Speed through the bumps: Steamboat moguls skier reflects on best season yet in World Cup

America’s biggest moguls star has once again earned the title of fastest, female moguls skier on the planet. 

Jaelin Kauf, a former skier for the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, is quicker than a hiccup on her way down any moguls venue in the world. Her speed is a major points advantage in competition and the reason she has separated herself from the majority of skiers on the World Cup circuit. 

She acknowledged the potential downside of pushing the speed, which causes a higher likelihood of mistakes and possible point deductions. This is especially the case in singles. 

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Fortunately for her, she feels at home flying down the mountain, and she is confident and ambitious enough to assume the risk of falling out of a podium position. 

“The closer you can get to maxing out the pace time on each course, the more points you are going to get,” she said. “Depending on the course and how fast the rest of the field is going, that can set you apart by quite a few points, which is super helpful. I think that, for me, letting it go and pushing the speed is where my skiing thrives. It definitely brings out my best skiing.”

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Entering the 2023-24 World Cup season, Kauf wanted to focus on maintaining her speed while implementing tricks with a higher degree of difficulty into her runs more consistently. This season, that trick was the cork 7, which she had done sporadically in competitions over the last several seasons but made a point to show it off in nearly every World Cup event this year. 

As she moves closer to the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, she realizes the importance of getting comfortable with higher intensity tricks, so she can be at the top of her game while representing the U.S. and the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club in Italy two years from now.

This season, the U.S. moguls team made important strides toward an incredibly successful season. Locally, Steamboat’s Landon Wendler, Olivia Giaccio, and Kauf all recorded their best career seasons with each finding the podium at least once. 

Six American women finished in the top 10 World Cup rankings by season’s end, with Kauf placing second in the world and Giaccio in third. Wendler was ranked 18th among the men. 

Kauf amassed 11 World Cup podiums this winter, including one World Cup victory at the season opener in December.

“Personally, winning the duals event in Sweden this year was a highlight for me,” she said. “That was the first duals event of the season, and I felt like every run I was putting down a really good run, which doesn’t always happen in duals. Usually, you are skiing several runs in the day, and they don’t always go perfectly.”

After the conclusion of the best World Cup season of her career, she followed up with her sixth and seventh National Championship titles in moguls at the U.S. Freestyle Moguls Championships in New Hampshire’s Waterville Valley Resort on Saturday and Sunday.

This season, Kauf and the moguls team had the opportunity to compete at world-class venues in places like Italy, France, Georgia, Canada, Kazakhstan, and more. The sights are amazing, but she admits it can be a challenge keeping up with the taxing World Cup schedule. 

“Come the last events of the season, when you’ve been on the road for so long, the body is feeling it, and you are worn down in general and ready for the break and ready to get home,” she said. “Our team does a really good job of making the most of all those places and having great experiences everywhere.”

On the tail end of this year’s tour, she and a handful of teammates managed to visit Thailand and the Tuscany region of Italy while traveling to Kazakhstan and Italy for the final two World Cup events of the year. Kauf said these short trips were a great way to fight the fatigue of the four-month season. 

Now on break, she has the entirety of April and a good chunk of May to rest, take beach trips, and enjoy some time off with friends and family. Yet, there is still a lingering feeling in the back of her mind as she is coming off the best season of her career. 

“Every year, I am figuring out a little bit more and stepping up my game a little bit more,” she said. “Figuring out that consistency and being able to put down my runs every week to get on the podium almost every event is huge for me. My goal is to be the best in the world and take that top spot. Coming second all-around is awesome, but that is motivation to really dive into my skiing and stepping it up to be able to move up on the podium next year.”