Team USA going to Sochi Olympics draws 6 from Mammoth Lakes

Mammoth Lakes will be well represented starting next week at the Winter Olympics. The Eastern Sierra community, with a population of 8,234, is sending six athletes to the Games in Sochi, Russia, and they’ll compete in a variety of disciplines from ski cross to snowboarding.

While some grew up in Mammoth Lakes and others moved there later in life to train, they all call Mammoth home.

The contingent would be even larger, but one of Mammoth’s most impressive athletes, 13-year-old women’s halfpipe phenom Chloe Kim, is too young to compete. She’ll have her chance in four years at the XXIII Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

In the meantime, here’s a closer look at this year’s Olympic-bound athletes from Mammoth:

  • John Teller was the first American to win a ski cross World Cup event, topping the podium in 2011. Most recently, Teller took first in Val Thorens, France, making him the only American to podium in ski cross this World Cup season, and sending him to Sochi.
  • Kelly Clark clinched her spot on the U.S. Olympic Snowboard Team for halfpipe early in the season. Clark has been to the Olympics three times before, bringing home a gold and a bronze in the halfpipe event. Most recently she took first in halfpipe at this year’s X Games in Aspen.
  • In what was deemed the most surprising result of any Olympic sport this season, Trevor Jacobwon won a World Cup snowboardcross event in Vallnord-Arcalís, Andorra, which placed him on his first U.S. Olympic Team.
  • With a season that included upsetting Shaun White in the first of five Olympic selection events for halfpipe, snowboarder Greg Bretz earned his stripes and his place on the team. It will be Bretz’s second trip to the Olympics. He placed 12th in Vancouver in 2010.
  • Stacey Cook earned two, back-to-back downhill second-place finishes at the Audi FIS World Cup 2012/13, marking the first podiums of her World Cup career and the first step on her road to Sochi. Recently, she wrapped up her spot on the Olympic team with some of her best World Cup finishes of the season. This will be her third trip to the Olympics.
  • Kaya Turski is a Canadian freestyle skier who also is a member of the Mammoth Unbound Freeski Team. She heads to Sochi to compete in the Olympic debut of the slopestyle event. Most recently she won her fourth X Games gold medal for slopestyle in the 2014 event in Aspen.