New Olympian Canter reflects on time with AVSC as Aspen helps send athletes to Italy

Colorado snowboarder Jake Canter takes part in the Road to Italy Olympic send-off celebration with U.S. Ski & Snowboard on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, at the base of Aspen Mountain.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

Jake Canter won his first World Cup on Saturday in Snowmass. Afterward, he was officially named to the U.S. Olympic team for the first time ahead of next month’s Games in Milan Cortina. And it all came together in a place near and dear to his heart.

“It’s unbelievable. To do it on that course and here, it was a dream,” Canter said late Saturday from the “Road to Italy” Olympic send-off celebration hosted by U.S. Ski & Snowboard at the base of Aspen Mountain. “I have a lot of friends, a lot of family here. I don’t know what it is. There is a certain energy in this valley. You wake up in the morning, and you are excited, ready to get after it. I love it here.”

The send-off, which included a free concert by popular ’90s ska punk band Less Than Jake, concluded four straight days of competition as part of the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix and World Cup. With halfpipe athletes dropping in at Buttermilk, and slopestyle riders going big in Snowmass, the comps provided many a final chance to qualify for the Winter Olympics, which begin Feb. 6 in northern Italy.

The 22-year-old Canter hails from Evergreen, but in his youth would spend many weekends training with the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club, which led the Roaring Fork Valley to becoming a second home for the then-aspiring pro slopestyle snowboarder.

He credits fellow Colorado rider and Olympian Chris Corning, who is recently retired, and coach Nichole Mason for inspiring him to come to Aspen. Corning’s development into one of the top U.S. riders had a lot to do with Mason, who received national recognition as a snowboard coach during her first tenure with AVSC before she joined the U.S. national team as a coach. Mason returned to AVSC in 2023 where she is now the club’s snowboard program director.

Canter made his surprise X Games debut at age 15, just two years after a horrific training accident at Copper Mountain resulted in a serious head injury that nearly took everything. At 17, that same injury again reared its head after bacterial meningitis from leaking spinal fluid almost killed him.

“When I was 13, I had a really bad injury and that set me back a bit. Nichole helped me a lot with getting back into things,” Canter recalled. “That time, it was really important for me, too, because I won a lot of the junior events and that’s when I got named to the U.S. rookie team and Red Bull and all those things started to happen.”

Colorado snowboarder Jake Canter, left, chats with host Jon “DC” Oetken during the Road to Italy Olympic send-off celebration with U.S. Ski & Snowboard on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, at the base of Aspen Mountain.Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

Canter’s Olympic nomination was hardly assured entering the week. But after leading men’s snowboard slopestyle qualifying on Thursday in Snowmass, he finished the job in finals on Saturday by scoring 85.16 to beat China’s Yiming Su (84.18) and New Zealand’s Dane Menzies (83.68) to the top step of the podium.

With U.S. Ski & Snowboard prioritizing wins above all else in the Olympic team selection process, Canter suddenly finds himself in need of a plane ticket to Italy. Like all U.S. slopestyle athletes, he’ll also compete in big air at the Games.

“Being able to represent the United States of America has always been the dream,” he said. “It’s scary what we do out there, and it’s hard to conquer a lot of those fears. But about two, three years ago, I really just kind of figured something out in my mind. I just became very comfortable, and my air awareness got better, so I just trained and trained and trained and did those tricks over and over to make sure I had the muscle memory.”

Summit County snowboarder Red Gerard, right, talks with host Brad Jay during the Road to Italy Olympic send-off celebration with U.S. Ski & Snowboard on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, at the base of Aspen Mountain.Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

The only other snowboard slopestyle athlete the U.S. has named to its Olympic team so far is Silverthorne’s Red Gerard, who clinched his spot at the end of last season. Now 25, Gerard’s breakout came when he won Olympic slopestyle gold in Sochi 2018 (he was fourth in Beijing 2022) and says he can feel the heat from his fellow countryman to keep the standards high in his third trip to the Games.

“In a way it took off a lot of pressure, but then you watch Jake over here riding like today, and I’m like, damn, the pressure is right back,” Gerard said of qualifying early while standing next to Canter on stage. “It’s been really fun. Enjoyed the last two, but going over to Italy, I think it will be great to have that regular Olympic experience.”

Slow roll out for U.S. Olympic teams

Only nine athletes were officially announced as making the U.S. Olympic team on Saturday night in Aspen.

Being recognized in person were Canter, Gerard, Aspen’s Alex Ferreira (ski pipe), Indiana’s Nick Goepper (ski pipe), Oregon’s Hunter Hess (ski pipe), Winter Park’s Svea Irving (ski pipe), and Utah’s Alex Hall (ski slope). Utah’s Troy Podmilsak (ski slope) and California halfpipe snowboarder Chloe Kim were also announced, but neither were in attendance.

Sophie Goldschmidt, left, president and CEO of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, talks to the crowd during the Road to Italy Olympic send-off celebration on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, at the base of Aspen Mountain.Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

“It’s an honor to host these athletes,” said John Rigney, Aspen One’s chief business development officer, about hosting both the Grand Prix and the send-off celebration. “We’ve been very happy and frankly happy to be able to host the best in the world here. Going back to 1950 with the alpine world championships, X Games, Snow League, but we have wanted this event for years and we’ve chased it.”

With longtime ski and snowboard hosts Jon “DC” Oetken and Brad Jay running the show, other speakers on Saturday included Skogen Sprang, the U.S. freeski sport director, and U.S. Ski & Snowboard President and CEO Sophie Goldschmidt.

“I’m feeling nervous, but always quietly confident,” Goldschmidt said about the U.S. team ahead of the Olympics. “The overwhelming feeling is pride. These athletes make us so proud on a daily basis, and we’ve seen it the last few days. The performances have been amazing and there is a lot on the line. You can imagine the pressure they are under.”

Halfpipe skier Nick Goepper of Indiana pumps up the crowd during the Road to Italy Olympic send-off celebration with U.S. Ski & Snowboard on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, at the base of Aspen Mountain.Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

Part of the reason for the delay in naming all the halfpipe and slopestyle athletes is next week’s Laax Open in Switzerland, the final World Cup before the Games. There are halfpipe and slopestyle comps for snowboarding, and slopestyle for skiing. Aspen was the final halfpipe skiing World Cup before the Olympics. X Games Aspen, scheduled for Jan. 23-25, does not directly impact Olympic qualifying.

Each individual team within U.S. Ski & Snowboard has its own unique Olympic qualifying procedure, thus making the process sometimes confusing for athletes and fans alike.

“There is no easy way to make the squad,” Sprang said, making note of how an emphasis on a single win means athletes can still have dreams to qualify for the Olympic team right to the final whistle. “It gives people a chance right up to the last event. Super exciting, really valuing that win and the ability to come out and win an event on any given day, as the Olympics is a one-day event.”

Among the teams mostly accounted for is men’s halfpipe skiing. Ferreira, Goepper, and now Hess, after finishing runner-up to New Zealand’s Finley Melville Ives on Saturday, are locked in for Milan Cortina. The fourth spot has not been named, although the most likely candidates include New York’s Matt Labaugh and Winter Park’s Birk Irving.

Aspen halfpipe skier Alex Ferreira greets the crowd during the Road to Italy Olympic send-off celebration with U.S. Ski & Snowboard on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, at the base of Aspen Mountain.Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

The 31-year-old Ferreira clinched his third trip to the Games with his win at the Aspen Grand Prix last winter; he was a mere sixth on Saturday, snapping his long streak of World Cup podiums. But he remains one of the Olympic gold-medal frontrunners and is one of the most proven names in the world with a silver (2018) and bronze (2022) already to his name.

“It’s the best feeling ever,” Ferreira said Saturday of heading back to the Olympics. “Got to complete the set. Got the silver, got the bronze, got to create the rainbow.”

While the 26-year-old Birk Irving is holding out hope for a second Olympics, his 23-year-old younger sister, Svea, is headed to her first. She did not compete in Aspen this past week but looks ready to go for Italy.

“I struggled to find words,” she said from the Aspen stage, “but this has been a dream for a very long time, and I’ve worked hard for this, so very excited for the opportunity to represent the U.S.”

The other members of the U.S. women’s halfpipe ski team have not yet been named. Basalt’s Hanna Faulhaber, a 2022 Olympian, is on the short list of athletes being considered. She finished ninth on Saturday in Aspen.

acolbert@aspentimes.com