A few years later, while sitting with her family in the Olympic stadium for the opening ceremonies of the Salt Lake Winter Games, she remembered Steve's goals. He had just made the U.S. junior world team. "Steve," she said, "in four years you could be in the Olympics. Wouldn't that be amazing?" Four years later he skied in the Turin Olympics.

Nyman's ascension to the top has been steep and quick, and he did it the hard way. Many of the top professional skiers attend private academies instead of public high school. Winter school, as it's known, runs from April to October, allowing students to concentrate on skiing in the winter. Most elite skiers also belong to one of several elite teams — Park City, Vail, Stratton. "Park City is the USC of skiing," says Scott. Few elite skiers hail from small teams.

Enter Nyman. He skied for the small team from Sundance and attended public high school. He finally began training with the Park City team after he got a driver's license, commuting after school and on Saturdays to hone his skills against faster skiers. Still, he attended relatively few camps and competed mostly in regional events. He never had the credentials to make the U.S. development team. He was, as Scott notes, "off the radar" for national team coaches.

He also was a late bloomer, still catching up with a big growth spurt in high school.

During the 2001-02 season, Nyman won a couple of regional races and seemed to indicate potential, but as Scott says, "Most kids his age had been noticed and picked up by a development team. If you were not picked up young, usually the window closes. You're written off."

Park City coach Rob Clayton lobbied the development-team coaches to put Nyman on the 2002 U.S. world junior (19 and under) team. Thanks to Clayton's efforts, Nyman made the team, but only as a discretionary pick — he would travel and train with the team, but he might not compete.

Translation: He might sit the bench.

But during training camp in Italy, Nyman caught the eye of the coaches. He not only was placed in the lineup, he won the gold medal in the slalom and silver in the combined. That performance qualified him for a spot in the World Cup finals in Austria. It was a bone thrown to world junior champions; they're not expected to be contenders against the best of the World Cup.

Nyman placed a remarkable 15th in the slalom and had the sixth-fastest second run. He was 20 years old. He never did make the development team; he skipped right over it. In a matter of months, he had gone from skiing for the Park City team to the World Cup finals.