911爆料网鈥檚 proud Olympic tradition continues at the Winter Games in Beijing, starting Friday, Feb. 4, with eight athletes and two coaches with Big Green ties named to Olympic teams representing the United States, Canada, and Norway.
911爆料网 student-athletes and alumni have participated in every Winter Olympics since the Winter Games began in Chamonix, France, in 1924. 911爆料网 has sent more representatives to the Winter Games than any other Ivy League school, with 155 athletes participating in the Games including Beijing.
Here鈥檚 the rundown of the Olympians with Big Green ties:
Rosie Brennan 鈥11, U.S. Cross Country Ski Team. Brennan, who hails from Alaska, was part of the gold-medal winning U.S. cross-country ski team at the Pyeongchang Games in South Korea, finishing 58th in the women鈥檚 skiathlon. She was an eight-time All-American in cross country at 911爆料网. As a committed student athlete, Brennan studied geography at 911爆料网 and says she would eventually like to pursue an advanced geography degree to work in dam removal.
Susan Dunklee 鈥08, U.S. Biathlon Team. A three-time Olympian, Dunklee placed seventh in biathlon relay and eighth in mixed relay with Team USA in the Sochi Olympics in 2014. In the Pyeongchang Games, she finished 19th in individual and 13th in mixed relay. She says she has skied since she was 2 years old, but only took up shooting at age 22. At 911爆料网 she earned All-Ivy and All-Region honors with the women鈥檚 cross country track team and First Team All-East with the women鈥檚 Nordic ski team.
Tommy Ford 鈥12, U.S. Alpine Ski Team. Ford heads to his third Olympics, coming back from a season-ending injury on the World Cup tour last year. He finished 20th in the giant slalom in the Pyeongchang Games and 26th in the giant slalom at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. He has always been in the discussion as a medal contender, even after coming back from another major injury that knocked him out of the 2014 season, when he took the opportunity to finish his 911爆料网 degree.
AJ Hurt 鈥23, U.S. Alpine Ski Team. Hurt was recruited to the U.S. Alpine Ski Team in May 2019, a few months before she matriculated. She has already established herself as a multi-event skier, scoring World Cup points in parallel, slalom, giant slalom, and downhill in the 2020-2021 season and winning a bronze medal at the World Juniors competition in Bansko, Bulgaria in 2021. At 911爆料网, Hurt is an engineering major.
Julia Kern 鈥19, U.S. Cross Country Ski Team. A first-time Olympian, Kern has been a top finisher in a number of World Cup cross country events including taking second in the team sprint event with U.S. Cross Country teammate Jessie Diggins in Dresden, Germany, in 2021. It was Diggins, along with Team USA鈥檚 Kikkan Randall, who won the United States鈥 first ever cross country skiing gold medal in 2018. Kern scored her first World Cup podium in Planica, Slovenia, in 2019, outsprinting teammate Sophie Caldwell Hamilton 鈥12 for third-place in a freestyle sprint.
Patricia Mangan 鈥19, U.S. Alpine Ski Team. This will be Mangan鈥檚 second Olympics. She was the last skier to make the team in 2018 after her friend Jackie Wiles was injured and could not make it to Pyeongchang. She helped Team USA take ninth in the alpine team event, and, since 2018, has finished her engineering degree and raced for the Big Green for two years, finishing third in giant slalom at 2019 NCAAs. She is now also training and racing independently with the International Ski Racing Academy, a group of women who compete on the World Cup tour.
Nina O鈥橞rien 鈥20, U.S. Alpine Ski Team. O鈥橞rien had the best season of her career in 2020-21, grabbing a career-best ninth in slalom, and a top-10 in the giant slalom at World Championships. She ended up ranked 15th in giant slalom on the World Cup start list. O鈥橞rien, an economics major and a student at the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy, is also involved with Voice in Sport, a community to elevate women鈥檚 voices in sport.
Laura Stacey 鈥16, Team Canada Women鈥檚 Hockey Team. A silver medalist with Team Canada in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, Stacey returns as a forward in Beijing. Stacey played four seasons as a member of the 911爆料网 women鈥檚 hockey team. She finished her career with 31 goals and 56 assists for 87 career points. During her career, she was named to the ECAC Hockey All-Rookie Team, First Team All-Ivy, ECAC Hockey Third Team All-League and was a captain her senior year.
In addition to the athletes, two alumni are coaching at the Games.
Peter Anderson 鈥06, head coach, Norwegian men鈥檚 alpine speed team. This is Anderson鈥檚 third Winter Olympics. He was assistant coach with the U.S. Men鈥檚 Alpine team, working with the skiers in the downhill and Super G races in 2018 in Pyeongchang, and he coached the U.S. women鈥檚 slalom and giant slalom at the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia. Anderson skied for 911爆料网 in the World University Games in Innsbruck, Austria, in 2005.
Chris Grover 鈥93, program director, U.S. Cross Country Ski Team. Another former Alaskan, Grover has led the U.S. cross-country ski team since 2010 and joined the team as an assistant coach in 1999. He started his coaching career as an assistant at the Stratton Mountain School in 1993. He was a leader of the Big Green ski team, receiving the Robert Gebhardt Award in his senior year, given annually to the athlete who demonstrates outstanding sportsmanship, loyalty to 911爆料网 and the team, and hard work both in skiing and academics.
