Travers Wins Pan Am, Breaks Record

This past weekend, Jon Travers scored a phenomenal end of season victory in Guadalajara, Mexico with a score of 2@41’ off (10.25m).  JT’s bone crushing slalom style came in handy as the Pan American Championship finals came to a head.  “My strategy was to take it easy in the prelims”, said Travers. “I wanted to save it for Sunday…the Finals.”  Travers trusted his strategy would pay off, and pay off it did with a score that was not only good enough for the Win, but also surpassed the Pan American Record that had stood upwards of a decade.

JT Recounts his travels south of the border:

“My trip started in Houston after the Katy Jam event where I met up with the rest of the US team.  After our flight down to Mexico they took us straight to the village where we were to stay. Unfortunately the food court had the worst food I’ve ever tasted.  Luckily we found out about the International zone which had Starbucks, Burger king, a sushi place and steak tacos which saved us.  

One the village of the early mornings of travailing to the lake we got stuck in a huge traffic jam, which we found out was because there had been a shooting near the airport we’d pass by, where we even saw police and people with guns.  Later our bus driver brought us a different route. That was crazy and scary.

When the event started, my parents had to scalp tickets and couldn’t get to the prelims in time.  I had to call my Dad to game-plan how I would ski in the prelims. I decided to just feel it out like had worked in the under 21 worlds in 2009 when I skied here last. I just wanted to get in the 3^rd or 4^th seed spot in the prelims as I knew what I had to do in the Finals: be strong and stay focused.  (Later I got my parents VIP tickets for the finals…thanks to the Mexican team for that one.)

After I skied, we had the awards ceremony where they did an amazing job of making us feel like true Olympians. I want to say thanks to the Mexicans for putting on an amazing Pan-Am Games”