Another West Coaster, Erik Arvidsson cut his teeth with Bear Valley Ski Education Foundation and continued his racing developement with the Squaw Valley Ski Team. It didn't take long before he was on the U.S. Ski Team radar. Winning the combined and slalom titles at the 2012 J2 National Championships helped. The event was upgraded for the 2014 season into the U18 National Champs and Arvidsson did not dissapoint, nabbing another slalom title. He also finished sixth in both downhill and super G to show some versatility to his game. A couple of NorAm top 20s and some solid FIS results earned him an invitation to the U.S. Development Team for the 2015 season. 

After a minor knee injury sidelined the big Californian for much of the summer and fall prep period, Arvidsson joined teammates Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, VT), Tommy Biesemeyer (Keene, NY) and Resi Stiegler (Jackson, WY) in a return-to-snow program under coach Bernd Brunner early in the 2016 season, Arvidsson experienced what was his breakthrough moment when he started bib 1 and landed in first at the World Juniors downhill in Sochi, Russia. A regular on the NorAm Cup podium in speed events, Arvidsson smoked the 2014 Olympic downhill track, skiing the course tactfully to win by two-tenths of a second. He adds to the line up of previous American Junior Worlds winners including current World Cup athlete Ryan Cochran-Siegle, U.S. Ski Team assistant coach Chris Beckmann and Olympic gold medalist Tommy Moe.

"We’ve been talking a lot about today being the future American Downhillers and it feels really cool to continue on the legacy of Bill Johnson and Tommy Moe and all the boys now," said Arvidsson. "We look up to everyone in the gym in the summer—like Steve [Nyman], and obviously Bode is everyone’s hero. And skiing for the Squaw Valley Ski Team, Daron Rahlves is someone I’ve looked up to and spent some time with in Tahoe. It’s a pretty special thing. It was pretty cool to run bib 1 today after Ryan Cochran-Siegle won World Juniors four years ago running number 1. There’s definitely a lot of history as a downhiller from America and I’m really proud to be a part of that group."

Keep an eye on the young Arvidsson as he continues to crush the NorAm and Europa Cup circuits and works his way towards a World Cup start in the 2017 season. With his NorAm SG and combined titles, he finished third in the overall standings, claiming World Cup starting rights in downhill, super G and combined for the 2016-17 season. BOOM!