The Most Versatile World Champion

While the ski world spent much of this past year with eyes glued to World Cup champ (and Burke Mountain Academy grad) Mikaela Shiffrin, another Vermont-bred skier quietly set a major World Cup record.

On March 11, Devin Logan became the first halfpipe and slopestyle skier ever to win one of the FIS World Cup’s biggest trophies: the Freeskiing World Cup.

The 23-year-old freeskier from Dover, Vt. makes her living launching enormous airs off 22-foot-high halfpipe walls.

Early last season, she dislocated her shoulder training for the Dew Tour and, at the Aspen X Games in early February, had what she called “a couple of good crashes” during a training run. She turned in a lukewarm performance at the X Games and  failed to podium at Boston’s Fenway Big Air.

But that didn’t dampen her drive. Instead, Logan doubled down in the two disciplines she competes in: halfpipe and slopestyle, turning in consistently good performances at FIS World Cup events around the globe.

Her hard work was rewarded: On March 11, D Lo, as friends call her, made history as the first freeskier to win the overall FIS crystal globe. Not just the first woman, the first freeskier, to take home one ofthe biggest trophies in skiing: the one that rewards all-around performance in multiple disciplines during the 34-stop FIS World Cup tour.

Logan came into the final event in Tignes, France ranked seventh in slopestyle and second in halfpipe, just 20 points behind the leader. Her closest challenger for the overall Freestyle Skiing World Cup crystal globe was ski cross athlete Anna Holmlund of Sweden, who was just one point back. To beat her, Logan only needed to complete a training run in Tignes. One of the few freestylers to compete in two disciplines, Logan did, and the trophy was hers.

Often (and as was true at the X Games), competing in slopestyle and halfpipe means two major competitions in one day. “Being the only female to compete in both slopestyle and halfpipe gets pretty rough during the season, going back and forth between competitions,” Logan said when Vermont Sports sat down with her after the X Games in Aspen. “But I’ve been doing it for so long that I couldn’t picture doing anything else.”

Logan does admit to one thing: “Did you know I’m afraid of heights? Like I hate even looking down from the gondola sometimes. But when I’m in the halfpipe and I’m in control, it’s different. I just don’t get scared.”

Logan started skiing when she was 2 years old and grew up chasing her brothers, ski filmmakers Chris and Sean Logan, around Mount Snow.

“They were always super supportive of me, encouraging me to do whatever they did—whether it was playing football or park skiing,” Logan says. “When I was six, I wanted to be a ski racer but they talked me out of it and I just kept following them into moguls and doing airs.”

At 15, she was second in the U.S. Halfpipe championships. In 2011, at 17, she won the overall AFP (Association of Freeskiing Professionals) halfpipe title, and did so again the following year, also winning two X Games medals.

Then, in 2012 she blew out her knee.

Rather than sit home and just do rehab, Logan got certified that year to be an AFP and FIS judge, giving her a greater insight into how to excel in competitions. She came back the following year stronger than ever, winning silver at the Sochi Olympics and again winning the AFP tour.

Logan credits some of her success to Vermont. “It makes you tough to ski in Vermont,” she said. “Growing up in those conditions where it’s almost always cold and icy, you have to have a lot of passion. I think it makes me like a challenge, as in, I like to take a different line than everyone else, try something new.”

She pauses and adds “And hey, if I don’t do well, at least I had fun trying.”

Logan now spends much of her time in Park City training but her family is still in Vermont, and over the holidays she was back at her old stomping ground at the Carinthia park in Mount Snow—this time to help teach other women.   —Lisa Lynn