Westport's Julia Marino is back in Connecticut following a memorable experience in her first Olympics. The 24-year-old won the silver medal in women's snowboard slopestyle.
"It was really cool to be up there holding that medal," Marino said while thinking back to the medal ceremony.
As for the run that put her on the podium, Marino said she could feel something special was happening.
"I was just feeling really good on my board and when I was coming down to that last jump, I knew the whole run was coming together," Marino said. "Getting to realize that I have now all these doors open for what I want to do is helping it sink in, [I'm] getting pretty excited for what's to come up for the next couple of seasons."
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Athletes with Connecticut ties accounted for eight of Team USA's 25 medals at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Marino is proud to represent her home state on the international stage.
"I always forget how kind of random it is to come from here but then it's really cool to meet other athletes like Mac [Forehand] who are from here too and just actually crushing it," said Marino. "It just kind of shows that no matter where you're from, you can still accomplish big things, so I've been getting a lot of love from people back here, a lot of support and it means so much to me."
