Shannon Bahrke - Skiing Career

Skiing Career

After being selected to the US team in December 1998, Bahrke's first World Cup appearance was at Mont-Tremblant, Quebec in January 1999; six weeks later she reached her first podium with a second place finish in dual moguls at Madarao in Japan. She went on to place fifth in dual moguls at the 1999 World Ski Championships. From 1999 through the 2001–2002 season, Bahrke reached the podium at seven World Cup events, including two victories.

In 2002, Bahrke was selected to the US Olympic Team for the Salt Lake Olympic Games. She won the silver medal, and was the first of 34 American medalists at the 2002 Games. After the 2002 Olympics, Bahrke went on to win the 2003 World Cup Championship. At the 2003 Deer Valley World Ski Championships, she won the bronze medal in dual moguls, and finished fourth in moguls, missing the podium by 34 hundredths of a point.

Bahrke's career was interrupted by injuries beginning in February 2004 when she suffered a broken jaw during a World Cup event in Japan, ending her season. Then, while training for the second event of the 2004–2005 season, she sustained a serious injury to her right knee, with a torn ACL, a partially torn MCL and damage to the meniscus.

Returning to the slopes in December 2005, she qualified for a spot on the US Team for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino where she finished in tenth place, the top US result. Bahrke then returned to form during the 2007 season, winning dual moguls silver at the Madonna di Campiglio World Championships, and placing second in World Cup standings for the season. Prior to the beginning of the 2007–2008 season, she suffered another season-ending knee injury.

She came back from injury once again, and in March 2009 won the dual moguls title at the US National Freestyle Championships, her sixth US title. Bahrke dedicated the win to her longtime coach Clay Beck, who died in a 2008 plane accident. After a third place finish at the December 2009 Olympic trials, her status for the 2010 Winter Olympics would be determined at the end of January 2010 following the World Cup events. She was one of four women selected to the US Moguls Team for the Vancouver Games, along with Hannah Kearney, Heather McPhie, and Michelle Roark. Bahrke was the only past Olympic medalist on the 18-strong US Freestyle Team.

Bahrke won the bronze medal in the women's moguls freestyle skiing event at the Vancouver Olympics. She was in first place after her run with a score of 25.43, with 5 skiers left. Teammate Heather McPhie fell on her run, as did Canadian skier Kristi Richards. Jennifer Heil, the penultimate skier, scored a 25.69, pushing Bahrke to second place, and second time Olympian Hannah Kearney's gold medal winning run 26.63 dropped Bahrke to bronze and Heil to silver.