2017 Pros
2017 Pros
Anna Goodman
Anna Goodman was a member of the Canadian National Alpine Ski Team for 9 years (2003 – 2012) and the Canadian Olympic Team in Vancouver, 2010. Her World Cup career included 6 top 15 World Cup results, a winning world cup run in Ofterschwang, Germany, and membership on three different World Championship Teams. She also had a very successful Nor-Am and college-racing career. Anna won the U.S. Nationals slalom race in 2013, the overall Nor-Am slalom title twice, and accumulated 20 Nor-Am podiums, 10 of which were gold medals. In 2012, she co-founded “The Ski Racing Sisterhood,” a ski camp that each year empowers 32 teenage girls to bring their ski racing and personal leadership skills to an elite level.
Jilyne Higgins
Jilyne (McDonald) Higgins spent 16 years on the ski racing circuit. As a collegiate racer for the University of Vermont, she took 2nd and 3rd place at NCAA Championships (2006 and 2009) and was named a First Team All-American NCAA Athlete all four years at UVM. Additionally, Jilyne took a year off from UVM from 2006 to 2007 to compete internationally for the U.S. Ski Team. In 2009, ESPN Magazine gave Jilyne their All-District I Honors award. Jilyne currently lives in Seattle, WA and is the Co-Founder & Executive Director of ZGiRLS (www.zgirls.org), a confidence-building & mentorship program for girls in sports. She also enjoys camping, soccer, yoga, hiking, and any sport that involves water and a boat.
Keely Kelleher
Keely has had a love affair with going fast on her skis since before she can remember. She has spent 8 of her 22 years ski racing on the U.S. Ski Team. Specializing in the speed events, Keely raced competitively on the World Cup speed circuit scoring regularly and winning the 2010 National Super G title. In 2011, she founded the first ski racing camp for girls in North America, Keely’s Ski Camp for Girls, based around the mission to coach, inspire, empower and connect girls through ski racing and big mountain skiing. Recently, Keely has transitioned from ski racer to big mountain skier. She is a two-time Big Mountain Skier X winner of the Rahlves Banzai Tour and has been a featured athlete twice in Warren Miller’s 2012 Flow State and 2013 Ticket to Ride films. She has also premiered in Sweetgrass Production’s film Valhalla in their night segment. Keely is also involved with the Shelly Glover Sports Foundation and Climate Reality Project‘s “I AM PRO SNOW” campaign.
Julia Littman
Julia Littman is a native of Colorado now residing in Vail. She has been on skis since the day she could walk and has only grown more fond of the sport. She raced on the U.S. Ski Team for 5 years, competing in World Cup and Europa Cup speed races. After retiring from ski racing, Julia returned to school to finish her Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Chicago. Although city life was fun while it lasted, Julia missed the mountains and returned to the Vail Valley. She now works at the Vail Mountain School teaching middle school English and coaching.
Laura Littman
Laura began chasing her big sister, Julia (also a DISC pro), at a young age, growing up in Vail as a ski racer. While in high school, she competed on the national and international circuits, including at the Junior US National Championships, the US National Championships, the Canadian National Championships, and the Norwegian National Championships. Laura then attended Colby College, where she competed on the Division I NCAA circuit. Laura currently lives in Boulder, CO and is an attorney at Zayo, a communications infrastructure company (think fiber), where she does all things corporate and M&A. In her free time, Laura can be found romping around the mountains, usually on skis or on her bike and often with her dog, Louis. Laura has been a DISC pro since 2013 and is looking forward to another DISC packed full of competition and good fun.
Megan McJames
Megan McJames is a two-time Olympic skier and a student of finance at Westminster College who loves adventure, mountains, baking and laughing with friends and family! Her story is one of athletic perseverance, passion and work ethic. At 2-years old Megan learned to ski at Alta Ski Resort in Utah. She grew up doing many outdoor sports including mountain biking, hiking, camping, soccer and tennis but fell in love with the sport of skiing! At age 18 she qualified for the U.S. Ski Team and competed for them for seven seasons. Unfortunately, due to funding constraints and injury, Megan was cut from the U.S. Ski Team in 2012. Despite having no support from the national team, she believes in her goals as a skier and has been independently competing at the international level for the past four winters. Megan is proud to have represented the United States in the 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver, the 2014 Olympic games in Sochi and the 2015 World Championships in Vail Beaver Creek.
Amanda MacDonald
Looking back at a career that ended in March 2015, Amanda reflects on her years of success. She competed at the Division I level for the University of Vermont with various top finishes on the collegiate, FIS, NorAm, and National levels. She considers her career highlight during her senior year when she served as captain of the Division I NCAA Skiing Championship team. After her collegiate career, she moved west to Aspen to compete for a year at the Nor-Am level, and resulted in an invitation to the Director’s Cup. As a rookie and last-minute team fill-in, her strong team earned top honors. She looks forward to more friendly competition and challenges at the 2017 DISC!
Kaylin Richardson
Kaylin followed her older brothers into ski racing while growing up in the Minneapolis area. Kaylin started skiing in the Twin Cities with the Skijammers Ski and Snowboard School, a traveling ski program, where her father was an instructor. Her racing career began atage 9 with Team Gilboa at Hyland Hills. Richardson was named to the United States Ski Team for the 2003 season and quickly progressed through the ranks after winning back-to-back-to-back NorAm slalom titles in 2003; 2004 and co-champion in 2005. Richardson competed in her fist World Cup race on December 15, 2002 in Sestriere, Italy. She earned her first World Cup points in 2005 at the San Sicario Combined even where she placed 16th. Richardson then expanded from a ‘tech’ skier to a four event racer, earning FIS World Cup points in all five events in the 2005 and 2006 World Cup Seasons. Despite ankle trouble at the beginning of the 2006 season, Richardson accomplished top 15 and 20 results in slalom and giant slalom. Her quick rise through the World Cup through the 2005 and 2006 seasons earned her a nomination to the 2006 Olympic Alpine Team for women’s slalom and combined; she earned a position on the Olympic combined team but left off the slalom roster for fellow rising star Resi Stiegler.
Emilie Tait-Jamieson
Emilie is from New Zealand and competed internationally at FIS level until 2009. She was 3rd in slalom at the 2008 NZ Nationals and represented NZ at the World University Games in 2009. In 2010, she won overall female at the NZ University Games. Recently she won the Thredbo Top 2 Bottom, a Chinese downhill event, and the largest ski race in Australia, as well as winning overall female in slalom the NASTAR Nationals the past two years. She currently coaches and teaches in Aspen.
Special Guest, U.S. Ski Team Host
Marco Sullivan
Marco Sullivan Bio was born and raised in Tahoe City, Ca. and is 36 years old. He spent 17 years on the US Ski Team having just retired at the end of the 2015-16 season. During that time he raced in 4 Olympics, won a World Cup downhill race, secured 3 national titles and got to live his dream. Some other accomplishments during his career include, 5 Arctic Man titles, Skier Cross World Champion title, and racing in the most World Cup Downhill’s of any American man at 105. He now resides back in Tahoe City with his fiancée Anna Goodman (current DISC pro). Marco’s hobbies include skiing, mountain biking, camping, cooking and working on his house. His newest endeavors include commentating for NBC Sports and coaching ski racing part time.