Sarah Schleper

Sarah Schleper competed at seven Winter Olympic Games in Alpine skiing, for the United States in 1998-2010, and for Mexico in 2018-26. A native of Vail, Colorado, she was able to compete for Mexico after her marriage to Federico de Gaxiola.

Schleper competed at 11 World Championships from 2001-25, missing only 2007 and 2013, competing for Mexico from 2015-25. Primarily a technical skier, she won one World Cup event, a slalom in Lenzerheide, Switzerland in March 2005, and had three other podium finishes in the World Cup. Her best seasonal standing in World Cup was fifth in slalom in 2004/05, and her best Olympic finish was 10th in the 2026 slalom.

Schleper initially retired in December 2011, but came back in June 2014, representing Mexico. At her initial retirement race in 2011, she skied in a summer dress, bare-armed and bare-legged, and midway down the run picked up her 4-year-old son, and held him in her arms as she finished the course. In 2026 Schleper competed at the Milano-Cortina Olympics alongside that son, Lasse Gaxiola, who had qualified to compete for Mexico on the men’s side.