Travis Mayer

Travis Mayer was born in Springville, New York, February 22, 1982. Travis is an Olympic level freestyle skier. He began skiing when he was five years old at Holiday Valley Ski Resort in Ellicottville, New York. It was at Holiday Valley where he first learned to navigate the bumpy terrain popularly called “moguls.”

While skiing at Holiday Valley he became a member of the resort’s freestyle team, which competed throughout the Northeast. While in his freshman year at Orchard Park High School, Travis journeyed to the Killington Mountain School in Vermont for five months to concentrate on honing his craft. Upon completion at Killington, he was on the move again, this time to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, to attend high school at the Lowell Whiteman School.  In the fall of his junior year, at sixteen years old, Travis became a member of the U.S. Ski Team.

After completing high school, he enrolled at Cornell University for the fall semester in the year 2000. He was looking to explore other life avenues while also seeking to give his body a respite from the multiple years of rigorous training. However, the time off did not last long. He requested a leave of absence from school after only one semester.

Renewed and reinvigorated from his brief time away from the sport, he returned to skiing full time, at nineteen years old, as a member of the U.S. Olympic team.  His sights were clearly set on Salt Lake City and the 2002 Winter Olympics. Not considered a favorite to win a medal in the games at Salt Lake, Travis nailed his first run and validated that feat with another outstanding performance. A silver medal awaited him at the podium.

Travis continued his career by winning his first World Cup event in 2005 at Lake Placid’s Whiteface Mountain, while also placing second at his first World Championship later that season in Germany. He was also a member of the U.S. Ski Team at the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, finishing in seventh place.

Determined to leave the sport with his body in reasonably good condition, Travis retired from competitive skiing. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in economics from Cornell and a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School.

Travis and his wife, Elisabeth, are currently planning to relocate back to the Buffalo area from Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Together they aim to build a Scandinavian-style spa in Ellicottville, New York.