Four alpine ski racers at the 2026 Winter Olympics came through the same Utah-based program: Rowmark Ski Academy. 

Those athletes include Team USA’s Breezy Johnson, a three-time Olympian who won gold in the women’s downhill, Katie Hensien, a two-time Olympian, Mary Bocock, who made her Olympic debut, and Madison Hoffman, a two-time Olympian competing for Australia.

Now in its 44th year, Rowmark, which is based out of Salt Lake City-based private school Rowland Hall, has sustained an Olympic presence at every Games since 1988, and continues to expand its reach at the highest level of the sport.

So what is it about the school that keeps producing Olympians?

According to Rowmark Ski Academy Program Director Per Lundstam, the system that builds those athletes is not centered only on results. It is a structure that asks athletes to manage competing demands of academics, training and travel while developing the independence to help them fulfill big goals — in sport or otherwise.

“Our mission statement itself is to create really good humans and create humans the world needs,” said Lundstam. “That is a big part of our DNA.”

There are only around 35 athletes in the academy, a scale that allows for a higher coach-to-athlete ratio and more individualized attention across both training and academics. Coaches and teachers work in close coordination, adjusting schedules, offering additional sessions and maintaining constant communication to keep athletes on track.

“We are trying to help the athletes through this dynamic mechanism to help them and support them, and teachers go way beyond what they normally do to teach these students, and the same goes for the coaching staff. So it is a pretty amazing and unique program that way,” said Lundstam.

As a K-12 school, Rowland Hall allows academy athletes to share classrooms with students outside the ski program, while giving families the option to keep siblings in the same school as they support their racers’ development at Rowmark.

“I wanted to be somewhere I could still have a high level of academics, while also ski racing,” said senior Alden Rhodes. “And also have friends outside of skiing.”

During the winter, athletes attend classes from 8:30 a.m. to midday before heading to the Utah Olympic Park for afternoon training, often followed by strength work, before they return home for several hours of homework.

For student athletes like Ruby Rosh, senior and team captain on the Rowmark team, evenings can stretch late, especially for athletes commuting back to Salt Lake City. Much of the academic work gets done immediately after training to avoid sacrificing weekends.

“It just takes a lot of commitment and discipline,” she said.

At the Utah Olympic Park, Rowmark athletes train alongside collegiate teams and, at times, World Cup racers — occasionally former classmates who have moved through the same program. Coaches can set courses and shape snow surfaces to replicate the conditions athletes would face in higher levels of competition.

“It’s super cool to be able to share the venue with some really high-level ski racers, and try to emulate that,” said Rhodes. “It is cool to see those athletes in training and to be able to try to reach for that.”

In the gym at the Utah Olympic Park, chalkboard walls are covered in the signatures amd names of athletes and teams from around the world who have trained there, marking different Games cycles and training camps, turning the room into a running log of elite performance. 

It’s the same space where bobsled and skeleton athletes warm up to compete on the world stage, where international teams prepare for World Cups and their Olympic debuts, and where Rowmark athletes now lift and train as part of their daily schedule.

For Rosh, it’s a daily reminder of what’s possible.

“You almost feel it,” she said. “The athletic greatness, and that everything has happened here, and you’re literally a part of it.”

That proximity reshapes how Rowmark athletes see the sport. Olympians aren’t distant figures; they’re recent graduates and training partners, like Elizabeth and Mary Bocock, who joined the World Cup circuit together in 2023, the same year Elizabeth graduated from Rowmark Ski Academy. 

“They were literally me three years ago,” Rosh said. “It makes it feel so much more attainable. We’ve trained with Breezy a couple times, and just seeing them competing on the world stage, it’s crazy to see how easy they make it look.”

Ski racing may be an individual sport, but Rowmark leans heavily on the team bond and shared progress, said Rhodes and Rosh.

“There’s definitely competition,” Rosh said. “But in a way where we’re all trying to push each other to be better and we’re always having fun, even within our own rivalries.”

Rhodes agreed: “Everyone genuinely wants to see each other succeed on this team, and I think that’s actually pretty rare.”

Rosh missed large portions of two seasons after multiple shoulder surgeries, setbacks that can often isolate athletes from their teams. Instead, she described a system that kept her fully integrated, even when she couldn’t train.

“I was still very much a part of the team,” she said. “People were checking in on me. It never felt like I was on the outside.”

Older athletes mentor younger ones through the program when they can, Rosh said, helping them navigate the same pressures they once faced.

“When you’re younger, everything feels like the biggest deal,” Rosh said. “And then you realize it’s not, so it’s a lot of working with shared experience and talking through things, and offering a lot of encouragement. I think that has been really impactful for them, but also for me, being able to give the advice that I wish I had got at that age.”

Lundstam said the program is shifting to better support how athletes improve over time, starting to bring age groups together more often in training and keeping a consistent approach across all levels to help them develop faster.

“We really want to have the same methods — the Rowmark DNA and science — going into all the different age groups. We really want to accelerate athletes’ trajectories and make sure that they get exposed to the absolute best predictive development,” said Lundstam.

That system is backed by a coaching staff with experience at the highest levels of the sport, along with ongoing development that brings in national and international perspectives. Looking ahead, the program is also expanding its use of sports science, with new facilities designed to mirror the kind of testing and performance analysis used at the national team level.

“We have a very strong coaches development program in place. We’re getting exposed to world-class ideas,” said Lundstam. “I think we have a lot of merging factors that will continue to fuel us as a very strong team.”

For the director, those pieces are what allow the program to produce results that outpace its size, especially as they are built on a system that gives coaches the ability to individualize training and focus on each athlete’s development.

“It’s the ratio with phenomenal coaches and very strong ability to look at the athletes and pay attention to details, be a lot more focused on their development and put more time into each athlete, and then also the amazing facilities that we have around us in Utah,” he said.

As Rosh looks ahead to college, what stands out from her time at Rowmark is how prepared she feels to handle what comes next — skiing or otherwise.

“I can’t control the weather. I can’t control the conditions,” she said. “But I can control how I ski and how hard I choose to work.”

Years of balancing school, training and competition have forced her to get comfortable operating in uncertainty, and knowing that, regardless of anything else, hard work will help her reach her goals. 

“It’s one of those sports where you get back what you give to it,” she said. “I love that the harder I work, I can literally see it paying off. And there’s just no better feeling than going super fast down the side of the mountain. It’s like being on a roller coaster.” 

Not every Rowmark athlete follows the path to the world stage. Some continue skiing in college, others step away from competition entirely. Rosh and Rhodes are both headed to college next year with a focus on academics, but are excited to keep skiing in whatever capacity they choose, whether on a team or not.

The post How does Rowmark Ski Academy keep producing Olympians? appeared first on Park Record.

Pins are the unofficial economy of the Olympic Games. Exchanged among fans, volunteers and competitors as a form of social currency, pin trading offers access to the global Olympic conversation without even needing a ticket to an event. 

It’s how I met Brent Folan. 

Four days into the Games, I was already running on fumes and Olympic adrenaline. On my third event and somewhere around my 20th working hour of the day, meeting Folan, the 35-year-old guy walking the streets of Cortina in a half-unzipped American flag onesie, felt like something out of a dream. One of those really weird ones where you have clouds for shoes and Snoop Dogg starts singing you a ballad. 

And when he approached me asking if I had any pins to trade, my brain fog lifted into something more like a psychedelic haze as his panel of pins from people and places across the world gleamed in the light of the luge track at the Cortina Sliding Center. 

I groggily passed him a Park City pin with an image of Jupiter Peak on it, highlighting the 2034 Games. He offered any from his selection, including one of 300 limited edition custom pins of his own featuring a cartoon version of himself in that outrageously American onesie, throwing up his hands in the air.

I accepted. My new Brent Folan original now sits at the top of my lanyard, just above the Canadian ski team pin I acquired at the Olympic downhill earlier in the week — my two prized possessions. 

While for me, Folan and his onesie were something of a shocking and hilarious spectacle of national pride and Olympic participation, for him, the onesie is a superpower. 

He said it signals instantly who he is and where he is from, and it brings in people who want to take part in the Olympic conversation. 

“The crazier you dress, the better it is,” Folan said. “It attracts people. It helps with pin trading. It just makes it more fun for everyone.”

The Olympics have given Folan more than an impressive pin collection. They changed the trajectory of his life. 

Folan was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and spent much of his adult life in Texas after attending Texas Christian University. A massive sports fan, Folan said he spent three years preparing to attend the 2016 Rio Games after the 2012 Summer Olympics inspired him to go and volunteer. 

The first day of the 2016 Games, he landed a selfie with Warren Buffett at the Opening Ceremony. By day four, he was dubbed the “Forrest Gump of the Rio Olympics” in The Wall Street Journal. A week later, he had met and taken a photograph with Simone Biles, Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky and Usain Bolt, and appeared on “Good Morning America” as “the Selfie King of Rio.”

He skipped his return flight and stayed through the closing ceremony, attending 33 events. That trip launched a 412-day journey across 57 countries. He met his now wife, Caity George, in Kenya. The couple eventually traveled to 116 countries and all seven continents over eight years.  

Today they live in Puerto Rico, balancing their work in wildlife photography, scuba diving and advocacy. And yes, they stayed up all night to watch Bad Bunny perform at the Super Bowl.

The couple is attending the Games alongside his brother, Evan, and Evan’s girlfriend. Evan’s recovery from a severe traumatic brain injury inspired their family’s advocacy work through Toro and Tides, an organization they launched to raise awareness and build community for people living with traumatic brain injuries.

Every Olympic cycle, Folan returns to the onesie. Now attending his first Winter Games, he wears a fleece version. 

“It really feels like I’m in a dream. The Olympic magic is so real. And you know how it is, right? Everybody here, it’s just, it’s unexplainable,” said Folan. 

Of the three Games Folan has attended — Rio, Paris and now Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo — he said the Olympics in Italy stand out.

“It’s the fact that they closed the city. Only locals can drive there. It was the best for pin trading, the best for running into athletes who had their medals in their pockets that were willing to show you. I did not want to leave Cortina. It’s magic there,” said Folan.

Folan works to make the Olympic experience his own.

As a lifelong global citizen and professional traveler, he’s the guy in the American flag onesie who hitchhikes into town because the bus takes too long.

“I don’t want to waste 10 minutes waiting for a bus. There are people to meet,” he said. 

He wasn’t waiting on the street for more than a minute before a driver came for him. The first time, he met a Frenchman attending his 13th Olympics, the next man he met was on his eighth.

Pin trading has been constant, he said. He arrived in Rio with about 100 pins. In Paris, he traded more than 300. This year, he commissioned 300 custom pins of his own and has already traded most of them.

“I finally made my own custom pin,” he said. “Now I’m in the big leagues.”

Folan logs each day on his social media account and has amassed a massive following over the years. But he said that for the first time in all his years of Olympic virality, athletes and fans have approached him to trade.

In the few days he was in Cortina, he was learning the life story of a retired Austrian slider, coordinating a future pin trade with an athlete from Eritrea and trading stories of his adventures in athletes’ home countries.

After traveling to hundreds of cities, the pins he acquires each Games have come to represent a connection to people all around the world. Folan said he remembers every person he trades a pin with, and his travels continue to bridge distances, superseding teams, countries and politics to build a better picture of what humanity looks like. 

His supply of pins was dwindling, with just around 80 left to trade as of Friday and nine days left of the Games — dreadful news for friends and family back home who asked Folan to save them some.

It is, however, fantastic news for this lucky reporter who found him before he realized he would need to start being selective with his trades. 

“What I love about the Olympics now is it feels like a big reunion,” he said. “I used to say I’ll never miss another Summer Olympics,” he said. “Now, after this first Winter Olympics, I don’t think I’ll ever miss another Olympics in my life.”

When the Winter Games arrive in Utah in 2034, Folan said he plans to be there. Though with eight years to wait, he hopes he might be there with kids of his own. 

Folan promises his “family full of onesies” will bring the energy to Utah, and maybe they’ll even take part in the competition. Having met so many of the world’s greatest athletes, he said, put the dream of being an Olympian within reach.

“It’s inspiring, but you can see how they all did it, and well, if my kids want to do that, I will provide every opportunity to help them achieve that dream,” he said. 

But if they do ever compete, Folan joked the debate in his house will be whether they represent Team USA or Team Australia, on behalf of his wife’s lineage. 

For Folan, the Olympics didn’t just shrink the world geographically. They shrank the distance between dreams and reality, making the impossible feel within reach. 

“For me, at my first Olympics, it was so cool to see all these countries come together, and then it created this opportunity to go to those countries and see their culture and experience it. And now these names on a map are associated with friends and places I’ve been,” he said. “It’s a hundred magic moments that I’ll never forget.”

The post Brent Folan, the Pin King of Milano Cortina, builds connection one trade at a time appeared first on Park Record.

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — The team relay concluded the Olympic luge competition Thursday at the Eugenio Monti track in Cortina d’Ampezzo, bringing together four disciplines — women’s singles, men’s doubles, men’s singles and women’s doubles — in one final race against the clock.

As the first sled pushed off, luge fans showed out for their sixth and final day of competition a little bit worse for wear but more excited than ever. National garb reached new heights, including more than a dozen supporters in German flag afro wigs and flag capes parading through the Cortina Sliding Center. 

Teammates not competing in the relay clustered along the finish dock, waiting for the moment each sled hit the pad and the next gate snapped open. Every team cheered for the other as the relay held the crowd’s attention in the fastest succession of luge feats ever. 

Ashley Farquharson opened for the United States, posting a 55.771-second run, third fastest in the women’s singles leg, and immediately turned toward the track to watch the rest of her team descend. The Americans finished fifth overall in three minutes and 42.776 seconds.

“First, the best part about racing relay is that you do have a team, and it’s kind of like a win or lose. You do it together,” Farquharson said. “I’m incredibly proud of the performance we put on today.”

As the leading athlete, Farquharson remained at the finish, able to see each run unfold after her for two more nail-biting minutes. 

“I am actually the only one that gets to watch everyone else’s run,” she said. “So it’s the best for me. They’re stuck at the top waiting. It’s a great time, and I love seeing them coming down.”

Marcus Mueller and Ansel Haugsjaa followed in men’s doubles, Johnny Gustafson in men’s singles, and Sophia Kirkby and Chevonne Forgan in women’s doubles. The relay format was introduced at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. It requires each athlete to strike a hanging touchpad at the finish to release the next sled, and the fastest combined time wins.

Germany won gold with a track record of 3:41.672, followed by Austria in second place and Italy winning the bronze.

Haugsjaa said the final day of his Olympic run had been emotional, after he and his luge partner, Mueller, dropped to sixth place in the men’s doubles competition following their second run despite finishing in the lead after the first.

“The last 24 hours have been a whirlwind of emotions and everything, so it was a lot coming into today,” he said. “Definitely super nervous for this run, but it’s great racing with the team. We just wanted to come back and end on a good note, show what we can do.”

He said getting the team together before the start brought a massive surge of energy and excitement that carried into each leg of the event for all the athletes. 

Kirkby and Forgan closed out the relay as the women’s doubles team in what has been a historic week for their discipline. Women’s doubles made its Olympic debut on Wednesday, with Kirkby and Forgan the first women to compete in the inaugural event, a milestone that signaled a structural shift within the sport, expanding medal opportunities and moving luge toward greater gender parity.

“I’m just so excited to be a part of the team,” Kirkby said. “Really happy that we just got to be a part of this history as women’s doubles is being added to the rest of the team. I’m just grateful to be racing with everyone that’s here with me.”

Racing the final leg of the team relay, the pair closed out a new Olympic era for luge, representing a field they hope will continue to grow in depth and visibility after these Games. 

“I’m so proud of us to be here. I hope that we’ll see the women’s doubles field grow and grow in the coming years. I’m so proud of our team. Racing with them is such a treat,” said Forgan. 

From the finish dock, Ashley’s parents, Ben and Stacey Farquharson, had “the best seats in the house” with a direct view of the athletes as they jumped off their sleds and into their teammates’ arms in the finish. For these parents of now a two-time Olympian, this Olympic experience gave them something Beijing could not — proximity.

When Ashley competed in her first Olympic Games in Beijing in 2022, COVID protocols kept her family from attending in person. Stacey said that while watching remotely brought its own kind of intensity, it also served as a more controlled introduction to the Olympic stage and a way to experience the magnitude of the event without managing the crowds and constant activity that have defined their time in Cortina. In that sense, Beijing was something of a trial run for their family, she said.

Ben described the week as emotionally consuming from the moment Ashley’s individual event began on Tuesday, when she took home bronze in women’s singles luge — the third-ever luge medal won by the USA. He said the support that followed her podium performance extended well beyond the track, with messages arriving from Park City, former coaches, teachers and neighbors.

“It was kind of a whirlwind,” he said. “We got so many messages and so much support from back home that it was overwhelming. I think we’ve finally just caught up with everybody who’s been commenting. It’s like an experience you can’t describe.”

Still riding the high of his daughter’s bronze medal and the dramatic run that earned it, Ben said the attention in the days since has been overwhelming and affirming, with crowds gathering to get photos with Ashley and her medal. 

“And then finally for her to finish in that outrun where she was all the way in the green and it was succinct and it was perfect. We knew she had a podium. She knew she had a podium. Everyone did. It was just a sensational feeling of just unmitigated joy,” said Ben. 

For her family, the medal represents not only a personal achievement, but the community that shaped her. 

“She knows where she’s from. She knows her roots,” Ben said. “Even though she’s worked so hard for what she has, she knows she’s been given so much as well, and she’s very grateful for that.”

The Farquharsons watched as Ashley met each of her teammates in the finish with an outpouring of love and joy. 

“They’re a very close-knit group of people that really actually like each other,” Ben said. “They’re always cheering each other on. They want the best for everybody. To watch them come up off the track and just the joy and the energy that they were able to show for one another was really exceptional.”

The atmosphere surrounding the team relay put sport first and competition second, where in the end, every athlete was screaming for Italy as they pulled into medal contention and Austrian and Italian lugers stood arm in arm as they waited for Germany’s winning run to pull into the finish. 

“It’s kind of intoxicating. Just that, that excitement going out there, there are nerves around, for sure. But I think the underlying levels of excitement really overpower everything. It’s incredible,” said Gustafson. 

Gustafson’s parents, Eric and Joanne Gustafson, said the end of the Olympic week felt like the kind of fulfillment that comes after a years of buildup, with equal parts relief and pride. Now, they said, they can finally exhale.

“You know on Christmas Day after all the presents are open, you’ve had Christmas dinner — that’s the way I’m feeling right now,” Eric said. “So exciting. The only thing that’s different is massive amounts of pride for what these athletes have accomplished. The amount of work and time and sacrifice and dedication that they put in — it’s just unbelievable.”

With the luge competition now complete, and still nine days left of the Winter Games, the U.S. luge team said they will be setting their sights on supporting every other Team USA athlete they can and giving their luck to the other sliding sports as the first medal event in skeleton begins on Friday. 

For Kirkby, her post-luge Olympics will look like a lot of first dates. She playfully dubbed herself the Winter Olympics’ “most eligible bachelorette,” sharing on social media that she was single and open to getting to know people while in the Olympic Village. Thousands of fans responded, and Kirkby said she already has multiple Valentine’s Day plans lined up now that her luge events have concluded.

“I’ve got my first date lined up tomorrow. I’m going to go eat some sushi. I’ll report back. I’ve got a whole schedule,” she said. 

While Ashley’s initial response, echoed by the chorus of her team, was “party!” after the competition, she’ll return to classes at Purdue Global just a few days after the closing ceremony. 

“She’s a very determined young lady,” said Ben. “There were countless times where we would be working on one thing or another, and that’s when I knew she had a little something more. We know what it takes to get there. Stacy and I identified that she had what it takes. Would she do it? That was up to her. She doesn’t take it for granted. She works hard at it.”

The post Farquharson and U.S. Luge close Olympic run surrounded by team and family appeared first on Park Record.

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Rowland Hall’s Mary Bocock made her Olympics debut on Thursday in the women’s super-G at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Center. At 22, she is competing on the world’s biggest stage just four years after graduating from Rowmark Ski Academy, a feat she agrees is shocking.

“It’s amazing,” Bocock said. “This is a dream come true to be at the Olympics.”

The super-G, short for super giant slalom, is a single-run event that blends downhill speed with giant slalom turns. Allowing no training runs, athletes inspect the course for 90 minutes in the morning, then race it blind at full speed. 

On Thursday, heavy fog in the mountains obstructed the view of cameras, crowds and skiers alike. For athletes, that meant managing high velocity into big, technical turns while also battling flat light and low visibility through the upper section of the course as warming temperatures softened the snow throughout. 

Seventeen of the 43 starters did not finish, with five of the first nine disqualified after missing gates across multiple sections, making the super-G into a wild game, where anyone could end up on the podium with so much of the field out of contention. 

Austria’s Cornelia Hütter, who had tied for fourth with American Jackie Wiles in Sunday’s downhill, seized bronze in the final Olympic race of her career after narrowly missing the podium with a fifth-place finish in Tuesday’s team combined. France’s Romane Miradoli took silver. And Italy’s Federica Brignone, less than a year removed from a triple leg break and ACL rupture, skied to gold.

The U.S. team, however, struggled significantly in the super-G. Downhill gold medalist Breezy Johnson did not finish after straddling a gate 20 seconds into her race and sending herself into the b-net, and Bocock fell after losing control on a jump on the second half of the course. 

Wiles, who took bronze in the team combined, finished 13th overall, just ahead of teammate Keeley Cashman in 15th. 

“On days like today, it’s kind of a chance when you could do really well, because some of the field goes out,” Bocock said. “Typically, I would like to use that to my advantage, but I also didn’t make it out.” 

Bocock said the top section felt manageable, and she was happy with how she performed in the middle. But she took a hard fall after a tricky jump, which put her sideways in the air and set off the airbag in her suit upon landing. She got back up and skied down uninjured, though unable to cross the finish line in her first Olympic race. 

“Well, there was a roll for which I had a plan, and I didn’t execute that plan,” she laughed. “And so that is where I went out. I crashed, my airbag went off, but I’m totally fine, which is lucky.”

Her parents, Amy and Alex Bocock, stood in the stands with friends from across the ski racing community in the Intermountain West, all people who have known the Olympian since she was 10 years old.

“You would never dream this would happen,” Amy said. “It’s incredible.”

What had previously felt like competing within the ski racing community now felt connected to a much wider audience. The scale of the audience and the sense of national representation gave her a clearer understanding that the Olympics carry a different weight — an experience she said she is grateful for, regardless of how the race ended. 

“Everyone talks about the Olympics, but now that I’m here, I didn’t necessarily realize the magnitude of the effect and the outreach I might have,” said Bocock.

Bocock and her sister, Elisabeth, made history during the 2023-24 season when both debuted in the World Cup giant slalom in Sölden, Austria. They were the first pair of sisters to make their debut in the same race since 1999.

Bocock said her Olympic journey is far from done. Although she did not finish the race, she promised she’ll be back for more.

The next two Winter Games feel like a double home Olympics, she said — Salt Lake City, where she grew up skiing and racing, and the French Alps, where she lived for a year and built close ties within the ski community.

“I have strong connections to the next Olympics as well as in Salt Lake. So I’m really, really looking forward to the next eight years, the next two cycles and Utah in 2034,” said Bocock. “I hope next Olympics I make it down and do well.”

She said watching Brignone secure gold in front of a home crowd felt like a dream come true. Observing the connection between Brignone and the Italian fans, the celebration in the finish area and the constant energy in the stands, demonstrated what it means to win on home snow and only motivated Bocock further to do the same in 2034. 

“I’m hoping to be there with my sister, that would be awesome. I want to be like Federica. She’s the home girl right now, and she’s winning and I hope to do that at home too,” said Bocock. 

Bocock said guidance from veterans like Lindsey Vonn helped her navigate the scale of her first Olympic experience.

“Lindsey did tell me there are a lot of things to prepare myself for,” Bocock said. “That it’s going to be a little overwhelming, but it’s all really cool to just experience all that.”

Vonn, who has spent nearly two decades on the U.S. Ski Team, has offered an enduring presence for younger athletes coming through the pipeline. Bocock added that all the girls on the speed team have been there to support her through her Olympic debut. 

“We have a good group, a younger group, coming up too and that’s so promising. It is so cool that we have so much depth with Breezy and Jackie, and we have some girls who aren’t even here, who are also really, really good. So it’s really exciting to have such a strong team to do this with,” said Bocock. 

The super-G was Bocock’s only Olympic event, and she is already headed home to prepare for her return to the World Cup circuit.

The crash did not dampen Bocock’s outlook. She spent time walking through Cortina d’Ampezzo with friends from high school, stopping to take photos in front of the Olympic rings set up in town. The atmosphere with flags lining the streets, athletes moving between venues and fans gathering in team gear gave her a chance to absorb the scale of the event from outside the start gate.

Bocock has also thrown herself into pin trading, a long-standing tradition at the Games in which athletes, volunteers and spectators exchange small commemorative pins representing their countries or teams. Among her favorites is a pin from Snoop Dogg.

Overall, Team USA faced a difficult day on snow. But for Johnson, while she didn’t leave the finish corral with a gold medal, she did leave it with an engagement ring. 

After crashing into the netting early in her run, Johnson stood up quickly and skied to the bottom uninjured, her helmet scraped but intact. The super-G marked her final race of the Games. Minutes later, still processing the result, her boyfriend, Connor Watkins, approached her in the finish area.

Johnson, who lives in Salt Lake City with Watkins, said she had long imagined being proposed to at an Olympic Games.

“It felt fitting to kind of combine two of my loves, and it’s a special place at the Olympics. I feel like there’s a lot of mystique around it. And, you know, also, you get free photography,” she joked.

Watkins had been planning the proposal for about a year, arranging the ring, coordinating family logistics and preparing for multiple scenarios depending on how the race unfolded.

But for Johnson, after completing her final race of these Olympic Games, being around the people she loves and celebrating anyway felt the perfect fit, she said.

The post Utahn Mary Bocock crashes in Olympic debut at super-G, but unhurt and happy appeared first on Park Record.

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — On the streets of Cortina d’Ampezzo, the Olympic spirit is everywhere.

Bringing more than a little color to an otherwise overcast day, Ally Pleckaitis and Josh Dewey, better known as walking American flags, brought their national pride to Italy in the form of matching stars and stripes snowsuit onesies. 

Matching head to toe, the couple stood out against the muddy cobblestone streets, and though the loud American stereotype doesn’t usually work in the USA’s favor, the pair’s love of the Olympic spirit brought a little light to the day, as if dropping red, white and blue glitter in the shape of their footsteps as they walked. 

“Where does one buy a suit like this?” Pleckaitis joked. “Well, probably only in Dallas, but we bought these online. Go big or go big, right?”

Pleckaitis and Dewey have a long Olympic history. Self-declared “world’s biggest Olympic fans,” the pair got engaged at the Paris Olympics in 2024, and on top of that Pleckaitis has attended the Games in London and Rio, making Milano Cortina their first Winter Games experience. 

Pleckaitis said the idea for their coordinated costumes came from watching people at her first Games in 2012. 

“The whole point is going and, meeting people from around the world and at my first Olympics, I didn’t realize how big you could go, and we just wore normal clothes,” she said. “Oh my God, we totally missed out! It’s a mistake I won’t make again.” 

With three earrings in each ear, one red, one white and one blue, plus matching crossbody bags and identical flag-print jumpsuits, Pleckaitis said they weren’t even the most enthusiastically dressed people they’d seen.

“I feel like we’re mild compared to so many others, at least at the Summer Olympics. People get crazy. They’re enthusiastic! It’s great,” said Pleckaitis. 

And that was true in Cortina d’Ampezzo as well. Behind them, four towering Italian men in matching Luigi costumes crossed the cobblestones, wooden shot cups tied around their necks for easy refills as they moved through the crowd.

On the weekend days, the main street in Cortina d’Ampezzo is filled with restaurant patios and bars with DJs spilling people in all kinds of garb and winter gear spilling out into the streets. 

A group of Germans in track suits striped with the colors of their flag and giant gold dollar sign chains and wigs dance to the beats of a DJ playing on a hotel patio. They never quite seemed to make it all the way inside the venue, but the music is plenty loud, and dancing on the street is free. 

Pleckaitis said one of the loudest crowds she has seen is in the curling stadium And maybe that’s because it’s one of the only indoor venues in Cortina d’Ampezzo, but the group of Eastern European supporters came armed with organized chants and anthems that roared through the stands every night of the week.

“My dad’s from Lithuania. So I’ve seen it — the Eastern European countries are wild. You should catch them in basketball. They don’t even like curling, and that’s how they are,” Pleckaitis joked. 

Though she has been an Olympics lover for nearly three decades, she said she decided to make her first Winter Games with this trip to Cortina d’Ampezzo after her mother got sick. Fueled by the childhood memories of attending torch relays and family watch parties, she adopted the “you only live once” mentality and booked the tickets in her honor. 

“My grandmother’s a huge Olympics fan. That’s how we got into it. That’s how I got into it. I guess I’m just a huge fan. I didn’t realize everyone wasn’t like this. It’s an expensive habit to have,” said Pleckaitis, to which her fiancé laughed.

Dewey, while a lifelong sports lover, only got into the Olympics after meeting Ally, and now fully hooked, missing the Super Bowl on Sunday barely even crossed his mind. 

“I’ve become more of a fan of it since meeting her because she’s so enthusiastic about it,” said Dewey. For the Super Bowl, I did nothing. I taped it, and maybe I’ll watch it again later, but, I mean, who cares? We’re at the Olympics.” 

“And I’m from New England, so don’t tell anyone!” added Pleckaitis. 

Though it might be costly, for these two it’s worth it. Utah will be sure to see them in 2034, they promised. 

The streets are closed off for pedestrian traffic, though sometimes a police car will beep its way through the crowd. Most people don’t react, and others just throw animated gestures in Italian that suggest the car should wait its turn — generally irreverent of authority in this small mountain town. 

But it starts to make sense as outside of the Cortina Sliding Center security gates, the carabinieri, Italy’s military police force, share a cigarette with some volunteers hovering at their post. 

Around town, the carabinieri staff pop-up engagement tents flanked by mannequins dressed in full ski gear, and they patrol the streets in dark green Land Rover Defenders. It’s not glamorous, but it’s still Cortina d’Ampezzo. 

With the world attending Cortina’s Olympics, some degree of embarrassing fun and national pride is expected. So when a group of eight full-grown adults started chanting “USA! USA! USA!” through the crosswalk, no one turned a head. 

The group was saying goodbye to Cory Thiesse, American curling champion, whom they happened to run into on the street and hoped to wish well at his next match that evening. 

So when the first thing they said was, “We’re friends with the curlers!” It didn’t seem that they really meant it. But no, Cory and Korey, as they call them, Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin, truly are their friends, solidified after Kyle and Laura Fisher offered the U.S. mixed doubles team a room in their house when they visited Charlotte, North Carolina, for a charity event. 

This particular group of loud Americans all hail from Charlotte. They met through the Charlotte Curling Club, an organization they have seen rise from a membership of just eight people curling on borrowed arena ice to now more than 330 members with a dedicated facility of their own.

“About curling: The sport is fantastic. It’s fun. It’s entertaining. You get to cheer loud. You get to pull for your teams. But the better part about curling is the community that surrounds it,” said Kyle. “Without curling, I wouldn’t have met these people, and these are some of the most fantastic people alive, and we have a club full of them in Charlotte.” 

Scot Miller traced the club’s origin back to 2010, just after the Vancouver Games, when a handful of friends were watching curling on a television at a bar.

“They were like, ‘We need to do this. This looks like fun,’” he said. “So they figured out how to start a club, and now we have over 330 people.”

Now curlers in their own right, Kyle played third for the Puerto Rican men’s national team at the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships, and Laura represented the club at the 2026 Women’s Club National Championships. But the Fishers’ curling journey only began in 2017, when Kyle gifted Laura a Learn to Curl session for Christmas.

“We went one night to learn to curl and were hooked,” she said. “The people, the community of curling in the United States and in the world, especially in Charlotte, is like nothing else.”

For Adrienne Kruzer and the club, having met and gotten to know Olympians Thiesse and Dropkin changed their Olympic experience. 

Having watched the pair rise through the ranks over the past few years, and then standing in the arena Tuesday to see them win a silver medal, the moment carried a different weight.

“It makes you tear up,” Lara McKee said. “You just feel so proud.”

Thiesse and Dropkin’s win on Tuesday marked a historic day for the United States, earning the third-ever U.S. Olympic curling medal in history, making Thiesse the first American woman to do so. 

“As soon as they qualified back in May, we booked tickets. We’ve been planning this for half a year,” said Kruzer. 

For McKee, the curling world operates on a kind of open-door policy, making a global community feel like a small town. 

“There’s a joke among curlers that you can wear a button that says, ‘Return me to the nearest curling club,’ and you’ll find a friend,” she said. “You can lose everything you own, anywhere in the world, and someone will find you and say, ‘Come on in. You’re family.’”

That feeling, she said, extends into the Olympic arena itself.

“You’re sitting around with people from other countries, and even though their team may be beating yours or you’re beating them, there’s no animosity,” she said. “You’re congratulating each other on each team’s shots because they’re making incredible shots out there on the ice. You can’t hate that.”

This Olympic spirit floods Cortina d’Ampezzo, from the athletes to their fans to the police. Vape clouds trail behind teenagers as they scan tickets and give directions next to older Italian women in fur earmuffs and oversized diamond earrings, standing ankle-deep in mud, pointing strangers toward the next shuttle.

For these two weeks, at least, the love of the Games is the great equalizer.

The post On the streets of Cortina d’Ampezzo, the Olympic spirit is in everyone appeared first on Park Record.

LIVIGNO, Italy — Standing out in the sea of a crowd at the Livigno Aerials & Moguls Park on Wednesday afternoon for the women’s moguls finals were Elizabeth Lemley and Jaelin Kauf’s friends and family.

Each showed up in numbers for the Milano Cortina Winter Games, Lemley’s first and Kauf’s third. They donned U.S. gear and held up signs for their Olympic skiers, Kauf’s family holding up the “J” signs that have become a staple across the World Cup circuit.

If Lemley and Kauf were to have an off-day, it wasn’t to be because of a lack of support or feeling homesick.

Lemley and Kauf had one of the best days of their lives, taking home the gold and silver medals, respectively. Though Lemley is ranked fourth in the world, the 20 year old’s win came as a relative surprise with only one World Cup win, in 2022. Kauf’s silver medal is her second straight in the Olympics.

France’s Perrine Laffont won the bronze medal.

Lemley’s gold medal was secured once Australia’s Jakara Anthony, the defending gold medal winner from the 2022 Beijing Games, caught her skis on each other and veered off to the left of the course. Lemley, who has largely lived in Park City since making the U.S. team at 16 and now calls Vail, Colorado, home, put her head into her hands in shock. Kauf and U.S. teammates Tess Johnson and Olivia Giacco, who also skied in the first final round, rushed to hug the winner.

“I just love skiing and enjoy myself in the gate,” Lemley said. “I enjoy competing and showcasing my skill, and that’s really what this is all about.”

Lemley and Giaccio relaxed on Tuesday night like they would any other. Wednesday, Lemley and her private coach, John Dowling of Ski & Snowboard Vail, devised a plan for her to ski the leftmost side of the course, which was untouched by most others other than Anthony. Dowling said if you’re able to find your groove in the more untouched parts of the course, it can lead to better results.

“I didn’t expect anything from my score,” she said. “I was just thinking about my run and was super stoked I just put one down.”

Soft spoken, Lemley said the gold medal feeling hasn’t quite soaked in yet. She embraced tearful friends and was paraded atop shoulders in the crowd, where she had to wrestle with the string breaking off her medal, a common occurrence with the Milan Games medals.

“I don’t really showcase my emotions that much,” Lemley said. “I just like to stay calm and feel the moment around me. … For me, it just works to be super calm.”

While Lemley will have to navigate the highs of winning and come back down to Earth for Saturday’s dual moguls final, making its Olympic debut, her family and friends can savor the win for as long as they’d like.

“Liz takes it pretty easy,” her coach said. “I don’t think there were any tears. There was no wasted emotion. I know she’s thrilled, but she’ll be ready.”

With Lemley’s dad and brother en route to Livigno for Saturday’s dual moguls, the Morelli family of Park City played the role. Barbara Wirostko Morelli and her daughters, Cristina and Julia Morelli, took Lemley into their home when she made the ski team. They said Lemley asked them to come support her in Livigno, which they were happy to oblige.

“I met Liz when I was about 10 years old,” said Cristina, a former Park City Ski and Snowboard Club freestyle skier. “We went to our first ski camp together in Whistler. … Since then, we’ve been really close friends. When she didn’t have a place to stay in Park City, she asked to live with us, and since then, my mom’s pretty much become her mother, and Julia, another sister. She’s just kind of a part of our family now.”

Barbara said Lemley fit right into their home. With Lemley a big fan of their family’s cats, they brought posters of the cats to Livigno.

“She was so easy to live with,” Barbara said. “I assisted on the journey.”

When Lemley missed the 2025 season with a torn ACL, she stayed with the Wirostko Morellis while recovering. While also extremely humble, Cristina said there were times when Lemley would say, ‘I’m going to win the Olympics one day,’ which the family believed.

Kauf said her support system always gives her a jolt of energy. She joked that they may have all traveled to the Italian Alps for the vacation.

“Up in the start gate, they’re chanting Jaelin,” Kauf said. “I’m smiling so big up there. It’s fun to share it all with them.”

Kauf said she’ll hold onto her medal tightly so it doesn’t share the same fate as Lemley’s. She’s ready to do it all again on Saturday for the final run from 10:30 a.m. to 12:05 p.m.

Kauf finished last World Cup season ranked atop the world in moguls and dual moguls. Her only World Cup win in an up-and-down season to date came in the Val St. Come, Canada, World Cup dual moguls on Jan. 10. Lemley finished second in Val St. Come, the only World Cup dual moguls of the season thus far.

The post Part time-Parkite Elizabeth Lemley wins Olympic moguls appeared first on Park Record.

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Through hell or high water, Lindsey Vonn would make it to the start gates of the 2026 Olympic downhill, and the same went for her fans.

From all around the world, and then a few winding shuttle bus rides later, the crowd arrived ready to watch her Olympic downhill run at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Center Sunday morning. By 9 a.m., the Tofane skiing venue was already humming. Gucci snow suits brushed past fur coats. Polizia in ski boots and police uniform ski suits lined the course.

The event’s Italian emcee worked the finish area, while spectators danced for the broadcast cameras. In a massive red suede Tyrolean hat, the man sang “Volare” over the microphone along with the loudspeakers, trying to rile up the crowd gathered in the hours leading up to the women’s downhill. Notably, very few of the early spectators waved the host country’s green, white and red flag. 

“Italians tend to be late, except for this race,” joked the commentator. “They’ll arrive three or four minutes before the start. They might be here by 11:30. We shall see.”

Still, in the standing section of the finish line, people from around the world, and across the USA, had arrived more than three hours early to claim their spot close to the barricade. While the task turned out to be a bit fruitless, given the wide open space available even as the race drew near, the crowd was only eager to take it all in.  

Stefan and Jane Bledig were there early, hoping to see Lindsey Vonn ski on the world stage. They had traveled from St. Louis, Missouri, to see their first-ever Olympic event and donned every flag, T-shirt and piece of Team USA gear they could find. 

Still freshly creased from the factory, they waved their Olympic USA flag with friends they made on the sidelines, taking pictures with everyone they met from around the world, even one reporter from Park City.

“We’re looking out for Lindsey Vonn here today,” Stefan said. “And Breezy Johnson, too.”

He said the trip felt like the culmination of decades of winter sports fandom. For Stefan, his love of the Olympic spirit began with Franz Klammer’s downhill gold medal victory in the 1976 Innsbruck Olympic Games. He’s still emotional to this day remembering watching Klammer’s race in junior high. He said it was a moment that he will never forget. 

“It got me hooked on skiing. It got me hooked on winter sports,” said Stefan. 

Ten years earlier, the Bledigs were traveling in Alberta, Canada, when they stumbled into a World Cup sliding event and ran into the U.S. bobsled team over lunch. 

“They told us their favorite track in the world was St. Moritz,” Stefan said. “The oldest one, the only natural one. They said the ambiance was incredible. And then they told us tourists could ride it.”

It has been a full decade since that conversation, Jane marveled. And finally, they will be riding the St. Moritz bobsled track this week. 

“We’re not getting any younger,” said Jane. “We’re finally doing it.”

For Heather Dernlan and her son, Cade, the Olympics have always been a family obsession.

“This is our first Winter Olympics,” she said. “I grew up in California and went to the LA Summer Games, and we’re going back again in 2028. But I’ve never seen the Winter Games.”

Despite the early hour and the challenges of getting between the house they were staying in two towns over, and then the feat of overcoming the nauseating, winding bus ride up the mountain to the venue, Cade brought the energy by way of red-striped overalls, full face paint, USA glasses — you name it. Heather wore a classic Austrian alpine sweater from the Nagano Games, fitting right in with the crowd of Tyroleans from all around Europe who had come to support their skiers. 

“This is the thing I’m here for,” said Cade. “To see Lindsey Vonn again, especially after the ACL hurdle, it’s pretty awesome to see her give it another shot.”

Though the Olympic downhill was their main event, the Dernlans said they have a special place in their heart for the underrepresented sports, especially curling. They admitted they couldn’t necessarily explain the rules, but neither, they joked, could most people. 

That didn’t stop anyone from bringing the energy to Saturday night’s match, where enthusiasm and support mattered far more than the game itself. 

“We don’t really know what’s happening,” Heather said with a laugh. “But I love it so much. It’s like chess on ice.”

Cade said the Estonian supporters stood out in particular, filling the arena with flags, cowbells and coordinated chants that overpowered even the announcers. 

“They were so well represented. They had their flags everywhere, cowbells. The Estonians really rocked it,” Heather agreed. 

Hoping to turn themselves into something of a good luck charm, Cade promised to show up to Sunday night’s match with some American chants of his own. 

Travis Escobedo and Grace Crandall came to Cortina from Connecticut to watch the downhill with their kids, Ava and Samuel.

Grace, a former Dartmouth ski racer who captained the team in 2005 and competed at national junior championships, said Cortina felt like the perfect place to introduce her kids to skiing’s biggest stage.

“As soon as they announced it was coming back to the Alps, I said I would be here,” Crandall said. “And once we knew Lindsey would be here, we said, ‘OK, now we’re all going.’”

For the couple, the chance to experience something new with their children made the day even more meaningful, especially when it also meant taking a European ski trip alongside it.

“This is just a perfect place to ski as a family, and to bring our children to experience. I think skiing in Europe is unparalleled, and this is an epic venue,” said Crandall. 

Escobedo added: “And really, Lindsey dominates Cortina so well, and that definitely went into the calculus to get here.”

Vonn’s reputation on the course precedes her. Over the loudspeakers, the emcee cheered for “Cortina’s princess,” a nod to the course where she built much of her legacy and returned once more, chasing one final Olympic downhill.

Vonn’s family agreed. 

“I feel so confident,” said Lisa Krohn, Vonn’s maternal aunt. “I just know she can do it. And even with a bum knee, she can do it. She’s just amazing.”

“Just seeing her from a little kid all the way here, she’s so determined and worked so hard,” Krohn added. “I think that’s what propelled her to the greatness she has, because she works harder than anyone else I’ve ever known.”

Krohn, who lives in Edina, Minnesota, arrived at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Center as soon as the gates opened and had already been standing for more than three hours by midmorning. She acknowledged the week had been difficult following Vonn’s Jan. 30 crash, the pain, the uncertainty of racing, but said Vonn felt better than anyone expected.

“She’s had a hard week, but I’m amazed that she’s felt so good after mangling that knee,” Krohn said. “She’s used to skiing in pain, so I don’t think it’s anything new to her. She’s just back to being a little bit painful.”

Vonn’s father, Alan Kildow, said he was just as confident. This course was made for Lindsey, he said.

“She is ready for this,” he said. “The last few days, she’s been preparing. It was stressful coming through the injury, but I think she’s ready, and I’m confident.”

Laura Kildow, Lindsey’s sister, has watched nearly every version of this moment before, attending the Games in Salt Lake City, Vancouver, PyeongChang and now Cortina, but she said the emotions never dull.

“Watching her race, it’s amazing,” said Kildow. “It’s inspiring, nerve-wracking, it’s exciting.” 

Vanessa Cella, Vonn’s best friend from Park City, made it to her second Olympic Games after supporting Vonn in PyeongChang, South Korea, with her children, Olivia and Jackson in 2018.

“We’re not hoping for anything,” she said. “We know. We’re here for the big event.”

Before the start gates opened and the mountain turned loud and unforgiving, the people who knew her best stood certain that she was ready and that this hill was made for her.

While the crowd of people waiting below to support Vonn did not get to see her ski to the finish on Sunday, it remains that “Cortina’s princess” drew thousands from around the world, united in support of women in sport and celebrating the Olympic spirit.

The post From fur coats to finish line chants, crowds showed out for the Olympic downhill appeared first on Park Record.

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — It’s been eight years since Lindsey Vonn’s last Olympic run. Now 41, one titanium knee heaver and down an ACL, she risked it all for the gold one last time. Vonn crashed 13.4 seconds into her run, ending what could be the final race of her career as she was evacuated from the pitch via medical helicopter. 

Another American, Jackson Hole’s Breezy Johnson, took the gold after completing her run in 1 minute and 36.1 seconds, though the victory paled in the moment to the crash and likely end to Vonn’s legendary career and past week.

Silver medalist Germany’s Emma Aicher raced to the finish just 0.04 seconds behind Johnson’s time. Italian hometown hero Sofia Goggia took bronze. Team USA’s Jackie Wiles came in fourth in her second Olympic Games, 12 years after her Olympic debut in Sochi 2014.  

This gold is the first Olympic medal of Johnson’s career, the first won by the United States at the 2026 Games, and the second-ever gold downhill medal for the U.S. women’s team.

The first went to Vonn in 2010. 

Vonn, the 13th racer to start, fell at the first jump when she hooked her arm inside the fourth gate, twisting herself perpendicular to the pitch and tumbling over herself as she landed. She was not seen moving as medical personnel flooded the slope before loading her into the stretcher to be airlifted away. 

She crashed just seconds after leaving the start gate, all the gusto and power of her launch spent in an instant. 

The crowd’s dismayed outcry echoed through the venue before falling immediately into a long, stunned silence. Only the DJ’s relentless beat continued, horribly incongruous with the spectators, who stood frozen and watching for any sign of movement or word of her condition that never came until the whir of the helicopter overhead. 

Vonn’s sisters, parents and friends closed their eyes to the broadcast replay, gazing at their feet as they grappled with the outcome of Vonn’s daring last race. 

It’s been just over a week since Vonn crashed in her last World Cup race of the season at Crans-Montana on Jan. 30, where she ruptured her ACL. She announced on Tuesday that she would press on and race her Olympic downhill run without surgery, despite a complete tear of the ligament, bone bruising and meniscal tears in her left knee. 

Vonn did well in her training runs ahead of Sunday’s race, finishing on Saturday with the third-fastest time at 1 minute and 38.28 seconds. 

Johnson was sitting in the leader’s chair as she watched the crash, crying as the outcome settled in. With crossed fingers, she wished her friend well. 

The atmosphere of the crowd never fully recovered in the wake of Vonn’s crash, which was followed by two others: Austria’s Nina Ortlieb and Andorra’s Cande Moreno. The stands stayed quiet through the next skier, Austrian Mirjam Puchner’s descent, and while the crowd briefly found its voice for Goggia, the energy didn’t return until the medal ceremony.

Longtime friend and rival of Vonn, bronze medalist Goggia, embraced her teammates at the finish in tears. Goggia won the silver in the 2022 women’s downhill and the gold in 2018. Having now completed the rainbow on home soil, she joked, she hopes her luck will reset and she’ll earn another of every color.

Jackie Wiles made her historic Olympic comeback this year, 12 years after her last Games in Sochi 2014. At 33, she said it is difficult to come to terms with her fourth-place seat — so close to the podium and without much time left in her career to get there.

“I’m extremely happy for Breezy. It’s incredible. She did an amazing job today. But of course, it’s hard being in fourth. I feel like, after everything I’ve been through in my career at my age, I don’t have many chances left,” said Wiles. “So, yeah, it hurts. It’s really hard. But trying to look ahead. Still have more racing, and that’s all I can do.”

“There were a lot of emotions already before I even ran. I saw Breezy have an incredible run. I was really pumped and psyched for her. It was cool to watch. And then watching Lindsey go down from the stat was pretty awful,” said Wiles. “We have such a sisterhood. We travel with each other on the road. We’re a family. And to watch someone you care about that much … it really sucks. And my heart broke for her in that moment.”

Wiles said she knew the team had to keep focus, despite the challenge of a 20-minute delay and concern for teammate Vonn.

“I knew that she would want us to stay in it,” Wiles said. “Bella (Wright) and I still had a race. We still had a job at hand, and she would want us to go out there and give it our best.”

Teammate Isabella Wright, who finished the Olympic downhill in 21st place, said that regardless of the outcome, Vonn should be proud. 

“It’s the last thing you want to see for Lindsay, but she should be really proud of everything that she has gone through to get back here. And regardless if she got last today, if she won, she obviously crashed, but whatever happened today, she’s an inspiration to all of us, and she should be really proud,” said Wright. 

As the race resumed, Johnson remained in the leader’s chair for all 31 racers that followed her, waiting in anxious anticipation of one racer getting close to her time. She said she knew her time was great, enough for a medal, but as fast as it was, watching Aicher close in on the finish made her a little nervous. 

“I was pretty sure it would be enough for a medal,” she said. “When Emma was coming down, I was a little stressed. But otherwise, it was really nice.”

For Goggia, the long course hold and warming snow took an emotional toll ahead of her start. She raced just one skier after Vonn’s horrific crash, making it difficult to keep focus in the moments leading up to her start. 

“It was really a mental challenge,” Goggia said. “I stayed focused on myself. I didn’t watch anyone else. I had my lines, my strategy.”

At 20 years old, Aicher is the youngest to medal in this event since 1994 and earned Germany their first medal in the event in 28 years. But while Aicher was keeping Johnson on her toes, she stood just as stunned at the finish after what she said felt like a less-than-perfect run.

“It’s unbelievable what happened today. (My run) didn’t feel good, to be honest. Over every roller and jump, I didn’t feel great, but I think I managed to let the speed go pretty well,” said Aicher. 

These women race again on Monday in the team combined, an Olympic debut for the combined downhill and slalom event that launched Johnson to dual World Champion status last year when she won with Mikaela Shiffrin after getting the gold in the downhill event, exactly a year to the date of her Olympic gold, Feb. 8.

For Wiles and many others, this is another shot at the Olympic dream.

“I feel like I have so much speed on this hill, and I’m grateful that I have another shot at it,” she said.

The post Johnson takes downhill gold, Wiles fourth in the wake of Vonn’s crash appeared first on Park Record.

MILAN — Showcasing art, fashion and innovation, the 2026 Milano Cortina opening ceremony heralded peace above all at the “armonia,” harmony, themed evening. All through the stadium, a web of flashing lights wound a living map of the world, from those on the stadium stage floor through to the LED wristbands on the arm of every spectator. 

You could always tell where the Americans were. They weren’t just dressed in national colors, but stitched together in neon stars and stripes and red, white and blue fur coats and wigs. The Italians, and really everyone else, kept it to matching blue jackets, a discreet tricolore on the arm, with a few rowdy exceptions, of course — this is Italy. 

More than 50,000 people from around the globe flowed through the San Siro Stadium in Milan on Friday night. Despite the lines at every bathroom, concession stand and staircase to the arena, everyone smiled as they bounced on their toes in anticipation of the Games. 

As groups climbed the stadium’s concrete coils to their seats in a slow death march, shoulder to shoulder, they chanted an Italian call and response “EI, EI, EI!”, “AY, AY, AY!”, the sound echoing up the walls of the outer layer of the stadium. That, more than anything, gave life to the evening’s Olympic spirit, superseding country and overcoming conflict — and maybe more impressively, impatience. 

With the timed precision required of live TV, the stadium crowd watched as crews dressed in black staged the dancers and their equipment in the hour leading up to 8 p.m., and like watching the ball drop on New Year’s Eve, count down the seconds to air time. 

At exactly 10 seconds past the 8 o’clock hour, the room went black before pulsing lights snaked across the stadium floor and threaded up through the audience in the stands. Every wrist in the crowd flickered in sync, LED bands glowing and dimming together, turning the audience into part of the light show. 

According to the Milano Cortina 2026 organizing committee, the opening event was the result of more than 700 hours of rehearsal, 1,000 props and performers from 27 different nations. 

In the starting number, dancers from the Teatro alla Scala academy mimicked winter sports in sweeping motions around ancient Roman busts before three massive tubes of paint poured down and colored the stage in bright colors. 

A rainbow of dancing Moka pots, Italian inventions and icons paid homage to the creativity and culture of the host country’s innovation. 

Three massive caricatures bobbed onto the stage, a nod to the three great opera maestros, Gioachino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini, who would return throughout the night to a Milano Cortina theme song, in a comic relief kind of way, paying respect to the opera with a wink. 

Tens of thousands of people disappeared into silence so complete you couldn’t tell where anyone was anymore as Andrea Bocelli rose to a final line, “Vincerò,” which means, “I will win.”

“Volare, oh oh,” Mariah Carey sang, and the stadium answered her back, fully committed, though entirely off-key. 

This is the most geographically spread out Winter Olympics in history, with venues stretching across roughly 8,500 square miles, an attribute many have found challenging and controversial, particularly during an opening ceremony where many countries were absent from the Milan stage while their athletes waved to the cameras from the Italian cities of Livigno, Predazzo and Cortina d’Ampezzo. 

“Welcome to the first widespread Olympic Games,” said Giovanni Malagó, president of the 2026 organizing committee.

Athletes appeared in their national colors bearing their country’s flag at every ceremony across Milan, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Predazzo and Livigno, dancing to the same beat in ski towns hundreds of miles apart. 

Greece led the Parade of Nations, as tradition demands, but without athletes present in Milan. Though at first disappointing, with the first round of countries’ athletes all spread across the other three ceremonies, as the parade settled into its rhythm, the crowd turned to the screens, tracking the energy and celebrations unfolding simultaneously across the country. With no single place bearing ownership of the Games, the Olympics really did belong to everyone.

As athletes crossed the stage in Milan, the San Siro Stadium erupted in a roar of applause and support that crossed the venue like a wave, flowing as the athletes traveled through from one side to the other. Athletes brought the stadium back to life as more and more countries were represented by athletes. Some waved shyly while others screamed through the Olympic ring, bearing the flag atop a teammate’s shoulders, taking selfies and video logs and looking around in awe as thousands, and millions at home, cheered for them. 

For being Olympians and some of the world’s very best, flag-bearing posed a new challenge for some. Athletes struggled against the wind, hitting their fellow teammates with the fabric and tangling their flags around themselves. Still, a flag mishap couldn’t bring them down as they hugged their friends and waved to the crowd, pumping their fists in victory. 

Canada arrived as big as an army with their bright maple leaf apparel in every city. Brazil earned its applause with an ecstatic performance from alpine skier and flagbearer Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, showcasing the Brazilian flag on the underside of his parka. “It’s Pinheiro!” people in the audience yelled, as teammates behind the flagbearer clutched their heads in disbelief at their place on the Olympic stage.

Jamaica brought the energy to Cortina d’Ampezzo, stopping mid-runway to dance it out while the Milan crowd laughed off-screen. Iceland broke the crowd with a spontaneous step dance in Livigno. Cream cable knits announced Team Ireland. Mexico earned cheers with just a handful of athletes in Milan. Spain brought one of the loudest sustained applause of the night, followed closely by Sweden and Switzerland. 

But it was Ukraine that brought the stadium to its feet. For the full four minutes the athletes in Milan crossed the stage, applause roared unending. 

Ukrainian athletes danced while their flagbearer walked proudly waving their flag, stopping in surprise at the outcry from the audience. “Viva Ucraina!” rang out from the stands, audible even over the pounding drums and roaring ovation. 

Italian President Sergio Mattarella’s appearance brought unanimous applause. With the roar of support for the country’s leader, Americans in the crowd were reminded of a rare kind of unity, one standing in stark contrast to the stadium erupting in dissenting boos for Vice President JD Vance as he flashed on the screens during Team USA’s walk. 

“Tonight, Italy opens its arms to the world from the city of Milan to the mountains of Cortina d’Ampezzo, we welcome you to a land of history, innovation, of creative culture and fashion,” said Malagó. “We stand ready to make Olympic history again, inspired by the values that unite all of us — excellence, friendship and respect.”

Malagó described the 2026 Games as a pioneering effort, unique in its sprawling geography. He noted these Winter Games are the most gender balanced in history, with Nordic Combined the only sport to exclude women from participating. 

“I know how hard we have all struggled to make this happen,” he said. “The road did not lead without challenges. But I was determined never to give up, because simply I love my country, I love sports and I love the Olympic movement.”

And to the athletes: “This is your time. Questo è il vostro momento.”

After the Olympic torch passed through 60 cities, 12,000 kilometers and all 110 provinces of the country over 63 days, the cauldrons were lit. For the first time in Olympic history, two cauldrons will burn for the duration of these games, with one in Milan at the Arco della Pace lit by Alberto Tomba and Deborah Compagnoni, and the Piazza Dibona in Cortina d’Ampezzo lit by Sofia Goggia. 

With five medals in alpine skiing, Tomba is the most decorated Italian skier in Olympic history. Compagnoni won skiing golds at three straight Olympics starting in 1992. Goggia is a two-time Olympic medalist and longtime rival and friend of Lindsey Vonn, and is entering her third Olympic Games on home soil. 

The cauldrons will be extinguished in sync on Feb. 22 at the Olympic closing ceremony. 

To the athletes: “You’ll show us what it means to be human. To dream. To overcome. To respect one another. To care for each other. You’ll show us that strength isn’t just about winning – it’s about courage, empathy and heart,” said the first ever female president of the International Olympic Committee and five-time Olympian, Kirsty Coventry. “This is why we all love the Olympic Games. Because through you, we see the very best of ourselves. You remind us that we can be brave. That we can be kind. And that we can get back up, no matter how hard we fall.”

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MILAN — Utah resident and Olympic champion speedskater Erin Jackson led Team USA into the Olympic opening ceremony alongside bobsledder Frank Del Duca at the San Siro Stadium in Milan Friday evening. The pair were selected by their peers to serve as the nation’s flag bearers, the second duo to ever do so in American history.

Flag bearers are chosen through a process led by the Team USA Athletes’ Commission, making the role a reflection of peer respect as much as podium success, according to United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland.

“Being chosen to represent the United States on the world stage is a tremendous honor,” Jackson said. “It’s a moment that reflects far more than one individual — it represents my family, my teammates, my hometown and everyone across the country who believes in the power of sport.”

Jackson is the eighth U.S. speedskater in history to serve as an Olympic flag bearer, joining a short list that includes Erin Hamlin, who carried the flag at the 2018 Games. 

The speedskater enters her third Winter Games as the defending Olympic champion in the women’s 500m. Her gold medal in the event at the 2022 Beijing Games marked the first individual Winter Olympic gold won by a Black woman and the first U.S. victory in the women’s 500m since 1994.

Born and raised in Ocala, Florida, Jackson moved to ice speed skating in 2017 after a career in inline skating, where she won 12 world championship medals and 47 national titles. Despite starting the ice sport later than most elite competitors, she has become one of the top sprinters in the world. 

In Milan, Jackson will compete in the 500m on Monday and the 1,000m on Feb. 15. 

“The Olympics remind us of the power of sport to connect and inspire, and I’m proud to carry that forward on the Olympic stage,” she said.

Joining her is Del Duca, a bobsledder and U.S. Army sergeant stationed in Lake Placid, New York. Del Duca is part of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program and made his Olympic debut at Beijing 2022 after more than a decade in bobsled.

“Being flag bearer for Team USA is an incredible honor,” Del Duca said. “It was also quite the surprise.”

Del Duca said the honor is especially meaningful with the Games being held in Italy, where his family has strong roots.

“Nearly everyone in my family is of Italian descent. There is no greater honor than leading Team USA into the opening ceremony in Italy. It feels like a bridge between my family’s heritage and the country I’m so proud to serve. I know my grandfather is watching over me, saying, ‘Hey, Frangesch, way to go, kid,’ and would be so proud,” said Del Duca.

A former Division I track captain at the University of Maine, Del Duca started his bobsled career as a push athlete before transitioning to a driver, placing fourth in both the two-man and four-man events at the 2025 World Championships before earning a spot on his second Olympic team.

Del Duca is the sixth U.S. bobsledder to carry the Olympic flag, joining fellow bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, who was a flag bearer in 2022.

“Being chosen by their fellow athletes is a powerful reflection of the respect they’ve earned through their leadership, commitment, and the way they represent Team USA every day,” said Hirshland. “Erin and Frank embody the values of excellence and unity that define our Olympic Team, and we’re proud to have them lead Team USA onto the world stage.”

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