Local Tahoe Skiers, Snowboarders, Head to the Olympics ~ Cheer Them on With Us!

It was a great week for the local athletes in the Reno/Lake Tahoe region, and our neighboring ski resorts further south, this past week when US Ski and Snowboard announced their official list of who will be headed to South Korea to represent America in the next few weeks.

As we get closer to the opening ceremonies, we thought you might enjoy a little profile of our hometown heroes to help you follow our leaders who learned how to ski and board at a variety of Lake tahoe ski resorts as well as Mammoth Mountain.

[We thank the SIERRA SUN newspaper and US SKI AND SNOWBOARD organization for their information about the following athletes.]

One our our reigning freestyle skiing halfpipe Olympic champions is Maddie Bowman, of South Lake Tahoe. With an Olympic gold medal and seven X Games medals, including four gold, Bowman is one of the most decorated female freeskiers in history.

David Wise, of Reno, Nev., will return to the Olympics to defend his gold medal. David Wise has been on the top of the halfpipe podium since early 2011, with a trophy case that includes the inaugural Olympic gold medal in men's ski halfpipe.

Brita Sigourney, 28, will return to the Olympics to for the second time, and claimed her spot on the team after topping Bowman in halfpipe to win the Olympic qualifier in Mammoth on Friday, Jan. 19. Sigourney, who is from Carmel, Calif., grew up skiing Alpine Meadows, and competed in skiing's inaugural Olympic halfpipe event at the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia.

South Lake Tahoe's Jamie Anderson, 27, will return to defend her 2014 Olympic gold medal in snowboard slopestyle. Jamie became youngest Winter X-Games medalist when she won bronze in 2006 at age 15.

Hailey Langland, 17, of San Clemente, Calif., will see the Olympics for the first time in her active snowboarding career.  She is a member of the Tahoe Snowboard Ski Team (formerly Tahoe Select). Langland has had a monster season, winning big air at the 2017 X Games in Aspen, CO.

Another first-timer in women's halfpipe is Chloe Kim, 17, of Torrance, Calif., She is a member of Mammoth Mountain Snowboard Team, qualified to compete in the 2014 games, but she was too young to compete. Kim, who has Korean lineage and is a three-time X Games gold medalist, will be among the favorites to claim gold in Pyeongchang.

Also joining Kim, is fellow Mammoth Snowboard Team member, Maddie Mastro, 17, of Wrightwood, Calif. Mastro claimed her spot on the team after the final halfpipe competition in Mammoth.

Also competing on the team are former gold medalists Shaun White, Kelly Clark, and Lindsey Jacobellis.

We hope you make the time to enjoy all that the 2018 Winter Olympics has to offer, and certainly tune in when our local heros take the stage!