Participants are looking forward to the Killington World Cup this weekend

Athletes from around the world head to Killington Ski Resort on Thanksgiving Day before the Stifel Cup on Saturday.

The people on the mountain who will be there said they couldn’t be more excited about this year’s event.

“I think it’s great that we can host. It’s really cool to see a lot of great skiers,” said the Sherman family, who traveled from Connecticut. “Everyone coming to Killington is pretty exciting.”

Those NBC 5 spoke to at the mountain said they’re particularly after Mikaela Shiffrin. She is competing in her 100th world championship in the state where she trained.

“We had the pleasure of meeting her last year. We got a few autographs. I’m really rooting for them,” Matthew Jensen said.

Those who helped run the event said she was ready for action along with the other athletes.

“They’ve been training for the last 30 years, but they’ve been training for the last nine months for this moment, this 30 to 70 seconds of pure intensity,” said Doug Lewis, a Middlebury Olympic alpine skier and Cup announcer. “The hill, it’s going to be incredible. It’s going to be hard. It will be difficult. The snow will be icy, just the way racers like it, so it will be a real test of who can make it down the hardest.

The hype surrounding the Killington Cup arose when the resort experienced heavy snowfall. Amy Laramie, director of brand marketing, events and special projects at Killington Ski Resort, said the snowfall will mix with what has already been done at Superstar.

“You don’t really want this natural snow on the race track because it has a nice hard surface for racing. However, for the rest of our skiing conjecture and opening the mountain to the public, this natural snow is amazing.”

She added that the resort will open top-down skiing on Friday and will continue to expand trail access at a later date.