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Alyssa Roenigk
Jamie Anderson’s comeback won’t have a fairytale ending.
The three-time Olympian and two-time Olympic gold medalist in snowboard slopestyle was notably absent from the U.S. Ski & Snowboard 97-person roster released Thursday, which was headlined by Olympic veterans Lindsey Vonn, Mikaela Shiffrin and Chloe Kim. Anderson’s Olympic bids ended after the births of her two daughters in the past two years.
Vonn, the 2010 Olympic downhill champion who has made an incredible comeback over the past year and a half, will compete in her fifth Games at the age of 41. Shiffrin, the most decorated alpine skier of all time, is headed to her fourth Games and three-time Olympian Kim will try to become First snowboarder to win three consecutive gold medals.
“In many ways, making this team is even more difficult than the Olympics,” snowboard program director Rick Bower said in a statement. “The depth of our field is incredible, and the selection really came down to the wire.”
During her return, Anderson showed glimpses of her old self, riding with fluidity and power, finishing sixth in her first World Cup Big Air competition in three years and earning Best Trick honors at the Rockstar Energy Open in December.
“Growing up, when I saw older professional snowboarders decide to have a family, it felt like there was no place for them in the sport and they disappeared,” Anderson, 35, told ESPN at the start of his comeback. “There is now a movement in careers and sports to support women who want to have families. To have the opportunity to represent the United States at my fourth Olympics with my family is a win.”
Anderson also faced many failures. He broke his right wrist during a training camp in New Zealand in September and suffered a concussion and hip injury in a fall during the slopestyle final at the Aspen Grand Prix in early January. The U.S. qualified for only three of the maximum four quota spots in women’s slopestyle and will send three first-time Olympians to Italy: Lily Dhavornavage, Hannah Norman, and Jess Perlmutter.
The men’s snowboard team will be led by three-time Olympian and 2018 slopestyle gold medalist Rad Gerard, 44-year-old snowboard cross racer Nick Baumgartner, who won his first Olympic gold in Beijing in 2022, and 17-year-old Alessandro Barbieri, a medal threat in halfpipe.
Four-time Olympian Nick Goepper, who retired from freeski slopestyle after winning his third medal in Beijing and switched to halfpipe skiing during this quadruple year, leads a freeski halfpipe team with potential to capture the podium, including two-time Olympic medalist Alex Ferreira, first-time Olympian Hunter Hayes and Birk Irving, whose sister Svea Irving also competed in freeski halfpipe. Have qualified in. Reigning Olympic freeski slopestyle champion Alex Hall returned for his third Olympics.
Goepper said, “I think to win this Olympics someone has to be healthy, get 1620s and alley-oop double corks, tricks we’re not used to seeing, and that’s going to take a lot of hard work.” “I heard an interview with Tom Brady once, and he said, ‘The game at the highest level is really, really hard,’ and being prepared for it is all you need to win in Italy.”
Olympic champion and three-time medalist in cross country skiing Jessie Diggins will compete in her fourth and final Games. Chris Lillis, who won gold in 2022, returned for the aerials team.
