By Lake Tahoe News

For the first time in 19 years, a World Cup event will be staged at a Lake Tahoe area ski resort.

The International Ski Federation (FIS) today awarded Squaw Valley a women’s giant slalom race on March 10, 2017, and a women’s slalom on March 11, 2017.

The athletes will compete on Red Dog, the same run women competed on in the slalom and giant slalom at the 1969 World Cup and 1960 Winter Olympics.

Julia Mancuso, whose home resort is Squaw, intends to compete. This, though, is assuming her hip that was surgically repaired this spring after a shortened race season allows her to return.

“Growing up at Squaw Valley, I have been hoping for the return of the World Cup for a long time, and now we have the chance to show the world that our Olympic legacy is very much alive,” said Olympic champion Mancuso said in a statement. “The terrain at Squaw Valley is what raised me as a skier, and I know that when my peers stand on top of the course on Red Dog they will see what competitors saw in 1960 and 1969: one of the most challenging courses in the world. So many of today’s racers have trained and competed on Red Dog in the past, and now we can see this legendary venue re-emerge onto the world stage.”

The 2014 Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships were on Red Dog. Mikaela Shiffrin, the reigning Olympic slalom champion, took the giant slalom gold that year.

The terrain so impressed Shiffrin that she returned to the course last April to train with fellow athletes from the U.S. women’s team. She expects to compete in the World Cup at Squaw next year.

“Red Dog is an awesome slope. The hill itself is super challenging and fun to ski,” Shiffrin said in a statement. “The middle section has a lot of terrain variation: a break over, fall-aways, side hills, and bank turns. You have to be able to really attack the course. By the time you hit the pitch, which is one of the longest sustained pitches on the world cup besides Sölden (in Austria), you are already 45 seconds into the run and your legs are burning. Then you come over the break over and you can see the finish and your thinking ‘oh man, I’m not even close! OK here we go!’”

The Red Dog Giant slalom course begins at 7,520 feet at the top of Snow King Peak, descending 1,267 feet before the finish at 6,252 feet at the base area of Squaw Valley. The slalom course will be on the lower portion of the same course, dropping 656 vertical feet from its start on Lower Dog Leg.

The addition of Squaw in March and Killington, Vt., in November brings the number of World Cup events to 16 for the 2016-17 season, the second highest ever.