2-Time Olympic Gold Medalist Jamie Anderson Announces Comeback to Slopestyle Snowboarding After Second Baby

One of the most successful female Slopestyle snowboarders and two-time Olympic gold medalist, Jamie Anderson, has officially announced her intention to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy, five months after giving birth to her second child. The exciting announcement marks more than just a comeback—it is a sign that things are changing and female athletes no longer are expected to step away from competition because they have had children. “I don’t know where it’s coming from, but I’m fired up,” Anderson said. 

• Related: California’s Jamie Anderson does it Again! Defends her Title for Team USA’s Second Gold Medal

35-year-old Anderson first burst onto the snowboard scene in 2005 at the age of 15. She won her first podium at 16 at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado, and went on to claim a total of 23 podiums at the X Games—10 of which Gold—making her the most decorated female X games snowboarder. She won Gold in Slopestyle at both the 2014 Sochi, Russia, and 2018 PyeongChang, Korea, Olympics and also a Silver in Big Air in 2018. She has 11 World Cup victories to her name and is considered one of the most influential women in snowboarding. After stepping back for from competitive snowboarding after the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, she welcomed her first daughter, Misty Rose, in March 2023, and her second daughter, Nova Sky, in April 2025. 

Now the decorated athlete has announced her intention to qualify for her fourth Olympics, just five months after giving birth to Nova Sky. Anderson follows in the steps of other female athletes, who have successfully made it back to top form in their chosen discipline. Australia’s Aerial Skier Lydia Lassila returned to the Winter Olympics after the birth of her first son with the drive to land a quad-twisting triple somersault jump—the first in a women’s Olympic event. She documented her comeback in the documentary “The Will to Fly,” and became the first woman to jump a quad, claiming Bronze at the 2014 Sochi Games (due to an unclean landing). Lassila went on to have another son and again managed to come back to competitive skiing, claiming four more World Cup victories and competing at her fifth Olympics.

• Related: South Lake Tahoe’s Jamie Anderson Wins Gold in Snowboard Slopestyle 

Anderson’s return to competitive snowboarding and her intention to compete at the 2026 Winter Games has been met with great excitement and will certainly heat up the women’s snowboarding competition. While she won’t be the only competitor in her thirties—Austria’s Anna Gasser is 34–she faces a lot of much younger opponents: current World Cup leader Zoi Sadowski Synnott from New Zealand is only 24 while second-ranked Mia Brookes from Team GB is only 18. But Anderson is not putting any pressure on her comeback, “As always, I’m going to go with the flow, trust my intuition and play it by ear,” the snowboarder said in an interview with U.S. Ski and Snowboard. 

Returning to high-performance sport after childbirth involves physical, mental, and logistical challenges: recovery, training, competition schedule, travel, child care. However, Anderson is not letting the logistics hold her back: “It will probably be mayhem traveling with a family of four, but I’m feeling inspired to get some tricks I was doing pre-motherhood back on the table.”

• Related: Cool or Crazy?—Reactions to Lindsey Vonn’s Comeback at Age 40

Her comeback also challenges the norms around what “peak athletic years” are and expands visibility for mothers in sport. It underscores the evolving nature of athlete support systems—from federations, sponsors, media—in promoting parity and recognizing that motherhood does not equal retirement. “I feel excited to have the opportunity to return and hopefully inspire other women and mothers that we can do it,” Anderson shared in an interview with NBC. “Some people say coming back as a mother gives you an extra superpower, so we’ll see how that plays out.”