INCLINE VILLAGE

Incline Village native Lila Lapanja will compete for Slovenia in the Women’s Alpine Skiing Slalom competition in Cortina on Feb. 18 at the XXV Olympic Winter Games. 

Born during a blizzard in Truckee, Lapanja first learned to ski at Diamond Peak at age 2. She joined the Diamond Peak Ski Team when she was 5 years old. She developed her racing foundation on local slopes under the guidance of her father and longtime coach, Vojko Lapanja, a former member of the Slovenian National Ski Team and a champion ski racer for Sierra Nevada College (now the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe). Lapanja was named to the U.S. Ski Team at age 16.

After six years as a successful National Team racer, Lapanja became an independent World Cup athlete racing under the U.S. flag for seven more seasons. She won four U.S National Championships in three different disciplines — slalom, giant slalom, and alpine combined — and secured a total of four North American Cup slalom titles in her career. 

She also added a second World Championship appearance in 2024, ten years after racing for the U.S. in 2015.

Emboldened to pursue her sport on another level and realize her childhood dream of competing in the Olympics, Lapanja took another high-stakes leap of faith in 2024 and chose to activate her dual United States-Slovenia citizenship and joined the Slovenian National Team. She will represent the country of Slovenia on its women’s alpine ski team.

Lapanja will compete in the Olympics on Feb. 18 starting at 1 a.m. PST.

~ Sugar Pine Events & Marketing press release