Aspen, CO (August 14, 2009) – A group of athletes have split from US Snowboarding to form their own team in pursuit of Olympic glory. The best part? Their title sponsor is Hooters.

“In an unprecedented initiative, a newly-formed independent group of champion alpine snowboarders on Thursday announced the launch of America’s Snowboard Team (AST)…

AST is comprised of four U.S. National and World Cup Snowboard Champions: Chris Klug (Aspen, Colo.), two-time U.S. Olympian and Olympic Bronze Medalist; Zac Kay (Mt. Shasta, Calif.), U.S. National Parallel Giant Slalom and Parallel Slalom Champion; Josh Wylie (Stratton Mtn., Vt.), 2009 U.S. Slalom Champion; and Erica Mueller (Steamboat Springs, Colo.), U.S. National Parallel Giant Slalom Champion. Klug, Kay and Mueller were members of U.S. Snowboarding’s B-Team up until the announcement, while Wylie was a member of the alpine C-Team…

While in pursuit of their Olympic dreams, over the next few months, AST will not only be training and competing, but they will also be riding with a humanitarian purpose in support of organ and tissue donation awareness through the Chris Klug Foundation (CKF).”

Fueled by tight orange shirts and chicken wings, we wish them all the best moving towards 2010.

Link: First Tracks Online