The list of Alaskans headed to the Winter Olympics in a few weeks just got a little longer.
The U.S Ski Team announced this week that snowboarders Rosie Mancari and Ryan Stassel will represent the United States in PyeongChang, South Korea in February.
Mancari and Stassel both grew up in Anchorage.
Stassel is a graduate of Service High School. He competed at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi and, in 2015, won gold at the World Cup Championships in Austria. The 25-year-old will compete in two snowboarding events: big air and slopestyle and said in a post on Instagram he, “couldn’t be more hyped!”
Olympic rookie Rosie Mancari started snowboarding at Alyeska when she was just three years old. The 24-year-old graduated early from South High School to snowboard full-time in Colorado.
In a post on Instagram, Mancari said she was, “beyond excited to announce that I have been chosen to represent the US at the upcoming Olympics!”
Mancari will compete in the race-style snowboard cross event.
Mancari and Stassel join the growing list of Alaskans qualified for the 2018 Olympics. So far, there are four cross-country skiers qualified for the winter games and more are expected to be named to the Olympic team this week.
Emily Russell is the voice of Alaska morning news as Alaska Public Media’s Morning News Host and Producer.
Originally from the Adirondacks in upstate New York, Emily moved to Alaska in 2012. She skied her way through three winters in Fairbanks, earning her Master’s degree in Northern Studies from UAF.
Emily’s career in radio started in Nome in 2015, reporting for KNOM on everything from subsistence whale harvests to housing shortages in Native villages. She then worked for KCAW in Sitka, finally seeing what all the fuss with Southeast, Alaska was all about.
Back on the road system, Emily is looking forward to driving her Subaru around the region to hike, hunt, fish and pick as many berries as possible. When she’s not talking into the mic in the morning, Emily can be found reporting from the peaks above Anchorage to the rivers around Southcentral.
