A skier starting at the age of nine, Michael Ankeny became a junior race winner at 10 and earned a spot on the U.S. Development Team prior to the 2009 season. Now a U.S. Championships medalist and World Cup starter, the next stop is a major championship team. Will 2017 be his season?! Only time witll tell for this Minnesota-born, Buck Hill Ski Team-bred under the legendary Erich Sailer, athlete.

Though Ankeny has struggled on the World Cup circuit, he found his stride in 2016, grabbing his World Cup points during the month of the classics. It all started in Adelboden, Switzerland with a 21st place finish, and then he carried that momentum to Kitzbuehel, where he snagged himself a top-20 finish, landing in 19th. That earned Ankeny a well-deserved spot on the "B" team for the 2017 season. He's been crushing it in the gym at the Center of Excellence all summer and he's looking forward to getting back on snow.

FIRST TRACKS
A product of the famed Buck Hill program in Minnesota (the same that helped produce Olympians Lindsey Vonn and Kristina Koznick), Ankeny didn't start skiing until age nine, but it didn't take him long to get up to speed after winning his first junior race at 10. After making the U.S. Development Team, Ankeny began spending his summers in Park City, sweating at the Center of Excellence. The rest is yet to be written.

OFF THE SNOW
When not on snow, Ankeny is pursuing engineering at Dartmouth College. If time allows you can find him biking—be it road, mountain, or his new hobby of cyclocross—playing tennis, soccer, golf, or trying to keep up with his brother at a Crossfit workout in the great Northern state of Minnesota. Go NORTH!