[Will they do the same for white basketball players-ed]

Skiers cut through a fresh dusting of snow, their skis hissing softly against the powder as they crisscross down the slopes, then grinding to halt at the icy base of the Sierra Summit resort where Richard Shimizu is taking a break.

Although the ski resort is in Fresno County, where almost half the population is made up of minorities, most people crunching past Shimizu in their ski boots are white. It’s a scene repeated in ski resorts across the country, where only three out of 20 skiers or snowboarders is a minority, according to marketing researchers.

“You see some Asian people sometimes, but few blacks and few Hispanics,” said Shimizu, who is Japanese-American. “It’s changing, but still there’s a big difference. We used to never think about things like ethnicity. Now people pay more attention.”

After years of stagnation in the 1990s, when the number of days skiers and ‘boarders spent on the slopes stayed the same even as the population grew, some resorts are trying to attract ethnic groups not traditionally tied to the sport, hoping to tap into a growing market segment.

As the nation’s demographic profile changes, the industry’s future lies in part in its ability to reach kids whose parents don’t ski — and who may have never seen snow before, said Bill Jensen, an executive with Vail Resorts Inc. and incoming chairman of the National Ski Areas Association, which represents 332 alpine resorts.

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