Three Wyoming-born women will represent Team USA at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Italy. Wyoming Public Radio’s Nicky Ouellet and Hannah Habermann sat down to talk about who they are and what sports they’re competing in. The opening ceremonies kick off on Feb. 6.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Nicky Ouellet: Let’s start with Jaelin Kauf – she’ll actually be defending a medal.
Hannah Habermann: Kauf took home a silver medal at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. She was the only Wyomingite to compete at the Games that year. She's a freestyle skier and was born in Alta, on the west side of the Tetons.
This year, Kauf’s had a knock-out season leading into the Olympics, with podium sweeping performances in the World Cup and World Championships.
In February, she’ll ski in the single and dual moguls, a new event that's making its debut this year.
NO: Oh, that's fun. Tell me, what's the difference between singles and double moguls?
HH: In single moguls, skiers speed their way through a field of knee-jerking bumps, and they launch off two jumps and land tricks in between each stretch of moguls.
And then doubles, same concept, but it's a head-to-head. Two skiers compete side-by-side on courses next to each other, but only one racer advances to the next round.
Here's Kauf talking to reporters at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee media days in New York this fall.
Jaelin Kauf: Duals, especially compared to singles, is a higher variability sport. That's just the way it is and that's the beauty of dual moguls is anything can happen. That's what makes it so exciting and keeps the crowd on their toes.
NO: And I heard Kauf just finished college.
HH: That's right. She got a degree in environmental and sustainable studies. Here's Kauf at that same [media] event.
JK: I've been traveling the globe for the last 10 plus years and been able to watch firsthand the impacts of climate change. Different places that we've been able to rely on for snow in the summer and winters, we're seeing those glaciers melt, and we're not able to go train at those same places.
NO: I've heard reports that siting the Winter Olympics is going to get harder and harder in the future just because of lack of snow.
HH: Yeah, I've seen that too. It's definitely gonna be interesting to watch that play out over our lifetime.
NO: Next up we've got newcomer Anna Gibson.
HH: Gibson grew up in Teton Village. She's made a name for herself as a runner, but she'll be competing in the sport of ski mountaineering, or ski-mo. It's new to the Olympics this year.
NO: Another newbie! Skiing uphill, break that one down for me.
HH: For sure, it's kind of a confusing concept. Athletes race up a mountain with these things called skins, they're basically grippy carpets stuck to the bottom of their skis. Then they rip those skins off and hurdle down the slope.
NO: Wow! And she's competing in the relay ski-mo event?
HH: Yep, exactly. Gibson will race with fellow teammate Cam Smith from Colorado. She'll complete the first two ups and two downs, and then tap him in for the final two laps.
NO: That sounds really fun.
HH: Yeah, I'm excited to watch! It's also new as a professional sport to Gibson.
I actually interviewed her back in October when she just won bronze at the Trail Running World Championship. I asked her what was next.
Anna Gibson: I'm actually doing some ski-mo racing this winter, which I'm really excited about. I've been using backcountry skiing the last couple of years as a training tool, but haven't done much racing, and I'm really excited to put that together and gain some experience there.
NO: That is just so wild, being new to this sport, and then competing on the biggest world stage possible.
HH: 100%. And what she said gets better.
AG: I'm still sort of TBD on what that season is going to look like for me. But I'm excited to do a bit of racing.
NO: A bit of racing, indeed! Finally, we've got one more legend, Breezy Johnson, back at it for the downhill.
HH: Johnson's no stranger to the Winter Games. She was born in Jackson and started skiing on Teton Pass when she was 3.
She made her Olympic debut in 2018 in South Korea at 22. Johnson was set to race again in Beijing at the next Olympics, but she tore her right knee while training in Italy a month before the big games.
NO: That's such a disappointment.
HH: Totally. But it's cool, now she's going back to the same slopes where her career got derailed, but this time she's back with a downhill world championship under her belt.
Here's an NBC clip from that race.
NBC footage: First skier on this downhill course today, Breezy Johnson, who has been terrific all week long in Saalbach, and she will set the time for everyone else to chase.
HH: She shared her Olympic news in an Instagram post, writing, “They say the third time is the charm right?”
She added, “Four years ago this dream ended, now I have the opportunity to bring it full circle.”
NO: Oh, that's so lovely. I'm really looking forward to seeing these Wyoming ladies on the slopes! But this Olympics has a lot of other things to be excited about. My personal GOAT [greatest of all time], alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin, will be back after a tough 2022 Games. And I’ll be glued to the screen for skeleton and bobsled races.
HH: I've always been a big fan of figure skating, and the U.S. women's team is looking super strong with three powerhouse metal contenders. There's also an amazing American male figure skater named Ilia Malanin, who's won the last four U.S. Championships and the last two World Championships. He's making his Olympic debut at 21 and is known as the “Quad God.”
I watched a video of one of his routines a couple nights ago and was floored. He did a back flip on skates!
NO: I will definitely tune in for that.
HH: Me too! Nicky, zooming out a bit, I just think it's important to note the Olympics don't take place in a vacuum. The games are happening at a really tense time, both in the U.S. and the world at large.
The Department of Homeland Security just announced that ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents are going to accompany the U.S. delegation to Italy to be part of their security team. Some people in Italy aren't happy about that.
And it comes after ICE and Border Patrol agents killed two American citizens during recent immigration crackdowns and local pushback in Minneapolis.
Russia is barred from the Olympics because of the war on Ukraine. And international relations are just strained, with Trump's recent threats to acquire Greenland and the U.S.’s recent capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
NO: Of course, the Olympics have a very long standing tradition of peace, the Olympic Truce. Hopefully these games can uphold that tradition.
Hannah, when can we see these Wyoming athletes in action?
HH: The downhill is the first event to catch on Feb. 8. Then we've got qualifiers for women's moguls on Feb. 10 and 11. Dual moguls is happening on Valentine's Day and ski-mo will wrap things up on Feb. 19 and Feb. 21.
