The Killington Cup and World Cup Racing on Superstar
Near Killington, Vermont
Every year around Thanksgiving, this mountainside becomes the loudest place in American ski racing. The Superstar trail hosts the Killington Cup, a stop on the women's Audi World Cup circuit and one of the biggest events in the sport on this side of the ocean. It arrived in November of twenty sixteen, and it was a genuine milestone.
It marked the return of World Cup ski racing to the eastern United States for the first time since nineteen ninety one, and the first World Cup event in Vermont in decades. The choice of Superstar was no accident. Its heavy snowmaking guarantees a race worthy surface in late autumn, long before most mountains have a base at all.
The response stunned everyone. Roaring crowds of fourteen and even sixteen thousand fans packed the finish arena across the two days of slalom and giant slalom, ringing cowbells in the cold as ninety of the world's best women charged down the pitch. American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin made it unforgettable, standing on the podium in her home region, including a slalom victory before a hometown crowd.
For a few electric days each fall, this trail turns a Vermont ski hill into a global stage.
