Austin Florian of Southington was named to the U.S. Olympic skeleton team for the first time, USA Bobsled & Skeleton announced Monday.
Florian, 31, is a former All-American college ski racer who tried skeleton, in which the athlete goes stomach-down, headfirst on a sled down an iced track, when he was in college in upstate New York and began to pursue the sport seriously in Lake Placid after he graduated in 2016.
The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics will start Feb. 6 with opening ceremonies. Skeleton competition will take place Feb. 12-15 at the Cortina Sliding Center.
Florian and Mystique Ro, who made the U.S. Olympic women’s team, are the defending world champions in mixed team relay, in which a male and female skeleton racer compete separately and their times are added together. Florian also finished sixth individually at the World Championships last year and is the top-ranked U.S. skeleton racer.