Team USA Debutes Three-Way Winter Sports Championship

The United States Olympic Committee will debut its first-ever Team USA Winter Champions Series on Dec. 17, with USA Hockey, USA Luge, and U.S. Ski and Snowboard participating in the single-day television event telecast on NBC and NBCSN.

The three Olympic sport events – big air snowboarding, luge and women’s ice hockey – will be featured in a celebration of Team USA’s path to the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games. The telecast schedule on NBC and NBCSN is as follows:

The broadcast of the new Olympic event of big air snowboarding also serves as part of the opening weekend of the 21st season of the U.S. Grand Prix. Expected to compete are top American athletes Jamie Anderson (South Lake Tahoe, Calif.), Julia Marino (Westport, Conn.), Hailey Langland (San Clemente, Calif.), Ryan Stassel (Anchorage, Alaska) and Chas Guldemond (Reno, Nev.), along with a strong roster of international competitors. Copper Mountain – long-time U.S. Grand Prix partner and home of the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center – will host the big air event.

The Viessmann Luge World Cup returns to Park City and the Utah Olympic Park sliding center that hosted the events of the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games. The Winter Champions Series broadcast of the women’s competition will feature sliders Summer Britcher (Glen Rock, Pa.) and Erin Hamlin (Remsen, N.Y.) as they look to repeat their first- and second-place finishes at Park City in 2015. (Note: There will be additional coverage of the Luge World Cup men’s and doubles events Saturday at 7 p.m. ET on NBCSN.)
 
The U.S. Women’s National Ice Hockey Team will welcome Canada to USA Hockey Arena in the Detroit suburb of Plymouth, Michigan, for a preview of the upcoming 2017 International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship to be staged there in early April 2017. The game will feature several Olympians and is likely to include Brianna Decker (Dousman, Wis.), Meghan Duggan (Danvers, Mass.) and Hilary Knight (Sun Valley, Idaho), the MVP at the 2016 IIHF Women’s World Championship. Every game between these two rivals provides world-class hockey and since the Sochi 2014 Games, the U.S. has played Canada in five international events (two IIHF Women's World Championships and three Four Nations Cups), winning four of five titles.
 
About the USOC: Founded in 1894 and headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the United States Olympic Committee serves as both the National Olympic Committee and National Paralympic Committee for the United States. As such, the USOC is responsible for the training, entering and funding of U.S. teams for the Olympic, Paralympic, Youth Olympic, Pan American and Parapan American Games, while serving as a steward of the Olympic and Paralympic movements throughout the country. For more information, visit TeamUSA.org.