Who qualifies for the U.S. Rookie Team consideration this year?

Every spring, U.S. Ski & Snowboard names a Rookie Team — the development squad that gets coaching, programming, and competition support for the following season. The selection is a coaches' decision, but there's one published criterion that creates the candidate pool: a rider needs to have earned at least two medals on the U.S. Revolution Tour during the qualifying season.

The Rookie Team typically takes around 6 halfpipe athletes and 10-12 slopestyle athletes across both genders. Coaches have full discretion. So clearing two medals doesn't make a roster spot — but it puts you in the room.

Here's the list of U.S. snowboarders who cleared that threshold for the 2025-26 Rev Tour season.

Snowboard halfpipe

Men's halfpipe — qualifies for consideration:

• Kade Martin — 2 medals (Mammoth gold, Aspen gold). Two wins at the level just below Grand Prix. The most dominant men's halfpipe season of the bunch.
• Toranosuke Komiyama — 2 medals (Mammoth silver, Aspen bronze). Consistent across both spring stops, also qualifies in slopestyle (see below).

Women's halfpipe — qualifies for consideration:

• Ava Lilly — 3 medals (Copper bronze, Mammoth gold, Aspen gold). Two wins, plus a bronze at the season opener. The strongest U.S. women's halfpipe Rev Tour season this year.
• Kaylee Tippit — 2 medals (Mammoth bronze, Aspen silver). Built across the spring stops.

The pool is small — only 4 U.S. snowboard halfpipe riders cleared two medals across men's and women's combined. Whether the team picks more athletes who didn't quite hit the threshold or runs a smaller pipe roster is a coaches' decision.

Snowboard slopestyle

Men's slopestyle — qualifies for consideration:

• Toranosuke Komiyama — 2 medals (Mammoth gold, Aspen gold). The clear breakout slopestyle story — two wins, plus the multi-discipline halfpipe podiums above. The only rider to clear the threshold in BOTH halfpipe and slopestyle.
• Liam Johnson — 2 medals (Copper silver, Aspen silver). Two podiums without a win is the kind of consistent results profile coaches notice.

Women's slopestyle — qualifies for consideration:

• Annabelle McCarthy — 2 medals (Mammoth bronze, Aspen silver).

The slopestyle Rookie Team typically takes more riders than halfpipe — 10-12 spots vs. 6 — and the coaches will use most of those spots on athletes whose results profile is "consistent top-six finishes" rather than "two podium finishes." But the published threshold is two medals.

Freeski (separate Rookie Team)

The U.S. Freeski team operates a parallel Rookie Team with the same 2-medal threshold. From this season's Rev Tour:

Men's halfpipe (freeski): - Hunter Maytin (2 medals — Copper gold, Mammoth bronze) - Alexander Swedenborg (2 medals — Copper bronze, Mammoth gold)

Women's halfpipe (freeski): - Lainey Steen (3 medals — Copper silver, Mammoth gold, plus a slopestyle medal below) - Izzy Lola Worthington (2 medals) - Emily Campbell (2 medals)

Men's slopestyle (freeski): - Walker Woodroffe (2 medals — both gold)

Women's slopestyle (freeski): - Lainey Steen (2 medals — Copper silver, Aspen bronze)

Lainey Steen's season is worth singling out: 3 halfpipe medals AND 2 slopestyle medals on the freeski Rev Tour, plus rail jam podiums earlier in the season. She's the only rider — across snowboard or freeski — who podiumed in three different disciplines this season.

What this list is and isn't

A few important things to note:

1. This is the threshold-qualifier list. It is NOT a roster prediction. Coaches select from this pool plus, at their discretion, any other riders they think the program should support. Athletes you don't see on this list could absolutely make the team based on USASA Nationals, World Junior Championships, Futures Tour, or international results.

1. It's based on data we have crawled. If a result is missing — for example, a recent event we haven't yet processed, or a result attributed to a slightly different name — the count would be off. If you spot something missing, let us know and we'll fix it.

1. The Rev Tour isn't the only path. The "2 Rev Tour medals" threshold is the published minimum to be considered; coaches consider the whole picture, including Futures Tour wins, USASA Nationals results, and any international results.

1. International riders aren't on this list — the U.S. Rookie Team is U.S. citizens only, regardless of how many Rev Tour medals they earned.

What we'll be watching for

The U.S. Snowboard team announcement typically lands in late spring or early summer. We'll write a follow-up once the 2026-27 Rookie Team rosters are published, comparing the actual selections against this threshold list. The interesting questions:

• Does the team include all the threshold-qualifiers, or do some get passed over?
• Does the coaches' discretion bring in riders who finished close to the medal but didn't quite make the podium twice?
• How does this map against the simultaneous selections for the senior team, B-team, and PRO team levels?

Stay tuned. And if you're a rider on this list — congratulations on a season that put you in the conversation. The next steps are coaches' calls, but you got yourself in the room.