Beaver Creek, Colo. • The Olympic podium and any high-altitude visions of gold medals can wait. Those dreams are still more than two months away.
For now, the U.S. men's alpine team is happy to take aim at another prize as it globe-trots from race to race and preps for the PyeongChang Winter Games: a faded denim vest that hasn't been washed in three years.
"It's almost something where we're more focused on winning the vest than winning the race," says Travis Ganong, a 29-year-old who's aiming for his second Olympics. "It's an internal, fun, competitive battle amongst us."
Ganong is the current owner of the vest. If a teammate manages a top-five finish at this weekend's World Cup stop in Beaver Creek, Ganong will have to pass along the prized denim and retrain his efforts on winning it back at the next stop.
"It kind of trades hands almost every weekend and goes through the group. It's a little bit of a badge of merit when you have it," said Andrew Weibrecht, a two-time Olympic medalist in the Super G. "You want to retain it, but you willingly pass it on when other guys are putting it down."
Steven Nyman, a veteran of three Olympics and 13 World Cup seasons, purchased the vest three years ago at a Levi's outlet store. He wasn't necessarily thinking of a years-long tradition that would carry the team through the entire Olympic cycle, but "it's kind of morphed into what it's morphed into," he said.
The back of the vest features screen-printed stars and stripes with "American Downhiller" scrawled in permanent black ink. The temporary owner of the vest is allowed to add patches, pins or decorative flair of his choosing.
"Somebody drew an American flag with an eagle flying. It's pretty patriotic," Ganong said.
While the outside of the vest suggests cowboy-on-vacation chic, the inside is akin to a "history book," Nyman said. That's where racers scribble in their best results, including finishing times, dates and locations. Nyman might have thought he was purchasing a gag prize, but the vest is now an important part of the PyeongChang cycle and has been worn at some point by all of the country's fastest racers.
"Hopefully, it'll just get passed on generation to generation," Nyman said. "Kids will be wearing it in 15 years and go, 'Whoa, Marco [Sullivan] wore this, Nyman wore this, Ganong wore this — that's pretty cool.' "
The racers say it's not just a kitschy token but actually spurs the Americans on each week.
"Ever since we started doing this vest thing, our results have kind of skyrocketed," Ganong said.
The added motivation certainly can't hurt. This weekend's races are the third stop of the new World Cup season. The vest spent the offseason in Ganong's closet, and he brought it with him last week to Lake Louise, Alberta. But no American finished higher than 16th in any race, so he brought it here to Beaver Creek, where the U.S. team is looking to jump-start its season.
Six Americans competed in the season's first two stops, but no one posted a top-15 finish. Last week at Lake Louise, the first time the downhill race was contested this season, Bryce Bennett was the fastest American, finishing 21st.
On last year's World Cup circuit, Nyman took bronze at a December downhill race in Val Gardena, Italy, and Ganong took first at a January stop in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. But those marked the only podium trips the U.S. men's team made all season, and the Americans also were shut out at last year's world championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where no American downhiller finished higher than 20th.
A 20th-place finish isn't quite vest-worthy. The bar for ownership has risen since Nyman purchased it. The vest doesn't simply go to the best U.S. time each week; a racer has to post a top-five finish to wrap his arms around the coveted sleeveless denim. An exception: A younger racer can take possession by posting a career-best finish.
The vest ceremonies are typically informal presentations at a team meeting, but the winner often finds himself sporting denim around fancy ski chalets with not a bit of shame.
"The Europeans are more proper, and we're out having a good time," said Ganong, who took silver in the downhill at the 2015 world championships in Beaver Creek. "After the races, when you have time to celebrate, you definitely wear it out."
Since the Sochi Games, the U.S. racers have taken to the "American Downhiller" label, which they say represents a connection to the sport's history and a fearless attitude they try to take into competition. The vest is as much a symbol of that as it is a prize, helping create a team atmosphere in an individual sport.
"We're just a band of brothers, traveling around the world, trying to beat the Europeans, more or less," Ganong said. "We're the 'American Downhillers,' and it's something we come together and kind of inspires us to work together . . . The 'American Downhiller' vest was kind of what brought everyone together."