Liz Lemley exclusive: After a long summer rebuild, rising U.S. freeski moguls star is zeroing in on her Olympic dream

“The more I talk about it, the more I believe that it’s going to happen,” a quietly confident Elizabeth 'Liz' Lemley says over a video call from Finland.

The 18-year-old from Vail, Colorado, is speaking to Olympics.com just days out from embarking on her fourth FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup season beginning this weekend with moguls in Ruka, and there’s a frisson of excitement in her voice.

The tour is expected to serve up the usual cocktail of skills, thrills and spills except this year it will also double up as a road to the Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026, where athletes will accrue ranking points based on their results (from 1 July 2025 to 18 January 2026)*.

And for aspiring Olympian Lemley, the Games are the ultimate prize.

“My whole life has been to go to the Olympics and win,” the skier says definitively. “I believe that I have the potential to win the Olympics and I sort of just want to realise that potential.”

Locking into that one specific goal has meant for the skier going down the route of significant change.

Last season was a special one for the mogul specialist. The teen made two World Cup podiums and scored a double gold at the Youth Winter Olympic Games in Gangwon. It was industrious by any standard but for Lemley, whose ambition to make it to Milano Cortina was only heightened by her conquest in the Republic of Korea, something was missing.

A deep US roster stacked with talent left the teenager wanting when it came to instruction. She decided to reach out to a former coach, John Dowling, who knew her from age 11. And with the permission of the U.S. Ski Team, Lemley moved solely under his guidance.

• Meet Liz Lemley, moguls Youth Olympic double gold medallist with a licence to fly - and an Air Force dream

Gym, turns, confidence and tricks

Like scientists in a laboratory, Lemley and her team devoted the summer to looking at the margins and testing limits.

Up first came a renewed emphasis on the gym: “As a mogul skier, the focus is on a lot plyometrics and speed and being stable and balance, because the most important thing is when I’m coming in for a trick, especially a cork, when I come in twisting, to be able to land super strong and not have any breakaways. And also, just to be able to compose myself so I can approach moguls a lot faster. We want to be very speedy,” Lemley says, gesturing with her hands the almost hypnotic side-side motion mogul experts perform as they twist through the minefield of bumps.

“We also focus a lot on injury prevention because a huge part of sports is preventing injury so, a lot of back, core, hamstring - all that stuff,” she continues.

“I used to hate it. I hated going to the gym I would skip out. I would be like, I'm going to take a nap. I don't want to go to the gym. But now it's it's kind of fun. And I enjoyed seeing the progression, and I enjoyed seeing myself get bigger.”

After switching tack in the gym, attentions then turned to other areas of potential growth.

“I've been focusing a lot on building up my air package because I believe it was lacking last year and it was sort of where my strengths are at," Lemley says.

“So I wanted to really focus on that and sort of get my edge back. And so I'd be more confident coming into the season. And I believe I achieved that. And my coach John, he's very technical in turns and he's been doing a lot of analysis and work on the turns.”

The breakdown and subsequent rebuild have not only made Lemley physically stronger but also, mentally more resilient. By attacking the process, the US rising star has found a fresh sense of belief:

“I think through working on all of these things physically helps me mentally because in previous like last year, I sort of came in unsure about my DD (degree of difficulty) tactics, unsure about coaches, unsure about my physical ability. And that definitely was reflected in my skiing,” Lemley admits. “I felt a lot less confident. Whereas this year I'm super confident. In the start gate mentally, I think I'm pretty solid and I know how to compete.”

If saying it out loud wasn’t proof enough of a switch in attitude, Lemley’s hunger becomes more apparent as the conversation moves to trick choices and development.

The cork 7 mute, that the skier intends to throw down in the opening four events, is the same trick the Olympic champion Jakara Anthony used to rule last year’s World Cup season.

“It’s honestly kind of funny because I also want to do it because I want to do it better than Jakara and show the judges that hers isn’t perfect and it’s not the best.”

Then there's the cork 1080 she's been working hard at acing: "That might come out in one of the competitions if there's a good situation."

An inherited Olympic dream

Digging into why Lemley’s drive is so Olympic focused, it’s clear as she talks that a certain amount of credit belongs to her family.

It was Lemley’s father who first pushed her and her brother into the discipline of moguls having been inspired by Travis Mayer’s unlikely medal run at Salt Lake City 2002.

Then 30, he pushed himself into the discipline and even entered a mogul competition.

“It’s actually kind of funny,” Lemley says giggling. “He obviously couldn’t do it himself because it was too late so he got my brother and I into mogul skiing and that was my entire childhood.”

Both Lemley and her brother grew into the demands of the sport quickly with Liz acknowledging that keeping pace with her old sibling encouraged her to progress: “I always skied with the boys who were a little bit more daring.”

Curiosity at what she might achieve continued to push her on and after seeing Hannah Kearney’s Olympic medals at Vancouver 2010 and then Sochi 2014, Lemley experienced for herself what her father had felt watching the Games - knowing then, the Olympics were now her own personal goal.

As for her dad's influence, it also goes beyond the slopes.

When she’s not skiing, studying or mountain biking in her native Colorado, Lemley reveals she also dabbles in aerobatic plane flying, thanks to her father.

“He started it when I was three and he would bring me and my brother and he’d put us in the back of the training plane. There would be the instructor and my dad and he would learn to fly with us in the back,” Lemley says, laughing again at the memory.

“He just got his glider pilot license and he is 60 now. He says he wants to race gliders. I don’t even know how that works!”

Liz Lemley: "I'm excited to show it off"

If being inspired by the Games is an inherited trait in the Lemley family, then infectious energy - direct from dad to daughter - might welll just be another.

“I’m excited and nervous, I guess at the same time,” Lemley says, eager to get the season started. “I’m excited to show it off, but also nervous to see how it will play out.”

It certainly promises to be intriguing with Anthony back after such a dominant last year, and 2018 French Olympic champion Perrine Laffont also set to make her return after time away.

Lemley, however, won’t pay them too much mind. With her new coach in her corner and the summer’s training foundations in place, all that matters to the skier is a top-three finish in the overall standings to best place in securing a quota for Milano Cortina 2026, and fulfil her ultimate dream.

“This is want to do,” she says. “Go to Europe and win the gold.”

*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Milano Cortina Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Milano Cortina 2026.