Utah athletes are a big part of ‘the best’ U.S. women’s Alpine team ever. Update: Here’s how they did Sunday.

At the base of the cloud-shrowded Olympia delle Tofane Olympic women’s downhill ski course near Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, on Friday, athletes waited out yet another long weather delay. Most people would have filled the hours by staring at screens, either scrolling their social media accounts or queuing up a show. Or maybe playing a few rounds of sudoku or solitaire.

The Team USA women used the time to learn something. Namely, how to get Footloose.

Shannon Colleton, the team physical therapist, appointed herself the instructor of the popular line dance performed by Kevin Bacon in the 1984 film (which was shot entirely in Utah County). She was joined in even rows by five teammates — including Keely Cashman, Breezy Johnson, Bella Wright and Jackie Wiles — all stomping around in their oversized Team USA jackets while tapping their ski boots in near-unison.

Their line dancing may still need some work, but the United States women’s Alpine team competing at these Olympics has definitely found its rhythm. In fact, it just might be the country’s best ever. And a big part of that success, several athletes on the team said, is that they’re constantly learning from each other.

“This team,” said Lindsey Vonn, a veteran of five Olympics, “— in both the quality of our skiing and the vibes that we bring to each other on and off the hill — is the best that I’ve seen.”

Vonn, a part-time Park City resident, said she didn’t think the U.S. could produce a more talented team than the one that competed at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. That year the women won three Olympic medals, tying the record from Vancouver 2010, including a gold and a silver by Mikaela Shiffrin and a bronze by Vonn.

The success of Shiffrin and Vonn aside, six other U.S. women earned a total of 11 top-10 World Cup finishes that year. This year, six women not named Vonn or Shiffrin collected a total of 23 World Cup top 10s. Technical specialist Paula Moltzen claimed 11 of those. Johnson scooped up four more.

Those performances have boosted the U.S. women to the top of the standings in the Nations Cup in downhill, slalom, giant slalom and overall.

And Johnson on Sunday put Team USA on the top of the podium in these Olympics with her gold-medal downhill race. She became just the second American woman to win gold in the event, following Vonn’s 2010 victory. Cashman, a former University of Utah skier, finished just off the podium in fourth and Wright was 21st.

Vonn, who tore her ACL two weeks before the Games, crashed early on the course and had to be airlifted out.

“This is the first time I can say that there are multiple people in each discipline, not just speed, but overall, that can medal at any time,” said Johnson, the reigning world champion in downhill and team combined. “Not just today, but the whole season.”

Johnson, a 30-year-old graduate of the Rowmark Ski Academy in Salt Lake City, had the sixth-fastest qualifying time in training Friday, once the fog cleared and the dancing stopped, and the fastest on Saturday. She is also scheduled to race in Thursday’s super G.

Johnson said she credits the success of the U.S. team to “a rising tide lifts all boats.”

Wright, a Utah native who developed her skills at Snowbird, agrees. She competed on the 2022 Olympic women’s team that won no medals. She said she isn’t sure anyone could foresee this kind of comeback.

“I think,” she said, “that that’s been really shocking, in the best way, for all of us.”

Team USA’s resurgence has hinged, in large part, on Shiffrin’s continued success and Vonn’s return to skiing after retiring in 2019.

Shiffrin has accumulated 108 World Cup victories across all six events and is considered one of the best Alpine skiers of all time, man or women. Right up there with her is Vonn. At age 41, she became the oldest woman to win a World Cup race with her victory at St. Moritz in December. She then won her 84th career World Cup race in January. That set her up as an Olympic gold-medal favorite until she tore the ligament in her knee a week ago. The extent of her injury in Sunday’s downhill and whether Vonn will compete in another event at these Winter Games is unknown. Vonn is scheduled to race the team combined and super G.

Both Shiffrin and Vonn have been more than willing to share their course notes and film sessions with the other skiers, said Wright and Mary Bocock, a Salt Lake City native and Olympic rookie whose specialties are giant slalom and super G.

“If I want advice from her, she will always give me advice and her honest opinion on what she thinks it will feel like,” Bocock, 22, said of Vonn. “… Like in a course report, she’ll say it’s dark and bumpy. And some coaches don’t like to say that because they think the athletes will maybe back off a little bit. But I like to hear that so I’m fully aware of how challenging the course that I’m skiing will actually be.”

Wright agreed. She said she chooses to look at her situation — skiing in a world where Vonn and Shiffrin receive most of the awards and attention — as an opportunity. She thinks others on the team do as well.

“Just being on the team with these two women, it’s never going to happen again. And that is what is so cool,” she said. “… I can’t believe I’m witnessing this much history, and I’m skiing the same courses, and I’m getting course reports from them and giving course reports, and it’s just very, very special and really cool.”

And yet, Wright has noticed the other women on the team — even Bocock — a surprise Olympic qualifier after she started this season on the “C” team — have a few tricks to teach, too. The other skiers just have to be willing to follow their lead.

“Maybe there’s no need to replicate” the success of this team, she said. “I think it’s more of an inspiration for growth and continuing on those same dreams and path, but also have respect for what is happening right now.”

Sunday’s downhill will be followed by team combined on Tuesday, the women’s super G on Thursday and the giant slalom on Feb. 15. Women’s Alpine skiing will close with the slalom, slated for Feb. 18.