A Brief History
The New York Ski Educational Foundation, a not-for-profit organization, was founded in 1973 by a group of alpine skiing officials and parents who were concerned about the growing trend of talented ski racers who were leaving the state to train elsewhere in the northeast. Many of the top skiers in the country at the time were native New Yorkers but were recognized as products of training programs in other states. This group approached New York State with a proposal to create a training program that would attract New York's most talented skiers.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation provided funding and a program was established at Whiteface Mountain. Twenty-four athletes participated in the first season. After two years funding from New York was eliminated from the state budget due to a fiscal crisis and NYSEF was reestablished as not-for-profit organization. In 1975 the NYSSRA-Whiteface Alpine Training Center was formed as a public foundation.
In 1983 the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) approached the training center Board of Directors and asked if they would consider expanding their training programs to include the sports of ski jumping, cross country skiing and nordic combined. ORDA also asked that NYSEF offer an alpine skiing program at the state owned Gore Mountain Ski area. The Nordic programs were added in 1984 and the name of the organization was changed to New York Ski Educational Foundation because it was no longer a strictly alpine program. Alpine training began in 1986 at Gore Mountain. Freestyle skiing was added in the winter of 1994/95 and a snowboarding program was added in 1999/2000.
Today NYSEF is one of the largest and most competitive snow sports training programs in the country with approximately 400 athletes participating in the different disciplines.
Over the past 33 years NYSEF has trained thousands of athletes. Many participants have become members of national teams, the U.S. Ski Team and the U.S. Olympic Team.
NYSEF believes that sports teach work ethics, determination and build character. The NYSEF program gives young men and women the necessary tools to be successful in life.
