Park City's Rosie Brennan named to U.S. Olympic Cross-Country Team

Park City's 2-time cross country Olympian Rosie Brennan skid on to the podium in Finland on Saturday. Pictured here in 2021. Photo: Tom Horrocks/U.S. Ski & Snowboard.

PARK CITY, Utah — U.S. Ski and Snowboard (USSA) announced today its nominations for the U.S. Olympic Cross-Country Team to represent Team USA at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 from February 4 – 19. Nominations are to be confirmed by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee when it formally announces the U.S. Olympic Team.

2022 U.S. Olympic Cross-Country Team

Women

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Jessie Diggins, Afton, MN and Stratton, VT. (Olympics: 2014, 2018)
Rosie Brennan, Park City, UT. (Olympics: 2018)
Julia Kern, Waltham, MA. (first-time Olympian)
Hailey Swirbul, El Jebel, CO. (first-time Olympian)
Sophia Laukli, Yarmouth, ME. (first-time Olympian)
Novie McCabe, Winthrop, WA. (first-time Olympian)
Hannah Halvorsen, Truckee, CA. (first-time Olympian)
Caitlin Patterson, Craftsbury, VT. (Olympics: 2018)

Men

JC Schoonmaker, Tahoe City, CA. (first-time Olympian)
Kevin Bolger, Minocqua, WI. (first-time Olympian)
Ben Ogden, Landgrove, VT. (first-time Olympian)
Luke Jager, Anchorage, AK. (first-time Olympian)
Gus Schumacher, Anchorage, AK. (first-time Olympian)
Scott Patterson, Anchorage, AK. (Olympics: 2018)

Rosie Brennan skied on the Park City Ski and Snowboard Team and graduated from Park City High School. She said to USSA in a statement, “I am honored to be representing Team USA in another Olympic Games. I am very excited to be on this team and to be in a place where we can fight with the best. I am looking forward to getting there and getting the races started.”

Sophia Laukli and Luke Jager are athletes at the University of Utah.

Laukli said in a statement, “I’m so so excited. It’s pretty incredible to actually be named to the Olympic team, and I still haven’t fully wrapped my mind around it. Even just a year ago, the Olympics seemed far-fetched, so it feels pretty surreal. That being said, I am so excited and grateful for the opportunity. It’s definitely a proud moment, and I’m looking forward to the whole experience and learning a lot from it. I especially can’t wait to see what the U.S. team can do this year!”

Jager said in a statement, “This is a dream come true for me! I remember being a little kid watching Kikkan (Randall) and Andy (Newell), Simi (Hamilton), and crew at the Olympics and getting so fired up. It feels pretty crazy to get to be here now, a few years later, with my best friends. I feel so thankful for all the people that have worked so hard over the years to help us get here!”

Athletes were selected based upon World Cup results, World Cup rankings, SuperTour results, and the recently completed U.S. Cross-Country Championships.

“We are incredibly excited to be welcoming so many athletes to their first Olympic team,” said U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross-Country Director Chris Grover in a statement. “We’ve been watching this American talent emerge at World Juniors for the past five seasons, and now these very same athletes that have brought home so much hardware are populating the Olympic team. Beijing will be such a valuable experience for them as they progress towards being medal contenders at the highest level. We are also lucky to have the experience, leadership, and professionalism of athletes like Jessie Diggins and Rosie Brennan to show these young athletes what it takes to be successful at this level.”

The 2022 Olympic Winter Games will feature 12 cross-country events, including four individual events for both men and women and two team events for each gender, including the team sprint and the team relay. At each Olympics, disciplines swap between freestyle and classic techniques. For example, Diggins and Kikkan Randall won the freestyle team sprint at the 2018 Games—the first-ever Olympic gold medal for the USA in cross-country skiing. The team sprint hosted at the 2022 Games will be held in the classic technique.

Cross-country kicks off the 2022 Games with its first medal event, the women’s 15k skiathlon on NBC, on Saturday, February 5. The event features two 7.5k legs, with the athletes skiing the classic technique for the first 7.5k, then switching to the freestyle technique for the second 7.5k. The men will compete in the 30k skiathlon on Sunday, February 6— a 15k classic followed by 15k freestyle.