TGR Olympic Athlete Profile: Jaelin Kauf

As the 2026 Olympic Games slide into view, we want to take a chance to give this group of extraordinary winter athletes their flowers. Their stories are as compelling as the medals they chase. In this series, TGR profiles the athletes at the forefront of their disciplines. From Halfpipe to Super G, these are the skiers and snowboarders putting it all on the line for Olympic glory. This series gives you an inside scoop on a handful of top athletes, from career milestones and signature styles to injury battles and heroic comebacks. These are the folks on the cutting edge of winter sports.

First up, Moguls phenom Jaelin Kauf.

Country: United States
Hometown / Base: Alta, Wyoming
Age: 29
Sport: Freestyle Skiing
Discipline: Moguls, Dual Moguls

Olympic Resume:
• Two-time Olympian (2018, 2022)
• Silver medalist, 2022 Beijing Moguls

Career Highlights:
• 2025 World Champion, Dual Moguls
• 2024–25 Overall Crystal Globe winner
• 10+ career World Cup wins
• Multiple World Championships medals

2025–26 Outlook:
Charging into the Olympic cycle as one of the fastest skiers on the World Cup. The top American hope for both standard moguls and the Olympic debut of dual moguls.

Current Rank:
Kauf is the current no. 1 in Women's Moguls and Dual Moguls.

Recent Form:
A long string of podiums in 2024–25, capped by World Championships gold and overall World Cup dominance.

Calling Card:
Blistering speed, clean execution, and a refined jump package built around a cork 720 up top and a tight, fast backflip mute at the bottom.

Injury Notes:
No major setbacks reported. Durable, consistent, and trending upward.

Jaelin Kauf has spent the better part of a decade carving a clean, ferocious line through the World Cup moguls circuit. The daughter of two former U.S. Ski Team mogul skiers, she grew up lapping bumps in Wyoming and Idaho, and moved through the junior ranks with a quickness. Today she stands as one of the most dominant forces in moguls and dual moguls, poised for Olympic success next year.

No matter how things go in Milan-Cortina, Kauf is already an Olympic medalist. After a disappointing 7th place finish at the moguls at South Korea in 2018, she stepped up to silver in Beijing in 2022. The Olympic podium marked the moment a longtime contender truly stepped into the global spotlight.

Since then she's only climbed higher. The 2024–25 season delivered her most complete campaign to date, spitting her out ranked number 1 in the world in her discipline. She won took home multiple World Cups, the overall Crystal Globe, and won gold in dual moguls at the 2025 World Championships. Only a fool would discount her status as an Olympic favorite next year.

Heading into 2025–26, she sits ranked among the best in the world in both moguls and dual moguls. The latter will make its Olympic debut in Cortina, and Kauf is well positioned to write a piece of U.S. freestyle skiing history when it does.

Kauf’s story isn’t built around dramatic comebacks or injury intermissions. Her narrative is one of steady refinement, season after season, built on durability and a competitive engine that rarely dips. As the countdown to 2026 tightens, she stands as a central figure in American freestyle skiing: experienced, ascending, and hungry for more.