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From left to right- Meryl Davis & Charlie White (Ice Dancing), Mikaela Shiffrin (Alpine Skiing), Shani Davis (long track speedskating), J.R. Celski (Short Track Speedskating), Shaun White (Snowboarding…and now calls Northstar his home mountain), Tracy Gold (Figure Skating) and Ted Ligety (Alpine Skiing)
(Photo via NBC Olympics Facebook Page)
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While the Winter Olympics in Sochi will be fun for everyone to watch, for those of us with Tahoe-Truckee connections, we also have a big home team to get excited about. Six skiers and eight snowboarders with strong Tahoe connections will be competing for Gold in Sochi.
Tahoe-Truckee folks wish all the athletes a safe and incredible journey, and if you can bring home a bit of gold, silver or bronze, that would be some nice icing on the cake.
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Julia Mancuso (Photo NBC Olympics)
http://www.nbcolympics.com/photos/meet-us-olympic-alpine-team
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SKIERS
Three time Olympic medalist Julia Mancuso, Marco Sullivan and Travis Ganong, were all born and raised Squaw Valley/North Tahoe kids who will be competing in Alpine events. Joining the Alpine team is Tim Jitloff from Reno, who started skiing Tahoe resorts when he was just a little tyke. David Wise from Reno, and Maddie Bowman from South Lake Tahoe, are coming off Gold medal performances in the recent X Games and now are on their way to Sochi to be a part of the first ever Olympic half-pipe skiing competition.
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SNOWBOARDERS
Truckee based Nate Holland and Olympic Gold Medal winner Hannah Teter, who lives in South Lake Tahoe, are the two senior members of the impressive Tahoe snowboarding contingent. Others include Tahoe transplants and Slopestyle racers Chas Guldemond, Ryan Stassel and Karly Shorr, as well as half-pipe competitor Danny Davis. Finally, the Tahoe snowboarding team is graced with South Lake Tahoe born and raised Slopestyler Jamie Anderson.
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NORDIC SKIERS
While there are no Tahoe cross-country skiers headed to Sochi, the Tahoe cross-country skiing community will be cheering on American’s Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins, who have a legitimate shot at medaling in cross-country this year. These two ladies came to Tahoe last spring to be a part of a program called Fast and Female, and made an incredibly positive impression on local girls who cross-country ski.
*For a full roster of the American Athletes competing in Sochi, their photos and profiles, go to this link for NBC Olympics:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/team-usa-who-has-qualified-2014-sochi-olympics?ctx=team-usa
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And don’t forget to follow the athletes at NBC Olympics on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/nbcolympics
(Many of the athletes have facebook pages as well. Great fun being taken along for the ride on their Olympic journey.)
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Think of me, Lynn Richardson, for all of your Truckee/Tahoe Real Estate Needs