Chasing an Olympic dream is never easy. Pushing for it at 35, after a long battle with a serious spinal injury, is almost unheard of. Yet Kendall Lorraine Wesenberg is doing exactly that. Wesenberg, who first represented the United States in skeleton at the 2018 Winter Olympics, took nearly 600 days to recover from a spinal problem. Now, at age 35, she is back on the track and aiming to qualify for her second Olympic team for the 2026 Winter Games.

Just recently, Kendall opened up on Instagram with honesty: “Each time I’ve reached a milestone in this recovery, the next goal that follows has been an even more difficult one. And when I made our World Cup team in November, I was well aware that racing on the top tour would be the biggest challenge yet.”

Surely, it is going to be hard. But ever since she had returned, it felt like she had never left. This was evident when the USA Skeleton tested its own talent pool at the Fall Selection Races at Utah Olympic Park, deciding who would represent the nation on the 2025- 26 World Cup circuit.

Kendall impressed like never before. She finished second overall in women’s skeleton. And the next day, on November 1st, she won the race outright, posting the fastest combined two-heat time among women, clocking 1:39.49.

However, the World Cup season has presented new challenges. At the first official World Cup stop in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Kendall placed 23rd in the women’s skeleton event, falling outside the top tier of competitors. And then, at Lillehammer, Norway, the U.S. team earned silver in a mixed team event, while Kendall finished 27th individually.

Looking back at these early results, Kendall admitted the start of the season was tougher than expected, citing “Some errors on my part, some unlucky draws, and my push not being back in the way I hoped it would be have led to missing more cuts in half of a season than in the rest of my career combined. This has put me in a tough spot in terms of qualifying, but it’s not over until it’s over.”

But then, on November 1, 2025, USA Bobsled & Skeleton released the official World Cup Skeleton Team roster for the 2025-26 season. Among the names leading the women’s side were: Mystique Ro, Sara Roderick, Kelly Curtis, and Kendall Wesenberg.

Looking forward, Kendall also has some favorite World Cup tracks that she will visit, including Winterberg (late December-early January), St. Moritz (early January), and Altenberg (mid-January), prior to competing in the skeleton event in the 2026 Winter Olympics in February. As she says, “My three best tracks on circuit this year are up next, and I plan on giving it everything I have in the final World Cup races of the season.”

Team USA will announce the athletes competing in skeleton for the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics on January 17. But before she could even think about those races, Kendall had to overcome a challenge that almost ended her career.

Missed Olympic qualification proved to be a blessing in disguise

Kendall Wesenberg was always full of energy. Growing up in Modesto, California, she was the kid who couldn’t sit still, always running, climbing, and trying every sport she could. Her parents would watch in awe as she tackled each challenge with boundless enthusiasm. Little did anyone know this same vigor would eventually propel her headfirst down an icy track at the Olympics. And the dream began when watching the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.

For the first time, she observed a skeleton, the racers speeding down the track at breakneck speeds, guiding themselves with just their shoulders and knees. Kendall leaned forward on the couch and thought, “Could I do that?” That tiny flicker of curiosity turned her onto a path that would change her life.

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She attended a sliding athletes combine soon after and discovered she had a natural talent for speed. By 2018, all that energy and focus paid off. Kendall made the U.S. Olympic skeleton team.

However, she finished 17th out of 20 in that 2018 Olympics, a result that lit a fire rather than dimmed her spirit. But life threw her an unexpected challenge. She failed to make the 2022 Olympic team and behind the disappointment, an even bigger obstacle had been growing: an undiagnosed spinal injury, which she didn’t know about before that.

“The things that hold your spine in place snapped off of my back… My vertebrae just slid out of my spinal column, So it was like fully pinching my nerves. I couldn’t feel my legs,” she recalls. The pain she’d endured while training suddenly made sense.

Her doctor recommended a spinal fusion, a surgery with a long and difficult recovery. But her energy and determination never wavered. Three months in a back brace, seven months barely walking, and ten months before she could start serious therapy, each day was a test of patience.

After 600 long days, Kendall stepped back onto the ice. Now, at 35, she is stronger and more determined than ever to win the Olympics for the USA.