The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games are coming up in February. Athletes from across the globe will be performing together on the highest platform their sport can reach. It’s an exciting time not just for the athletes who have trained incredibly hard to qualify, but for all of us watching from home. 

In this Winter Olympic Games we have a fellow Wisconsinite to cheer on – Staff Sargent Deedra Irwin. She’s on Team USA competing in the biathlon and currently holds the best placement for an American athlete in the event with her 7th place finish from her Olympic debut in Beijing. 

Irwin is from Pulaski, Wisconsin and is also part of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program. To share more about how she got into the biathlon and her outlook on the upcoming Olympics, she joins Lake Effect's Audrey Nowakowski.