'I'm just taking it in': How Olivia Giaccio, CC '24, made it to Beijing as a mogul skiing Olympian

Upper West Side NY

07 February, 2022

2:29 PM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY TAKASHI WILLIAMS AND HENRY OLTMAN FEBRUARY 3, 2022, 11:45 PM The Winter Olympics of 1992 in Albertville changed skiing forever, introducing mogul skiing to the list of competitions for women. Exactly 30 years later, Olivia Giaccio, CC '24, has the chance to write her name in the women's skiing record books. After first strapping on her skis at the age of two, she has rocketed to the top of the sport after overcoming injuries and setbacks. In fact, she has separated herself from every other female Olympian skier in the event's history. On Jan. 8, Giaccio became the first woman to complete a "cork 1080" in a competition. "[A cork 1080] is like an all axis slip with technically three rotations," Giaccio explained. "It's kind of like one more rotation, compared to a cork [720] which is an off axis flip with two rotations." Performing such a rare trick in the sport, Giaccio was proud to make history. "It was so cool for me to do just because if you're a male in mogul skiing, you pretty much have to be able to do that trick … if you even want to think about making a World Cup podium," she said. "So to bring [it] up [on] the women's side [of] mogul skiing was really, really incredible." With two World Cup podiums, a World Cup victory in 2021, FIS Freestyle World Cup Rookie of the Year in 2017, and countless other accolades to Giaccio's name, it is clear why the expectations in Beijing are high. Les Carpenter of the Washington Post even labeled Giaccio as a "first-time American Olympian to watch." But so far, she has managed to deal with the expectations with minimal worries. In her Olympic debut on Feb. 3, Giaccio placed fourth in the first women's qualifying round for the moguls finals, offering her a chance to compete for gold in just three days. Though she now stands on the precipice of greatness, Giaccio's journey has taken a number of twists and turns. Giaccio recalls that she discovered her interest in mogul skiing by chance. Growing up in Connecticut, Giaccio's parents would take her and her brother on regular ski trips to Killington, Vermont. On a whim, her mother signed her up for a mogul skiing program while there and she has not looked back since. It did not take her long to find herself competing against some of the best female skiers around the world. At only 15, she competed in her first World Cup Championship. Attending Stanford Online High School, online courses helped her take her skiing career to the next level. In her junior year of high school, she traveled to China, Japan, and South Korea, where she competed in Olympic test events for Team USA. In 2018, she sat at home as the first alternate for Team USA, watching her teammates compete from her couch. Due to her being an alternate, she was unable to travel with her teammates to Pyeongchang. In retrospect, she views being sidelined as a major learning experience, as it gave her further motivation to make the team in 2022. A year later, she was dealt one of the biggest blows of her career. While training for the Thaiwoo Dual Moguls World Cup in 2019, she suffered an ACL tear in her left knee. The day after New Year's Day, she underwent surgery at the Steadman Clinic in Colorado. It took her until almost the end of 2020 to get back on the slopes. She attributes her successful recovery to the people that she surrounded herself with during those critical 10 months. "My family and friends and my coaches as well. I definitely wouldn't have the fire to still be competing at this level if I didn't have such a strong support crew around me and the whole U.S. ski team as well, their physical trainers and [physical therapists] definitely helped." In 2018, like many high schoolers her age, she was going through the college application process. Giaccio was accepted into Columbia College and was intrigued by what it had to offer. "I really liked the idea of the Core Curriculum just because I'm very liberal arts oriented," she said. "So far in the classes that I've taken at Columbia, I've been really, really excited and stoked [about] them." Although competing at an elite level can be challenging to balance with an Ivy League workload, Giaccio said her academic experience actually complements her skiing. "I really enjoy doing school on the road while I'm traveling and competing just because it does take my mind off of skiing and competing and vice versa. Skiing takes my mind off of school," she said. "So both are kind of like a welcome break from the other one and I can kind of invest my mental focus into both in very different ways." The difference between mogul skiing and ski racing is dramatic. Ski racing is based on time, while mogul skiing uses a judging system for jumps and turns. Out of 100 total points, 20 are devoted to speed, 20 to jumps, and the remaining 60 points are dedicated to turns. This year's Olympics will present unique challenges to Giaccio. However, though the pandemic has created a "stressful" situation, the unpredictability of this year's Olympics has not deterred Giaccio's excitement. She believes there is something to be gained from a scaled-down Olympics, with the reduced media coverage making it more reminiscent of a "normal competition." After battling injury and missing the 2018 Olympics, Giaccio is ready. "I'm just taking it in," she said. "I'm very, very excited, thankful, and honored to be here and my focus is definitely on putting down the best run that I possibly can and at this point, I have a lot of belief and faith in myself as an athlete and as a human being and I'm really excited to see what I can do. So it'll be really fun." On Feb. 6 at 6:30 a.m., Giaccio will compete for the gold medal in the women's moguls final. Viewers can watch on NBC. Staff Writer Henry Oltman can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @henry_olt Staff writer Takashi Williams can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @takashiversace. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.