Freestyle Skier Rell Harwood on Her 2026 Winter Olympics Debut

I first encountered 24-year-old freestyle skier Rell Harwood last October at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard’s annual fundraising event in New York City. We shared a table sponsored by J.Crew, the official lifestyle apparel partner for the sport’s governing body. Initially, it seemed unlikely we’d have much in common: I, a fashion editor in Manhattan with minimal mountain exposure, and she, a Park City native who began skiing at age three. However, when the evening’s host introduced Harwood and highlighted her hobbies beyond the slopes, our connection became clear. Like me, Harwood enjoys shopping, and thrifting is her particular passion. Once she joined the dinner table, we had ample subjects to discuss.

During the evening, I inquired about Harwood’s skiing career, her Olympic aspirations, her thrifting adventures, and the upcoming J.Crew campaign she was involved with. The day after the gala, she departed with seven other athletes for Austria to film Alpine People, a short movie and accompanying advertisement celebrating the inaugural collection from J.Crew’s three-year collaboration with U.S. Ski and Snowboard. The Stifel U.S. Freeski Team member and X Games gold medalist was joined by Colby Stevenson, Hailey Langland, River Radamus, Tess Johnson, and Zach Miller. Each athlete embodied a distinct mountain persona; Harwood’s was the “Après Aficionado,” described as a “cocoa connoisseur and queen of the après-ski happy hour.” This was a role she enthusiastically embraced and identified with fully. “I got lucky,” she later confided to me via Zoom, weeks after the collection’s January 8 launch. “That kind of is me,” she quipped. “It was perfect.”