Ohio's Louie Vito Seeks Olympic Bid With Italy

“My dad and I have always thrown crazy ideas and just spitball stuff and life in general. We thought it would always be cool to be able to represent both nations,” Vito said in the interview. “My grandma is from Italy and to represent my Italian heritage and represent her.”

Vito represented Italy in the 2022 Games in Beijing. He did so to avoid the tough competition that he’d face just trying to make the U.S. team. Vito competed for the U.S. in 2010, where he finished fifth in halfpipe.

“At that time, making it for the US was arguably harder than making it for the Olympics in general. We had five events and it’s your best two results,” Vito said. “It was just awesome and to think of where I started to now going to the Olympics to represent the U.S. It was one of those feelings that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to top really.”

If he’s able to qualify for the Olympics in 2026, he will be the oldest halfpipe rider in the event’s history.

Vito doesn’t have much left to prove in the competitive snowboard world. He’s already won six X Games medals in the superpipe, with two of them being gold. He has five Dew Tour gold medals and three silvers, and 10 snowboarding Grand Prix gold medals, as well as eight silvers and a bronze. He has also been on the beloved TV shows Dancing With the Stars and The Bachelorette, though that has nothing to do with snowboarding.

Vito has joined The Snow League, Shaun White’s newest professional freeski and snowboard halfpipe league. Though he planned to compete at the league’s debut event at Aspen, he was held back by a back injury.

That same injury also kept him from competing at World Championships in Switzerland. He finished the 2023-24 season with two top-10 finishes in the halfpipe, but was hindered by his back injury during the most recent season.

Most recently, Vito finished in 14th at the Calgary Snow Rodeo and 21 at a World Cup event in Aspen.