January 26, 2026 – Slinger, WI – It was a longshot to make the 2026 Winter Olympic team for Alpine snowboarding, but Slinger native Lexi Bullis set her sights high and went for it. She stepped onto the Alpine snowboarding World Cup circuit and for the past several seasons, the 25-year-old chased one of the most difficult goals in international sport. Over the weekend the U.S. Olympic team for 2026 was announced…
Courtesy FIS Snowboarding
Bullis was not among those selected. It was a longshot she understood from the beginning. Still, the season that led her there is one she said she will always value.
“I’m pretty happy with how it’s gone so far,” Bullis said. “This last race wasn’t particularly my best. I had a binding break the first day and then the second day at the team event, it just wasn’t my day. But otherwise, I’m pretty happy with things being able to come together and actually be able to put in some good runs and some good results as well.”
Bullis said, qualifying for the Olympics in Alpine snowboarding is far from straightforward.
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Unlike sports with single trials or one decisive event, qualification is based on results over a year-and-a-half window leading up to the Games.
“Races that are within an 18-month period of the Olympics are the ones that count towards qualifying,” she said. “It’s a combination of a lot of things and it is super complicated. It matters how many World Cup points you have in a given year to get a certain standing, which then opens quota spots for your country. Honestly, it’s really hard to explain, and I don’t totally understand it fully.”
Bullis knew from the onset the odds were steep, especially for women in her discipline.
“I knew going into it that there was like a solid 95 percent chance I wouldn’t qualify,” she said. “It is very hard. Iris Pflum of Minnesota qualified this year, and she is the first woman since 2010 that has competed in our sport in the Olympics. So I knew it would be a long stretch.”
Still, moments during the season brought the dream closer than expected.
“At the beginning of the season, when I was actually getting second runs and finishing in the 20s at World Cup events, I got a little sense of like, well, maybe this dream is not as far fetched as I originally thought,” Bullis said. “I guess I’m bummed, but I didn’t have this expectation of qualifying. It was pretty cool to be able to try and achieve something like that, even knowing it was a very lofty goal.”
Bullis said she learned she was not on the Olympic team the same way many athletes in her position do.
“I heard from the two that qualified that they received word directly from U.S. Ski and Snowboard,” she said. “Then the next day, the team was announced. Those of us that are in contention, they don’t really reach out unless you’re super close. We just found out when the team was announced, and that’s that.”
With this World Cup season still underway, Bullis remains focused on finishing strong. After a brief break, she and her team head back into training before the final World Cup race of the month in Slovenia.
Once the season wraps up, Bullis plans to step away from competition, at least for now.
“I knew coming into this season that after I wanted to take a break for the year from competing,” she said. “I’ve always been an athlete. I’ve only ever trained or worked or done things around snowboarding.”
Bullis said that decision is shaped by both personal growth and the financial realities of elite snowboarding.
“It comes down to the finances,” Bullis said. “It’s about $40,000 every six months that I’m having to fund, and then the other six months is trying to save up for it. Most of the countries we compete against, their athletes are fully funded. Our longevity in the sport is really how long you can financially back it.”
As Bullis pauses her competitive career, her impact on snowboarding in Washington County is already clear. She helped start the Hartford team that later became a standalone program and played a major role in growing Alpine snowboarding locally.
“I know that in Slinger, and starting the Hartford team that is now a standalone team, and being able to grow snowboarding so much in Washington County, both as a high school varsity sport and as a club sport, has been pretty cool,” she said.
Bullis pointed to recent national success as evidence of that growth.
“The level of snowboarding in Washington County and southeast Wisconsin has increased so much that when they go out to U.S. Nationals every year, especially in the high school age group, eight out of the top 10 men last year were all from southeast Wisconsin,” Bullis said. “That’s pretty cool to see.”
Bullis has also earned her coaching certification and plans to stay deeply involved in the sport, particularly on the organizational side of the U.S. Snowboard Racing Team.
“I want to be a more permanent role in providing the next generation of racers the ability to stick with it and not worry about how they’re going to finance their next race or their next plane ticket,” she said. “A lot of talent has been lost because families simply can’t afford it.”
As she looked back on her journey, Bullis said it all started simply.
“When I first started Alpine snowboarding, it was like a fun sport that my brother signed up for,” she said. “Looking back at it, I could never have imagined it would have grown into this, or that I would have been able to do this over the last eight to 10 years.”
For the supporters who followed her journey from Slinger to the World Cup circuit, Bullis offered heartfelt gratitude.
“I am super grateful for the amount of community support I’ve had over the years,” she said. “This dream and being able to snowboard at this level would not have been possible without my family, friends and all my supporters back at home.
“And this season, I’ve just really been trying to enjoy it,” she said.
