Four UAA alums headed to 2026 Winter Olympics

Park City, Utah - University of Alaska Anchorage will have four alums competing at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy Feb. 6-22. Peter Hinds (Slovakia), JC Schoonmaker (USA) and Hailey Swirbul (USA) will each be competing in Nordic skiing, and Pascale Paradis (Canada) will compete in biathlon.

Hinds, a native of Anchorage, has competed in 11 World Cup races for Slovakia this season, with a career-best finish of 53rd in the freestyle sprint in Oberhof. He twice represented UAA at the NCAA Championships with a career-best finish of 14th in the 7.5-kilometer classic race.

Paradis, a native of Calgary, Alberta, has represented Canada 34 times on the World Cup circuit since the 2024-25 season and represented Canada at the 2025 World Championships. She has posted a pair of top-10 World Cup finishes in the relay. She competed at three NCAA National Championships for UAA finishing as high as 11th in the 15-kilometer freestyle.

Schoonmaker, a native of Tahoe City, Calif., finished ninth in the team sprint finals, 15th in the freestyle sprints and 66th in the 15-kilometer classic at the Beijing Olympics. He has made 83 starts on the World Cup, with 17 top-10 finishes and a career-best finish of third in the classic sprint at Ostersund in 2023. He earned three All-American honors during his career at UAA, including a third-place finish in the 20-kilometer freestyle as a senior.

Swirbul, a native of El Jebel, Colo., finished fourth in the 4x5-kilometer relay, 32nd in the 10-kilometer classic and 40th in the skiathlon at the Beijing Olympics. She has made 68 World Cup starts, with four top-10 finishes, including a pair of third-place finishes. She earned two All-American honors at Alaska Anchorage, and was the runner-up in the 15-kilometer freestyle at the 2018 NCAA National Championships.