Winter Park skier named to Olympic freestyle team

Svea Irving of Winter Park has been named to the 2026 U.S. freestyle halfpipe Olympic team. She will now compete against the best halfpipe skiers in the world in Milano Cortina, Italy from Feb. 6-23.

Meanwhile, after finishing fifth at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Buttermilk Ski Area in Aspen, her brother, Birk, can claim his fourth and final spot on the men’s roster with a strong performance at the next World Cup event in Laax, Switzerand Jan 15-17.

After both competing at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain Resort in December, the siblings traveled to Calgary, Canada from Jan. 1-3 at the top of year for the Snow Rodeo World Cup halfpipe competition.

Coming off a 10th-place finish at Copper, Svea took seventh in qualifiers in order to advance to the 10-woman final on Saturday.

Svea was not able to execute on her first run of the final, forcing the athlete to go big on her final attempt. With the pressure to perform at an all-time high, she put together a clean run that was highlighted by an alley-oop with a full tweak, a left side 900, a right side 720, a switch left cork 720, a right side 540 and a left side 540 with a Japan grab.

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Svea pumped her arms at the bottom of the halfpipe in celebration before waiting to see her score. To her excitement, she earned a score of 83.20 which was good enough for her to claim the bronze medal in the event. Australia’s Indra Brown took first (85.20) and China’s Kexin Zhang finished in second (84.20).

The celebrations for the Irving family reached another level when Birk Irving capped the day with a podium finish in the men’s freestyle halfpipe finals. After taking second in his heat in qualifiers, he skied with confidence in his skills and abilities.

Birk was able to put down a pretty clean run on his first attempt, but it was his second run that earned him a spot on the podium. Wanting to join his younger sister on the podium, he landed a switch left double 1080, a right side double 1260, a clutch double 1440, a switch right side 720 and a double flat spin.

The run was scored at a 89.80 which was enough to push Birk into third place for the bronze medal.

Nick Goepper of Lawrenceburg, Indiana finished in first to claim a spot on the U.S. Olympic team (94.80) and New Zealand’s Finley Melville Ives took second (92.20).

Both siblings were slated to compete at the U.S. Grand Prix in Aspen on Thursday, Jan. 8, but Svea had to pull out of a contest due to her knee. Birk Irving successfully competed in qualifiers for the event, taking third overall in heat one to advance to the final on Saturday where he placed fifth.

If he does well in Laax, he’ll join Hunter Hess of Bend, Oregon, Nick Goepper of Indiana and Alex Ferreira of Aspen on the halfpipe squad in Italy. Two-time Olympic halfpipe champion David Wise of Reno, Nevada finished 12th is Aspen after struggling to put down a clean run in a highly competitive field, and has likely reached the end of his Olympic road.

This story is from SkyHiNews.com.