The Wisconsin contingent of athletes in the Winter Olympics wrapped up on Sunday with the closing ceremonies – including the American with the most medals won at Milan Cortina.
The group was headlined by Kewaskum speedskater Jordan Stolz, who won a pair of gold medals to go along with a silver while just missing out on another medal with a fourth-place finish. Stolz finished as the most decorated U.S. Olympian in these Games. Despite many other strong finishes, no other American is taking a medal home to Wisconsin.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
Jadin O’Brien
Pewaukee native O’Brien, a 23-year-old graduate of Divine Savior Holy Angels High School in Milwaukee, finished her Olympic debut tied for seventh in two-woman bobsled.
A rookie brakeperson who didn’t make her first bobsled run until October, O’Brien was paired with veteran pilot Elana Meyers Taylor, the most decorated female bobsledder in Olympic history and the most decorated Black winter Olympian of all time. Meyers Taylor was in search of someone to push her sled when she discovered O’Brien, then a star track athlete at Notre Dame.
Days before competing with O’Brien in the two-woman bobsled, the 41-year-old Meyers Taylor won a gold medal in the monobob. After their final run in the two-person bobsled, O’Brien embraced Meyers Taylor, who is likely to retire from the sport, meaning that O’Brien was along for the five-time Olympian’s final ride.
Marcus Mueller
The Brookfield native competed with teammate Ansel Haugsjaa in doubles luge, the high-speed sliding sport where athletes speed a small, flat sled down an ice track while lying face-up and feet-first. Mueller and Haugsjaa recorded the fastest first run of all competitors, but a mistake late in their second run left them with a sixth-place finish.
Mueller and Haugsjaa were also part of the luge relay team that finished raced to a fifth-place finish.
“Wow wow wow, what an experience! First Olympics in the books!” Mueller posted on social media. “There is always room for improvement but overall proud of the work we put in all these years to get where we are! The head is staying down and the grind won’t stop, watch out 2030!”
Ben Loomis
Loomis, an Eau Claire native, made his third Olympic team competing in Nordic combined, which combines cross country skiing and ski jumping. Loomis, 27, announced that the Milana Cortina Games would be his final Olympics.
Loomis and teammate Niklas Malacinski earned a seventh-place finish in the men’s team sprint large hill 2×7.5K. That race was plagued by heavy snowfall, which created difficult skiing conditions.
During the ski jumping portion of the event, Loomis was struck by a leaf blower but still managed to complete his jump and wasn’t injured in the scary episode. Workers had been using leaf blowers to clear the jump of excess snow, but one didn’t remove the blower before Loomis skied past. “Unfortunately, one of them was a little bit too late pulling theirs out of the way, but they’re human and things can happen,” he told Reuters.
Loomis took the potentially dangerous incident in stride. “Battled the elements (and a rouge leaf blower) to cap off my third Olympics. A pleasure as always to represent @teamusa on the biggest stage,” Loomis posted on Instagram.
Loomis, who learned ski jumping at Flying Eagles Ski Club in Eau Claire, also finished in 27th place in the large hill-10K race and recorded a 17th-place finish in the normal hill-10K event.
Deedra Irwin
The 33-year-old athlete from Pulaski finished 34th in the 15K biathlon. Competing in her second Olympics, Irwin came in seventh in the event at the Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022, the best finish ever for an American in an individual biathlon event at the Olympics.
Irwin finished 47th in the 7.5K sprint and 35th in the 10K pursuit. She was also part of the 4x6K relay team that finished 18th and a mixed 4x6K team that registered a 14th-place finish.
Paul Schommer
The Appleton biathlete finished 47th in the 10K sprint, 48th in the 12.5K pursuit, and 44th in the 20K individual event. He was also part of the men’s 4×7.5K relay team that finished fifth.
