As the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics unfolds in Italy this month, longtime locals may wistfully recall that 50 winters ago, the Games were supposed to have been raced in Vail. In May 1970, the International Olympic Committee had selected Denver to host the 12th Olympic Winter Games, and in 1972 approved Vail Mountain as the venue for alpine races. That same year, Colorado voters scuttled those plans when, via a statewide referendum, they declined to fund the bid, and Denver became the first host city ever to reject a Winter Games. Five weeks after these members of the US Ski Team posed with First Lady Betty Ford on Vail Mountain on December 27, 1975, the winter games were raced in Innsbruck, Austria. Sun Valley’s Susie Patterson (third from right) finished 14th in the women’s downhill; Vail local Cindy Nelson won bronze.