Sara Rask, a member of the University of Denver ski team, has been named the recipient of the Sportswomen of Colorado award for skiing, recognizing her achievements during the 2025 season.
Rask is part of a group of female athletes honored by Sportswomen of Colorado that includes representatives from basketball, soccer, volleyball, swimming, and various track and field events. The honorees include national champions, record holders, All Americans, and other notable athletes.
She will be recognized at the 52nd Awards Celebration hosted by Sportswomen of Colorado on March 8 at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center.
During the 2025 NCAA Championships in Dartmouth, New Hampshire last March, Rask won both the women’s slalom and giant slalom events. She also won all seven collegiate slalom races that season. In total, she achieved eight individual victories, appeared on the podium ten times, and finished in the top ten twelve times out of fourteen college races.
Rask became only the 19th skier from Denver to sweep collegiate nationals—she is the sixth woman to do so—and was the first since Amelia Smart accomplished this in women’s alpine in 2018. This marked three consecutive years where a college skier swept women’s alpine races at NCAA Championships; previous winners were Magdelena Luczak from Colorado in 2024 and Madison Hoffman from Utah in 2023. Her win in slalom was Denver’s first since Katie Hensien’s victory in 2022; Storm Klomhaus was previously Denver’s most recent winner in giant slalom in 2020.
Heading into last year’s national championships as top qualifier from the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA), Rask earned RMISA’s Most Valuable Skier honor for women’s slalom for 2025—her fourth career conference MVP award. She also secured her first NCAA West Regional title in slalom at RMISA Championships before claiming her fifth and sixth All-American awards at nationals. Last fall, she was named Female Collegiate Athlete of the Year by the Colorado Snowsports Museum and Hall of Fame.
In addition to her athletic achievements while serving as captain for Denver’s women’s alpine team, Rask was selected for a third consecutive year to the National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team. She also received recognition as a Collegiate Sports Communicators’ Academic All-America First Team member and Academic All-District honoree for 2024-25.
As she begins her final collegiate season in 2026, Rask has accumulated 38 top-ten finishes with 31 top-five placements and reached the podium 27 times over 41 collegiate races. Her current tally stands at seventeen career wins—tied for second-most in University of Denver skiing history—and she is one victory away from matching Roberta Pergher’s school record set between 1996-1998.
Sportswomen of Colorado has operated since its founding in 1974 as an organization focused on supporting girls’ and women’s participation and achievement across sports throughout Colorado. The group holds annual awards celebrations, offers scholarships for sports camps and clinics led by college teams, and works to increase visibility for female athletes’ accomplishments.
