Coming off a breakout World Cup season and 19th-place world championship finish, AVSC alumnus Bridger Gile eyes Olympics

Bridger Gile remembers some gloomy afternoons during his first few World Cup seasons. Sometimes, fellow Ski and Snowboard Club Vail alumni River Radamus would join him back at the hotel for another meeting of the “second run lunch club.”

“We were both the young guys on the team,” Gile said. “That definitely brought us closer together.”

“It’s a quiet, dark time,” Radamus said, smiling as he recalled the afternoon ritual afforded to those who finish outside the top-30 in the first run and consequently fail to earn a second. “Everybody’s wishing they were competing right now. It’s a reality in the sport you have to grow through.”

When it comes to progress on the piste, Radamus is a big believer in Hemingway’s famous phrase, “gradually and then suddenly.”

“Improvements happen all the time in our skiing, but you don’t recognize them until you make the big leap,” he said before adding that he thinks Gile’s current trajectory embodies the idea well.

“When you’re not scoring points, it feels like maybe you never will. I went through it for years. But when you do breakthrough, suddenly it feels like the weight of the world is off your shoulders,” Radamus continued. “When you start to build momentum and confidence, anything is possible. I think he’s starting to see that and believe that.”

Undoubtedly, Gile experienced a breakthrough season last winter.

The Aspen-born skier soared to a 19th-place finish in the giant slalom, his main event, at the world championships in Saalbach, Austria. He parlayed that performance into a 24th-place result at the next World Cup in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. Even without sitting next to Radamus during the U.S. Ski Team media day on Nov. 19 at Copper Mountain, Gile also likened scoring his first World Cup points to “a weight being taken off my shoulders.”

“I feel like I’ve been trying for a long time,” he said. “So to finally do it and be like, ‘OK I belong. I can ski with the big boys now.'”

Gile’s 2025 campaign had a little Hemingway to it, too.

“I felt like I’d been skiing really well two years ago and all of last year building into those races,” he said. “It was definitely awesome, but something I’d been building towards for a couple years.”

Coming off of worlds, the 26-year-old was strutting a little taller going into the final events of the year. The mental shift was a big reason he was able to score in Slovenia.

“Really from position to 10 to 40, we all ski pretty similar,” Gile said. “And so, it is just a confidence or mental piece that gets people consistently in that range.” 

While limited training space has made Team USA’s November camp at Copper Mountain look a little different this year, Gile is feeling good about his prep period in general. He spent a month on the mountain in May before doing two months on snow in New Zealand and another 30 days in Europe before the Solden World Cup opener in October. He said his main off-season focus has been skiing with a more direct line.

But coming into the Olympic year, the key will be to not overanalyze, a lesson he learned last December. Gile posted DNFs in his first two races, including a GS in Beaver Creek at the Birds of Prey World Cup stop. That was followed by three-straight DNQs. Gile said he felt at the time that the only way to earn a second run was to “ski perfectly.” Truthfully, he needed the opposite mindset.

“I just needed to ski freely — like I do in training, where you’re not really worrying about the result,” he explained. “We know how to do it. Just let your subconscious take over.”

In January, he let go. Starting with a pair of top-10s in FIS races in Goetschen, Gile gradually built momentum on the Europa Cup, descending from 40th to 27th to 15th to sixth place in a six-day span of racing in Austria. A few weeks later came the big result at worlds, where he finished two places behind Radamus as the second American. This year, all eyes are on the Olympics from a public perspective. But Gile’s goals are different.

“My main goal is just to build off of last season,” he said. Scoring often is a good start, but with only six quota slots reserved for U.S. speed and tech athletes, it’s going to take something special to get named to the Italy-bound squad heading into February. Gile thinks a podium or top-10 might be required.

“It’s going to be hard,” he said “But there’s a chance.”

His best chance might come next week. Gile will race the GS at the Copper Cup on Nov. 28 and the same event at Birds of Prey on Dec. 7. 

“I’ve been skiing this hill for 15 years,” he said. “And the snow here and Beaver Creek is a lot different than in Europe and I feel like I’m pretty good on it. It’s what I grew up skiing on.”

Whether he’s starting in Milano Cortina or not, Gile plans to finish the year back at home as Vail hosts the U.S. Alpine national championships for the second year in a row. Last spring, Gile finished runner-up for the second-straight time to Radamus in the GS.

“I guess I’d want to say, I’m coming for him,” Gile said when asked to provide bulletin board material. “And for sure at some point — before my career is over — I’m going to beat him at U.S. nationals.”

Gile said the American GS group dynamic is healthy because each athlete sharpens one another.

“It’s sweet to be able to train with (River) every day. That pushes us,” Gile said. “Everyone’s trying to chase him and he loves to be chased.”

“Bridger is one of my closest friends,” Radamus added. “We’ve been traveling together for years now and he’s just a great guy and he works hard at it. … I know he’s on the right path, as are the rest of the guys.”