- Salt Lake City snowboard cross rider Faye Gulini Thelen made her fifth Olympics at Milano Cortina 2026 and finished seventh, returning to racing with two young children. She is on the 2026-27 U.S. team.
- Faye Thelen connect back to Utah Homegrown and the wider olympic sports picture.
- The story is backed by 11 sources and a visible last-verified date.
November 1, 2026
November 1, 2026
4 min / 865 words
11 official links
Faye Thelen, a snowboard cross rider from Salt Lake City who races as Faye Gulini Thelen, finished seventh in women's snowboard cross at Milano Cortina 2026 on Feb. 13, 2026, in Livigno, after reaching the small final, TownLift reported. It was her fifth Olympic Winter Games, a run that began at Vancouver 2010.
She qualified 21st that day, FIS results show, and worked her way up through the heats, U.S. Ski & Snowboard reported. She and fellow Park City resident Stacey Gaskill were the top Americans in the race, TownLift reported. Thelen had returned to racing that season as the mother of two young children.
"Amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing," she told TownLift after the final.
Five Games, 16 years
Team USA lists her as a five-time Olympian and gives her results at each:
- Vancouver 2010: 12th, at 17 the youngest snowboard cross athlete at those Games, by Team USA's account
- Sochi 2014: fourth, her career-best Olympic finish
- PyeongChang 2018: 21st
- Beijing 2022: 13th, and ninth in the mixed team event
- Milano Cortina 2026: seventh, and 15th in the mixed team event
U.S. Ski & Snowboard's athlete page counts 17 years on the national team, since 2010.
A comeback after becoming a mother
Team USA says Thelen stepped away from competition to focus on her family and returned for the 2025-26 season with her two children. FIS reported that she returned to competition five months after her second baby was born.
"My attitude towards sport has changed dramatically since becoming a mother. My goal has remained the same but my 'why' is so different," she told FIS in January 2026.
"I'm here for my children, not for myself," she said in the same interview.
She opened the season by winning a Nor-Am Cup race at Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, on Dec. 3, 2025, by her FIS results, then raced World Cups at Cervinia and in China before the Games. After her Olympic final she told U.S. Ski & Snowboard: "Being so recently postpartum I've had a lot of fear and up until this moment fear was holding me back."
Salt Lake City, Snowbird and Westminster
U.S. Ski & Snowboard prints her hometown as Salt Lake City, Utah, and Team USA lists Cottonwood Heights. Team USA says her older siblings introduced her to snowboarding at 8 at Snowbird, and TownLift reported that she grew up in Salt Lake City and competed for Snowbird. Her first FIS win came in a slopestyle event in Park City in January 2008, by Team USA's profile.
At 14 she moved to Vail, Colorado, to attend Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy, and she still races for Ski & Snowboard Club Vail, according to the 2026-27 team roster. She came back to Salt Lake City for college: Westminster College says she earned a bachelor's degree in accounting in 2019 and a Master of Accountancy in 2021. Westminster listed her among six Griffins at the 2026 Games, a group covered in this Westminster Olympians story.
KSL's list of Utah's 2026 Winter Olympians described her as a Salt Lake native and a Utah resident, and TownLift called her a Park City resident during the Games.
A long World Cup career
Her first World Cup podium came at Montafon, Austria, in December 2017, Team USA says. U.S. Ski & Snowboard counts five World Cup runner-up finishes since 2021, at Cervinia and Chiesa in Valmalenco in 2021, Veysonnaz in 2022 and two more, and 35 career World Cup top-10s. A FIS caption places one of those second places at Cortina d'Ampezzo in February 2023.
At the World Championships she won bronze in the women's team snowboard cross in 2017, and her best individual worlds result is fourth at Idre Fjäll, Sweden, in 2021. Team USA says a torn ACL and meniscus in 2011 kept her out for nine months.
The 2026-27 season
U.S. Ski & Snowboard named her to the snowboard cross Pro Team of the 2026-27 Toyota U.S. Snowboard Team on Oct. 8, 2026, listing her as "Faye Gulini Thelen (Salt Lake City, UT; Ski & Snowboard Club Vail; Rocky Mountain Series; Westminster College)". The announcement called her one of the program's leaders.
The FIS calendar opens the women's snowboard cross World Cup at Cervinia, Italy, on Dec. 11-13, 2026, with later stops at Secret Garden, China, in January and Jahorina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Erzurum, Turkey, in February. The FIS Snowboard World Championships run March 6-21, 2027, in Montafon, Austria, and the World Cup finishes at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, on March 26-28. Which events she enters has not been announced.
She is one of the athletes followed on the Utah 2034 Olympics hub.
Key facts:
- Athlete: Faye Thelen (Faye Gulini Thelen), snowboard cross, 2026-27 Toyota U.S. Snowboard Team, Pro Team
- Hometown: Salt Lake City, Utah (U.S. Ski & Snowboard); Team USA lists Cottonwood Heights
- Olympics: five, 2010 to 2026; best finish fourth at Sochi 2014; seventh at Milano Cortina 2026
- World Championships: team bronze, 2017; best individual finish fourth, 2021
- World Cup: five runner-up finishes since 2021 and 35 top-10s, per U.S. Ski & Snowboard
- Education: Westminster College, B.S. in accounting (2019) and Master of Accountancy (2021)
- Next: World Cup opener, Cervinia, Italy, Dec. 11-13, 2026
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