BIOGRAPHY
An east coaster through and trough (he wears a Yankees jersey under his jacket at every competition), Bryan Zemba showed his mental toughness at the 2010 U.S. Freestyle Selection competition. After taking a DNF on the first day of competition, Zemba returned the next day to take the victory and went on to take second in the final duals contest. Due to his first DNF, he just missed out on a U.S. Team spot. Undeterred, Zemba battled through an up-and-down NorAm season, finally putting all the pieces together at the 2011 Junior Freestyle World Championships as he took the dual moguls title with a string of five consecutive clean runs.
Zemba’s Junior Worlds Gold scored his spot on the U.S. Team for the 2012 season as well as the USSA’s United Eastern Division MVP award. A training fall in December resulted in a broken collarbone and some time in the Center of Excellence physical therapy clinic. He was back at the end of the season to take part in his first World Cup start where he scored an impressive eight-place result.
BRYAN SAYS
My season was short, but sweet. I broke my collarbone training in December, which required surgery and resulted in me missing almost the entire competition season. However, through hard work, determination and the help of the great physical therapy staff at the Center of Excellence, I was back on snow in early February and back to mogul training in March. In mid-March, I was fortunate enough to get invited
to ski in this years Freestyle Dual Mogul World Cup Finals in Megeve, France. At this event, my first event of the year and the first World Cup start of my career, I dueled my way to an eight-place finish.
The injury taught me that my time in this sport is too short to take for granted, and I am going to do whatever it takes and work as hard as I can to be successful during this short window of my life. I was ecstatic when my hard work and determination paid off in France, and cannot wait for next year.
In 2013, I hope to compete in as many competitions as I can and make it through the season injury free. Even though it it's indeed a pre-Olympic year, my goals stay the same; to ski my best and train as hard as I can on and off the hill. If I do that, the results will take care of themselves.
FIRST TRACKS
Zemba began skiing when he was two years old at local east coast resorts - Hunter, Killington, etc. When he was eight years old, after his parents simply couldn’t keep up with him anymore, they enrolled him at the weekend freestyle program at the Killington Winter Sports Club and he’s been competing ever since, and made the move to Vermont when I was in seventh grade, the same year he enrolled at the Killington Mountain School. “There, I saw success at the NorAm level, placing second in dual moguls at 2010 NorAm Finals in Steamboat, Colorado and third in moguls at my final Junior Olympics held at Waterville Valley, New Hampshire,” he says.
OFF THE SNOW
Zemba enjoys hanging out with friends and family in the great outdoors. Whether it be skiing, surfing, hiking, biking, baseball and more, he is all about sports, the outdoors and playing in the sun. “I am also a huge Yankees fan and attend as many games as I can,” he says. “I also enjoy making a few bucks here and there at my parent’s restaurant, called Z Corners Inn, located in Killington, Vermont.” He also studies at Westminster College in Salt Lake City.
