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US names 232-athlete roster for Milan Cortina Olympics

Baumgartner is among 7 making a 5th trip to games

Olympic U.S. snowboarder Nick Baumgartner poses for a photo at the Team USA Media Summit on Oct. 28 in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The U.S. team released its 232-athlete roster for the Milan Cortina Olympics on Monday and it includes Lindsey Vonn and bobsledders Kaillie Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor, who are among the seven Americans making their fifth trip to the games.

Other five-timers are hockey player Hilary Knight, figure skater Evan Bates and snowboarders Faye Thelen and Nick Baumgartner.

Meyers Taylor leads a group of 33 returning medalists. She has won three silver medals and two bronze while Humphries has taken three gold. Mikaela Shiffrin and Chloe Kim have two golds each.

The team consists of 117 men and 115 women ranging in age from 15 (freeskier Abby Winterberger) to 54 (curler Rich Ruohonen).

The opening ceremony is set for Feb. 6 in Milan, with some competition beginning Feb. 4.

Gold medal winners United States' Lindsey Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner celebrate after the mixed team snowboard cross finals at the 2022 Winter Olympics on Feb. 12, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

These will be the most spread-out Olympics in history, with Milan serving as a home base for hockey, figure skating and speedskating and Cortina and a handful of other mountain clusters hosting skiing, snowboarding, biathlon, sliding sports and the new Olympic sport of ski mountaineering.

The U.S. Ski and Snowboard named its 97-person roster last week. It contained few surprises, since virtually all the spots were determined based on results over the last two years.

Snowboardcross rider Baumgartner, 44, of Iron River, is defending champion in the mixed event and is by far the oldest member of the snowboard team.

The skiers and snowboarders brought home 15 of the United States’ 25 medals at the Beijing Games four years ago. They’ll make up almost half of the entire contingent the U.S. brings to Milan Cortina.

“I am confident about the impact they will make in Italy,” U.S. Ski & Snowboard president and CEO Sophie Goldschmidt said. “More than the results, our athletes are also bringing some of the most captivating story lines to Milano Cortina.”

Among those storylines is Baumgartner, who in 2022 won his first Olympic medal at age 40.

At the Team USA Media Summit, Baumgartner said he’s seen many athletes quit before they start to see success.

“I’ve put in the miles and I’ve been in the trenches for too long. I try to tell them to stick with it,” he said. “It’s coming, it’s coming.”

Men’s snowboard cross qualifying is scheduled to stream on NBC beginning at 3 a.m. Central time Thursday, Feb. 12.

Finals will air on USA Network at 7:35 a.m. Feb. 12 and re-air at 4:30 p.m.

The mixed team snowboard cross finals are scheduled to air on USA Network at 6:45 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 15, and at 7:30 a.m. on NBC, re-airing at noon on USA Network.

For more on the schedule, go to https://www.nbcolympics.com/schedule.

The Daily News contributed.

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