After a broken arm kept her sidelined for much of the winter, Katie Ryan rebounded to win the junior super G title (ninth overall) at the 2011 Putnam Investments U.S. Alpine Championships held at Winter Park, CO. That and other top results sealed the deal. She was on a bus ride with 120 other Aspen High School seniors when she learned she'd been called up to the U.S. Development Team. She immediately decided to defer from attending Middlebury College in Vermont in favor of the opportunity.