On January 24, the U.S. Winter Olympics delegation confirmed the second-largest ever roster, and defending champions such as Sean White and Mikaela Severin made the list shine brightly. U-shaped freestyle skier Hannah Faulhabe, while not a success, demonstrates the persistence of an Olympian who shines his dreams into reality.
From spectators outside the ski race to being selected for the U.S. team at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, youngster Hannah Faulhabe has grown up to be a legend. "I still feel like I'm living in a dream," Hannah Faulhabe, a U-shaped freestyle skier, wrote in a post on the social media site Instagram in early 2022.
The 17-year-old bronze medalist at the 2020 Lausanne Winter Youth Olympics is still thinking about his way forward.
She has had a good record this season, including a third-place finish at the 2021 New Tour and back-to-back at the World Cup in Calgary on the women's freestyle skiing U-shaped track skill podium. Such impressive results have made the rising star famous in the freestyle skiing world.
A week later, the freestyle newcomer received the news that he had been successfully selected for the U-Shaped U-Field Skills Team of American Freestyle Skiing and received a ticket to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Faulhabe, who is leaving for the Chinese capital, will join the U.S. freestyle skiing team, represented by two-time Winter Olympics gold medalist David Wise and bronze medalist Britta Signey at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
"Everything is so unreal at the moment that I still can't believe that I will be in my first Olympic Games a month from now," Folhabe wrote on social media at the time.
Faulhabe, like most elite winter athletes, began to learn to ski as soon as he could walk. At just 4 years old, Falhabe, a freestyle skier, joined the Aspen Valley Ski Club (AVSC) and gradually improved his strength.
Growing up, Faulhabe, who had experienced the World Extreme Games held "on her doorstep", soon found herself captivated by the superb jumping skills displayed by these top athletes.
"If the XTREM hadn't been held around me, I wouldn't have known so much about the sport at such a young age," Faulhabe told The Aspen Times. "I still remember watching Guz Kenworthy, Alex Ferreira and Torin Yate Wallace play."
Faulhabe felt how powerful it was to see the heroes of her hometown shine on her doorstep, so she was determined to do everything in her power to give back to the city that had shaped her.
While watching the World Extreme Games, the young Faulhabe saw a small number of female contestants. It is for this reason that she also stagnated at the beginning of her career.
"At that time, I especially wanted to see a lot of female players on the field, but the reality was that there weren't many female players participating," Faulhabe said in an interview with The Aspen Times: "Now I am a high-level athlete, and this identity is very important to me because I want young athletes to know me and pay attention to me." ”
To keep his promise, Faulhabe volunteered at the Aspen Valley Ski Club during his high school graduation internship last summer, assisting the children in training on the trampoline, helping them build the necessary confidence and finally putting what they learned on the pistes.
"I've been trying to help the kids involved in freestyle skiing and hope to be someone they admire and answer their questions."
"I never really had that relationship with the veterans at the club growing up. So being able to build that kind of relationship with these young kids and be their role model is important to me. ”
At the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, children who have been mentored by Faulhabe will see their mentors on the world's most important winter sports stage.
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Ic photo courtesy of image
Source: Winter Olympics | Reporter Liu Yibo
Edited by: Kandian
Process Editor Tai Shaofeng