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Kaila Kuhn posted this picture of her with her parents on Instagram recently, and she says, “Having family at the Olympics will just make competing all that much more fun. They are a huge part of my journey. I would not have been able to get here without them.”
Kaila Kuhn’s mindset is different for this Olympics - she’s “hoping for gold”
The Boyne Citizen has hired freelance sports writer Ed Klajman to send us reports on Kaila Kuhn from the Olympic Games in Italy. Klajman is covering his fourth Olympic games, this time for the Boyne Citizen and other publications. Here is his first story. Klajman will also send us a second report for our Feb. 19 edition after Kaila competes in the women’s aerials on Feb. 17 and 18.
By Ed Klajman
MILAN – Don’t expect Boyne City’s Kaila Kuhn to be playing it safe in her second Winter Olympics appearance.
“My mindset has changed a lot,” explained the 22-year-old aerials skier – who debuted in Beijing four years ago as the youngest member of the U.S. team, and finished eighth. “There are times to play it safe, for sure. I was 18. I came in doing what I knew how to do, and I was really proud of that,” she said, describing how at the time she was not comfortable going big for the win, and was only comfortable landing easier jumps she knew she could handle.
In a pre-competition press conference for the aerials team just hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympics, Kuhn said her approach at these Games is "to be throwing the hardest trips that I have, because that is your biggest chance to win a gold medal. And it wouldn't be satisfying if I didn't win with that. So that's my plan. I'll be throwing my biggest trips, and hoping to land them, hoping for gold.”
Considering what has happened to her over the last year, that’s a pretty realistic goal. She comes in as the defending world champion from 2025 – in fact, she became the first aerials skier ever to win two gold medals at one world championship thanks to a team gold as well.
Most recently, she was the winner of the last World Cup competition prior to the Olympics in January, as she finished third this year in the overall aerials standings.
“I have a shot at doing really well, with the degree of difficulty that I have,” added the University of Utah student. “Over the last four years, I've done a lot of mental work, specifically, and matured a lot as an athlete. So, I come into this Olympics as prepared as possible.”
There will also be another big difference between her 2022 and 2026 Olympic experiences. Because of COVID, she was there alone, competing in front of no spectators. This time around, not only will she have thousands of people watching her compete, she’ll cherish having her parents among them.
“Definitely one of the toughest parts of the 2022 Olympics was not having family there because they are a huge part of my journey. I would not have been able to get here without them,” she said. “One of all of our favorite World Cups is Deer Valley (in the U.S.), and that's because we can all have family there, and we have a crowd, and we feed off of that. For me, that's exactly how I'm gonna approach this Olympics and having that extra support, having a crowd, having family there, will just make competing all that much more fun.”
She’s also buoyed by the familiarity she has with the site in Livigno, Italy.
“We were fortunate enough last season to have our Olympic test event in Livigno. So, we actually had our week of competition, and then for world championships, we had another week that we could continue training there. For a lot of purposes, it's really important that we had that time there. We love it there. It's a spectacular site, and we're really excited to go back.”
Qualifying in women’s aerials begins on Tuesday, February 17. The final is the next day. That is different than on the regular World Cup circuit, when everything happens in one day.
“On a typical World Cup day, we would at max do eight or nine jumps, which can be a lot for some of us,” she said. “So, it can either hurt or help you at the Olympics, because you have to be on your game two days in a row, but it is less jumping every day," she said.
> Instagram video of Kaila’s triple flip in World Cup competition.
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