Joining heads of state, philanthropic leaders and the throng of billionaires at the World Economic Forum this week: skiers Lindsey Vonn, Picabo Street and recent Alpine World Cup winner Lauren Macuga, among other representatives of U.S. Ski & Snowboard.
The skiers are attending the annual gathering of the world’s elite better known as Davos, after the Swiss town it’s held in, to attend to a few duties. Street, along with U.S. Ski & Snowboard CEO Sophie Goldschmidt, anchored a Monday panel called “Blazing the Slopes & Breaking Business Barriers: Inspiring Stories of Women Defying the Odds in Sports,” part of the WEF’s efforts to counter long-held criticism the event drastically under-represents women. But, like all things Davos, there also is a lot of money at play—at least the Olympic governing body hopes so.
The skiers are doing double duty as a favor to Cloudflare, the publicly traded network services firm that inked a sponsorship deal in October with the sports organization. Cloudflare is also a Davos partner; it sponsored the sports panel and provided its moderator, chief strategy officer Stephanie Cohen. After the panel, Goldschmidt and Street were joined by Vonn, Macuga, fellow racer Jackie Wiles and retired racers Steve Nyman and Daron Rahlves for a Cloudflare ski and networking event. Both Cloudflare and the U.S. Ski & Snowboard organization entertained some of the elite of Davos while also hoping to make business inroads for themselves.
“It came about around the idea of how could we get creative and provide even more value to Cloudflare to help them stand out in a unique way at a major event in their calendar—which, by the way, also is a great opportunity for us,” Goldschmidt said on a video call from Park City, Utah. “We’ll have the athletes come, ski with our guests, with some guides, and then we’ll have lunch, a chance for the athletes and guests to mix and then, for those that get out for some more skiing in the afternoon, we’ll look after them.”
For those not familiar with Davos, the World Economic Forum is a hotly desired invitation among business leaders seeking time to network with each other and with the many world leaders who gather to discuss macroeconomic ideas like climate change and economic disparity. While the non-governmental attendee list isn’t made public, it’s always very heavy on Wall Street, tech and media leaders. New Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein, fellow finance billionaire Ray Dalio and crypto billionaire Brian Armstrong are among the announced speakers. Cloudflare’s CEO Matthew Prince, once a ski instructor, is speaking on another panel as well, and he will probably join Goldschmidt on the slopes.
On the political side, European Union president Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be there. (U.S. President Donald Trump will speak by video.) Neither Goldschmidt nor Cloudflare would name any attendees, but members of both groups made up the invite list, and demand for the ski session is well oversubscribed, according to Goldschmidt.
It’s not the first time Davos has focused on sports—in 2022, a soccer-heavy panel talked about sports as a unifying force—but it’s a first for U.S. Ski and Snowboard to dive into panel and sponsor this kind of work, and Goldschmidt envisions doing more of it.
“Skiing is a little bit like golf in some ways,” Goldschmidt said. “You have quite a lot of downtime, whether it’s sitting on the chairlift or walking between holes.”
In terms of access to Wall Street, golf is second to none among sports, where pros frequently are star attractions for a round after a financial conference. The LPGA for instance, has long sent golfers to the Global Financial Leadership Conference, a CME Group event in Florida drawing primarily hedge fund managers each year. The partnership worked so well for CME Group (attendees preferred LPGA pros as better golf partners to the PGA golfers they found standoffish) that the LPGA has been able to grow its partnership to the extent CME, an owner of securities exchanges, is the name sponsor of the league’s annual tour.
Such a partnership is something of which Goldschmidt would like to see U.S. Ski & Snowboard do more. “We’re getting demand from our partners around creating experiences where they can bring business clients to events and just create a different environment,” she said. “And I think we’re very uniquely placed from that standpoint.”
The networking also could create connections to help the governing body pursue commercial opportunities Goldschmidt believes U.S. Ski & Snowboard should explore, like a new business vertical joint venture around travel and experiences, and launching new events.
“It’s great to be testing this out at Davos, obviously on a rather big global stage,” Goldschmidt said. “And I think we’re very uniquely placed from that standpoint.”
