Finnigan Donley
It was a surprise when Anchorage skier Finnigan Donley learned he’d been selected to the U.S. team for January’s World Junior Alpine Championships days before the competition began in Austria. “I had no clue,” he told the Anchorage Daily News.
It was no surprise at all that Donley on Wednesday learned he was Alaska’s latest member the U.S. Ski Team alpine squad.
A no-brainer addition to the national development team after he dominated his age group this season, Donley earlier this month was named U.S. Skiing and Snowboarding’s Rookie of the Year in alpine skiing. He was further rewarded this week by becoming the ninth alpine skier from Alaska to earn a spot on the U.S. Ski team. The 18-year-old follows the ski tracks of greats like Tommy Moe and Hilary Lindh.
Donley learned of his selection the day before he will be presented with the Pride of Alaska boys award at the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony Thursday at the Anchorage Museum. The ceremony begins at 7 p.m.
He’s the first Alaskan named to the alpine national team since Kieffer Christianson in 2010. Before that came Lindh, Moe, Megan Gerety, Mike Makar, Kjersti Bjorn-Roli, Andre Horton and Suki Horton. Most of those skiers competed in the 1980s and 1990s.
Finnigan Donley. Photo by Roger Kimball
Donley is a product of the Alyeska Ski Team, although he moved to Idaho two years ago to join the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation ski program. He has skiing in his blood — his mom, Shannon Donley, was a top junior racer for the Alyeska Ski Club when she was a teen, and his maternal grandfather, Eberhard Brunner, came to Alaska decades ago as the first full-time alpine coach in Alyeska Resort history. His older sister, Quincy, is an NCAA skier at Harvard University.
Donley, who turned 18 on the last day of February, was the top U18 downhill skier at the World Junior Championships in January, the U18 overall champion at the U.S. Junior Nationals in March and the top U18 finisher in all three events at the U.S. National Championships early this month.
He was America’s youngest skier at the World Junior Championships, which showcases the world’s best skiers under 21. He was the top U18 skier in the downhill, placing 29th overall, and the second-best in the super-G, placing 13th overall.
At the Junior Nationals, he collected the U18 overall championship by winning three age-group medals, including gold in the super-G.
At the U.S. Nationals, he claimed fifth place in the super-G, 14th in the slalom and 18th in the giant slalom. In each race, Donley was America’s top U18 skier.