An athlete from Miami has qualified to represent Team Mexico in cross-country skiing in the 2026 Winter Olympics. And she’s the first female to do so.

The two-time Olympic figure skater connects art with technicality to bring his unique expression to the rink. We ask

Schleper, the daughter of a ski-shop owner from Vail, Colo., has represented the United States at four Winter Olympic Games; a Mexican citizen by marriage, she competed for Mexico at the 2018 and 2022 Olympics, and now, once again at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.

Mexico City-born Regina Martínez became the first Mexican woman to compete as a cross-country skier at an Olympic Winter Games.

Sarah Schleper and her son, Lasse Gaxiola, are set to make Olympic history at Milan Cortina 2026 as the first mother-son duo to compete at the same Winter Games. A mother and son duo are making history at these Olympic Games.

The Winter Games are often romanticized as a pure test of human limits, but in reality, they are a bureaucratic minefield where the rulebook matters as much as the athlete. Behind every record-breaking jump or lightning-fast run lies a dense web of regulations governing everything from fabric tension to invisible chemical residue.

Mexico's Olympic roster features something fairly unique: a mother-son duo.

Mexican Alpine skier Sarah Schleper and her son Lasse Gaxiola are set to make history at the Winter Olympics. (AP photo)