Julia Krass
Age: 16
Sport: Freeskiing (Slopestyle)
After two disappointing performances in Olympic qualifying events, Krass was shocked when a stellar run at the final event in Park City, Utah, landed her on the U.S. team. “I knew that I had to win if I wanted a chance at going to the Olympics," Krass told NECN. She learned to ski from her mother, Diana, when she was 2-and-a-half. “It's hard to believe. It's such an honor,” she said to WMUR.
Maggie Voisin
Age: 15
Aport: Freeskiing (Slopestyle)
Voisin, who just turned 15 in December, is the youngest American going to Sochi and the youngest American Olympian since 1972. She’s competing in slopestyle, which entails doing acrobatic tricks on specially made downhill trails—an event that's making its Olympic debut. And while she can’t drive yet, she has no problem doing ski jumps—backwards—then launching herself into midair, spinning and flipping in like an aerial whirling dervish. And then landing on her feet. "Looking back to when I was like, 12, I never would have expected this, you know, three years later,” Voisin told KPAX. “It makes me really proud."
Gracie Gold
Age: 18
Sport: Figure Skating
Can we beat Matt Lauer and Bob Costas et al to the pun and point out that Gracie Gold has a great chance to get even more gold in Sochi? The figure skater, who’s the current national champion, will be competing against the formidable Russian women as well as teammates Polina Edmunds and Ashley Wagner. “Realistically, I think she has a chance for a medal,’’ NBC’s skating analyst Scott Hamilton told Today. “She’s got the triple-triple combination, [and] she’s got great presence on the ice.”
Fun fact: She has a twin sister, Carly, who is also a skater.
Polina Edmunds
Age: 15
Sport: Figure Skating
Edmunds competed in her first senior U.S. Championships just a month before the Olympics. Thanks to her talent for turning out triple jumps, she took silver and earned a place on the team. She’ll be the youngest American skater at the Olympics since Tara Lipinski competed at the 1998 Games. “(Going to Sochi) would be the best feeling in the world, because it’s in Russia and my mother’s family lives in Russia,” Edmunds told the N.Y. Daily News. Her mom, who’s also her skating coach, grew up in Tver, Russia.
Arielle Gold
Age: 17
Sport: Snowboarding (Halfpipe)
Sibling rivalry in the Gold household was lessened considerably when both Arielle and her brother, Taylor, 20, qualified for trips to Sochi. Watching two kids competing, however, really ratcheted up the pressure on the parents. "I usually have an upset stomach," their mother, Patty Gold, told NPR. Patty confessed that she downed a glass of wine before the qualifying competition. Arielle, on the other hand, is cool as … a halfpipe course. “Being 17 years old—and usually the youngest in the competition—doesn't intimidate me at all,” she told ESPN. “If anything, it seems to help keep some of the pressure off, and I'm able to focus on just having fun and riding to the best of my ability.”
Mikaela Shiffrin
Age: 18
Sport: Slalom and Grand Slalom
Lindsey Vonn may be sitting out these Olympics with an injury, but the women’s ski team will still have a major glamour quotient, thanks to Shiffrin. But she’s not just a pretty face: She’s the reigning world champion in women’s slalom (and the youngest American slalom world champion ever). Even two-time Olympic medalist Picabo Street is impressed: "I'm excited to watch what she's capable of, because I think she's as good or better than Lindsey," Street told USA Today.
Tucker West
Age: 18
Sport: Luge
Tucker and his dad, Brett, first became intrigued with luge after watching the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics on TV—so intrigued that Brett decided to build a 750-foot-long track in their suburban backyard. Dad, however, was not exactly Ty Pennington. “It was a bit like Noah’s Ark,” Brett told ESPN Magazine. “The whole thing's made of wood [and contains] literally tens of thousands of screws.” The crazy tale attracted the attention of officials at USA Luge, who invited Tucker to practice on a real track in Lake Placid, N.Y. Now he’s the youngest member of the American men's luge team.
Sean Doherty
Age: 18
Sport: Biathlon
Doherty is the youngest member of the U.S.’s biathlon team. You know, biathlon, that bizarro event that combines cross-country skiing and rifle, the one they show for 10 minutes at 2 in the morning, right after the segment on curling. Doherty has been cross-country skiing since he was little, but only added shooting about five years ago. “I’m getting the hang of it,” he says. We would have to agree.
Ty Walker
Age: 16
Sport: Snowboard (Slopestyle)
Every winter, Ty’s family would travel from their home in suburban Long Island, N.Y., to Vermont to spend the weekend on the slopes. Walker started snowboarding when she was 7, and she's still in shock that she’s going to the Olympics to compete in slopestyle, a new Olympic sport in which boarders do acrobatic tricks on a downhill trail. “The whole situation still seems sort of surreal,” blogged the petite Walker, who’s just 5 feet tall. “I guess I’m so used to having it just be a dream of mine that I have a hard time thinking of it as my new reality.”
Emery Lehman
Age: 17
Sport: Speedskating
Lehman only expected to qualify for the 5,000-meter race, but then came from behind to also win the qualifying race for the 10,000 meters—by a mere two blade lengths. His victory was such a surprise, his parents hadn’t even booked a hotel room for the night of the 10,000-meter race, so they’ll be cheering for him from their suburban Chicago home.
Aaron Blunck
Age: 17
Sport: Freeskiing (Halfpipe)
Freeskiing halfpipe may be making its Olympic debut (think halfpipe except with skiers instead of snowboarders), but Blunck has skiing in his DNA. “My grandpa started the ski school in Crested Butte, which got my mom into skiing and me and my brother,” says Blunck, who first hit the slopes when he was all of 18 months old.
