Vonn, Kim on Olympic team; Anderson falls short

Jamie Anderson’s comeback will not have its fairy-tale ending.

The three-time Olympian and two-time Olympic gold medalist in snowboard slopestyle was notably absent from U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s 97-person roster released Thursday that was headlined by Olympic veterans Lindsey Vonn, Mikaela Shiffrin and Chloe Kim. Anderson’s omission ends her Olympic bid following the births of her two daughters over the past two years.

Vonn, the 2010 Olympic downhill champion who has staged an improbable comeback over the past year and a half, will compete in her fifth Games at age 41. Shiffrin, the most decorated Alpine skier of all time, heads to her fourth Games, and three-time Olympian Kim will attempt to become the first snowboarder to win three consecutive gold medals.

“In many ways, making this team is even harder than the Olympics themselves,” snowboard program director Rick Bower said in a statement. “The depth of our field is incredible, and selection truly came down to the wire.”

Throughout her comeback, Anderson showed flashes of her old self, riding with fluidity and power, finishing sixth in her first World Cup Big Air contest 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 seemed like there was no room for them in the sport and they disappeared,” Anderson, 35, told ESPN early in her return. “Now there’s a movement to support women in careers and sports who want to have families. To have the opportunity to try and represent the U.S. at a fourth Olympics with my family alongside me, that’s a win.”

Anderson also dealt with a string of setbacks. She broke her right wrist during a training camp in New Zealand in September and suffered a concussion and bruised hip from a fall during slopestyle finals 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 Dhawornvej, Hahna Norman and Jess Perlmutter.

The men’s snowboard team will be anchored by three-time Olympian and 2018 slopestyle gold medalist Red 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 the 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 quadrennium, leads a freeski halfpipe team with potential to sweep the podium, including two-time Olympic medalist Alex Ferreira, first-time Olympian Hunter Hess and Birk Irving, whose sister Svea Irving qualified in freeski halfpipe. Defending Olympic freeski slopestyle champion Alex Hall returns for his third Olympics.

“I think winning this Olympics is going to take someone to be healthy, land 1620s and alley-oop double corks, tricks we aren’t used to seeing, and it’s going to take a lot of grit,” Goepper said. “I heard a Tom Brady interview once, and he was like, ‘Sports at the highest level is really freaking hard,’ and being ready for that is what it’s going to take to win in Italy.”

Jessie Diggins, an Olympic champion and three-time medalist in cross-country skiing, will compete at her fourth and final Games. Chris Lillis, who won gold in 2022, returns for the aerials team.

The skiers and snowboarders brought home 15 of the United States’ 25 medals at the Beijing Games four years ago. They will make up almost half of the entire contingent the U.S. brings to Milan Cortina.

Vonn returned last season after a partial knee replacement and quickly began to show the form that made her a four-time overall World Cup champion. She has won two World Cup downhill races this season to bring her career total to 84 and will be a favorite in both speed events in Cortina.

Shiffrin is trying to bounce back after going 0-for-6 in her bid to win a medal four years ago. She captured gold in the slalom at the 2014 Sochi Games and gold in giant slalom four years later in South Korea.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Originally published at ESPN