Ryan Max Riley (born May 15, 1979) is an athlete who competed on the World Cup for seven years and was a two-time US National Champion as an athlete on the U.S. Ski Team in the

freestyle skiing Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, Mogul Skiing, moguls, Ski Cross, cross, Half-pipe skiing, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Freestyle skiing at the Winter Olympics, Winter Olympics. It can consist of a ...

events of moguls and dual moguls.

United States Ski Team

Riley earned a spot on the U.S. Ski Team in 1998, when he won the overall Nor-Am Cup in Moguls. On March 14, 1998, he competed in his first World Cup, in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee,

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, and placed 14th. He got his first top-5 result on the World Cup the next season, finishing fifth in Dual Moguls in Madarao,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, on February 21, 1999 (he placed sixth the day before in Moguls). A week later, he won the silver medal at the Junior World Championships in Jyvaskyla,

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. Riley placed second in a World Cup in 2002 in Madarao,

, and won silver and bronze medals at the

Goodwill Games The Goodwill Games were an international sports competition created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. In 1979, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the United States and other ...

in 2000. He is a 2-time U.S. National Champion in moguls. He won his second U.S. National Championship with one of the highest scores in the history of the sport (a 28.55) in Moguls in 2001 in Waterville Valley,

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

. In 2000, he was featured in the Warren Miller film ''Ride''.

Biography

Riley grew up in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, graduating in 1997 from the Lowell Whiteman School in Steamboat Springs and training on the freestyle teams at Winter Park Resort and the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, both of which have produced many U.S. Ski Team athletes and winter Olympians. In his last three years on the U.S. Ski Team, Riley attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, graduating with his A.B. with high honors in Literature in 2007. While in college, Riley was a humor writer for

The Harvard Lampoon ''The Harvard Lampoon'' is an undergraduate Humor magazine, humor publication founded in 1876 by seven undergraduates at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Overview The ''Harvard Lampoon'' publication was founded in 1876 by seve ...

, a humor magazine and humor society founded in 1876 at

. Following this, he attended

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...

, where he earned an M.St. in Medieval and Modern Languages with distinction in 2011, winning the Gerard Davis Prize for the best dissertation on a topic in French literary studies. He then completed his M.A. in French Literature at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. Since 2015, Riley has owned The Distillery at Greylock WORKS, a cocktail bar and distillery in North Adams, Massachusetts. Located in an old, 19th century red-brick historic mill, the Distillery makes locally-foraged cocktails and spirits like Forager Gin, using botanicals gathered in the local mountains and forests of the Berkshires.Vermont Country Magazine
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United States Ski Team

Biography

References

External links