Isabella Wright Learned to Race at Snowbird. The Salt Lake City Downhiller Has Now Skied Two Olympics

Isabella "Bella" Wright, a downhill and super-G skier from Salt Lake City, finished 21st in the women's Olympic downhill at Cortina d'Ampezzo on Feb. 8, 2026, the race won by her U.S. teammate Breezy Johnson. It was the second Olympics for a skier who learned to race at Snowbird.

On Oct. 7, 2026, U.S. Ski & Snowboard named her to the B team of the 2026-27 Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team, listing her as "Isabella Wright (Salt Lake City, UT; Snowbird Sports Education Foundation)".

Grown at Snowbird

U.S. Ski & Snowboard prints her hometown as Salt Lake City, Utah, and says she "grew up skiing and ski racing in the west, out of Utah's Snowbird Sports Education Foundation, and showed fast skiing from a young age." She spent time in the national team's development pipeline, the National Training Group, as a younger racer, the same biography says, and was first named to the U.S. Alpine Ski Team for the 2021 season.

When she scored World Cup points at Crans Montana in January 2021, U.S. Ski & Snowboard noted that she had trained with both Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club and the Snowbird Sports Education Foundation. Her biography lists a NorAm Cup super-G win in the 2019-20 season, and at the 2020 U.S. Championships at Copper Mountain, Colorado, she was fourth in super-G and sixth in downhill.

KSL's list of Utah's 2026 Winter Olympians described her as a Salt Lake native and a Utah resident, and SkiRacing.com, profiling her in 2022, called her a Utah native who grew up ski racing at Snowbird.

Her U.S. Ski & Snowboard biography says she was born and raised vegan, loves to cook and is trying to learn German and French.

Into the World Cup

Wright made her World Cup debut in the downhill at Lake Louise, Alberta, on Dec. 6, 2019, FIS results show. In January 2021 she scored World Cup points in five straight races, and U.S. Ski & Snowboard quoted her after Crans Montana that month: "I'm super pumped that I have been consistently in the points for the past five races."

She raced the 2021 World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo, finishing 14th in the alpine combined, 21st in the downhill and 22nd in the super-G, and returned for the 2023 World Championships in Courchevel and Méribel, France, where she was 13th in the combined and 19th in the downhill, by FIS records.

Her biography says she has battled injuries throughout her career and keeps coming back stronger. She told SkiRacing.com that before the Beijing 2022 Games, "I had about two and a half weeks return to snow before the Olympics. My first day in full gates was in Beijing." She finished 21st in the super-G there, and did not finish the second run of the alpine combined.

Two World Cup top-10s

At Crans Montana, Switzerland, on Feb. 27, 2022, she was 10th in a World Cup downhill, FIS results show.

Her best came a year later at the World Cup Finals in Soldeu, Andorra, on March 15, 2023, where she placed seventh in the downhill. "It was a very close race between third through the top 10," she told U.S. Ski & Snowboard afterward. That 2022-23 season she finished 17th in the World Cup downhill standings and 46th overall, by FIS standings.

She came close to more top-10s that winter and the next: 11th in the downhills at St. Moritz on Dec. 17, 2022, and Cortina d'Ampezzo on Jan. 20, 2023, and 12th at Kvitfjell, Norway, on March 4, 2023, and St. Moritz on Dec. 9, 2023, FIS results show.

A second Olympics

Wright earned her place at Milano Cortina 2026 with her downhill and super-G results that winter, U.S. Ski & Snowboard said, highlighted by a 13th place in the St. Moritz downhill on Dec. 13, 2025. She finished the season 26th in the World Cup downhill standings, by FIS.

In March 2026, back in North America, she won a NorAm Cup downhill and a super-G at Aspen Highlands, Colorado, FIS results show. She opened her 2026-27 preparation in Chile in September, placing sixth and eighth in two South American Cup super-Gs at Corralco on Sept. 29, 2026.

The 2026-27 season

The FIS women's World Cup brings the speed skiers to Beaver Creek, Colorado, for downhills on Dec. 11 and 12, 2026, and a super-G on Dec. 13. The tour moves to St. Moritz, Val di Fassa and Cortina, then Lenzerheide, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Kvitfjell, before the World Cup Finals at Sun Valley, Idaho, in March 2027. The World Championships are in Crans Montana on Feb. 1-14, 2027, per U.S. Ski & Snowboard's team announcement.

She is one of the Utah athletes followed on the Utah 2034 Olympics hub.

Key facts:

• Athlete: Isabella "Bella" Wright, alpine skiing (downhill and super-G), 2026-27 Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team B team
• Hometown: Salt Lake City, Utah; club Snowbird Sports Education Foundation
• Olympics: 21st in super-G at Beijing 2022; 21st in downhill at Milano Cortina 2026
• World Cup best: seventh, downhill, World Cup Finals, Soldeu, March 15, 2023
• World Cup top-10s: two, both in downhill (Crans Montana 2022, Soldeu 2023)
• World Championships: 2021 and 2023; best 13th (2023 alpine combined)
• Next: Beaver Creek World Cup downhills, Dec. 11-12, 2026