撸先生 and Snowboard Club Vail Alpine skier claims bronze medal at 2025 FIS Para Alpine World 撸先生 Championships
Marko Pigac/FIS Para Snow Sports
Audrey Crowley succeeded in making her world championship debut a race to remember.
On Saturday, the 撸先生 and Snowboard Club Vail Alpine skier claimed bronze in the standing giant slalom at the 2025 FIS Para Alpine World 撸先生 Championships in Maribor, Slovenia.
“I think that this podium result really represents the hard work I have been putting in this season and during the off-season,” Crowley told U.S. 撸先生 and Snowboard media. “It means the world to me to earn my first ever world championships medal because it’s been a lifelong dream of mine. It feels surreal to have achieved this.”
Crowley was an integral part of the Eagle Valley girls softball team that qualified for the state tournament this fall. On the slopes, the 17-year-old has raced both able-bodied and adaptive races across the country. She was named to the U.S. team for the first time last year and made her para-alpine World Cup debut in Cortina in January 2024, placing fourth in the downhill and fifth in both the super-G and slalom.
“鈦營’ve learned a lot about my pre-race preparation through my experience on the team so far,” Crowley said. “I’ve been exploring what works best for me, especially during inspection, and doing my best to feel relaxed in the start. I’ve also learned how to use what I call “excited butterflies” to really charge and be in the best place [mentally] when racing.”
Support Local Journalism
The 2019 Vail 撸先生 and Snowboard Academy’s opened her ski season with 16th and 18-place finishes in the giant slalom National Junior Races in Aspen on Jan. 4 and 5. She was 10th and 13th in the super-G in a pair of FIS competitions in Aspen the following weekend.
On Saturday, Crowley cruised down the 305-meter Habakuk course in two-run combined time of 2 minutes, 17.17 seconds to finish 4.96 seconds behind runner-up Mengqiu Zhang of China as Sweden’s Ebba 脜rsj枚 (2:07.93) claimed gold.
“It’s a World Championships. You have pressure,” 脜rsj枚 told FIS media. “The first run was almost icy and grippy. The second was more warm but a little bit slippery, I don’t know. But it was good.”
Crowley also competed in the slalom race on Tuesday. After winning her GS bronze, she said she would try to go into Tuesday’s race “without expectations.”
“I want to put down good, solid skiing,” she said. “Mentally, slalom has always been the hardest for me, so I’m trying to go into it having fun and skiing my best.”
Crowley ended up placing fifth overall with a time of 2:25.41. Arsj枚 (2:06.87) won her third-consecutive standing slalom world title 鈥� increasing her total global gold count to eight 鈥斅爓hile Zhang (2:11.90) repeated at the silver position and Germany’s Anna-Maria Rieder (2:18.02) was third.
“The Championships as a whole had many ups and downs,” Crowley stated in an email to the Vail Daily on Thursday. “I was very disappointed when we were not able to race speed. I think because speed was canceled, it put more pressure on the tech races. Overall, the racing turned out great. The crew at Maribor delivered an amazing surface for the giant slalom and were able to maintain it through the slalom race.”聽
Crowley said she will now spend time training in Vail to prepare for able-bodied U18 Nationals in Aspen.
“We are trying to take things one step at a time, really focusing on what will make me the best skier I can be,” she said.
