Eight months from now, these world-class athletes hope to call themselves 2018 Olympians.
This Sunday, they will celebrate having an even more important title: Dad.
For some of these winter athletes the joy of fatherhood is brand new, while others have been at it for a bit longer. In honor of Father’s Day, we take a look at 2018 Olympic hopefuls who are also dads.
Lowell Bailey, Biathlon
Bailey’s daughter, Ophelia, has been touring the world outside the doors of their Lake Placid, New York, home since she was born in 2016. The U.S. biathlete and his wife, Erika, began taking their firstborn on the rollerski and biathlon loops, hiking and to the lake when she was still an infant. After her dad became the highest-placing U.S. individual biathlete ever at the Olympics when he came in eighth in the 20K individual race in 2014, he’s now hoping to do even better in 2018. This year Bailey won the 20K at the world championships, becoming not only the first U.S. biathlete to win a world title but also the first American athlete to qualify for the 2018 Games.
Nick Baumgartner, Snowboarding
Baumgartner has listed among his goals in life to be the coolest dad ever to his son, Landon, and how could he not be? Baumgartner has gone to the last two Olympics in snowboardcross, finishing 20th in 2010 and 25th in 2014, and he’s hoping to go not only to one more Olympics but two. Although he finished just shy of the podium in snowboardcross at this year’s world championships, Baumgartner paired with Hagen Kearney to win gold in the first-ever snowboardcross team event.
KC Boutiette, Speedskating
Boutiette was retired from speedskating and already the father of one with wife Kristi in 2013 when he started seriously contemplating a return to competitive speedskating. Now a father of two, Boutiette is in pursuit of his fifth trip to the Olympics. If it happens, he will be just shy of his 48th birthday. Last November he became the oldest skater to earn a world cup podium finish when he took second in the mass start, the event in which he hopes to compete in 2018.
Craig Brown, Curling
Team Brown finished the season ranked No. 29 in the world and was fourth at the national championships. Brown, a 2014 Olympian, is the father of two sons, 6-year-old Martin and 3-year-old Henry, who are part of the unofficial first family of U.S. curling. Brown’s sister, Erika, is also an Olympic curler and both parents have represented the United States in curling.
Brady Clark, Greg Persinger and Philip Tilker, Curling
Of the four curlers who make up skip Brady Clark’s team, three are happy to call themselves dads. Clark is father to 5-year-old Sean. Persinger is a dad of three children: Lauren, 18, Shaye, 8, and Ainsley, 6. Tilker has a 5-year old named Jaxon. Along with Colin Hufman, the team will compete in the Olympic trials this fall after finishing third at this year’s nationals and holding a world ranking of No. 37 at season’s end. Clark’s rink won the national title in 2016.
Bryan Fletcher, Nordic Combined
Fletcher will be celebrating his first Father’s Day this year. He and his wife, Nikki, welcomed daughter Ellery Ardene Fletcher to the world on Aug. 29, 2016. The new papa was in contention for a bronze medal at this year’s world championship in the normal hill/10K until a crash 200 meters from the finish dropped him to 14th, and he finished this season as the top-ranked American in the world cup standings, at No. 34.
Chris Fogt, Bobsled
The U.S. Army captain and 2014 Olympic bronze medalist is also father to two children, a 2-year-old boy named Daxton and a 7-month-old daughter named Brynlee. Fogt has already pushed sleds at two Olympic Games, with a stint in Iraq in between competing in Vancouver and Sochi, and he’s now hoping to make it three with a spot in PyeongChang.
Chas Guldemond, Snowboarding
Guldemond finished 15th in the Olympic slopestyle competition in 2014, and less than four months later his world was turned upside down — in a good way — with the birth of his first child. Guldemond and his wife Drea welcomed son, Rocky, on June 1, 2014. Guldemond, whose accomplishments last season included a fourth-place Dew Tour finish, was recently one of 10 slopestyle athletes named by the USSA as nominees to next year’s national team.
Heath McCormick, Curling
The 2012 U.S. champion is father to two daughters, 8-year-old Astrid and 4-year-old Hazel. This season, McCormick finished sixth at the national championships and will be among the teams competing at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Curling this November in Omaha, Nebraska. Team McCormick was the top U.S. men’s team in the most recent World Curling Tour Order of Merit Standings.
Bode Miller, Alpine Skiing
Miller is a father of four, all of whom have seen time on the slopes in some form or another. Back in February, he posted Instagram photos of him pushing three-month-old Emeline on the snow in a stroller while 8-year-old daughter Nessyn, 4-year-old son Samuel and 21-month-old son Nash also enjoyed the slopes. Miller has not skied competitively since 2015, but has not ruled out the possibility of trying for a sixth Olympics in 2018.
Steven Nyman, Alpine Skiing
Nyman had been the United States’ top downhiller since Sochi and was hoping for a big year before a knee injury suffered during a crash ended his season in January. However, he is now the newest addition to the group of Olympian fathers. His first child, a little girl, was born on June 6. Nyman posted a photo to Instagram on June 8 saying mother and daughter were doing “fantastic” and that they were still searching for a name for Baby Nyman.
Joe Polo, Curling
Not far behind Nyman in the new dad category is Polo. Ailsa Paisley Polo was born on April 29, and the proud father has been chronicling the preemie’s progress in the NICU. His post on June 4 reported that the little girl was up to two pounds 12 ounces and that she no longer needed oxygen. Polo, a 2006 Olympic bronze medalist, hopes to return to the Olympics either with his four-person team or with teammate Tabitha Peterson as mixed doubles makes its debut in 2018.
John Shuster, Curling
The three-time Olympian and longtime skip is father to two boys, Luke, 4, and Logan, 21 months. He’s also still going strong in the world of curling, having won national title No. 6 this season with his men’s team that included fellow dad Polo. They went undefeated throughout the tournament, and after winning a bronze medal at the 2016 world championships they finished this year in fourth place.
Andrew Weibrecht, Alpine Skiing
Weibrecht and his wife, Denja, welcomed their first child in February 2016, a baby girl named Addy. The two-time Olympian in 2010 and 2014 did not finish in the super-G at his third trip to the world championships in 2017, but he has two Olympic medals in the discipline and also earned a second career world cup podium in January 2016.
David Wise, Freestyle Skiing
Wise and his wife, Alexandra, are parents to a girl and boy, daughter Nayeli and son Malachi. There is not only video of the 2014 Olympic halfpipe gold medalist with his daughter on the slopes in as 2-year-old, but they also showed video of her skiing during his post-Olympic appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” The aww moments didn’t end there. Wise had just flown in from Sochi the night before coming on the show, and as a surprise, DeGeneres had Alexandra and Nayeli waiting backstage. When they came out, Nayeli waved to the crowd and went into her daddy’s arms, giving him a big hug.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
