U Student Olympic Athletes Representing the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the 2026 Winter Olympics (Part 2)
By Nathan Murthy
Thirty-one athletes with ties to the University of Utah are currently competing on Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics. In fact, the U ranks No. 1 among all U.S. colleges and universities represented at the Milano-Cortina Games.
Eleven of these esteemed U athletes are embedded in the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences. Some are alumni of the U; others will be graduating soon. Here we profile each of them in the second of two stories about CSBS students currently competing in Italy. (You can read part one of this two-part series here.)
One of the U-affiliated athletes is representing Saudi Arabia, now participating in his second Olympic games: Fayik Abdi. (You can read a story about U alumnus Fayik here.)
The College extends a hearty congratulations to our students currently in Italy.
We are rooting for all of U!
ALUMNI
A Utah native, Marin Hamill's first time strapping on skis was at Alta when she was just two –years old. Growing up in Park City, she began training and competing in alpine skiing, but every time a race was set to begin she was coincidentally under the weather and unable to ski.
Then she discovered park skiing. While in alpine skiing, there is not much room for creativity—your only job is to get down the slope as quickly as you can—with park skiing, innovation and invention are at the forefront. Hamill used that creativity to earn a silver medal in slopestyle at the 2022 World Cup in France. At the 2021 FIS World Championships in Aspen, Colorado she finished fifth and was the only American to reach the eight-person final. In 2022, Hamill competed in her first Winter Olympics in Beijing and placed seventh on her first run. However, on her second run she fell hard and tore both her meniscus and ACL. Two surgeries and an intense rehabilitation process left her sidelined for nearly two years.
Once she was healthy again, Hamill picked right up where she left off. In the 2024 Stubai World Cup she finished eighth and at the 2026 Laax Open she placed second—earning a silver medal. At this year's X Games Knuckle Huck in Aspen, Hamill the virtuoso was on full display. She started off with a "switch right tail butter 720"—a trick where you enter the run backwards, spin two times, drag the tail of your skis and land backwards. This was her first trick and with it she jumped to first place and stayed there—securing the gold medal against some fierce competition.
While competing at the highest level, Hamill also graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in financial planning and counseling. Milan-Cortino will be the Utah local's second Olympic Games.
Grace Henderson grew up in the mountains of New Hampshire and was only a two-year-old when she started skiing. In those early years, she trained as an alpine skier for several seasons, but her attention soon turned to her brother Hunter, a freestyle skier. Her spark of interest in the discipline soon became her full-flame passion.
Henderson attended Waterville Valley Academy where she honed her skiing skills. During the 2019-20 season, both she and her brother joined the US Freeski Slopestyle Rookie Team. Together, they actively pursued their dreams to become professional skiers and to compete in the Winter Olympics.
Then, during the 2022-23 season, Henderson established herself on the world stage at the Stubai World Cup event where she stomped a "switch right 900 tail grab." The move involves entering the jump backwards, rotating right 2.5 times, all the while grabbing the tail of your skis. It was a difficult trick that when executed earned her a third-place finish—her first world cup podium.
Henderson has dealt with many injuries in her career including multiple ACL tears which kept from traveling in 2018 to PyeongChang to compete in the Winter Olympics. In 2023 she suffered a broken collarbone.
After recovering from that injury, she needed to perform well to secure an Olympic spot in 2026. And so, she went on to win silver in the big air event at the 2025 X Games in Aspen, Colorado. As her results improved, so did her global standings, and by the 2025-26 season she was ranked 10th in freeski slopestyle and 27th in big air. She was selected for both events in the 2026 Milan-Cortino Olympics. During this time, she also received a degree from the University of Utah in psychology.
Whether it be injuries, school or the hard creative work required to be at the top of her sport—Henderson has pushed through to realize her childhood dream.
Alex Hall
Freeskiing: Slopestyle & Big Air
Major: Environmental and Sustainability Studies
Men’s Silver in Freeski Slopetyle
Alex Hall was born in Alaska but was raised in Zürich from the age of one to sixteen where his parents were professors at the University of Zürich. Growing up, Hall built his own custom rails in his backyard and nearly every day would practice hour after hour perfecting his craft. These foundational years helped him hone his technical abilities, and now he is considered one of the most versatile freestyle skiers in the world.
Hall holds both an Italian and U.S. passport—due to this international background he notably speaks English, German, Swiss German, Italian and French. In a USA Today interview he mentioned that he had talked with Italian coaches about competing for them. But when he was 16, Hall moved to Park City and quickly concluded that he would represent Team USA.
Once back in the states, Hall was unstoppable. In the 2016 Junior Olympics in Lillehammer,
Norway he finished fourth in the halfpipe and second in slopestyle. In 2018, he competed
in his first Olympics in PyeongChang, placing sixteenth in slopestyle. Then in 2022,
he earned a gold medal in the slopestyle event at the Beijing Olympics.
Beyond excelling in the Olympics, Hall is the fourth athlete in the history of the X Games to win gold in big air, slopestyle, knuckle huck and real ski. He made history in 2022 by becoming the first person to ever land a 2160 (six full rotations) in competition.
Ascendant success in skiing has landed him awards such as Sskier of the Yyear in 2020, 2022 and 2026, and the Utah Governor's State of Sports Awards Olympic Male Athlete of the Year in 2022. He has also produced several ski films through his ski film brand "Magma" which he co-founded with US Ski teammate Hunter Hess. The 2026 Olympics in Italy will be Hall’s third time at the Games.
Novie McCabe grew up in Winthrop, Washington where she trained on the Methow Valley trail system and was exposed to cross-country skiing at a young age. In third grade she set the goal of competing in the Olympics someday. Her mother Laura was a two-time Olympian in the sport—competing in Lillehammer, Norway in 1994 and Nagano, Japan in 1998. The combination of access to the largest cross-country trail system in the country, intense determination from a young age and an elite athletic presence in her mom helped McCabe become the athlete she is today.
While at Liberty Bell High School, McCabe led her team to three straight Washington State Championships before moving on to the University of Utah. In Utah her progress skyrocketed; her presence clearly felt by not only her teammates but her competitors. In the 2023 NCAA championships in Lake Placid, New York, she dominated—claiming the number one spot in both the 5-kilometer freestyle and the 20-kilometer classic events.
McCabe also performed well internationally at the 2022 Tour de Ski. During the final race of the event, she finished seventh on a course which is well known for its extreme level of difficulty. That year she also earned a spot at the 2022 Beijing Olympics where she competed in three events and helped Team USA secure a sixth-place finish in the relay.
McCabe continued to compete at the world level until 2024 when she took a step back from the sport to focus on her health, specifically to deal with celiac's and Hashimoto's diseases. She has since learned to manage autoimmune challenges and is back to skiing at a very high level. The 2026 Olympics in Italy will be her second time at the Games.
McCabe graduated from the U in political science and is now getting her master of science in environmental policy and management at Alaska-Pacific University.
Today, both she and her mom are two-time Olympians. It's safe to say that it runs in the family.
2026 Winter Olympian and recent University of Utah alum Julie Letai describes competing in short track speedskating as a mix between “demolition derby and NASCAR:”: fast, tactical, and a little bit chaotic. It’s exactly the kind of challenge she has embraced since first lacing up skates as a toddler in her hometown of Medfield, Massachusetts, and has led to her competing in Milan-Cortino at her second Olympic Ggames.
Alongside a demanding training schedule on the ice, Letai has prioritized her academics, graduating from the University of Utah in December 2025. In the future, she looks forward to pursuing a career in healthcare after her days on the ice have ended.
Early in her skating career, Letai earned a spot on the U.S. national team in 2019 and made her Olympic debut at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, competing in the 1500m and women’s relay events. (Team USA)
However, the path to the 2026 Winter Olympics was anything but smooth. In the year and a half leading up to the games in Italy, Letai faced a series of frustrating setbacks. A painful hip injury required surgery and, shortly after her return to training, she suffered a concussion, followed by a stress injury in her femur and a quad strain. While just one of these setbacks could have threatened her dreams of competing at the games again, Letai was determined to persevere. She leaned on the support of her coaches, teammates, and loved ones, and never stopped showing up on the ice. Her resilience paid off, and strong results at key World Cup and national qualifying events earned her a spot on the 2026 U.S. Olympic short track team, alongside fellow U student Kamryn Lute (usspeedskating.org).
Reflecting on her journey, Letai shared gratitude in an Instagram caption: “Thanks to everyone who pulled me through the past year and a half…and thanks to myself for showing up every day when sometimes all I wanted was to stop trying.” Now in Italy, Letai is ready to step on the ice and represent the U of U and Team USA in the 500 m, 1000 m and Women’s relay. (Team USA)
UNIVERSITY OF UTAH TIES
The adrenaline of skiing was something Annika Belshaw immediately resonated with in Steamboat Springs, Colorado where she started skiing at the tender age of three. Six years later the nine-year-old discovered ski jumping, inspired by her younger brother, Erik, who competed in the sport. With newfound motivation, she took flight in her first ski jump at the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. Both Erik and Annika continued to train until, fast forward to today, both are competing on the world stage.
Belshaw has been on the USA Ski Jumping Team since 2017 and is considered by the team as one of its more accomplished athletes. During her time at the University of Utah, she has been nothing short of dominant, winning five consecutive national ski jump championships from 2021-25.
By the 2022-23 season, she became the most consistent American on the World Cup circuit, at the top of her sport in the U.S. Her progression did not stop stateside; by the 2024-25 season she stacked 14 top 30 finishes and was ranked 29th globally. Notably, in 2025 at the World Cup in Lake Placid, New York, she finished a career best, 14th on American soil. This was the first time a U.S. woman placed better than 15th place since the 2016-2017 season. In short, Belshaw's achievements have put US Ski Jumping on the map.
Belshaw was able to efficiently manage her elite athletic success with her academic work as a student at the U where she is working toward a degree in psychology.
Her selection to the US Team is her second—she also competed in the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Read more student athlete stories from the College of Humanities
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