Motherhood in Alpine skiing can mean many things, from early morning training sessions to frozen fingers while cheering from the sidelines. For seven-time Olympian Sarah Schleper, racing down the hill is now a family affair.
Schleper, the daughter of a ski-shop owner from Vail, Colo., has represented the United States at four Winter Olympic Games; a Mexican citizen by marriage, she competed for Mexico at the 2018 and 2022 Olympics, and now, once again at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.
During her final World Cup season before stepping away from the U.S. ski team in 2011, Schleper did something that felt both playful and prophetic: she scooped up her 3-year-old son and carried him with her down a slalom course. More than 14 years later, that image echoes in a far grander setting.
At the Milan Cortina Games, Schleper and her now 18-year-old son, Lasse Gaxiola, will both race for Mexico. Together, they will be the first mother-and-son duo to compete at the same Winter Olympics.
“What’s really special is, like, my last race as an American, I carried him down, because I was basically the only mother on tour. So now that we’re doing this, we’re still involved in the sport and how much we love and have passion for the sport, that it’s able to share it within the family has been really unique,” Schleper told The Athletic.
The Alpine skiing events at Milan Cortina are spread across two mountain locations, with the women’s competition taking place in Cortina d’Ampezzo and the men’s races based about four hours away in Bormio. That will make it difficult for Schleper, who will ski in the women’s super-G and giant slalom on Thursday and Sunday, respectively, to shuttle back and forth between her competition and Bormio, where Gaxiola will race in the men’s giant slalom and slalom on Saturday and Monday.
“When we did qualify, and we had a week of training together before we split to our respective Olympic cities, that felt really special,” said Schleper, who turns 47 on Feb. 19. “We were training together, and we were trying to beat each other, so that was pretty fun. It feels iconic.”
For Gaxiola, who is making his Olympic debut this year, that day in December 2011 when his mother slalomed down a mountain while wearing a brown dress and holding him in her arms barely registers in his memory. “It’s like surreal, kind of seeing that photo and then being here with her, and getting to experience the Games together,” he said. “… It’s a very special feeling, something I’ve never felt before,” Gaxiola added. “Doing it with my mom makes it even more special for me, but I’m just glad I get to take part, and skiing is so fun and I’m just happy I get to keep racing.”
For Schleper, that trip down an Austrian slope marked the end of her time with the U.S. ski team, stretching back to her Olympic debut at the 1998 Nagano Games. “That race where I carried Lasse down was Mikayla Shiffrin’s first podium,” Schleper said. “She was coming up strong, and I had this feeling that I was going to get surpassed really soon as the top American ski racer, and my ego didn’t really love that idea. So we decided it was probably time to let go, and my teammates encouraged me to put the dress on and all the fun stuff because they knew I was a bit crazy.”
The idea wasn’t Schleper’s. It came from her husband, Federico Gaxiola de la Lama. After getting clearance from the race organizers, Schleper’s coach carried Lasse to a designated spot on the slope and waited. Schleper skied to him, then carried her son the rest of the way down.
“The whole World Cup kind of helped me and helped raise him a little bit in those times,” she said. “And Lasse had been to 12 countries before he even turned one year old.”
Her career, however, didn’t end there. After marrying Gaxiola de la Lama, Schleper began a second Olympic act with Mexico at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. “I’m super grateful to my teammates for being so accepting, and actually (to) the whole country for accepting me and being proud of me as I am,” she said.
In the days leading up to the Milan Cortina Games, Schleper and her teammates — Mexico sent a delegation of five athletes to these Olympics — met with President Claudia Sheinbaum. “I was impressed with her,” Schleper said. “She took the time to be with us and present us with the flag, which I thought was really special. And I will never forget that moment.”
At 46, Schleper is also carving out a different line in the record books as the oldest female Alpine skier in Olympic history, and even now, with decades of experience, her competitive edge remains sharp.
“I’m going to be racing the super-G in two days, and I want to put it on the limit to where I can go fast,” she said. “I want to be like Lindsey Vonn — you know, just no fear. And I think part of being courageous is facing your fears and doing it anyway.”