For generations the Soda Pop Slalom has provided the launching pad that inspires young ski racers dreams, and as Emily Givens watched her daughter clear the gates in Friday’s event she couldn’t help seeing possibilities.

“We have yet to have an African American female in the Olympics win gold,” said Givens, after her 3-year-old daughter, Azalea Gomwe finished her run in the 2025 Christy Sports Soda Pop Slalom. “The more representation we can have in ski towns, the more it gives kids the feeling they can do it.”

The Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, which hosts the event that is sponsored by Christy Sports, had more than 400 young athletes, 11-and-under, at the 2025 event. Racers were assigned to one of three time windows with each racer getting two runs. 

The youngest competitors raced on a course set up in Pony Land, a beginners area serviced by a magic carpet, with the older skiers competing on a steeper course set up in front of the lodge. Every participant earned a blue ribbon, and a soda pop at the finish line.

The event, which dates to the early years of the Winter Carnival, draws hundreds of young skiers every year. The event was hosted at the base of the Steamboat resort until 2021 when it was moved to Howelsen.

On Friday 9-year-old Jack Mora, who wore his hockey uniform as a costume and used hockey sticks as poles while tearing down the course, added his name to a long list of skiers as he took part in his first Soda Pop Slalom.

 “My mom came up with the hockey costume,” Mora said following his final run. “Everything about the Soda Pop Slalom is fun.”

Jon Nolting, chief operating officer for the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, said having fun is the whole idea. For many young skiers in Steamboat Springs, this is their first racing experience.

“For most kids this is their first time to ever go through a race course and have people say their name (over the loud speaker) and there is a big crowd at the bottom,” Nolting said. “It’s exciting for them and they get soda pop at the end. It just one of these things that are memorable.”