Parkites Kuhn, Vinecki, Tanner, and Dossa fly high in aerials at the Milano Cortina Olympics

Park City's Tasia Tanner at the Womens Aerials in the Milan Cortina Olympics. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

CORTINA, Italy — Four women from Park City competed for Team USA in Olympic aerials Wednesday. Two-time Olympians Kaila Kuhn and Winter Vinecki finished in fifth and sixth place, respectively, to make it into the aerials finals. Tasia Tanner made it into the semifinals and Kyra Dossa into the quarterfinals. 

The gold medal went to China, the silver to Australia, and the bronze to China as well.

Kuhn jumped a back, Full, Full, Full with a degree of difficulty of 4.293 getting a score of 99.16, and Vinecki performed the same jump and received a score of 90.58. Due to an inclement weather cancellation on the Official Qualification Day the day prior, every athlete on the startlist had to do all the qualifications and the competition in one go, a feat practically unheard of, and, as they all discussed afterwards, the event was very tiring. Kuhn had some hard contacts with the ground during the day but never ceased to keep going back up for the next round.

“We have such a tight knit, small sport that we are all so proud of one another for throwing such hard, scary tricks,” Kuhn told news outlets in the finish area. “And I think that’s a bond that we all have together.” Kuhn is originally from Michigan, and attends the University of Utah.

Vinecki, who grew up in Ohio and is currently pursuing a law degree, may have been running on pure adrenaline during the longer-than-normal competition day. In the finish area, she said that her alarm didn’t go off this morning and, to add to that Olympic-level stress, when she got to the top of the slippery course, she slid down and unexpectedly got a gauge in her ski base, requiring her to use a backup pair. Her advice to young athletes back home on her Park City Ski & Snowboard Club: “Keep working hard, just keep putting one step, one foot in front of the other, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. Just keep moving forward, no matter what obstacles you face.”

Tanner was born and raised in Park City and refers fondly back to the evolution of the Park City Ski & Snowboard Club when it used to be Fly Freestyle. Tyler and Shawnee, her mom and dad, are here in the stands rooting for her along with her fiance, Maxwell. “One of the major reasons I started aerials was the fact that that pool was there at the Utah Olympic Park, and we’ve been able to have a home base there,” she told TownLift exclusively after her first round. “A lot of us have built a life for ourselves in Park City because the pool.” Tanner, who works full time at the Waldorf Astoria for Hilton, said that her wedding, ongoing surgeries, and the financial demands of elite competition may lead her to forgo a second Olympics and instead focus on putting her University of Utah graduate education to use.

Dossa, also from Ohio, echoed that sentiment, telling reporters that the summer shows in the UOP pool are “extremely helpful getting used to jumping in front of the big crowd with lots of noise. It’s really good practice for pressure, and it’s fun and we make money.” She has a part-time job at the Silver King Coffee Shop and is also a student at the University of Utah.

At the medalists press conference, the silver medalist Australian athlete said that they no longer needed to rely on the assistance of a few global places like the Utah Olympic Park, as they had done for decades, since Australia has just built their own freestyle summer pool training facility. 

The Italian national television station presenting the Olympics had a segment on the origins of the sport of freestyle skiing and attributed its vibrant, robust culture to Park City’s Stein Ericksen.