The American team released its list of 232 athletes for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
The American Olympic and Paralympic Committee put the list onlineUSOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland said it was an “extraordinary group of athletes whose commitment, perseverance and spirit reflect the best of Team USA.”
The team is made up of 117 men and 115 women. The star athletes range in age from 15-year-old freeskier Abby Winterberger of California, the youngest on the list, to 54-year-old curler Rich Ruohonen of Minnesota.
Ruohonen, a personal injury lawyer, will be the oldest American to ever compete in the Winter Olympics, according to Team USA.
This will be the first Winter Games for Winterberger and Ruohonen. They join the veterans Lindsey Vonn and bobsledders Kaillie Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor, who are among seven Americans making their fifth appearance at the games.
The other quintuples are hockey player Hilary Knight, figure skater Evan Bates and skateboarders Faye Thelen and Nick Baumgartner.
Meyers Taylor leads a group of 33 returning medalists. She won three silver and two bronze medals while Humphries won three gold medals. Mikaela Shiffrin and Chloe Kim each have two gold medals.
The opening ceremony is scheduled for February 6 in Milan, and some competitions will begin on February 4.
These will be the largest Olympics in history, with Milan serving as home base for hockey, figure skating and speed skating, and Cortina and a handful of other mountain clusters hosting skiing, snowboarding, biathlon, board sports and the new Olympic sport of ski mountaineering.
