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Here are 5 Olympians with Texas ties to root for during the Winter Olympics

Skeleton slider Katie Uhlaender will make her fifth Games appearance at the 2022 Winter Olympics. (Getty Images)

Just six months after the Olympic flame was doused in Tokyo, it will reignite again on Feb. 4, heralding the Winter Games.

In all, there will be 19 days of competition across 15 sports: Alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsled, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, ski jumping, luge, Nordic combined, skeleton, snowboarding and speed skating.

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Here are five Winter Olympians with Texas ties to to follow over the next several weeks:

Mariah Bell, 25

Mariah Bell competes in the women's free skate program during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships Friday, Jan. 7, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski) (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Sport: Figure skating

Texas tie: Bell moved multiple times while growing up. When she was 12, she relocated from Houston to Westminster, Colorado, so she and her older sister Morgan could train under Cindy Sullivan, the Denver Post reported. Bell’s father remained in Houston for work and visited his family on weekends when he could. Bell now resides in California where she trains with her coaches, Rafael Arutyunyan and former figure skating star Adam Rippon.

Previous Olympics: The Winter Games marks Bell’s first Olympic appearance. She is the 2022 U.S. national champion, 2020 U.S. national silver medalist, and a two-time U.S. national bronze medalist.

Fast fact: When she won the national championship in January, Bell became the oldest U.S. women’s national champion in 95 years, and the oldest American women’s singles skater sent to the Olympics since 1928, NBC News reported.

MORE: How to watch Figure Skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics on NBC and Peacock

Sylvia Hoffman, 32

WINTERBERG, GERMANY - JANUARY 9: Kaillie Humphries and Sylvia Hoffman of the United States celebrate winning the bronze medal competing in the 2-woman Bobsleigh during the BMW IBSF Bob & Skeleton World Cup on January 9, 2022 in Winterberg, Germany (Photo by Patrick Goosen/BSR Agency/Getty Images) (2022 BSR Agency)

Sport: Bobsled (two-woman)

Texas tie: Hoffman is an Arlington, Texas, native.

Previous Olympics: Hoffman is making her Olympics debut, competing with two-time Olympic champion Kallie Humphries as a two-woman bobsled team.

Fast facts: Hoffman played basketball at Bowie High School in Arlington and later at Louisiana State University Shreveport. After graduating, she was asked to join the USA Bobsled training camp -- an offer she declined due to finances, NBC News reported. Hoffman then took up weightlifting and competed internationally, but “her athletic dreams really rocketed” when she was appeared on the NBC Sports program “Scouting Camp: The Next Olympic Hopeful” in 2018. Though Hoffman didn’t win, she gained the attention of the U.S. Bobsled team and was invited to attend rookie training camp once again -- an invitation she accepted. Later that year, she won the Rookie Push and National Push Championships.

MORE: How to watch Bobsled at the 2022 Winter Olympics on NBC and Peacock

Ashley Cain-Gribble, 26, and Timothy LeDuc, 31

Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc placed third at the 2021 U.S. Championships. (Orlando Ramirez)

Sport: Figure skating (pairs)

Texas ties: Cain-Gribble was born in Carrollton, Texas. She and LeDuc (who hails from Cedar Rapids, Iowa) train with their coaches -- Cain-Gribble’s parents Peter and Darlene Cain -- in Euless, Texas.

Previous Olympics: The pair won their second U.S. figure skating title at the 2022 U.S. championships in January and are making their Olympic debut this year.

Fast facts: Cain-Gribble and LeDuc began competing together in May 2016. Cain-Gribble’s father was an Australian pairs skater who competed at the 1980 Lake Placid Games. Her mother was a Canadian ice dancer. LeDuc is the first openly nonbinary person to compete at an Olympic Winter Games.

MORE: Meet the 2022 U.S. Figure Skating Olympic Team

Katie Uhlaender, 37

Skeleton slider Katie Uhlaender will make her fifth Games appearance at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Sport: Skeleton

Texas tie: Uhlaender grew up in McGregor, Texas.

Previous Olympics: Uhlaender is making her fifth Olympic appearance in Beijing. She placed sixth at Torino in 2006 and fourth at Sochi in 2014. By competing in 2022, she ties the record for the U.S. woman with the most Winter Olympic appearances. She’s also the only U.S. woman in any sliding sport to appear at five Games, NBC News reported. Uhlaender plans to retire from skeleton and pursue a college degree following the 2022 Winter Olympics, NBC News reported.

Fast fact: Her dad, Ted Uhlanender, was a Major League Baseball outfielder who played for Baylor University.

MORE: U.S. skeleton at the 2022 Winter Olympics: Five-timer Katie Uhlaender leads smallest team since 2002

Who will you be rooting for in the Winter Olympics? Let us know in the comments! Also -- did we miss anyone? Let us know.


About the Author
Briana Zamora-Nipper headshot

Briana Zamora-Nipper joined the KPRC 2 digital team in 2019. When she’s not hard at work in the KPRC 2 newsroom, you can find Bri drinking away her hard earned wages at JuiceLand, running around Hermann Park, listening to crime podcasts or ransacking the magazine stand at Barnes & Noble.

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