It is to no surprise that DU has six current student athletes competing in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Since the 1948 Winter Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland, more than 40 Pioneers have represented DU as either athletes or coaches in alpine skiing alone.
Current Pio alpine skiers include junior Trevor Philp (Calgary, Alberta) and freshman Sebastian Brigovic (Rijeka, Croatia). They will be competing for their respective home countries this month. A former DU alpine skier who skied for Denver in 2009 and 2010, Leif Kristian Haugen from Lommendalen, Norway was also named to the Norwegian team.
This season, Philip is the top seed in the NCAA championship for the Grand Slalom event for Denver and Sochi will be Philp’s Olympic debut. Brigovic will also be making his first Olympic appearance. As a freshman, Brigovic was a standout for the Pioneers and this season he has been on the podium for the past four races Denver has competed in.
For Haugen, Sochi will be his second Olympic experience, as the Vancouver Olympics in 2010 were his first debut. While a member of the Pioneer team, Haugen placed 28th in the Grand Slalom event for the Norwegian team in 2010.
Three other Pioneers will also be carrying on the DU tradition while competing on the global stage in Sochi.
Denver alum Paul Stastny, who played two seasons of hockey at DU and was a member of the 2005 national championship team, will be playing on the U.S. men’s hockey team for the second time in his career. Stastny, who is also currently a player for the Colorado Avalanche, received a silver medal in the Vancouver games after an overtime loss to Canada. So far in Sochi, Stastny has scored two goals for the U.S.
Another former Pioneer, Kevin Dineen, will be the head coach for the Canadian women’s hockey team in Sochi. Dineen was a former captain for DU who went on to play in the 1984 Sarajevo Games. Dineen also played for the NHL and later moved on to coaching.
Keri Herman, a Denver graduate from 2005, will also be competing in the debut of slopestyle skiing in Sochi. A native from Minnesota, Herman was not a D1 athlete for DU, but is a favorite to secure a medal in this first-ever Olympic event.
A Denver alumna from 2009 and world-renowned figure skater Michelle Kwan will be covering the Winter Games as an analyst for FOX Sports. Kwan was a two-time Olympic medalist, receiving a silver medal in the 1998 Nagano games and a bronze in the 2002 Salt Lake games before starting her academic career at DU.
The Sochi Olympics will conclude on Feb. 23. Tune in to watch the DU athletes for the remainder of the Winter Games.
