An athlete who credits Vermont with making her the skier she is today has been named to Team USA.
The official word came late Friday that Devin Logan will be representing the United States in the Winter Olympics as a freestyle skier — for a third time.
"Making the Olympic team in itself is an accomplishment," Logan said in an interview Monday.
DLo, as she is known, grew up skiing at Mount Snow in Southern Vermont, often in its Carinthia terrain parks. She then went to Mount Snow Academy for high school.
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"Vermont is my first love," said Logan, who won a silver medal in the inaugural slopestyle event at the Winter Olympics in 2014.
Logan said the support she received from coaches and residents of the Deerfield Valley was critical to enabling her to take part in her earliest competitions and further develop her love of competitive skiing. Additionally, she said the ability to ski in a wide range of conditions as one must do on the East Coast was instrumental in making her the athlete she is today.
Logan is pretty generous with that silver medal — often letting other people wear it.
"Everyone should experience that, especially kids," Logan said of the thrill that comes from wearing an Olympic medal. "I’m like, 'Put it on. Start dreaming of it. Start envisioning it!'"
The upcoming Winter Olympics will be Logan’s third. After her silver medal success in 2014, an injury kept another podium out of reach in 2018.
This time around, which DLo said will be her final Olympics, she’ll be laying down a series of highly-technical tricks for judges in the freeski halfpipe.
More on the 2022 Winter Olympics
"Vermont skiers are ones to be dealt with — we’re coming," Logan said, referring to other alpine, Nordic, and freestyle ski athletes with ties to Vermont who will be competing in China. "I’m just living in the moment, because I know this will be my last one, so I just want to enjoy the ride. There’s no need to stress — I have nothing to prove to anyone, because I’ve already proven it."
The athlete, who now lives and trains in Utah, told NECN & NBC10 Boston she is eternally grateful for the encouragement she has felt over the years from friends and neighbors back in Vermont.
"She's always kind of working toward the next thing and you really have to respect that,” Lori Paprin said in late 2016, when she took part in a special women’s ski clinic at Mount Snow which Logan led.
Ahead of the Winter Olympics in 2018 Jillian Atwood, Logan’s longtime friend since their days of youth skiing at Mount Snow, praised Logan’s work ethic and dedication to the sport.
"I think she’s worked hard enough and I think it’s definitely a possibility," Atwood said at the time of Logan’s chances of winning another Olympic medal.
If she does, in fact, earn another medal in China, DLo promised to let people she meets try on that one, too.
"I’ll bring both, so you can have double, if that’s the case," Logan laughed, describing her plans for a return visit to Vermont this spring.
