse international PG roster is—wait for it—Eldora Mountain Ski Club (EMSC), a program known more for supporting the aspirations of local Front Range wintersports athletes. Eldora’s postgraduate (PG) FIS roster includes ski racers from Argentina, Australia, the Dominican Republic, Ireland, Lebanon, Mexico, and Switzerland, as well as a handful of racers from the United States. A total of eight nations have athletes on the roster.

While the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club has long been known for sending more athletes to the Winter Olympics than any other club (100 and counting), a handful of EMSC athletes representing smaller nations intend to compete at the 2026 Winter Games in Cortina. EMSC will likely also send several athletes to compete at the 2025 FISU Winter World University Games in Turin, Italy.

But there’s much more than Olympic glory at the heart of this club’s PG program. Ski racing at the NCAA level is an end goal for more ski racers than there are spots for. “We’re hoping to provide an alternative pathway to keep athletes in the sport,” says EMSC’s FIS alpine coach Sky Kelsey, a former CU ski racer himself. “When I was applying to college, there were literally only two spots open in the entire nation. There are so few options for racers to continue at a high level, and we’re trying to fill that hole.”

For ski racers who don’t earn one of those coveted NCAA spots and feel a club program may not be competitive enough, many simply leave the sport altogether. “Retention is at an all-time low. There’s no reason why an 18-year-old should drop out of ski racing way before they’re even in their prime,” Kelsey says. “EMSC’s PG program is another avenue. Our goal is to make ski racing viable for everyone in the developmental age of 17 and up

Most of the athletes currently on the EMSC squad are also full-time students at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Over the years, the club has developed a close relationship with the college and the CU Ski Team. Given the proximity of CU With Boulder’s proximity to Eldora Mountain Resort and the mountain’s willingness to provide early-morning training opportunities where the EMSC PG crew trains side-by-side with the CU Ski Team, athletes can pursue a college degree and ski race simultaneously. Most of EMSC’s PG athletes are balancing full course loads with a robust training and racing schedule.

“EMSC’s incredible partnership with the CU Ski Team started with the mentorship of Richard Rokos,” says Matt Tomasko, executive director at EMSC. Rokos coached at CU for 34 years—31 as head coach—leading the Buffs to eight national NCAA titles. In his so-called retirement, Rokos continues working closely with EMSC athletes, often on-hand during training blocks at Eldora and races around Colorado. “Richard brings a global perspective on the sport and an understanding of the importance of the fundamentals, which has helped these EMSC athletes continue to develop,” Tomasko says.

The history of EMSC’s PG program dates way back. Originally, CU’s club team was also under the purview of the varsity coaches. “Since the very beginning, going back to Bob Beattie in 1957 and then Bill Marolt, the CU club team was under the umbrella of the CU Ski Team. When I came to CU, that club program was under my control,” Rokos says. In the 1990s, the NCAA started seeing the club team as a farm team for varsity and prohibited any affiliation. “In the beginning, the club team was very competitive, but it has totally lost its competitive edge. It’s become more of a social club.

“Kids with more ambition in the sport see the EMSC program as a better option. They have the same dream that the [NCAA] varsity kids have,” Rokos says. “They’re ambitious and want to continue to compete at a high level. Unfortunately, there is limited opportunity for them to pursue their goals.” Rokos points to a survey he was involved with on why ski racers quit the sport. “We came to the conclusion that most of it was dictated by the parents’ capacity to pay,” he says. Eventually, ski-racing parents become financially exhausted. “At the end of high school, when the kid doesn’t make a college team, they say, ‘I’m not paying anymore. Why don’t you go play golf or something?’” Indeed, PG FIS programs come with significant price tags, but EMSC says they are the most cost-effective programs in the nation.

This season is not the first time EMSC has boasted an international PG squad of CU students. Rokos recalls racers from three nations—one Czech, one Swiss, one French—who were at CU in 2015 but didn’t feel the club team was competitive enough. “Matt Tomasko opened up a PG program, and [former CU racer] Shane McLean was the coach,” he says.

Ski racing while in college, yet not for a college, means the athletes are operating without the built-in academic accommodations afforded to NCAA student-athletes. It’s a scenario that takes drive. “We do everything in our power to make sure that the college is onboard with what these kids are trying to do,” Kelsey says. “I think I’ve written ten letters to different professors, and they’re pretty impressed with the fact that these ski racers are double majoring or pursuing an engineering degree.” But, still, they don’t get automatic accommodations for missing exams and classes.

Other clubs around Colorado have international ski racers on their FIS PG rosters. Notably, four of the five racers on Loveland’s squad are international (racing for Great Britain, Columbia, and Portugal). Of Steamboat’s three PG athletes, one is from Canada. Aspen has no international ski racers in its FIS PG program. The eight nations Eldora represents is noteworthy. “We have an incredible and passionate group of athletes from all over the world who come together with the common goal of ski racing while in college,” Tomasko says.

Here’s a look at how EMSC’s PG team developed so much international flavor, nation by nation. (Full disclosure: Aidan Rafferty Olsson, an EMSC racer who skis for Ireland, is the son of this article’s author.)

Argentina: A Reality Check

Joaquin Perez de Solay is a junior at CU working toward a double degree in integrated design engineering and economics. He grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a coastal city a thousand miles from the country’s ski resorts. His family spent holidays in Cerro Chapelco in San Martín de los Andes. When he aged out of lessons, he joined the race club. “I didn’t know anything about college ski racing in the U.S.,” Perez de Solay says. “I honestly had no idea how competitive it was.” When he called Andy LeRoy, CU’s head coach at the time, LeRoy enlightened him. He would not be racing for CU, but LeRoy connected the racer with Matt Tomasko, EMSC’s executive director. It was the perfect fit.

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Perez de Solay says having so many international students on the team creates a more collaborative dynamic. “We each bring different perspectives, yet we have a very similar narrative and way of seeing things,” he says.

Australia: More Passports Than James Bond

Mitchell Riley was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, and grew up ski racing in Verbier with the regional club Valais. His mom is American and his dad is Australian. Ultimately, he was cut from the regional team and unable to secure a Swiss FIS license. “I wasn’t one of the better athletes, and the Swiss FIS system is really political,” he says. He decided to race for Australia instead. “It would help with quotas and create opportunities to race at competitions like World Juniors or the Youth Olympics, but I’d also get to represent my dad’s side of the family,” Riley says.

Riley’s mom, Heidi Blum, ski raced at CU in the late 1980s. She suggested that Riley reach out to Richard Rokos. “I knew my points weren’t good enough to race for CU,” Riley says. “In ski racing, it seems like you either make it [on an NCAA team] or you quit. It’s pretty brutal.” Rokos suggested he look into EMSC. “EMSC has a great PG program for anyone who is still interested in pursuing FIS racing but who doesn’t have 20 points.”

The Olympics aren’t on the docket for Riley. “Australia is fairly competitive in ski racing,” he says. “I’m in the top 10 for men racing for Australia, but that means there are nine guys ahead of me.” That includes Australian racers Harry Laidlaw and Louis Muhlen-Schulte, both of whom race on the World Cup.

“I think it’s cool that we have all these ski racers representing so many different countries. Everyone is super unique, but we’re all united by the love of the sport. Our team dynamic is really strong,” says Riley, who will graduate from CU this May with a marketing and information management degree.

Dominican Republic: Olympic Dreams

Gabriel Munter was born in Saratoga, New York, and raced with GMVS in Vermont and Northwoods in Lake Placid during high school. A series of injuries, from a broken foot to a severe concussion, derailed his ski-racing career. However, at CU, he decided he wanted to get back into it.

Munter’s maternal grandmother hails from the Dominican Republic, where she lives on a farm outside Santo Domingo, raising cows and coffee beans. Munter aspires to be the Dominican Republic’s first-ever wintersports athlete to compete at a Winter Olympics. He’s also set his sights on competing in the next FISU Winter World University Games.

“Ski racing in the Olympics for the Dominican Republic is the big dream,” he says. Racing and training with EMSC is a viable pathway toward that goal. “I feel super lucky that I can be a full-time student and ski race at the same time,” Munter says. ”What’s cool about the program is that you can do what you want with it. You can go as far as you want.” He says the intensity level is up to the individual racers.

Ireland: May the Race Line Rise Up To Meet You

Aidan Olsson, a first-generation American and a freshman at CU majoring in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, has been racing with EMSC since 2014. He decided to switch his FIS license to Ireland in 2022 after both his grandparents passed away from Alzheimer’s disease during COVID. “My grandparents moved to the U.S. from Northern Ireland in the 1960s in search of better job opportunities,” says Olsson, who wears his granny’s gold chain under his speed suit for good luck. “I know they’d be super proud to see me racing for Ireland.”

The nationality license change opened many opportunities for the 20-year-old racer. Olsson spent his gap year training in Europe with the Irish national coach, Giorgio Marchesini; he competed in two Junior World Ski Championships (in St. Anton, Austria, and Portes du Soleil, France); and in March, he raced in the Irish National Championships in Sestriere, Italy, connecting with Irish teammates from around the globe—and taking home the 2024 Irish National title in slalom.

In 2025, Olsson aims to compete in the FISU Winter World University Games in Turin, Italy, and the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Saalbach, Austria. With small nations like Ireland afforded just one Olympic spot, the 2026 Winter Games are a long shot. “But, yeah, that would be cool.”

Lebanon: Six Degrees of Separation

Ultimately, the ski-racing world is small, and the six degrees of separation theory has helped grow EMSC’s PG program. “We’ve gained momentum from word-of-mouth communication,” Coach Sky Kelsey says. Case in point: Perez de Solay, the racer from the Dominican Republic, grew up skiing in Argentina with four Birkner siblings who are cousins of Alex Birkner (who ski raced for CU Boulder). One of the siblings, Macarena Simari Birkner, was coaching Manon Chad, a Lebanese ski racer who wanted to attend college in Colorado and train and race. Knowing that her cousin Perez de Solay had found a place at the Eldora club, Simari Birkner suggested Chad investigate EMSC. Chad now attends the University of Denver and is commuting to Eldora for training.

One of few ski racers from Lebanon, Chad hopes to represent her nation at the next Olympic Games. “The last thing I told my grandfather before he died is that I want to go to the Olympics,” she says. Chad was born in Lebanon. Her dad is Lebanese, and her mom is French. The family home is in Beit Mery, a hilltop town overlooking Beirut. Chad grew up training at Mzaar Kfardebian (formerly known as Faraya Mzaar), the largest ski resort in the Middle East, and she is also, incidentally, the Lebanese national champion in wakeboarding.

Mexico: Following in Sarah Schleper’s Footsteps

Alessandro Cantele Fink is a freshman at CU, double majoring in mechanical engineering and electrical engineering with a minor in computer science. He was born in Mexico and lived in Mexico City for nearly a decade. His mom is Mexican and his dad is Italian. When he was young, his family split time between Mexico and Italy, skiing at Cortina d’Ampezzo. In 2012, the family moved to Edwards, Colorado, where Cantele Fink started racing with Ski & Snowboard Club of Vail (SSCV) and attending training camps in Hintertux, Austria, organized by Sarah Schleper—who also races for Mexico.

“Mexico doesn’t have many up-and-coming junior racers, so I’ve had the privilege of representing the country in international competitions,” Cantele Fink says. He competed in the Junior World Ski Championships in 2023 and 2024. Schleper joined him as a coach for his first JWSC and at the 2019 Alpe Cimbra FIS Children Cup in Folgaria, Italy.

“When it was time to go to college, I knew I wanted to keep racing. CU was at the top of that list, but let’s be honest, there was no chance I could ski for CU Boulder. The logical choice to allow me to keep my passion for ski racing alive was EMSC,” he says. “Competing for Mexico in the Olympics is the dream.” And training with EMSC could make it a reality.

Switzerland: Finding the Team Through Google Maps

It’s not easy to get a Swiss FIS license in Switzerland. Competition is stiff. Clemens Pacher grew up in Zug, Switzerland, racing for a school team and eventually a regional team, but not at the FIS level. When he moved to the U.S. to attend CU Boulder, he was finally able to secure a Swiss FIS license. “I think it was because there aren’t many Swiss in Colorado; I wasn’t taking someone’s place on a regional team,” Pacher says.

“We had a place in Engelberg, which is a freeride paradise, so I grew up on freeride skis,” he says. When Pacher was 11, his dad passed away and his mother pushed him to ski race. After working as a ski instructor in Davos, he decided to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering at CU Boulder. Before he arrived, Pacher searched Google Maps to see what was around the Boulder campus. He saw the EMSC office, a stone’s throw from Folsom Field. “I reached out and joined a couple of trainings that first season,” he says. “It’s great to be back in ski racing.”

United States: Eldora’s 8^th and Final Nation

EMSC’s PG program does indeed have athletes who race under U.S. FIS licenses, including Sami Azam, Carson McCue, and Tucker Sheldrake. Azam, ironically, has Pakistani citizenship but skis for the U.S. Maybe next year he’ll take up the flag of the Star and Crescent. Regardless of what nation a ski racer competes under, the EMSC PG program creates an alternate pathway to continue ski racing at a competitive level while pursuing a college degree.

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