LAKE PLACID, NY ??” The U.S. Ski Team blasts into Lake Placid for the Nature Valley Freestyle Cup after sweeping both of the men’s podiums in aerials and moguls last weekend at Mont Tremblant, Quebec.

World and Olympic champions will compete at the 2005 Nature Valley Freestyle Cup, a stop on the international World Cup tour, over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. Aerial competitions are slated for Friday, Jan. 14 and Sunday, Jan. 16, at the MacKenzie-Intervale Ski Jumping Complex. The moguls contest is set for Saturday, Jan. 15 on Whiteface Mountain’s Wilderness trail.

The Nature Valley Freestyle Cup will air on NBC Sunday, Jan. 23 at 4:30 pm.

Toby ‘Awesome’ Dawson (Vail, CO) led the men’s mogul blowout on Jan. 8, just one week before the 2005 Nature Valley Freestyle Cup in Lake Placid. U.S. teammates Jeremy Bloom (Loveland, CO), Luke Westerlund (Breckenridge, CO), 2002 Olympic silver medalist Travis Mayer (Steamboat Springs, CO) and Nate Roberts (Park City, UT), finished 2-3-4-6, respectively.

Ryan St. Onge (Steamboat Springs, CO) won his first World Cup men’s aerials event, after coincidentally, dreaming about it the night before competing. In reality, teammates Jeret ‘Speedy’ Peterson (Boise, ID) and Olympic silver medalist Joe Pack (Park City, UT) joined St. Onge on the podium, for the second U.S. men’s sweep of the week.

On the women’s competition side, Australia’s Lydia Ierodiaconou landed on top of the aerials podium with China’s Nina Li and 2002 Olympic bronze medalist Deidra Dionne of Canada, finishing second and third, respectively, at Mont Tremblant. U.S. teammates Kate Reed (Montrose, CO), Emily Cook (Belmont, MA) and Lacy Schnoor (Draper, UT) nailed seventh, eighth and 10th, respectively. Nikola Sudova, of the Czech Republic, finished first in women’s moguls, trailed by Austrian Margarita Marbler, and Hannah Kearney (Norwich, VT), in second and third, respectively.

2002 Olympic silver medalist and 2003 World Cup Champion Shannon Bahrke (Tahoe City, CA) fell during training at Mont Tremblant and injured her right knee. Bahrke returned home to the United States this week for further evaluation and will not compete at the Lake Placid event.

Admission to Friday’s and Sunday’s aerials is $10 for adults, $6 for juniors and seniors. A lift ticket or season pass is all that’s needed for a box seat alongside the Wilderness course on Saturday at Whiteface Mountain. Awards will be handed out on-site following each event.

For more information on ORDA venues and events, and for web cams from five locations, please log on to www.orda.org.