Open Letter from USA Olympian Tyler Wallasch
As the world gathers for the Milano-Cortina Games, the Men's Skicross event faces a situation that contradicts the Olympic spirit: one quota place will remain empty, the competition field will be incomplete, and a nation will go unrepresented. This is not due to a lack of qualified athletes, but due to an administrative rule and administrative procedures that fail to uphold the athlete-centred Olympic ideals of participation and fair competition.
I have qualified for that vacant quota place through international competition rankings and have had the backing of the USOPC and FIS to be granted the spot. However, the IOC has denied my request to compete and denied the USA representation in the Men’s Skicross event.
While limiting team sizes makes sense in sports where athletes compete across multiple disciplines, this logic does not apply to Freestyle Skiing because no freestyle athlete competes in multiple disciplines. The rule's intended purpose is to foster the Olympic spirit through broader international participation. However, in Men's Skicross, it is achieving the opposite effect for the second time, the first being the 2018 Games.
The reality is that this rule is preventing a nation from being represented in the event entirely, leaving the competition field incomplete. Freestyle has expanded to five events, while the team size cap has remained relatively static. Nations with athletes across all disciplines face an arbitrary constraint that serves no competitive or logistical purpose in this instance. Only an American athlete can fill the vacant quota place. Yet, for the second time, I am watching an earned spot remain vacant.
My athletic career has embodied the true Olympic ideals. I have never been a member of the U.S. national team, as Skicross has not received U.S. national team support since its Olympic debut in 2010. For fifteen years, I have trained, travelled, and competed entirely on my own, without the institutional support that most of my competitors receive. I have had to fight for my place in international sport at every turn. This solitary path has shown me the truest expression of Olympic values. I have trained with national teams from around the world. Many of my direct competitors, whom I would face on the course, have reached out to support my participation at the Games. I have experienced firsthand the global community of sport that the Olympic Movement seeks to foster.
To watch the quota place I earned remain empty and to see my nation unrepresented and the competition field incomplete because of a rule that directly contradicts the Olympic spirit it was designed to protect, profoundly challenges my faith in the principles that drew me to Olympic sport in the first place.
Granting me the quota spot would not disadvantage any other athlete or nation; it would honor the competitive achievement that earned this quota place, and it would allow a nation to be represented in an event where it would otherwise be absent. In doing so, it would complete the competition field and ensure balanced, fair competition, upholding the Olympic spirit of participation over arbitrary administrative constraints.
I also stand in the belief that this situation highlights the need to revise this rule for future Games, ensuring it does not create similar inequities for athletes in sports where cross-discipline competition does not occur.
As President Coventry shared in May 2020, quoting Pierre de Coubertin: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well."
I am asking for the opportunity to take part and fight well.
Thank you to my Skicross competitors who have signed the letter below to support my journey to compete at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Games. This is what sport should be about.
Respectfully,
Tyler Wallasch
Signed and supported by:
