The 2026 Winter Olympics began Feb. 6 in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy with an opening ceremony which gathered athletes from across the world. Every four years, the international multi-sport event takes place featuring various winter sports including skating, skiing, snowboarding, bobsleigh, and more. Oregon has sent athletes for over 60 years, and will continue to be represented by the best.
Olympics returner Jacqueline Wiles grew up in Portland. She trained with the Pacific Northwest Ski Association before joining the U.S. alpine ski team in 2013 after winning the U.S. Alpine Downhill title at the Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team Speed Center. She earned her first World Cup downhill podium in third place in 2017, followed by another third place in 2018. She suffered a knee injury that prevented her from joining her team in the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. After recovery, Wiles continued to gain downhill finishes that qualified her for the 2025 World Championships teams where she now competes in Super G downhill alpine skiing — which is a single run large scale turn race. She and teammate Paula Moltzan won the bronze in the women’s combined event, a new Olympic format introduced at these games. She finished fourth in a Super G tournament, narrowly missing a medal.
Like many Oregon athletes, Sean FitzSimons began snowboarding at a young age on our beloved Mt. Hood. After joining Mount Bachelor’s snowboard team, he pursued professional snowboarding through competing in events including halfpipe, big air and slopestyle. In 2022 FitzSimons won the men’s slopestyle competition at the Laax Open in Switzerland with a score of 80.91 points, which helped solidify his international standing and qualified him for the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. During the games, he finished 12th in snowboard slopestyle and 17th in snowboard big air.
Hunter Hess, born in Bend, OR, competed in Freeski Halfpipe for his first Olympic appearance. Hess has obtained several World Cup halfpipe podium medals, including two second-place finishes in the 2025-2026 season and multiple X Games bronze medals. His competition took place in Livigno, Italy from Feb. 19-20, far from central Oregon’s Mount Bachelor.
At 17, Alessandro Barbieri is Oregon’s youngest qualifier of the competition. He is known for his specialized drop in routine where he claps his hands three times and does an ollie before dropping into the pipe. He competes for Tahoe Select Snowboard Team in the United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association Mount Hood Division, placing ninth in the 2025 men’s halfpipe World Championship. While competing in The Snow League events during the 2025-2026 season, Barbieri became the first American and youngest rider in the World to land a triple cork 1440 in a halfpipe competition. This trick involves three off-axis backflips while rotating three full horizontal rotations of 1440 degrees.
While new athletes may set new precedents and records for the further elevation of winter sports, it is crucial to commemorate the accomplishments of past athletes. Lauren Goss, University of Oregon’s special collections and university archives organizer, has put together an Olympic games archives tour. It can be found at the Knight Library Special Collections and University Archives during the Olympic games. It highlights Oregon’s connection to the Olympic and winter sport history.
The tour offers an overview of the University of Oregon’s longstanding connection to the Olympic movement. It features materials highlighting Olympians and coaches, contributions of Oregonians, as well as examples of university research in sport and human performance. These historical materials provide essential context for understanding the significance of the Olympic Games. They document who competed, how they performed, and the stories that shaped each era. In other words, historical materials help answer the question of why the Olympics resonate for a global community. Many people will not have the opportunity to attend the Olympics, but they may have a chance to attend a track and field meet like the Olympic Trials at Hayward Field and see athletes competing at a high level.
“I hope attendees leave with a strong understanding of the University of Oregon’s longstanding contributions to the Olympic movement, whether through individual athletic achievements or groundbreaking research,” Goss emphasizes. By preserving and providing access to these records, archivists help maintain these connections and strengthen the role of sports in society in both the present and future.
“It looks incredibly difficult, but it’s interesting to see so many different countries come together to compete,” says Keteryna Vlad, a Franklin freshman. Between Bend’s halfpipes and Hood River’s Big Air, our competitors are proving the Beaver State doesn’t just bring in medals, it snowboards, skis and sends them downhill in style.
