Eagle para Alpine skier leads Team USA at first Paralympic Games in Milan Cortina
Jed Jacobsohn/OIS/IOC via AP
Eagle para Alpine skier Audrey Crowley has led Team USA in two of the three events she’s contested so far at the Paralympic Games in Milan Cortina.
Crowley finished sixth in the women’s downhill standing on March 7, racing to the base of the Olympia delle Tofane course in 1 minute, 27.26 seconds. She finished just 3.02 seconds off the podium and 5.49 behind Sweden’s gold medalist, Ebba Aarsjoe.
Aarsjoe set the standard in the women’s Alpine combined standing on Tuesday as well. The Swede posted the fastest super-G and slalom times of the day to finish with a two-run time of 2:00.15. Crowley was fifth, 12.15 seconds off the win but just 1.61 seconds away from a bronze medal.
In Monday’s super-G standing, Russia’s Varvara Voronchikhina grabbed gold, followed by Aurelie Richard of France as Aarsjoe rounded out the podium. Kelsey O’Driscoll was the top American in seventh as Crowley placed eighth.
Crowley continues her debut Paralympic Games in the giant slalom standing on March 12 and will contest the slalom standing two days later. The 19-year-old won a bronze medal in the GS and was fifth in slalom at the world championships last year in Maribor, Slovenia.
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Crowley was an integral part of the Eagle Valley girls softball team that qualified for the state tournament in 2024. After moving to Vail from Grafton, Wisconsin as a fifth-grader, the Ski and Snowboard Club Vail athlete — who was born with a right arm that ends at the elbow — has competed in both able-bodied and adaptive races across the country. The Paralympic Games aren’t her first visit to Italy: After making the U.S. Para Alpine team in the fall of 2023, Crowley made her para Alpine World Cup debut in Cortina in January 2024, placing fourth in the downhill and fifth in both the super-G and slalom.
Crowley said preparation for the Games has been a little different than other World Cups.
“We did a training camp together as an Alpine team and it was the most females we’ve ever had on the team together,” she explained in a video interview Team USA posted on Saturday.. “I think all of us kind of coming together, working for each other and trying to bring each other up — it’s been really amazing.”
Crowley was coming home from the grocery store with her mom when she found out she qualified for the Paralympics.
“I got a call from my coach,” she said. “It kind of just brought all the emotions because it was finally real. Qualifying for the Paralympics meant my dreams were coming true. … I’ve wanted this for as long as I can remember.”
