Meet four Colorado freeskiers looking for a chance to represent Team USA at 2026 Winter Games

Several of the world’s best freeskiers and snowboarders are in Copper Mountain this week for the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix.

Multiple Team USA athletes are eyeing their chance to qualify for the Olympic team, hopefully helping punch their ticket to Milan Cortina 2026 in February.

Last season’s Halfpipe crystal globe winner and Coloradan Alex Ferreira leads a contingent of 18 U.S. skiers in the men’s field of 46.

Reigning Olympic Halfpipe champion Chloe Kim is also competing among a stacked field of snowboarders in the second FIS Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup event of the season.

But getting a podium spot or victory at the Grand Prix at Copper Mountain also increases one’s chances of earning a spot on Team USA.

It is not guaranteed, however, it is a key Olympic selection event that does contribute toward qualification.

Here are four Colorado freeskiers vying for their place on Team USA:

Svea Irving, 23, Winter Park

Irving found the halfpipe initially through exposure at a young age, following in the footsteps of her older brother Birk Irving. She’d watched him first compete in halfpipe events, then decided she wanted a go too.

“I’m from Winter Park and they have a halfpipe as well, but this is the only 22-foot halfpipe that’s close to where I live,” Svea said. “This was where I grew up training and kind of learned to love to ski halfpipe.”

But the male dominated event presented challenges for her at first.

“Just learning to find my own style and just have fun with it, especially being with so many men, was a bit intimidating,” Svea said. “But having my brother and having that support made it a lot easier.”

Fresh off the plane from competitions in China, Svea looks to add on from the Secret Garden competition on home snow at Copper and throughout the rest of the 2026 World Cup Freeski season.

“I definitely have ambitions of going to this Olympics, but I also just have ambitions of getting a new run that I wanted (to complete) for a long time.”

Birk Irving, 26, Winter Park

Irving, Svea’s older brother, recently returned to Colorado after competing in China over the last two weeks, placing fourth in the Halfpipe competition at Secret Garden. Now he’s home and is working his way toward a spot on Team USA.

From a young age, Birk loved catching big air, which the halfpipe will give a rider, and focused on that discipline.

“I always loved jumping off stuff, so I think that drew me to halfpipe,” Birk said. “I did slopestyle and halfpipe growing up, but I think I felt a little better and a little bit more confident in the halfpipe versus a slopestyle course.”

Birk said athletes are putting together some remarkable runs in 2025, ones that keep the sport progressing to the next level.

“The sport right now is pretty insane. You have so many people with such a deep bag of tricks, and everyone in our field has the same capabilities,” he said. “It’s just a matter of piecing it all together.”

Hanna Faulhaber, 21, Aspen

Faulhaber did not travel to China to start the World Cup season, with Copper Mountain being her first competition of the season.

Faulhaber has had good success at Copper in the past. In December 2023, she skied to a second-place finish in Halfpipe and also has a sixth-place finish in Halfpipe at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, showing she’s one of the real deals from Colorado.

“I grew up in Aspen, having X Games there and watching all of those amazing athletes compete, I immediately fell in love with it,” Faulhaber said. “My mom would take me through it when I was younger and I just immediately fell in love and haven’t looked back.”

Faulhaber was seriously injured in a ski training/competition in January 2024, marking a setback she’s still nursing heading into 2026’s World Cup season and Olympic year.

“I’ve had ACL, MCL meniscus, and then some cartilage damage, which is the main thing that I’ve been dealing with lately,” she said. “It’s been honestly kind of ongoing for the past two years.”

However, her injuries are not stopping her from competing at Copper Mountain nor looking ahead at the Olympics.

“I’ve just decided to kind of take this competition, even though it’s an Olympic qualifier, it’s hard, but taking this competition as kind of a get-back-in-there and get the feeling of competing again, take that as a building step, and go from there,” she said.

Dylan Ladd, 24, Lakewood

Ladd credits his coach, Jeremy Livingston, as one reason he is spinning backflips in the halfpipe on the slopes of Colorado. His dad showing him powder skiing at Winter Park is another.

“I grew up on the Winter Park team and did slopestyle for a long time, competed (in) that forever,” Ladd said. “That was kind of (during) the starting age of triples and if (for me) you really wanted to make it towards the US Ski Team or really take this career farther, maybe try the halfpipe.”

Ladd recently returned from three overseas trips during the early season (New Zealand, Austria and China), and is confident he can make a name for himself starting at this year’s Grand Prix.

“I would really like to make it to the (Olympic) Games, make it on that team,” he said. “That’s a huge dream of mine. I’ve been thinking about it forever, so I think that’s priority number one, but also a podium.”

Ladd is no stranger to placing on the podium or securing a victory. His first podium, a second place, was in 2017 at Copper Mountain in a Nor-Am Cup Halfpipe competition. Ladd also has five victories in Nor-Am Cup Halfpipe competitions, with the most recent win at Copper Mountain in March 2022.

Ladd was a first alternate for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics as well.

Ladd and fellow skiers the Irving siblings have known one another for quite some time, and they’ve all been traveling with each other in the early season too.

“We’re all really good friends and we’ve known each other for a long, long time,” he said. “I’ve grown up with Birk and Svea since I was, I don’t know, 10-years-old, on the same ski team. We all have like really good rapport.”

As for Ladd’s thoughts on Team USA and what to expect leading up to Milan-Cortina:

“Just keep an eye out,” he said. “I mean, the team is really stacked, and it’s going to be just a battle to make it onto that four-man team.”

The Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain finals are Friday and Saturday.

The Men’s and Women’s Snowboard Halfpipe finals start at noon on Friday and the Men’s and Women’s Freeski Halfpipe finals start at noon on Saturday.