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Tag: freestyle skiing

  • ‘Dying to Ask’ podcast: Visualize your life like an Olympian with Chris Lillis

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    Saying Chris Lillis is a details guy is like saying he kind of wants to win another Olympic gold medal. Lillis won gold in mixed team aerials at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. Making a second Olympic team in his discipline of freestyle skiing is arguably more mental than physical. Tracking the details of how he eats, sleeps, trains and recovers is crucial to unlocking what does and doesn’t work for him as an athlete. The data helps shape his mindset training. The key to mental preparation is visualization.Chris says, “Visualization can just be like a kind of mental imagination, whether it’s in the first person or the third person. You really just imagine yourself doing that jump.” Aerialists are like acrobats on skis. They ski down a ramp, launch themselves in the air and complete a series of flips and twists while maintaining enough spatial awareness to land on on snow. Jumps last seconds. But Chris says the time in the air feels a lot longer than that because of how in tune he is with every small move his body makes. Just making the 2026 Olympic Team isn’t enough. “It’s different when you’ve won before because the only question anyone has for you is, are you going to win again? My answer is always the same. It’s yes,” says Chris. On this Dying to Ask: What it’s like to live your life with that much attention to detailThe move Chris had to make to follow his Olympic dream and how he spends his summersGoing from newbie to veteran. The importance of mentoring the next generation of OlympiansAnd how to master the art of visualization like an Olympic athleteOther places to listenCLICK HERE to listen on iTunesCLICK HERE to listen on StitcherCLICK HERE to listen on SpotifySee more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

    PARK CITY, Utah —

    Saying Chris Lillis is a details guy is like saying he kind of wants to win another Olympic gold medal.

    Lillis won gold in mixed team aerials at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.

    Making a second Olympic team in his discipline of freestyle skiing is arguably more mental than physical.

    Tracking the details of how he eats, sleeps, trains and recovers is crucial to unlocking what does and doesn’t work for him as an athlete.

    The data helps shape his mindset training. The key to mental preparation is visualization.

    Chris says, “Visualization can just be like a kind of mental imagination, whether it’s in the first person or the third person. You really just imagine yourself doing that jump.”

    Aerialists are like acrobats on skis. They ski down a ramp, launch themselves in the air and complete a series of flips and twists while maintaining enough spatial awareness to land on on snow.

    Jumps last seconds. But Chris says the time in the air feels a lot longer than that because of how in tune he is with every small move his body makes.

    Just making the 2026 Olympic Team isn’t enough.

    “It’s different when you’ve won before because the only question anyone has for you is, are you going to win again? My answer is always the same. It’s yes,” says Chris.

    On this Dying to Ask:

    • What it’s like to live your life with that much attention to detail
    • The move Chris had to make to follow his Olympic dream and how he spends his summers
    • Going from newbie to veteran. The importance of mentoring the next generation of Olympians
    • And how to master the art of visualization like an Olympic athlete

    Other places to listen

    CLICK HERE to listen on iTunes
    CLICK HERE to listen on Stitcher
    CLICK HERE to listen on Spotify

    See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

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  • Colorado has the most Olympic Games athletes on Team USA for Milan Cortina

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    The Centennial State is fueling Team USA’s hopes for Olympic glory.

    Colorado has the most representatives on the Team USA roster for the 2026 Milan Cortina Games that begin next week. Of the 232 athletes on Team USA, the largest American Winter Olympics team ever, 32 are from Colorado.

    Colorado athletes comprise 13.8% of the total Team USA roster. The other states most heavily represented are Minnesota (26 athletes), California (21), Utah (17), Michigan (15), Massachusetts (15), New York (14) and Wisconsin (11). In total, Team USA draws from 32 states.

    Notable local headliners for the Milano Cortina Games include record-setting Alpine skiers Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn, Carolina Hurricanes defenseman and Colorado College alum Jaccob Slavin, snowboarder Red Gerard, the figure skating pair of Danny O’Shea and Ellie Kam, and freestyle skiing siblings Birk Irving and Svea Irving.

    Colorado is most well represented in skiing, with 18 skiers total: eight freestyle skiers, four Alpine skiers, two ski jumpers, two Nordic skiers, one Nordic combined skier and one ski mountaineer.

    In addition to the 32 Coloradans on Team USA, the Avalanche also have eight representatives in the Olympics: Brock Nelson for the U.S., Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Devon Toews for Canada, Artturi Lehkonen and Joel Kiviranta for Finland, Martin Necas for Czechia and Gabriel Landeskog (who has been injured) for Sweden.

    Here is the list of the Coloradans headed to the Olympics, according to Team USA’s official roster. This list includes a Paralympian, sled hockey player Malik Jones, though the U.S. Paralympic roster won’t be set until March 2. It also includes some athletes who are not native to Colorado but currently live here, and also does not include some Olympians who reside here but do not identify Colorado as their home state.

    Coloradans in the 2026 Winter Olympics

    Jaccob Slavin of the United States takes questions during media day ahead of the 2025 NHL 4 Nations Face-Off at the Bell Centre on February 11, 2025 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)

    Annika Belshaw, Steamboat Springs — Ski jumping

    Chase Blackwell, Longmont — Snowboarding

    Jake Canter, Silverthorne — Snowboarding

    Jason Colby, Steamboat Springs — Ski jumping

    Lily Dhawornvej, Copper Mountain — Snowboarding

    Alex Ferreira, Aspen — Freestyle skiing

    Stacy Gaskill, Golden — Snowboarding

    Red Gerard, Silverthorne — Snowboarding

    Birk Irving, Winter Park — Freestyle skiing

    Svea Irving, Winter Park — Freestyle skiing

    Riley Jacobs, Oak Creek — Freestyle skiing

    Tess Johnson, Vail — Freestyle skiing

    Malik Jones, Aurora — Sled hockey

    Lauren Jortberg, Boulder — Nordic skiing

    Ellie Kam, Colorado Springs — Figure skating

    Elizabeth Lemley, Vail — Freestyle skiing

    Niklas Malacinski, Steamboat Springs — Nordic combined skiing

    Oliver Martin, Vail — Snowboarding

    Charlie Mickel, Durango — Freestyle skiing

    Kyle Negomir, Littleton — Alpine skiing

    Danny O’Shea, Colorado Springs — Figure skating

    Jake Pates, Eagle — Snowboarding

    Hunter Powell, Fort Collins — Bobsled

    River Radamus, Edwards — Alpine skiing

    Madeline Schaffrick, Steamboat Springs — Snowboarding

    Mikaela Shiffrin, Edwards — Alpine skiing

    Jaccob Slavin, Erie — Hockey

    Cam Smith, Crested Butte — Ski mountaineering

    Hailey Swirbul, El Jebel — Nordic skiing

    Lindsey Vonn, Vail — Alpine skiing

    Landon Wendler, Steamboat Springs — Freestyle skiing

    Cody Winters, Steamboat Springs — Snowboarding

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    Kyle Newman

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  • Freestyle skier Quinn Dehlinger’s Olympic dream takes flight

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    Freestyle skier Quinn Dehlinger punched his Olympic ticket eight months before most of his fellow 2026 Olympians. Dehlinger found out last June that he’d earned a spot in the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. It was a huge relief after he barely missed out on making the 2022 Beijing Team. It was a game-changer, mentally, heading into World Cup races this season.”Going into the competitions this year, if I got sick or had a minor injury, it lifted a little of the weight off the shoulders,” Dehlinger said. Dehlinger lives in Park City, Utah, where aerial skiers train year-round at the Utah Olympic Park. But he grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, skiing at Perfect North Slopes.It’s a far cry from the mountains out west. But it’s become a pipeline for aerial athletes. In fact, four skiers on the national team are from the Cincinnati area.Top aerial skiers spend their summers in Park City training at the Spence Eccles Olympic Freestyle Pool. The pool is aerated. Skiers go off plastic jumps similar to a regular ski jump. The aerated water provides a soft, safe landing and pushes skiers to the surface. The only hitch? Skiers have to hike more than 100 stairs to get to the top of the ramp.Aerialists are often called acrobats on skis. They rely on strength, flexibility and visualization techniques.”When you’re going down that jump at 45 miles an hour, and it’s 14 feet tall and 71 degrees, it looks like a wall of ice,” Dehlinger said. “You’re visualizing dropping your arms in a specific spot so that it either speeds up your twist or stops your twist, or helps you slow down your flip, or just controls everything.”Dehlinger said fans often get one thing wrong about his sport.”The biggest misconception is that we just don’t get scared. We do get scared, but we just deal with a different way. We just push it down and do what we need to do,” Dehlinger said. And what Dehlinger needs to do now is get to the top of the ramp at Milan-Cortina. He’s already visualizing gold and ready to find out if he’s got what it takes. The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games start Feb. 6.

    Freestyle skier Quinn Dehlinger punched his Olympic ticket eight months before most of his fellow 2026 Olympians.

    Dehlinger found out last June that he’d earned a spot in the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. It was a huge relief after he barely missed out on making the 2022 Beijing Team.

    It was a game-changer, mentally, heading into World Cup races this season.

    “Going into the competitions this year, if I got sick or had a minor injury, it lifted a little of the weight off the shoulders,” Dehlinger said.

    Dehlinger lives in Park City, Utah, where aerial skiers train year-round at the Utah Olympic Park. But he grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, skiing at Perfect North Slopes.

    It’s a far cry from the mountains out west. But it’s become a pipeline for aerial athletes. In fact, four skiers on the national team are from the Cincinnati area.

    Top aerial skiers spend their summers in Park City training at the Spence Eccles Olympic Freestyle Pool. The pool is aerated. Skiers go off plastic jumps similar to a regular ski jump. The aerated water provides a soft, safe landing and pushes skiers to the surface.

    The only hitch? Skiers have to hike more than 100 stairs to get to the top of the ramp.

    Aerialists are often called acrobats on skis. They rely on strength, flexibility and visualization techniques.

    “When you’re going down that jump at 45 miles an hour, and it’s 14 feet tall and 71 degrees, it looks like a wall of ice,” Dehlinger said. “You’re visualizing dropping your arms in a specific spot so that it either speeds up your twist or stops your twist, or helps you slow down your flip, or just controls everything.”

    Dehlinger said fans often get one thing wrong about his sport.

    “The biggest misconception is that we just don’t get scared. We do get scared, but we just deal with a different way. We just push it down and do what we need to do,” Dehlinger said.

    And what Dehlinger needs to do now is get to the top of the ramp at Milan-Cortina. He’s already visualizing gold and ready to find out if he’s got what it takes.

    The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games start Feb. 6.

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  • Born on the slopes, moguls skier Jaelin Kauf favorite to win gold medal at Milan Cortina Olympics

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    Jalen Gough was born on the slopes. The oldest child of professional mogul skiers, her mother Patty is *** 3-time X Games champion. One of the first Americans to qualify for the games in Italy, Jalen is one of the favorites to win gold. But before we talk about her skiing, let’s talk about her dancing. Last year, Cough and her US mogul’s teammates went viral after performing the Dallas Cowboys cheerleader’s famed thunderstruck routine. Impressed by her moves in ski boots, America’s sweethearts invited her to dance with them pregame last fall. I was very nervous. I was like shaking, meeting the cowgirls and dancing with them. Um, I mean, I feel like the nervous competing is, you know, you get the jitters, but like. I know that run. I know how to ski it. I’m nervous to like dance with professional dancers is like I don’t know how to dance. This is like not so out of my comfort zone, but um it was really cool to be able to do that. Something else that’s. Last March, she won the Mogul’s World Championship, conquering the course in Lavino, where she’ll be skiing during the Olympics. Like I feel really great with where my skiing is at right now. Prepared, focused, and ready to earn her first Olympic gold. And to indulge *** bit on some of the food at the games. I’m going to be eating *** lot of pizza and pasta the whole time. I could never get sick of either of those foods. So Kough’s longtime boyfriend Bradley Wilson is also *** mogul skier, *** three-time Olympian. He retired from the sport after the 2022 games in Beijing. On the road to Milan Cortina, I’m Fletcher Mackle.

    Born on the slopes, moguls skier Jaelin Kauf favorite to win gold medal at Milan Cortina Olympics

    Updated: 3:00 AM PST Jan 14, 2026

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    Originally called “hot dogging,” freestyle skiing became an Olympic sport at the Calgary games in 1988, and for one American skier, freestyle is a family affair.Jaelin Kauf was born on the slopes, the oldest child of professional mogul skiers. Her mother, Patti, is a three-time X-Games champion.One of the first American athletes to qualify for the games in Italy, Jaelin is one of the favorites to win gold, but before we tell you about her skiing, let’s talk about her dancing.Last year, Kauf and her U.S. moguls teammates went viral after performing the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders’ famed thunderstruck routine.Impressed by her moves in ski boots, America’s Sweethearts invited her to dance with them pregame last fall. “I was very nervous. I was, like, shaking, meeting the cowgirls, dancing with them. I mean, I feel like skiing, I get nervous competing, you know, you get the jitters, but, like, I know that? I know how to see it. I’m nervous to, like, dance with professional dancers, I don’t know how to dance, so it’s like, so out of my comfort zone, but it was really cool to be able to do that,” Kauf said. Something else that’s cool, last March she won the moguls World Championship, conquering the course in Livigno where she’ll be skiing during the Olympics. “I feel really great with where my seeing is out right now,” Kauf said.Prepared, focused, and ready to earn her first Olympic gold, and to indulge a bit in some of the food at the games.”I’m going to be eating a lot of pizza and pasta the whole time. I could never get sick from either of those foods,” Kauf said. Kauf’s longtime boyfriend, Bradley Wilson, was also a moguls skier. A three-time Olympian, he retired from the sport after the 2022 Games in Beijing.

    Originally called “hot dogging,” freestyle skiing became an Olympic sport at the Calgary games in 1988, and for one American skier, freestyle is a family affair.

    Jaelin Kauf was born on the slopes, the oldest child of professional mogul skiers. Her mother, Patti, is a three-time X-Games champion.

    One of the first American athletes to qualify for the games in Italy, Jaelin is one of the favorites to win gold, but before we tell you about her skiing, let’s talk about her dancing.

    Last year, Kauf and her U.S. moguls teammates went viral after performing the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders’ famed thunderstruck routine.

    Impressed by her moves in ski boots, America’s Sweethearts invited her to dance with them pregame last fall.

    “I was very nervous. I was, like, shaking, meeting the cowgirls, dancing with them. I mean, I feel like skiing, I get nervous competing, you know, you get the jitters, but, like, I know that? I know how to see it. I’m nervous to, like, dance with professional dancers, I don’t know how to dance, so it’s like, so out of my comfort zone, but it was really cool to be able to do that,” Kauf said.

    Something else that’s cool, last March she won the moguls World Championship, conquering the course in Livigno where she’ll be skiing during the Olympics.

    “I feel really great with where my seeing is out right now,” Kauf said.

    Prepared, focused, and ready to earn her first Olympic gold, and to indulge a bit in some of the food at the games.

    “I’m going to be eating a lot of pizza and pasta the whole time. I could never get sick from either of those foods,” Kauf said.

    Kauf’s longtime boyfriend, Bradley Wilson, was also a moguls skier. A three-time Olympian, he retired from the sport after the 2022 Games in Beijing.

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