MILAN – Now that he has arrived in Italy, Charlie Mickel’s lifelong Olympic dream has finally become a reality.
“I'm just super excited to soak it all in and to have an opportunity to try and perform on my sport's biggest stage for the first time,” said the 21-year-old moguls-skiing Durangoan, at a pre-competition press conference on Thursday. “It's just a super exciting opportunity. And I'm looking forward to the experience as well as the competition.”
After participating in the opening ceremony in Milan’s San Siro Stadium on Friday night, Mickel will head straight to Livigno – in the mountains, about a five-hour drive from Milan – where the moguls and dual moguls competitions will take place.
That’s good news for him, because of all the stops on the World Cup circuit, Livigno is the site of his best result of two years on tour -- a third-place finish last March.
“That was definitely like a huge highlight of my year last year, and just my career as a whole,” said Mickel, who learned how to ski at Purgatory Resort and Chapman Hill when he was 6. “I'm super excited to be back here skiing on the course in Livigno.”
“It's definitely a course that suits my style of skiing,” he continued. “But I also think it wasn't necessarily the course that allowed me to perform so well last year, as kind of the mentality I had going through the event and the processes that I took to prepare in the training days leading up to it and the day of the event.”
Describing his 2024 Nor-Am Cup Championship as the accomplishment in the sport he is most proud of to date, Mickel comes into the Olympics with some strong momentum, coming off two fifth and two sixth-place finishes in his last four World Cup events in December and January.
Mickel, who got into moguls because his dad, Alex, coached the local team, was asked about any fears he may have because moguls can be a very dangerous and physically punishing sport.
When he’s competing, Mickel isn’t worried about injuries. He is worried about making a mistake that could deteriorate his score. Fear of the bumps and jumps comes into play when he’s training.
These are the most spread out Olympic Games in history, with a number of clusters, which is a disappointment for many athletes, who relish the chance to meet as many athletes as possible from other sports. In the case of Livigno, Mickel will stay in a small athletes’ village for the sports being held in the region, which includes all snowboarding and freestyle skiing events.
That will allow him to have one out-of-competition Olympics experience that has him super stoked. Like many winter-sports athletes, Mickel is based in Park City, Utah, where he trains as part of Team USA. His roommate there is big air and slopestyle skier Troy Podmilsuk, who will also be competing in the Livigno cluster.
“He had some really great World Cup events to qualify for The Games, and he's a really close friend, so I'll definitely be watching that event and cheering him on, Mickel said.”
Qualifying in moguls begins on Tuesday. The finals are two days later, and the dual moguls competition will be on Saturday.
Mickel’s freestyle qualifying will start at 3:15 a.m. MST on Tuesday, and live coverage can be found on Peacock.
