Starting on March 11 with the giant slalom races Montana State athlete Justine Lamontagne took the win for the women. Johs Herland from University of Utah won for the men's category, ultimately leading to an overall event win for University of Utah.
In warm, soft snow conditions with rain falling, the competition was anything but easy. From the qualification round, 16 women advanced to the finals, with Tess Johnson leading the qualification round ahead of Australia's Jakara Anthony and teammate Olivia Giaccio in third. Also advancing from Team USA were Olympic silver medalist Jaelin Kauf in fifth place and Kasey Hogg in seventh place.
"I feel heartbroken about what's happen[ing] in the United States," Chris Lillis said. "I think that as a country we need to focus on respecting everybody's rights and making sure that we're treating our citizens as well as anybody with love and respect." "It's definitely a tough time in our country right now," commented Svea Irving. "I just continue to represent my values, compassion and love and respect for others."
The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics are set to be quite a show, with many of our favorite athletes getting ready to perform and compete at one of the world's biggest sporting events. This year a new sport is set to make its Winter Olympic debut: ski mountaineering, and while France, Switzerland, and Spain will be sending the most athletes, two top competitors are set to represent the United States in one of the three Ski Mountaineering events.
Levito and the United States' "Blade Angels" are trying to stay calm under pressure at the Olympics, where chaos has reigned at Milano Ice Skating Arena. The United States was expected to dominate figure skating in Milan, but has yet to win a gold medal in an individual event entering Tuesday's women's short program. A supposed sure-fire gold medal disappeared in stunning fashion with Ilia Malinin's eighth-place collapse.
3-time Olympic alpine skier Tommy Ford sat down with Condé Nast Traveler to discuss the different types of snow conditions you find around the world, from the Beaver Creek in Colorado to Ushuaia, Argentina, and Lake Takapō in New Zealand. The discussion was mostly surrounding the snow conditions while racing or training, not the off-piste or regular trails that most skiers are riding, but he does touch on some other forms of snow.
When I first came on, I was a little nervous about how it was going to be, but everyone was super welcoming especially the older girls, says Sunshine, 23, who has been on the team since 2022. It was very, let's lift up these rookies.' Veteran racer Nina O'Brien even wrote welcoming notes to all the newcomers. That was super nice, Sunshine says.
Only the women's event remains, and the U.S. squad, also known as the Blade Angels, is the strongest in decades. Going in, I thought they might snap Team USA's 20-year medal drought in women's figure skating by leaving the 2026 Games with two of the three medals. After the short program, however, two angels have fallen, and only one American, reigning World Champion Alysa Liu, remains in the hunt for gold.
