MILAN (AP) — There won’t be any delayed Olympic celebrations this time for U.S. moguls star Jaelin Kauf.
Her family is here in Italy to cheer on Kauf at the Milan Cortina Games. Because of COVID-19 restrictions four years ago in Beijing, they had to stay home in Wyoming as Kauf won the silver medal.
“It’s so special to be able to have them all here, to be at the bottom of the course watching and a part of the whole experience,” Kauf said Wednesday at a press conference in Milan with her teammates. “It was definitely sad to kind of miss out on that last time.”
Kauf’s mother, Patti, and her father, Scott, are multiple-time champions in the freestyle discipline from back in the 1980s and ’90s. They’ll be on hand at Livigno Aerials and Moguls Park along with Kauf’s brother, Skyler.
“My parents, my brother — this entire group of friends and family is why I’m here doing what I do,” the 29-year-old Kauf said. “They’re the ones who have — behind the scenes — been helping me get to this point. We all know it takes a community — and they’re that community.
“So it’s going to be really special to be able to just share this entire Olympic experience with them.”
Dealing with pressure
Kauf enters the competition as a podium favorite, along with Australia’s Jakara Anthony, who who gold in Beijing in 2022. Women’s moguls begins Tuesday and the final is a day later. Dual moguls has been added as a new Olympic event in freestyle skiing, giving Kauf and others another chance to win medals.
The American was also a favorite at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games but finished seventh.
“I put more pressure on myself than anyone else. I felt that pressure immensely at those Games, and I learned a lot from that, of just how to handle competing on this stage and the expectations and pressure and all of that,” she said.
Kauf took a different mindset into Beijing, “that pressure is a privilege and it is what you make of it.”
“I’m just out there to ski for an audience of one,” she added. “I have a huge crowd and a huge support system there to cheer me on regardless of where I end up at the end of the day.”
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