DENVER — A Longmont native is going for gold this month. Chase Blackwell grew up in Colorado and is now competing on a global stage for winter sports.
Chase started snowboarding down the driveway of his home at the age of 3. He eventually would learn all about the sport at Eldora. He tells Denver7 that growing up in Colorado is the best.
“There's no other place I would have rather grown up. Being able to represent Colorado on the biggest stage at the Olympics for Team USA is a dream come true. It's pretty awesome to get to do it with one of my good friends, Jake Pates, as well from Colorado and Maddie Schaffrick.”
Olympics
Here are the Colorado athletes competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics
Blackwell has been on the U.S. Olympic Snowboard Team for 8 years since 2018. He's earned 11 top-ten finishes in the World Cup, including a podium appearance at Mammoth in 2023. Now, he’s one of 15 first-time U.S. Olympians competing and one of 9 representing Colorado in snowboarding.
Chase will be competing in the Qualifying Snowboard Halfpipe on Wednesday afternoon.
He says he’s looking forward to the high level of competition. “There's no other contest that's going to have this kind of atmosphere with so many different events and all the nations coming together.”
Before the Olympics started Chase and the team started training in Switzerland to help adjust to the time difference. He says heading into the competition he doesn’t feel any pressure.
“I don't even really feel like there's too much pressure going into this one because you're just going to do everything, like ride to the best of your ability, and that's all you can do.”
After the competition, Chase says he hopes to get time to attend a few other events like a USA hockey game. There won’t be much time to rest though, February is considered the middle of the competition season for snowboarding.
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