One of the nation’s most active counties, Routt saw a number of amazing athletic achievements in 2024.
The county is home to the No. 3 bareback rider in the world, a number of Youth Olympians and ultra marathon runners, among many other athletes.
Here is a recap of some of the top local sports stories of 2024.
2024 marked the 100-year anniversary of the first Winter Olympic Games, which took place in Chamonix, France. Nordic combined was one of the original nine disciplines that athletes competed in during those Games.
In June, USA Ski Jumping — then USA Nordic Sport — announced the organization would no longer fund the Nordic combined national team program or its partnership with the Norwegian National Team. This left athletes scrambling to find funding on their own, simultaneously leaving the future of the sport’s place in the Olympics in doubt.
Since then, a group of volunteers nationwide assembled to form the nonprofit now known as Nordic Combined USA, to take over leadership and fundraising for the sport.
Fundraising efforts have been a success so far, extending the athletes’ work with Norway. The training has already paid off as multiple Nordic skiers from Steamboat Springs have accomplished personal best results at World Cup events this season.
Steamboat’s Ella Wilson also made history in July when she became the first female skier to win the Fourth of July Jumpin’ and Jammin’ Ski Jumping Extravaganza hosted each year at Howelsen Hill.
After much anticipation, the Steamboat Tennis and Pickleball Complex unveiled a world-class pickleball facility that includes 12 inside courts for year-round use and eight more outdoor courts for the warmer months.
The 35,000-square-foot facility held a soft opening at the end of July and has since hosted a number of events as well as the entire pickleball community of Steamboat Springs.
Owned by the city and operated by the nonprofit Court Sports 4 Life, discussions of the expansion project began at a Parks and Recreation Commission meeting in April 2019.
Coming off a dream bareback season where he won the world championship title in his rookie season, Hayden’s Keenan Hayes followed up with a world No. 3 finish in his sophomore year.
Hayes amassed $372,796.94 in the 2024 season despite battling a groin injury for the entire second half of the year. He said the only big difference between this season and last was getting automatic invites to the biggest rodeo events instead of qualifying for them.
Hayes is putting his health first and will focus on recovery before getting back on a bucking horse for a very promising 2025 season.
Seven athletes from Routt County qualified for the 2024 Youth Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Among those athletes was Abby McLarnon, who earned two bronze medals in mogul events; Rocke Weinberg, who was the youngest American to compete in the Games; and Benjamin “Grey” Barbier, who helped lead the 4×5-kilometer mixed cross country relay team achieve fifth overall.
Steamboat was also responsible for four Nordic skiers who qualified to compete at the Youth Olympics, including Ella Wilson and Arthur Tirone in Nordic combined, and Jason Colby and Estella Hassrick for ski jumping.
In June, Steamboat ultra trail runner David Norris broke the record for fastest time at the 32-mile Bighorn Trail Run in northern Wyoming. Not only did Norris place first, he demolished the course record by 12 minutes with a time of 4 hours and 4 minutes.
Celebrating the Fourth of July in Seward, Alaska, Norris won his fifth Mount Marathon race since his first time competing in 2016. This year, he broke the race record that he previously held and he remains the only runner to ever complete the 5-kilometer race in under 41 minutes.
These races, among others, were all in preparation for Norris to take on the OCC 50 kilometer race in France, where he competed against 1,500 of the best trail runners in the world. Norris ultimately placed 23rd, giving him a desire to attack the race again in 2025.
After six snowboarders from the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club qualified for the 2024 Snowboard Alpine Junior World Championships in March in Lachtal, Austria, it was Steamboat’s Walker Overstake who made headlines with his incredible results.
Overstake, 17, and his Minnesota teammate, Grace Domino, earned a silver medal in the mixed team parallel slalom event at Junior Worlds.
The pair took down Korea, Italy, Canada and Ukraine to reach the Big Final, where they earned the silver medal after a tight race against Germany. It was the highlight of Overstake’s career to that point — he has since started competing in World Cup events worldwide.
Other SSWSC athletes to compete at junior worlds include Mike Smith, Nick Pierce, Sam Carpenter and Linda Jachova. Taggert Carr qualified but did not compete due to injury.
With 100 Olympians and counting, Steamboat Springs is famous for being home to more Olympic athletes than any other city in the nation, thus earning its nickname “Ski Town, USA.”
Beyond the glitz and glitter of the Olympic influence, however, is a Western ski town of just over 13,000 people, many of whom enjoy playing in the snow and skiing or riding daily on Steamboat Resort’s Champagne Powder.
One of those 13,000 is Joe Brougher, known in the ski community as “Joseph B.” Brougher made history at Steamboat Resort this spring by becoming the first skier to officially track 5 million vertical feet skied at the resort in a single season. He was also the leader in total vertical feet skied among all Ikon resorts last season.
Brougher spent 118 days skiing last year. He covered 5,003,967 feet in that span with 2,806 lifts taken. He clearly was the King of Vert.
The 30th summer Olympic Games were held in Paris in 2024. A number of athletes from Steamboat Springs competed in Olympic trial events in an effort to make their Olympic dreams come true.
One of those athletes was Adrian Walsh, a two-year resident of Steamboat Springs who qualified for the Olympic Trials Marathon in Orlando in February.
Walsh, then 29, battled the Steamboat winter by training on treadmills for months. She ultimately placed 77th in the trials.
Just before the Games began, Steamboat’s Maggi Congdon threw her hat in the ring to take on the women’s 1500-meter Olympic Trial.
Now a student at Northern Arizona University, Congdon far exceeded her expectations, reaching the Finals and ultimately taking 12th after crossing the finish line just 13 seconds behind the race winner.
One of the most insane and spectacular athletic achievements of the year came from Steamboat’s Johnny Starr, who completed a 340-mile tandem river race in under 50 hours.
The Missouri American Water MR340 is the world’s longest river race and takes competitors from Kansas City, Kansas, across the state of Missouri to the finish line at the Lewis and Clark Boat Ramp in St. Charles.
This year’s race featured 611 paddlers from 37 states and three countries in more than 400 boats. In the end, 322 boats finished, 86 did not finish and 65 did not even start. The endurance race allows for exactly 88 hours to complete the course — slower kayaks get swept by the reaper.
Starr and his teammate, Josh Mandel, placed fifth in the men’s tandem division for their fastest time yet in the competition.
Once the snow melted and the beautiful spring weather began, marathon runners were quick to dust off their shoes and get back in the race in 2024.
Jennifer Schubert-Akin, a local runner, took on her 30th Boston Marathon in April, which is a tradition she began in 1995. Each year, she runs to raise awareness of multiple sclerosis, a disease her sister was diagnosed with at age 25.
The following month, a relay across the country passed the baton in downtown Steamboat Springs as it made its way from Santa Monica, California to New York City.
Twenty-one runners in total took on the task with Rebecca Spiegel handing off duties to Levi Perez. The run, called MS Run the U.S., was also an effort to raise money and awareness for multiple sclerosis.
Marathon season continued with the 43rd annual Steamboat Marathon at the start of June, where the race was taken by 30-year-old Boulder resident, Calvin Lehn, who crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 38.42 minutes, an average-mile pace of 6:03.
