Quick Summary
- Brita Sigourney left ºÙºÙÊÓƵ to join U.S. freeskiing team
- 3-time Olympian won bronze in halfpipe at the Sochi Games
- She was the first woman to land a 1080 in competition
With one Olympic medal under her parka, Brita Sigourney, a U.S. freestyle skier with Aggie roots, will compete in Beijing for another in her third straight appearance in the Winter Games.
4 YEARS AGO
Halfpipe is her event — riding her skis up the snow-packed walls to launch herself into twists and turns in the air, then, hopefully, landing safely back in the pipe. (Sidenote: She was the .)
She finished sixth in her first Olympics, in 2014 in Sochi, Russia, and scored the bronze medal in the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. She enters the Beijing Games having just turned 32.
Sigourney, from Carmel, enrolled at ºÙºÙÊÓƵ in 2008 but left early to join the newly established U.S. freeskiing team. She’s not the only Aggie in the family: Her parents, Thad and Julie Sigourney, graduated in 1976, and brother Brendan Sigourney in 2009.
Official dates of the Beijing Games are Feb. 4-20, although some events will begin earlier. The opening ceremony is set for this Friday (Feb. 4). Live coverage on NBC begins at 3:30 a.m. PST — or you can wait for a recap that night.
The women’s halfpipe event is not scheduled until the last week of the Games: qualifying round, 5:30 p.m. PST Wednesday, Feb. 16; and final round, Thursday, Feb. 17.
Media Resources
Dateline Staff: Dave Jones, editor, 530-752-6556, dateline@ucdavis.edu; Cody Kitaura, News and Media Relations specialist, 530-752-1932, kitaura@ucdavis.edu.