The Winter Olympics are here, and a Mainer is living out his lifelong dreams on the world stage.

At just 23-months-old, Sam Morse was already making his first tracks on the slopes of Maine’s Sugarloaf Mountain.

Now, at 29, he’s an Olympian, competing for Team USA in this year’s Winter Olympics in Italy.

“You always dream of this as a kid, and I’ve been grinding away on the World Cup for a lot of years,” said Morse. “To finally get this opportunity, I would say, it’s a very deep level of satisfaction.”

And he's worked hard to earn that spot.

The Carrabassett Valley native trained at Maine’s Carrabassett Valley Academy as a teen and joined the U.S. Ski Team in 2014. 

Then, in 2017, Morse was crowned the Junior World Downhill Champion.

Now, nearly 10 years later, he’s making his Olympic debut, placing 19th in Men’s Downhill and 23rd in the “Alpine Skiing Men's Super-G” category this year. 

“It makes all those years worth it,” said Morse. “There’s definitely times you question, you’re like ‘gosh is this going anywhere?’”

“It’s a brutal profession. We’re out in the elements every day. Freezing cold on the side of the mountain and then you’ve got to go pull 3 Gs,” he added

He credits his determination and grit to his home state.

“I’m super grateful for the state of Maine,” said Morse. “It definitely made me into who I am. You’re the toughest people on the planet. I have traveled to every mountain on almost every continent, and the weather in Maine is second-to-none gnarly.”

“It’s a brutal profession. We’re out in the elements every day. Freezing cold on the side of the mountain and then you’ve got to go pull 3 Gs, three times your body weight, insane physical feats under not like the ideal conditions,” he added.

And although he’s come far, he hasn’t forgotten where he started.

“The Sugarloaf Ski Club and all of its volunteers are really active, and they’re the ones that make the races happen,” said Morse. “All of those youth races that I was doing as a kid, those were critical for my development, and I definitely owe it to all of those volunteers standing out in the cold so we could go ski race.”