Phoebe Heaydon, a 20-year-old alpine skier from Edwards, Colorado, is set to represent Australia at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. She will compete in the giant slalom on Sunday and slalom on Wednesday. Heaydon's journey highlights her roots in Vail's ski racing community and her family's Australian heritage.
Phoebe Heaydon's path to the Olympics began early, as she told the Vail Daily in 2010 at age four that she liked 'going fast' while nearly winning a NASTAR ski-racing national championship. Now 20, the skier from Edwards, who grew up in Arrowhead, has made her World Cup debut this season in Levi, Finland, and is ready for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
Heaydon's parents, Australian citizens and U.S. permanent residents, moved to Arrowhead about 15 years ago to support her and her brother Henry's ski racing ambitions. Henry, an All-American at Montana State University, missed the 2022 Beijing Olympics due to IOC gender rebalancing amid COVID rules and just missed the cut for Cortina. Phoebe will carry the family banner, with her father Craig Heaydon noting her strong recent form, including two top-30 finishes in the Europa Cup in Chamonix, France, with a 16th in slalom two weeks ago. 'She got a good result in Europa Cup two weeks ago, so she’s feeling good,' Craig said, adding that training in Cortina has gone well.
A longtime member of Ski and Snowboard Club Vail for 13 years, Heaydon graduated from Vail Mountain School alongside other top racers like Liv and Kjersti Moritz on the U.S. Ski Team and Kaitlin Keane. Despite meeting U.S. Ski Team criteria in recent years, she chose to represent Australia, where she was born. 'She’s always wanted to ski for Australia,' her father said.
Australian Winter Olympic Team Chef de Mission Alisa Camplin praised Heaydon's progress in a press release: 'Watching Phoebe’s progression this season, to make her World Cup debut has been fantastic. She’s only 20 years old, how great is it to see Australia’s next generation athletes rising to the top?' Camplin highlighted alpine skiing's popularity in Australia and anticipated support for Heaydon alongside teammates Madison Hoffman and Harry Laidlaw.
Craig Heaydon emphasized the sacrifices involved: 'Anyone that gets that level, you just realize all the work that goes into it and the sacrifice that goes into it. It’s enormous — the lack of social life, missing tons of school and all that.' Heaydon aims to 'represent her country at the highest level and do it properly, not just [get] the Instagram photo.'
