Oregon Public Broadcasting

Two Northwest freestyle skiers have earned the best Christmas gift they could wish for.  They secured spots in the Vancouver Winter Olympics by winning their events at the U.S. Olympic Trials held at Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  Tom Banse tells us who the lucky guys are.

22-year-old skier Patrick Deneen of Cle Elum, Washington automatically qualified for the Vancouver Games by placing first in the Olympic trials.  He won the moguls event. 

Then in aerials, Speedy Peterson of Boise punched his ticket to the Olympics.  He landed a pair of quadruple twisting jumps. 

This will be Peterson's third Olympics.  The rest of the U.S. freestyle team, and the entire alpine skiing and snowboard squads will be named later, as close to the Games as possible. 

That means about another month of waiting.

Kaitlyn Farrington: "It's stressful!"

Snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington of Sun Valley is competing for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.

Kaitlyn Farrington: "I try and push it out of my mind. I'm trying to think about the here and the now."

The vast majority of U.S. athletes will win a spot in the Olympics based on their overall performance throughout the season.

Online:

U.S. Olympic Team