STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
There will be some familiar faces at the Winter Olympics next month in Italy. Some athletes are returning for the third, fourth or even fifth time. Here's NPR's Pien Huang.
PIEN HUANG, BYLINE: They've done the opening ceremonies. They've slept in Olympic villages. They've healed many injuries, and they're competing with athletes half their age. Still, after all these years, Alpine skier Lindsey Vonn says she's ready.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LINDSEY VONN: I think I'm in potentially the best shape of my life, which is saying something at my age (laughter).
HUANG: Vonn is 41 years old. Her first Olympics was more than 20 years ago. Now she's back at the Games for the fifth time.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VONN: I think this is different because I have nothing to prove. I feel like I'm light, I'm happy, I'm free. I'm doing it because I love it. And I also have a lot more perspective now, having been away from the sport for six years.
HUANG: In 2019, she retired from racing after a series of bad knee injuries. A few years later, she surgically replaced part of her knee and felt pain-free for the first time in decades.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VONN: I knew that I could compete. I knew the way I felt on my skis. I believe that my hard work will pay off, and I believe that Cortina is a perfect way to end my career.
HUANG: Vonn is among a small crew of American top-tier medal contenders returning for their fifth Olympics, including ice dancer Evan Bates, hockey player Hilary Knight, Elana Meyers Taylor on the bobsled and Nick Baumgartner, who races snowboard cross.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
NICK BAUMGARTNER: I'll be 44 at this Olympics. There - just put it into perspective for you guys, there's five kids on my team younger than the years I've been on the U.S. snowboard team.
HUANG: In snowboard cross, four competitors bomb down an obstacle course together, trying to finish first. Baumgartner is slower out of the gate these days but wiser.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BAUMGARTNER: I need everything that I can because it's not getting easier, right? And these kids are getting faster every time I go out.
HUANG: At the 2022 Olympic Games, Baumgartner was the oldest competing snowboarder.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BAUMGARTNER: I've had the longevity in my career to do things the wrong way, learn from that and correct that. And I think that's why you saw me have my best season of my career at 40 years old and come home with a gold medal.
HUANG: That gold medal changed his life. He does less construction work, has more endorsements and speaking gigs and published a book called "Gold From Iron" about his Olympic path. American medalists returning for their fourth Olympics include Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin, cross-country skier Jessie Diggins, speedskater Brittany Bowe and Nick Goepper, a 31-year-old free skier who went to the last three Winter Olympics in slopestyle - doing tricks off of rails and jumps in a terrain park. He has two silver medals, one bronze, but was burned out after the 2022 Beijing Games.
NICK GOEPPER: It almost felt like something was wrong with me, you know? Like, how do you fall out of love with something that was so important to you as a child?
HUANG: Goepper retired. Sponsors like Red Bull left. He took a second mortgage on his house and a few months off. Then he and a friend spent a few weeks building a large training ramp in the desert. He calls it Rollerblade Ranch.
GOEPPER: Building that whole thing and filming it and training on it was really, really, really hard.
HUANG: Goepper says it gave him the confidence to start seriously pursuing a different free ski event - the halfpipe.
GOEPPER: And it really could have been anything. I could have climbed mountains. I could have, like, sailed across the ocean. I could have done advanced calculus. The point is, is that doing something really hard and accomplishing it built my personal confidence going into the season.
HUANG: He's back for his fourth Olympics and his first in free ski halfpipe. Goepper and other veteran athletes are here to win, but they've also developed identities and meaningful lives beyond their sport. That perspective, they say, is a secret strength.
Pien Huang, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE OLYMPIANS' "PLUTO'S LAMENT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
