Colorado’s Kyle Negomir eyes the podium in Birds of Prey World Cup races at Beaver Creek

Kyle Negomir isn’t getting ahead of himself, nor is he kidding around. He knows people don’t put on a World Cup bib to shoot for 27th place.

“I think if you’re a professional athlete and you don’t go into every race thinking you can — or maybe even should — be able to win the race, then I don’t really think there’s a point to being there,” he said during the U.S. Ski Team’s Copper media training camp earlier this month. Entering his third year on the World Cup, the former Ski and Snowboard Club Vail athlete and 2018 Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy graduate hasn’t won a World Cup race. But the 26-year-old feels he’s on the right path.

“Looking around, you’re like, alright, I’m on track — I’m not where I want to be, but …,” he said.

---

---

But — at 26, he can still make a living chasing his dreams, traveling the world with friends and trying to ski fast.

“For hopefully as long as I want to,” he added. “And my body will allow.”

---

---

In his first World Cup season, Negomir scored points in two races. In his second, he was one of three athletes in his birth year to finish in the top-30 in the super-G. It was objective improvement for sure, but he only showed flashes of his true potential last year as his flu-marred middle of the campaign was bookended by glorious highs.

He scored his first career downhill points in Val Gardena and placed 24th in the December 2023 super-G. Then a string of cancellations in Zermatt-Cervinia and Beaver Creek kept him in a perpetual state of race-day preparation: warm-up protocols, inspections, video analysis, tech talks, pre-race meals, mental routines, etc.

The one silver lining: He had time to work back from a sprained AC joint in his shoulder sustained barreling across the downhill finish line on Dec. 16. His doctor told him as long as he could do a push-up, he’d probably be fine racing in Bormio, Italy, a few weeks later.

“Day before the race, grit your teeth, bust out one pushup — and you’re like, ‘Alright, I’m good to race!'” Negomir said with a smile, showing his affable sense of humor. The mental and physical stress took a toll, but he still managed to score points with a 27th-place super-G finish on Dec. 29.

Then he got sick.

What started as a typical respiratory virus morphed and endured as the demands of the unrelenting World Cup calendar kept him from ever fully resting and recovering.

“If you don’t (race), most of the season is gone,” he said, explaining his dilemma. “So, it was this weird place of trying to battle through and not prioritizing recovery enough, probably.”

He finally received respite prior to the final races of the year in Kvitfjell, Norway. Finally feeling physically normal again, he placed 19th in the downhill and posted a career-best 12th in the super-G. Knowing he was unable to demonstrate that ability throughout the winter, however, was frustrating.

“You know that’s what you’re capable of — hopefully more than that — but when you’re not able to show it and so many people are out sacrificing their time and effort to help you succeed and you’re not able to get your body or mind in a place where you’re able to perform, it’s not a good feeling,” he said before pivoting to reflect on the aspects of the year he was proud of.

“Results are always nice, but I think being able to go through it and prove to myself and the team around who have supported me that we can go through those hard times where you’re kind of getting beat down into the ground for a while — and be able to come out of it,” he continued. “That growth was kind of the more important thing.” 

Going into the off-season, Negomir made a fairly profound physiological paradigm shift. He realized training smarter — not longer — spurs progress. Easier said than done in a culture where Strava and social media makes one feel as if they should always be working out.

“I’m starting to realize that professionalism in that aspect isn’t always about more,” he explained. “It’s about doing what you’re going to do but better. Kind of trusting yourself is what it came down to.”

After the 2023 season, the U.S. men’s coaching staff received a major overhaul, a change he said was “super positive for our team.”

“Everyone is working together better now than ever,” he said. “There’s no excuses for us to not find successes with the group we have now.”

Negomir remains with Atomic and shares a technician with Sam DuPratt. Bouncing ideas off another top-flight skier has been beneficial; even though he’s studying engineering at Dartmouth, Negomir admitted he isn’t a technical nerd. He figures minor set-up flaws can be fixed by confident skiing. The cost-benefit ratio for pouring effort into that pursuit is better.

“I’ve always felt there’s enough issues to fix with my skiing that I think that’s more worth my time than fiddling with a one-degree difference with the bottom of my boots,” he said.  

One of his biggest goals this year is to finish ranked in the top-25 on the points list in an event — he was 30th in the super-G standings last year — and get invited to the World Cup finals, which are on American soil for the first time since 2017. The other primary objective is to be amongst the top-4 Americans in each speed event chosen to represent the country in Saalbach, Austria, at the FIS World Alpine Ski Championships from Feb. 4-16.

“Even for the top guys, it’s not necessarily a given that you’re going to get that spot,” said Negomir, who finished 17th in the super-G — the second American behind fellow SSCV alumnus River Radamus (16th) — at the 2023 championships.

“It makes it harder, but I think that’s also why our team is going to be able find success in the next coming years — whether it’s this world champs year, the following Olympic year — because we have so many guys pushing for these same spots,” he continued. “And I think that will bring everyone up at the end of the day.”

He will make his 2024-25 debut on Friday at Beaver Creek. He posted the fastest American training run on Tuesday and is pumped to see the Birds of Prey World Cup extended an extra weekend to include women’s races.

“When so many people are sacrificing the time and energy and money to get that venue set up — and it’s such a cool spot — there’s so many people involved,” he said. “To be able to have two races back-to-back and have more value brought out of it and have more people enjoy it is really cool.”

Playing the long game

Negomir sometimes gets mistaken as a professor when he lines up for problem-set study sessions at Dartmouth each spring. Having stretched his freshman courses across multiple years — he’s excited to finally be a quarter of the way to his diploma — he knows there’s a chance he’ll walk across the graduation stage with a kid if his ski career goes according to plan. It’s a small price to pay for the chance to race for gold.

With a global championships guaranteed to lure millions of eyes to the sport for 12 days next February, he is fired up and ready to prove he’s on the right trajectory.

“I’ve always felt I’m better performing in those big scenarios,” he said regarding the chance to compete in Saalbach. “When the lights are brightest, I feel like you see who has it and who has the confidence to perform in those scenarios, and that’s something I’ve always felt really good about. Hopefully, I’m in a position this year where I can go and fight for a medal and try to win a world championship.”