Hoping to start a thread on all things Olympic. Personally, even though it’s a huge money grab and probably not without corruption… still, I love the olympics and hope everything goes well for everybody.
I actually love to see athletes from other countries win medals; just the spirit of sportsmanship and well-being amongst different cultures all over the world.
My personal favorite, is transplanted local, Jessie Diggins, who is already the most decorated US Nordic skier, ever. She has an opportunity to medal in 4 events in her last olympic, redu.
Good thread to start. (Pleasant suggestion to check the spelling. )
Eight years ago I was on a flight from ATL to SLC next to a young lady who had just missed making the US Ski Team and was headed home to Lake Tahoe for a break. Nice lady. She gave me a great in-flight movie recommend, a documentary about Stephen Spielberg.
I’ve followed her career ever since. She never could get over the hump for the US team, and since she had dual US/Slovenian citizenship she decided to compete for the Slovenian team, no slouches there, a couple of years ago. I had a brief on-line exchange with her about a year ago. She remembered my wife and me. Today she was named as one of Slovenia’s 2026 team members and will compete in slalom and GS.
So let’s put our hands together and hear it for Lila Lapanja, who busted her butt for years and has seen her goal fulfilled. I’m really happy for her.
Great story! There’s a lot of US athletes that, for one reason or another, have dual nationalities in honor of another country, while maintaining US citizenship.
Well, I remember this story from many years ago. We witnessed this event and knew a little bit of background as it happened.
This brief documentary is worthy and bound to make most everyone cry tears of joy.