Park City freeskier Alex Hall has won gold and silver medals in back-to-back Olympic slopestyle events, as well as 15 X Games medals, tied for the most of any skier ever.  Hall’s accolades somehow didn’t get him drafted incredibly high up in the 40 picks in last Wednesday’s inaugural X Ga mes League winter draft at Cosm Los Angeles. They did, however, catch the eye of XC Park City and its general manager, Sharalee Hazen, and owner, Allen Thorpe, who selected Hall with the 28th pick.  “Alex has been around forever,” Hazen said. “He to me is a pro to the pros. He’s that leader, and it’s really important for us to have that on the team, especially given how global we are.” Hall had been hoping to be drafted to XC Park City since the club was created and announced in June.  “I was super excited to end up on the Park City team, the home team,” Hall said.  The club hoped to draft even more Parkites than Hall and fellow freeskier Troy Podmilsak, whom they selected with the 35th pick, but it wasn’t possible with other teams having selected local freeskiers like Mac Forehand and Zoe Atkin, and the teams having to draft five men and five women, with three of the 10 also having to be halfpipe athletes.  “We really wanted Mac, Zoe and Nick (Goepper), too,” Thorpe said. “But (we) think our team is pretty incredible. (There are) 17 Olympic medals and 26 X Games medals among the team.” Hall is hoping to break that tie with Swedish freeskier Henrik Harlaut and win the record-breaking 16th X Games medal this season, but also to keep the vibes positive on XC Park City. He knows he and many others on the team ski their best when they’re relaxed.  “It should be pretty fun,” Hall said. “If we can just bring a fun team vibe, I think it’ll translate to good results for everyone.”  Hall is excited to continue to spend time with Podmilsak, Norwegian freeskier Birk Ruud and Swiss freeskier Mathilde Gremaud, whom he also knows well. He’s also excited to get to know his other teammates better.  “I think (Hazen) was talking about hopefully doing some team activities or some events either prior to the season or leading up to X Games,” Hall said. “Which I think could be super fun, just to get people excited about the team.” Hall just wrapped up a training camp with the U.S. Ski Team in Australia and New Zealand. He returned to the United States for the draft and to spend some time at home before continuing his offseason work with some ski filming in Chile.  “We had great weather in Australia and some great skiing, and then New Zealand was fun as well,” Hall said. “We’re going over to Europe and Austria in November; That’s kind of like the real start of the season over there.” Hall will compete in the Innsbruck, Austria, World Cup on Nov. 26-27 and then the Breckenridge, Colorado, World Cup on Dec. 10-12. There are eight slopestyle and big air World Cups this season, but Hall plans on focusing on the three X Games League stops in Aspen in January, Calgary, Canada, in February and Ruka, Finland, in April.  “Hopefully do all the X Games events,” Hall said. “Which would be really sweet. And then sprinkle in some other events kind of along the way, wherever it makes sense with my schedule.” For further information about the X Games League, see its website: www.xgames.com. The post Park City X Games club drafts freeskier Alex Hall appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less