Vermont is well-represented at this month’s Milan Cortina Olympics.
The Games open on Friday, Feb. 6 (though some competition begins as early as Feb. 4), and the closing ceremony will be on Sunday, Feb. 22.
Here are the Olympians with connections to Vermont who we’re watching this year.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page for an interactive athlete tracker that will help you follow along throughout the games.
Mikaela Shiffrin
Sport: Alpine skiing
Age: 30
Vermont connection: Graduated from Burke Mountain Academy
Shiffrin is the winningest alpine skier of all time with 108 career World Cup wins. She is expected to compete only in her two best events, slalom and giant slalom, and possibly women's team combined, a new event at this Olympics. Competing in fewer events will give her more time for training, Rutland-based Olympics reporter Peggy Shinn said on Vermont Public’s The Sports Rapport.
Ryan Cochran-Siegle
Sport: Alpine skiing
Age: 33
Vermont connection: From Starksboro, attended the University of Vermont
Cochran-Siegle will compete in downhill and super-G, and possibly team combined. In the 2022 Olympics, he won a silver medal in the super-G almost exactly 50 years after his mother, Barbara Ann Cochran, won gold in the women’s slalom. His family members and friends at Cochran’s Ski Area in Richmond will be among his proudest fans again this year.
Previous coverage: Vt.'s Ryan Cochran-Siegle reflects on his Olympic win in Beijing
Paula Moltzan
Sport: Alpine skiing
Age: 31
Vermont connection: UVM graduate and NCAA champion, lives in Waitsfield
Moltzan is a medal contender in slalom, giant slalom and potentially in team combined, according to Shinn.
Nina O’Brien
Sport: Alpine skiing
Age: 28
Vermont connection: Burke Mountain Academy and Dartmouth College graduate
After suffering a devastating injury during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, O’Brien is looking forward to another shot at Olympic glory in Milan Cortina. "There's something that feels, I don't know, even more heightened and emotional about representing Team USA and seeing those rings," she told KCRA-TV.
Jessie Diggins
Sport: Cross-country skiing
Age: 34
Vermont connection: Trains with Stratton Mountain School’s professional SMS T2 team
“Jessie is a medal contender in all six of the Olympics women’s cross-country ski races,” Shinn said. She will likely be paired with fellow Vermonter Julia Kern in the team sprint event.
Julia Kern
Sport: Cross-country skiing
Age: 28
Vermont connection: Lives in Richmond, attended Stratton Mountain School, trains with Stratton Mountain’s professional SMS T2 team, Dartmouth College graduate
“I would consider Vermont definitely my home,” Kern said in an interview with Vermont Public’s Mitch Wertlieb on The Sports Rapport. “It just has such a special place in my heart.”
Ben Ogden
Sport: Cross-country skiing
Age: 25
Vermont connection: Lives in Burlington, UVM graduate, trains with Stratton Mountain’s professional SMS T2 team
Ogden is hoping to lead the U.S. cross-country skiing team to its first medal in 50 years. “He’s a great sprinter. He’s a great distance skier. A great personality. And he’ll be representing Vermont pretty well,” Shinn said.
Lauren Jortberg
Sport: Cross-country skiing
Age: 28
Vermont connection: Member of Mansfield Nordic Pro Team, has trained with Stratton Mountain School’s professional SMS T2 team, Dartmouth College graduate
Jortberg earned three NCAA All-America Second Team and All-East First Team honors during her collegiate career at Dartmouth College. Milan Cortina will be her first Olympic competition.
Jack Young
Sport: Cross-country skiing
Age: 24
Vermont connection: Jay native, member of Craftsbury Green Racing Project
Asked about the support he has received from folks in his hometown of Jay, Young told Vermont Public’s Mitch Wertlieb that he especially likes hearing from his old baseball and football teammates from high school.
“I’m still competing, so it’s fun to almost share that success with teammates that I’ve been competing with, some of them, for half my life," Young said.
Margie Freed
Sport: Biathlon
Age: 28
Vermont connection: UVM graduate, member of Craftsbury Green Racing Project
Freed earned a spot at the Milan Cortina Games despite only beginning full-time biathlon training two years ago and having limited shooting experience. "I didn't know anything about guns before doing biathlon,” she told CBS News. “The intrigue of trying this whole new thing, being in this whole new world of biathlon, was intriguing to me, so that's why I stuck with it."
Deedra Irwin
Sport: Biathlon
Age: 33
Vermont connection: Vermont Army National Guard specialist
No U.S. Olympian has come closer to winning a medal in biathlon than Deedra Irwin, who missed out on a silver medal by just one shot in 2022. The Vermont Army National Guard specialist will get her second chance at Milan Cortina, where she is considered to be America’s best hope for its first-ever medal in the sport.
Sean Doherty
Sport: Biathlon
Age: 30
Vermont connection: Member of Vermont Army National Guard
Milan Cortina will be Doherty’s fourth Olympic competition. “I think Milan is going to be special because it is in the heart of true winter sports culture, and I think the atmosphere at these competitions is going to be really special,” Doherty told NBC10 Boston.
Maxime Germain
Sport: Biathlon
Age: 24
Vermont connection: Aviation specialist with Vermont National Guard
Milan Cortina will be Germain’s first Olympic competition. “I am stoked to have qualified,” he said in a U.S. Biathlon press release. “The goal is now to perform there!"
Mac Forehand
Sport: Freestyle skiing (slopestyle and big air)
Age: 24
Vermont connection: From Winhall, attended Stratton Mountain School
NBC News calls Forehand a “gold-medal favorite,” in part because he’s been developing a difficult trick called the switch triple cork 1980 mute grab. This will be his second Olympics.
Olivia Giaccio
Sport: Freestyle skiing (moguls)
Age: 25
Vermont connection: Attended Killington Mountain School
Giaccio is the first woman to attempt a cork 1080 in a World Cup competition, an advanced aerial trick involving two off-axis flips and three full spins, according to KCPW. She hopes to improve on her sixth place finish in the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Jess Perlmutter
Sport: Slopestyle snowboarding
Age: 16
Vermont connection: Current student at Killington Mountain School
Perlmutter said in a recent interview that she counts Vermont as home.
“I’m from New Jersey, but I always just say Vermont, cause all my best friends are there,” Perlmutter said. “All the people I ride with there just basically created my trick selection.”
Other Vermont athletes
Several athletes with Vermont ties will be representing other nations, including UVM alumni Kevin Drury and Laurence St-Germain, both skiing for Canada. UVM will also be represented in hockey, with current student Julia Mesplède playing for France, and alumni Sini Karjalainen and Natálie Mlýnková playing for Finland and the Czech Republic, respectively.
In addition, two Vermonters are serving as Olympic biathlon alternates: Chloe Levins, a Rutland native and assistant women’s golf coach at Middlebury College, and Jake Brown, a member of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project.
How to watch
NBC holds the media rights for the Olympics in the U.S. You can watch the Games on NBC channels, Peacock, NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com, the NBC app or the NBC Sports app. NBC will also broadcast highlights each evening at 8 p.m.
Vermont's Team USA Winter Olympians
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*Contingent on qualification.
Based on latest available data from Olympics.com. Schedules and event rosters are subject to change. Visualization by Vermont Public — bookmark this tool at vermontpublic.org/olympics.
