By U.S. Ski Team

PARK CITY – Vancouver Olympic gold medalists Lindsey Vonn of Vail and Bode Miller of Franconia, N.H., are among 19 athletes named to the 2011 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Team announced Wednesday. The biennial event opens Feb. 8 and continues through Feb. 20 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

The strong group also features fellow Olympic gold medalists Ted Ligety of Park City and Julia Mancuso of Squaw Valley, in addition to 15 other 2010 Olympic athletes.

NBC and Universal Sports will carry a full broadcast package of the World Championships.

Vonn, a three-time Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall champion, is seeking to defend the double gold she captured in downhill and super G from 2009 and contend for medals in three other events including super combined. She is currently leading the World Cup standings for downhill, super G and super combined.

For Mancuso, the event will serve as a continuation of the resurgence she started in Vancouver with a pair of silver medals to become the most successful female Olympic alpine skier in the U.S. Thus far, she has stood on the 2011 World Cup podium for super G and downhill, plus added three top 10 results in giant slalom – the discipline that brought her Olympic gold in 2006

Miller will seek to put down medal inspiring runs similar to those that produced a full spectrum of medals in Vancouver and made him a four-time World Champion and two-time World Cup overall champion. He enters the championships having recently landed his sixth podium finish at the Hahnenkamm races in Kitzbuehel, Austria, with a downhill second.

Notably absent from the Team is Olympic bronze medalist Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid), World Cup winner Marco Sullivan (Squaw Valley) and Olympian Alice McKennis (Glenwood Springs, Colo). All three are currently sidelined with injuries.

The 2011 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Team:

Men

Will Brandenburg (Spokane, WA)

David Chodounsky (Crested Butte, CO)

Nolan Kasper (Warren, VT)

Tim Jitloff (Reno, NV)

Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley)

Tommy Ford (Bend, OR)

Ted Ligety (Park City, UT)

Bode Miller (Franconia, NH)

Warner Nickerson (Gilford, NH)

Steven Nyman (Provo, UT)

Women

Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA)

Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA)

Chelsea Marshall (Pittsfield, VT)

Megan McJames (Park City, UT)

Laurenne Ross (Klamath Falls, OR)

Sarah Schleper (Vail, CO)

Leanne Smith (Conway, NH)

Resi Stiegler (Jackson Hole, WY)

Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO)