Steven Nyman, the 41-year-old skier who grew up practicing his sport at Sundance Resort before moving over to what is now Park City Ski & Snowboard, called it a career after one final run during Saturday’s World Cup race in Aspen.
Clad in jeans and a denim vest decorated by the “American Downhiller” crew, Nyman casually made his way down the course, stopping along the way to give hugs and fist bumps as a home crowd held signs with messages such as, “Thank you, Steven.”
“I had dreams as a kid but didn’t know that they would actually become reality,” Nyman said in an interview March 1. “And to win World Cups and stand on the podium and be one of the best in the world is just a dream come true.”
Nyman hoped to race the whole season, but a broken hand in Beaver Creek in December derailed those plans. Instead, he’s been enjoying the plentiful snow this winter.
“I didn’t just break it – I turned it into Rice Krispies and had all these pins and all these things in it,” he said. “They tried beefing it up to where I could race, but I had no ability to roll my wrists and move around. … I’ve just been powder skiing all winter, and it’s quite the winter to be at home. Even though the wrist was broken, I could still powder ski.”
Another motivating factor for his retirement was spending less time away from his kids.
“It’s just hard with kids and traveling and being gone for so long,” Nyman said. “My wife used to work for the U.S. Ski Team, and now she doesn’t anymore. When she worked for the team, they could move to Europe and be with me all winter long, and she could still maintain her work. And that wasn’t the case this year.”
Nyman’s prolific career included trips to the Olympics in 2006, 2010 and 2014, and he made the Olympic team in 2018, only to tear his ACL shortly before the Games. His best finish at the Olympics came in 2006 with a 19th-place result in downhill.
“Just experiencing the pressures of the Olympics, seeing the magnitude of the Games and what goes into them is a special experience,” he said. “I loved Sochi. I loved going to something so completely foreign and experiencing that. I loved Vancouver because it was essentially a home Games, and performing in front of my family and friends there was all just special.”
He also had the experience of watching the 2002 Games, which Nyman credited for inspiring him to compete at the junior world championships that March. He ended up winning gold in slalom and silver in combined and made his World Cup debut the following week, a 15th-place finish in slalom.
Nyman finished his career with 11 World Cup podiums, including three wins. All three victories were in Val Gardena, Italy, in downhill. His performances at the junior world championships and the Val Gardena World Cups are some of the most notable memories for Nyman.
“World juniors in 2002 as a member of the Park City Ski Team as a nobody, never invited to any U.S. Ski Team projects, winning it in $10 stretch pants that I bought from the Park City Ski Swap, and everybody there was like, ‘Who is this guy?’ — was really cool,” Nyman said. “Winning my three World Cups, notably 2014 in Val Gardena, Italy. I was just on point. Every run down that track just made sense to me, and I was in the zone.”
“2015 world champs at Beaver Creek, racing at the highest stage in the world on home snow and executing the way I executed was very special,” Nyman added. “I didn’t get a medal, I was fourth. It wasn’t the most fair race, but it was just all about the way I executed and the way I performed on such a high-pressure stage.”
Competing at the highest level for so long in a sport as physically and mentally taxing as alpine skiing is a testament to Nyman’s endurance and resilience. His recent hand injury is far from the only time he’s been sidelined from skiing. But he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It’s a sport you’re not going to win a lot at most likely, unless you’re Mikaela Shiffrin,” Nyman said. “You’re going to get beat down, you’re going to face a lot of failure. And to get you through those hard times, you have to have love for the sport. There’s most likely to going to be a lot of injury as well. I tore both Achilles, broke both legs, blew both knees, broke both hands. I’ve been through a lot and to want to climb back and keep competing, it takes a lot of love at heart and passion.”
“But it’s also a great life,” he added. “We’re lucky in Park City … to live in the mountains and experience mountain life every single day is a treat.”