Lake Tahoe will be well represented at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Olympic team was released Wednesday with 13 Lake Tahoe-area athletes making the 97-athlete roster headed to Italy.
Of the athletes with ties to Tahoe, five are first-time Olympians, a list that includes 15-year-old Truckee native Abby Winterberger, who was the youngest to make the team. Winterberger will compete in the ski halfpipe along with Mammoth Mountain’s Kate Gray, also a first-timer. Winterberger is already being called one of the rising stars of the sport.
However, the list does not include two familiar Tahoe faces at previous Olympics – Jamie Anderson of South Lake Tahoe and David Wise of Reno.
Wise, 35, was looking for his fourth Olympic team qualification after winning two golds and a silver medal in the previous three ski halfpipe events. He competed in the past three Winter Olympics, winning medals in freestyle skiing at each one.
Anderson, 35, is also a decorated Olympic athlete. She is one of the sport’s pioneers who was a gold medalist in slopestyle at both the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics. She also earned a silver in Big Air (2018). She failed to medal in the 2022 Winter Games.
Returning Olympians from the 2022 Beijing Olympics include Alpine skiers Keely Cashman (Strawberry), AJ Hurt (Carnelian Bay) and Bryce Bennett (Tahoe City). All are from the club Palisades Tahoe, along with Nina O’Brien, who is from San Francisco. Lake Tahoe’s James JC Schoonmaker will compete in the cross country ski events
Mammoth Snowboard Team representatives include Chloe Kim, Bea Kim and Maddie Mastro. Alessandro Barbieri, who competes for the Tahoe Select Snowboard Team, qualified in the men’s snowboard halfpipe. Truckee’s Hahna Norman (snowboard slopestyle) and Hanna Percy (snowboard cross) will make their Olympic debuts.
One local athlete, Lila Lapanja from Incline Village, will represent Slovenia in alpine skiing. She began skiing on the slopes of Diamond Peak and spent her early years on the Diamond Peak Ski Team. She spent many years on the U.S. Ski Team, winning four U.S. National Championships.
The team also includes returning Olympic cross-county skier James JC Schoonmaker, who is from Lake Tahoe.
Outside of California competitors, this year’s Olympic team will feature skier Lindsay Vonn returning to racing at age 41 after a partial knee replacement. U.S. teammate Mikaela Shiffrin is competing in her fourth Olympics. Shiffrin failed to win a medal in 2022 at Beijing.
Overall, the U.S. team has 50 women and 47 men who range in age from 15-year-old Winterberger to 44-year-old snowboardcross rider Nick Baumgartner.
LAKE TAHOE OLYMPIANS
- Keely Cashman (Team Palisades Tahoe), alpine events
- AJ Hurt (Carnelian Bay; Team Palisades Tahoe), alpine events
- Nina O’Brien (Team Palisades Tahoe), alpine events
- Bryce Bennett (Tahoe City; Team Palisades Tahoe), alpine events
- James JC Schoonmaker (Lake Tahoe), cross country events
- Kate Gray* (Mammoth Mountain Freeski Team), ski halfpipe
- Abby Winterberger* (Truckee; Olympic Valley Freestyle Freeride Team), ski halfpipe
- Bea Kim* (Mammoth Snowboard Team), snowboard halfpipe
- Chloe Kim (Mammoth Snowboard Team), snowboard halfpipe
- Maddie Mastro (Mammoth Snowboard Team), snowboard halfpipe
- Alessandro Barbieri* (Tahoe Select Snowboard Team), snowboard halfpipe
- Hahna Norman* (Truckee), snowboard slopestyle
- Hanna Percy* (Truckee), snowboard cross
* – indicates first-time Olympian
