Thursday marks one year until the winter Olympics kick off in Milan Cortina. Athletes are ramping up their training ahead of the games, and people around the world are waiting for that opening ceremony.
Thursday marks one year until the winter Olympics kick off in Milan Cortina.
Athletes are ramping up their training ahead of the games, and people around the world are waiting for that opening ceremony.
Some of those people are right here in Connecticut, getting in a few runs on the slopes on a fresh snow day.
”I go to UConn so we had a day off from school, so fresh powder we came down,” Garrett Moe, a UConn student from Wilton, said.
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The ski slope was his vision for the best use of a snow day possible.
“No classes, I’d rather be in the fresh powder any day of the week,” Moe said.
Fresh snow of course meant easy runs down the mountain in Southington.
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“No school, just being able to hang out with our friends,” Emily Bennett, fellow UConn student, said.
They were joined by Lola McMahon who said, “I love skiing, skiing is my favorite. This is my first time on the mountain this year.”
The group even dragged a first-timer along with them.
“Emily was like, 'do you want to go skiing tomorrow?' And I was like 'no,'” Brooke Lambert said.
Lambert is from New Orleans, Louisiana. She said skiing never really crossed her mind ahead of coming to Connecticut for school.
But soon, skiing, and the whole array of winter sports, will be in the spotlight again. The winter Olympics are set to kick off Feb. 6, 2026.
“Probably the half pipe, being able to see that or the bob sled is always the one to watch,” Moe said when asked about his favorite winter Olympic sport to watch.
Preparation is underway in the Italian countryside building a world-class venue. The rest of 2025 world championships and competitions will be happening all over the globe as athletes seek to bring their Olympic dreams to life.
Those watching said there is nothing better than watching the best.
“We care and we gravitate toward it and we sit on the couch and we watch until that flame is extinguished,” Nick Pietruszkiewicz, the interim director for sports communications program at Quinnipiac University, said.
He said people are drawn to the Olympics because it's an event that transcends just sport. Watching people compete at the highest level of their respective profession is special, but there are also incredible human stories of failure and triumph.
“I think we remember at the heart of this, while they are world class athletes, they are people, too,” Pietruszkiewicz said.
At one time, all those athletes were people like Lambert, picking up the sport, for the very first time.
“I’m having a lot more fun than I thought,” Lambert said.
