Rosie Brennan looking to make a splash in her second Olympic Games

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Rosie Brennan, the Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center skier, is on the Team USA Olympic ski team for a second time. She is looking to carry over her success on the World Cup circuit to the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing.

Last year, Brennan made United States Nordic skiing history when she and Jessie Diggins raced to a 1-2 finish in the 10-kilometer freestyle pursuit in Val Müstair, Switzerland. They secured the first-ever 1-2 finish for the U.S. in a FIS cross-country skiing World Cup Women’s race. With the second place finish, Brennan became just the second American ever to don the yellow bib as the world cup overall leader. That is the type of performance she is looking to bring to the sport’s biggest stage.

“My goal is just to be in the mix, like be part of the race, be in a place where I, you know, have an opportunity to make a move and just be like, actually part of the action instead of just hanging on for dear life,” Brennan said.

She remains humble as she is coming off of three straight wins: a national championship in the 20k freestyle and then two U.S. Super Tour wins, one in the 5k freestyle and one in the 10k classic.

Brennan is currently in Beijing waiting for the games to start. She is getting settled into the village but has been able to check out the trails they will be racing on. This is huge because up until now, she and all of the other racers had not yet seen what they would be racing on.

Brennan said that the course is smooth and made of artificial snow. The snow won’t really change her game plan, but will change her equipment.

“If you can imagine what an individual snowflake looks like, that kind of snow crystal is very different from one that’s artificially made, and so the shape of the crystals kind of impacts what types of skis you might use or the wax you might use on your skis. And so it definitely impacts that, but that is for the tech team to figure out not me,” Brennan said with a laugh.

Hopefully Alaskans will see Brennan smiling on the podium after she races in the women’s 7.5k on Saturday, Feb. 4.

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