Get to know Kai Owens: 5 facts about Team USA’s rising star in Olympic moguls skiing

For the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, For The Win is helping you get to know some of the star Olympians competing on the world’s biggest stage. Leading up to the Opening Ceremony, we’re highlighting 15 Team USA athletes we think you should get to know. Up next is freestyle skier Kai Owens.

A trip to the Olympics is special for every athlete who is able to make it to the Games, but it’s likely even more special for Kai Owens, a 17-year-old freestyle skier who will compete in moguls for Team USA.

Owens’ personal story is pretty incredible. She was born in China and was left in a town square by her birth parents before being adopted from an orphanage when she was just 16 months old. Her parents, Amy and John Owens, raised her in Vail, Colorado, and now Owens is headed back to China for a moment that she has called “just incredible.”

Let’s get to know more about Owens, who is competing in her first Games.