Tasia Tanner Was Dead Last. Then She Made the Olympic Team.
Tasia Tanner will be the first to tell you that her season got off to a rocky start. The year leading into the 2026 Olympics cycle she had taken a new job.
Training, naturally, took a backseat. "I just didn't go into that season as strong as I needed to be," reflects Tanner.
So she rebuilt. With a new mindset, new approach, and put her best foot forward.
Out of Contention
When the 2025-2026 season arrived, it was go time. Unfortunately for Tanner, Finland wasn't her meet. China wasn't either. Two teammates had posted a fourth and a fifth early in the season; and as the season gets underway it becomes even harder to break into the top placement spots as athletes get more consistent.
Going into Canada, Tasia was dead last on the Olympic selection list for Team USA. Not on the bubble. Dead last.
"I remember having this conversation with my mom and being like, mom, I'm really stressed, but I don't think it's helping me. So at that point, I made the decision to go back to the basics, which is that I enjoy skiing. If I could just have some fun with it, whatever happens, happens. If I made the Games, great. If not, I decided I’d book some ski trips."
Photo Credit: Tasia Tanner / Instagram
Tanner could count the number of competitions left to qualify for the Games on one hand.
When They Say Go, You Go
Aerial skiing doesn't give you much time to think. You get the go-ahead from your coach, and you go. Wait even a second and the wind shifts, the hill changes, the moment passes. Tasia had learned this the hard way earlier in her career, when hesitating at the start became its own problem.
"It's actually worse for you if you wait when your coach clears you. They've cleared you because that's the safest time to go. If you wait, the winds could change directions."
The lesson she'd carried into Canada? Trust your training, trust your coach, and when your coach says go — you go.
In Canada, she went for it.
"I just love skiing. It was so freeing to be able to just go back to the basics of knowing that I love to ski and I want to ski. I let that take me through. That mindset really helped me perform my best in Canada."
That's The Sport Of Aerials
She landed clean and left the corral thinking she'd probably finish sixth. But then, the two Chinese athletes ranked first and second in the world both fell in the final round.
"I remember thinking, oh, well, that's not what I was planning on. And so it worked out really well for me. And honestly, that’s the sport of aerials."
Tasia Tanner, dead last on the selection list heading into that competition, punched her ticket to Milano Cortina.
Some would call luck. But luck is simply preparation meeting opportunity.
She'd lived out of a suitcase for all but 12 days, broken through a brutal season the year before, and rebuilt her training from the ground up. The opportunity presented itself and she was ready.
It Takes a Village
Tanner is quick to credit the people who have helped make her athletic dreams a reality.
Her coach Stas has been at her side for the past three years and Tanner says how "finally having a consistent coach who wasn’t going anywhere was a game changer for me."
Her parents were in the finish area at nearly every competition this season. Her husband signed on for "middle of nowhere, Finland" in year one of their relationship and never looked back.
"Having him there is really what I needed. Someone else outside of my immediate family who was also in my corner."
She was last. Then she wasn't.
"That support really helped me catapult to where I needed to be."
ABOUT THIS SERIES
I'm Amy Wotovich and I am on a mission to interview 100% of Team USA's 2026 Olympic and Paralympic athletes to create the most comprehensive mindset record of a single Games cycle. What do elite competitors actually believe about pressure, identity, failure, and joy? Tasia Tanner is one of hundreds of athletes sharing their unfiltered answers. Follow the journey!
