4-time U.S. National Champion in three different disciplines - slalom, giant slalom and alpine-combined
4-time North America Cup (Nor-Am) slalom champion
Member of two World Championship teams (USA in 2015; Slovenia in 2024)
USBC-sponsored athlete Lila Lapanja is gunning for a spot on Team Slovenia at the XXV Winter Olympic Games to be held in Italy next month.
We caught up with Lila just before the holidays to discuss her Olympic hopes, her journey as an athlete, and, as a Slovenian American, her ultimate decision to represent Slovenia.
Lila: They don’t name the Olympic team until January 18th—that’s the official date. So we have work to do in the meantime. Our team, unfortunately, has had some injuries this year, so there are spots open. But I know that the committee and the coaches, the people who will name the team—they still want to see really good results. I believe this year, they’re going to be looking for top 30 World Cup results so that’s going to be my main goal before February.
Historically, I’ve liked to do slalom, giant slalom and Super-G, but in the last few years, due to different circumstances, I’ve decided to focus mainly on slalom at the World Cup level.
To be honest, the last Olympic cycle, I had a little bit of the year from hell. I broke my leg before the Olympics after coming off a national championship win the spring before. And then I got COVID during qualification races and wasn’t allowed to race. And then at the end of the season, I actually ended up getting really bad frostbite and couldn’t compete. I was still in so much pain with my leg so I ended my season early.
That whole season was just heartbreaking for me because I felt like I was peaking going into it. And then life happens as it tends to do. My spirits were definitely down, and I didn’t really know how I was going to rebuild my career. I actually considered quitting racing completely at that point. I just didn’t know how to pick myself back up from those ashes. It was very, very difficult.
But at the same time, there was something left in me that felt like an unfinished story. At the time, I didn’t really know what that meant or what direction it would take me, but I just kept sticking to my path of being an athlete, showing up, getting the training in, and putting all the pieces in place the best I could—making sure that I was in an environment that would support me. Little by little, those pieces started to come together. Luckily, I’ve been quite healthy and while that comes with its own inherent pressures and stressors, I feel like I’ve got another opportunity. I’m super motivated to take it.
I do know that I’ve had some results in the past, that if I had them in the price place at the right time, I would have made that team. I would have been on those Olympic teams for the United States. I was first alternate for the last two cycles of the Olympic Games. I know I’ve been close, and that’s both tantalizing and torturous. But it gives me belief. I know I’m capable. I wouldn’t still be racing if I didn’t think I was capable of doing it.
But that’s also sport. A lot has to fall into place. I started racing competitively and professionally 15 years ago—there’s so many little details and some of them are completely out of your control. You do the best you can.
I’m half Slovenian, as you know. I grew up in the United States, but I’ve always had dual citizenship. My father came from Slovenia. He raced in college in the 90s and then started a business and had a family here in the States. I’ve been very fortunate to have the opportunity to regularly travel back to Slovenia as a kid and keep in touch with my family there. My grandparents still live here in Europe and Slovenia. They gave me the chance to see this beautiful country, learn the language, and appreciate everything it has to offer.
So I’ve always had a special connection to Slovenia, and I’ve always wondered about switching to the Slovenian team with ski racing. The reason I didn’t do it sooner in my career is that I really felt that I had to see my American journey through. I’m proud to be an American. I love the United States. I love where I live in the U.S. And I’m still also inherently very American as much as I am Slovenian. So it was important for me to follow that path.
A lot of people throughout my career in the U.S. would ask me, “Have you tried switching to Slovenia?” I think in their minds it might have been easier to reach the top if I had switched countries because Slovenia is a smaller country. Maybe it’s not as competitive, maybe the politics are different, maybe it’s more supportive, maybe it would open doors.
And while some of those things are true, it’s still very competitive. They want to compete on the global scale with the likes of Austria, Switzerland, and the USA. I knew switching was going to be a lateral move. To me, it wasn’t a copout. If anything, it was going to be a business decision that I would make if and when I felt that my path with the United States had ended. Two years ago, that time came. I felt the completion of that journey—almost intuitively. I just remember waking up on New Year’s morning and saying, I’m going to switch to Slovenia. It’s time.
So I started that whole process, making sure that I had the right documentation in place, that I communicated with the relevant people, and ultimately that I left as respectfully and honorably as I could. And then I began this brand new journey, which came with a whole new set of challenges and opportunities.
I’ve learned a lot and I’ve grown a lot in ways that I wouldn’t have if I had stayed with the U.S. and I can say, regardless of when I finished racing, that I really gave it my all. I tried every angle and I really saw it through completely by seeing the American side of me through and now representing the Slovenian side of me. It’s also been a very special story for me, to come full circle with my father, who ended his career racing for Slovenia—what was then Yugoslavia. I’ll ultimately end my career racing for Slovenia as well.
Slovenia was the ski capital of Yugoslavia because they have the biggest mountains, and they were just a powerhouse team. They really have a lot of pride around the culture of skiing. The best ski jumpers in the world right now are Slovenians. I also know they want to have a revival of the alpine aspect of the sport and keep people engaged with alpine skiing so that they can remember where they came from and remember what their roots are, especially the northwest region of Slovenia, where my family comes from.
It’s a country of 2 million people and for the most part, in most regions of Slovenia, they’re airing the races on TV and they’re putting us in the media as much as they can. They want us to have that exposure and be ambassadors for the country.
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