Living the Dream
Howe’s fresh slate has led to a berth on the 2026 U.S. Winter Olympic team.
When the Opening Ceremony is held on February 6 in Milan, Italy, the U.S. delegation will include at least 10 athletes who are active-duty service members. Besides Howe, seven other Army soldiers qualified for the games, which will run through February 22. Sgt. Frank Del Duca and Spc. Azaria Hill made it in the bobsled, Sgt. Ben Loomis will compete in Nordic Combined skiing, and Spc. Sean Doherty and Staff Sgt. Deedra Irwin made the squad in biathlon, which is a combination of skiing and rifle shooting. Two Army WCAP soldiers were selected as alternates: Cpl. Hakeem Abdul-Saboor in the bobsled and Spc. Dana Kellogg in luge doubles.
Two Olympians are in the Air Force. Kelly Curtis is set to compete in skeleton, a fast-paced event in which athletes race headfirst on sleds. (We strongly suggest you don’t try that at home.) Jasmine Jones will join Del Duca and Hill on the bobsled team.
Three Army World Class Athlete Program coaches are also part of the U.S. Olympic contingent. Lt. Col. Chris Fogt is the head coach of the bobsled team, and Lt. Col. Garrett Hines and Sgt. 1st Class Shauna Rohbock will assist him.
Combining the Olympics and Motherhood
The two Olympic airmen will have added incentive when they compete in their respective sports.
While Curtis made the U.S. Olympic squad in 2022, this will be the first games in which her 2-year-old daughter Maeve can cheer her on. A first-time Olympian, Jones will compete with her 5-year-old daughter Jade in mind.
Like so many mothers, both athletes tried to come back too soon after giving birth. They then became more prudent in their recoveries and are benefiting now.
“I was running in parking lots, my child in the car with the windows down, just trying to figure out the best-care scenario of how to get my speed back,” Jones told NBCOlympics.com. “I compared myself to everyone else, and I injured myself pushing even more.”
Besides motherhood, Curtis and Jones share something else in common. Both competed in track and field before switching sports and forever altering their athletic careers. Think of it as changing military occupational specialties, except with the allure of competing against other nations. (The potential of winning a medal isn’t a bad incentive, either.)
“I just love being a mom and an athlete at the same time,” Jones said.
A Family Tradition
Chris Fogt & Azaria Hill Interview | Olympics | Off The Podium Podcast Episode 531
Hill flashed her potential when she won her first bobsled race after debuting for Team USA in late 2023.
As she prepares to compete in her first Olympics, she will at least know what to expect. Her parents both medaled in the Olympics. Virgil Hill Sr., who went on to become a world championship boxer, earned a silver medal at the 1984 games in Los Angeles. Her mother, Denean Howard-Hill, captured track and field medals in three separate Olympics. Hill’s aunt, Sherri Howard, also owns multiple Olympic medals.
That is an impressive family legacy, but Hill maintains she felt no pressure to set such a lofty athletic goal while growing up.
“They never forced me or my brother and sister to do sports,” Hill told Team USA’s website. “I just knew ever since I was a little girl… I wanted to be like my mom and aunt because they were both in the Olympics.”
Fourth Olympics ‘to Be Really Special’
This will be the fourth time that Doherty has represented the United States on the world’s biggest athletic stage.
He became the first teenager to compete for the U.S. in biathlon in 2014 in Russia. He followed that by securing spots on the U.S. team in South Korea in 2018 and in China in 2022.
Now he is back in a spot that he couldn’t possibly have envisioned when he first took up biathlon as a 12-year-old. At the time, a family friend encouraged Doherty to try it, and he displayed enough potential that he began training with a former national team coach, according to his Army World Class Athlete Program bio.
It was time well-spent, and the 30-year-old New Hampshire native remains motivated as he seeks his first Olympic medal.
“Milan is going to be special because it is the heart of true winter sports culture, and the atmosphere at these competitions is going to be really special,” Doherty, who serves in the Vermont Army National Guard, told Boston’s NBC affiliate. “It would be an honor to race and put on a show.”
