When Mexico’s Sarah Schleper qualified for the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, she reached an unprecedented milestone.
The 46-year-old Colorado native is set to compete in her seventh Winter Olympics, a feat unmatched by any other women’s Alpine skier. And when she takes the slopes to compete in the women’s Super-G and giant slalom just days before her 47th birthday, she will become the oldest women’s Alpine skier ever to compete at the Olympics.
“My hair’s a little grey, that’s all,” she said of the accomplishment. “I feel good. I’m excited to race and get nervous and put my best out there. I think I’m still skiing pretty well, considering I don’t train as much as the younger athletes. But it’s a great honor to have been at so many Olympics.”
Though impressive, these milestones pale in comparison to yet another record that Schleper will set at Milan Cortina. Schleper’s son, 18-year-old Lasse Gaxiola, will make his Olympic debut in the men’s slalom event. It will mark the first time that a mother-son duo has ever competed at the same Winter Olympic Games.
“That’s been really emotional for us,” Schleper said. “It’s a goal we’ve had for a lot of years, and we fought until the end for the spot. So, to get it in the end was a great relief. But it’s also been overwhelming, because we kind of feel like it’s normal. But we know it’s a huge deal and we know it’s a huge event.”
Normal, perhaps, for an athlete who has been competing on the world’s biggest stage for 28 years. Schleper made her Olympic debut at the 1998 Nagano Games, placing 22nd in the slalom on her 19th birthday. Hailing from ski mecca Vail, Colorado, Schleper was competing for the U.S. at the time and continued to represent Team USA at the following three Olympic Games.
After sustaining an ACL injury in 2006, though, Schleper was rehabbing in Cabo San Lucas when she reconnected with Federico Gaxiola de la Lama, whom she had met at a race several years earlier. The two married in 2007, and it was not long before their son Lasse was born in 2008.
Already a four-time Olympian, Schleper initially decided to retire in 2011. She had made 186 World Cup starts and earned six U.S. championship titles. Her final run was a memorable one — she stopped midway to pick up a then three-year-old Lasse and carry him the rest of the way.
Following the race, she shared, "I'd like to do everything I can to give Lasse every opportunity he needs to live a good life. I know that parents are so important in the lives of champions and I'd like him to be a champion."
But after obtaining Mexican citizenship in 2015, Schleper eventually decided to make her debut as a Mexican athlete at the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Vail. Now 15 years after that run with her son in her arms, the two will have the opportunity to ski down the slopes together again — but this time, as Olympians in their own events.
"I just love my sport, I love ski racing, I love representing Mexico," Schleper said. "For me, the joy of being at the Olympics is the sport. And for me, sport is life."
Though Schleper and Gaxiola will both be competing in Alpine skiing, the historic geographic magnitude of the Milan Cortina Games means their events will be contested in very different locations. Schleper will compete at the Tofane Alpine Ski Centre in Cortina d’Ampezzo, while Gaxiola will compete nearly five hours away at the Stelvio Ski Centre in Bormio. The distance does not bother Schleper, though, who said it will be valuable for Gaxiola to individually experience his first Olympic Games.
“For him, everything’s new,” she said. “And for me, I know it. It’s been interesting that he's in Bormio, and he can kind of take it all in on his own, and I'm not there pushing him this way and that way. I'm excited to see how his experience goes over there."
With so many different milestones, it's been an emotional and gratifying Olympic Games for Schleper. Now representing Mexico at a third consecutive Winter Olympics, Schleper was named one of Mexico's flagbearers and led the country's largest Winter Olympics delegation in over 30 years during the Parade of Nations.
“The flagbearer is a great responsibility,” she said. “I'm representing a beautiful country that's not necessarily a winter sports nation, so I want to represent them honorably and do my best so that more Mexicans want to come to the snow and ski, and they see the joy of the sport of winter and the snow."
There are just five athletes from Mexico competing at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. It's a small but mighty team, and it just so happens to feature a duo with one of the most unique bonds in Olympic history.
