Sydney Mullaney and Henry Johnstone got their start as student-athletes in Concord — but unlike most of their classmates, they found themselves competing on a world level.
The 2019 Concord-Carlisle High School graduates are competing for Team USA starting this weekend at the 2023 Winter World University Games hosted in Lake Placid, NY, through Jan. 22.
Mullaney, a student at the University of Minnesota, will compete in curling, the sport she began at the age of 10 at the Brimstones Curling Club in Wayland. She is a U18 National Champion, Mixed Fours National Champion, 2-time U21 National Champion and a World Junior Championship bronze medalist.
Sydney Mullaney
Mullaney (21) is competing with her women’s USA Curling national team, Team Strouse, which plays on the competitive international tour. Team Strouse is skipped by Delaney Strouse (22), and joined by Anne O’Hara (vice skip, 20), Rebecca Rodgers (lead, 22), and Susan Dudt (alternate, 21); Mullaney plays second position on the team.
Johnstone, a student at Williams College, started Nordic combined when he was 10, driving up to New Hampshire to ski jump on half-day Tuesdays. He competed in two junior world championships as a member of the Junior National Team and is currently on the Williams College nordic ski team.
Johnstone is joined by three other Team USA men’s nordic combined athletes at the event: Evan Nichols (19), Timothy Ziegler (20), and Aidan Ripp (22).
The Winter World University Games is the largest winter multi-sport collegiate athletic event in the world, an 11-day international festival and competition that combines high-level sport with educational and cultural events.
