By Kimberly Dunbar

This month the world’s best athletes will take center stage at the 2014 Winter Olympics. While America’s finest compete in Sochi, these four local athletes are blazing their own trails of greatness.

Nicole Giannino, 20 | Holy Cross women’s ice hockey, Team USA inline skating

Nicole Giannino has never been one to pass up a challenge. In fact, it’s why she’s where she is today. The Holy Cross women’s ice hockey standout and four-time member of Team USA’s inline hockey squad was lured into her first inline game on a bet from her dad.

“My dad built an inline rink in our backyard so my older brother, Ricky, could practice,” said Giannino. She was 11 at the time. “I used to help my brother by shooting on him in the yard. A couple months later, he said he’d give me $50 if I went on the rink during a game.”

It was love at first skate for Giannino. After a year playing inline, she also took up ice hockey. Her speed and skill were quickly noticed, and at 13, she became the youngest player selected for the Empire State Games and played on the West Islip Boy’s High School hockey team while still in middle school. At 15, she became the youngest-ever member of Team USA’s inline team for the 2010 World Championships.

“Seeing my name on the Team USA roster was such an indescribable feeling,” she said. “The first time I made it, I remember I just went into the bathroom and started to cry … I was just so grateful they gave me a chance, especially since I was so young.”

Giannino ~ who said she’s been very fortunate over the years (she’s since made Team USA’s roster three more times, winning two gold medals) ~ has never let age get in the way.

“I never really let my age affect my confidence,” she said. “I didn’t go into the tryout thinking about it as a disadvantage; I just concentrated on being the best player I could be in that moment,” said Giannino, who was up against Division I college players and teammates “old enough to be my mom.”

Before becoming a Crusader in 2011, Giannino played ice hockey at the National Sports Academy (NSA) in Lake Placid, N.Y., where she played in the Junior Women’s Hockey League ~ the highest level of female hockey in North America. She planned to stay a third year until she met Holy Cross Women’s Ice Hockey Head Coach Peter Van Buskirk.

“After meeting him, I knew exactly where I wanted to go and who to play for,” she said. “I chose Holy Cross because I wanted to place myself in the best academic school that would also allow me to play great hockey.”

Although balancing a biology major, ice hockey and inline skating is challenging, Giannino said her experience as a Crusader “has been amazing.” While her career dream is to be a pharmacist, her NSA experience has her considering teaching and coaching while attending grad school. She’s also gotten offers from Spain, France and Italy to play professionally.

No matter what she chooses, Giannino is up for the challenge ~ and knows her family will support her, especially Ricky. “He is responsible for the success I have achieved,” she said. “Ricky and I still play together and even play against each other in tournaments when I play on boys teams. We are very competitive … it’s always fun.”

Paul Noone, 30 | Worcester Police officer, marathoner, triathlete

Some people may be born to run, but that doesn’t mean it comes easy. Just ask Paul Noone ~ he’s a marathoner and triathlete now, but you’d never guess he started his running career at the back of the pack.

“I was pretty slow my first season,” said Noone, who started running outdoor track his sophomore year at St. John’s High School. “My lack of success that season motivated me to run a decent amount of miles the summer going into my junior year. When I started the cross-country season that fall, I began to have some success and watched my times drop significantly.”

Noone kept at it and continued to run in college, competing on the University of Massachusetts men’s cross-country and indoor track teams and amassing an impressive post-grad running resume.

“After running in high school and college, it’s easy to burn out,” said Noone, who discovered triathlons and made them his focus after college. “It was a new challenge for me, and one I’ve been able to find greater success in than running. This success in triathlons has motivated me to continue running at a relatively high level, as well.”

Noone’s list of accomplishments includes placing third in his age group at the 2011 USA Triathlon Age Group National Championship (26^th overall) and being the top overall finisher in the Northeast in the 2012 race (23^rd overall). He was also the overall winner of the Massachusetts State Olympic Distance Triathlon in 2011 and 2012. In 2009, he completed the Ford Ironman USA triathlon for Sherry’s House, raising more than $6,500.

Although Noone has completed countless 5Ks, 8Ks and a handful of half and full marathons, he averages five triathlons a year (he’s completed 25 ~ a mix of sprint, Olympic, half-distance and full Ironman tris). To keep this pace, Noone, who describes himself as injury prone, cross-trains with yoga, cycling and swimming to help build endurance.

“I really enjoy the variety in workouts, as it prevents me from getting bored and keeps my legs fresh for running,” he said. “I’m far from a high-mileage dude … so typically when I’m out on the road or trails, I’m getting after it and making my miles count.”

Noone, a Worcester police officer, credits his active lifestyle to staying healthy. “Without my good health, I wouldn’t be able to do much,” he said. “This fitness level has, without question, helped me in every other area of my life.”

It’s been a 15-year journey for Noone to get where he is today. “The initial starting period with running is difficult,” Noone advised. “There are no shortcuts, and it’s necessary to log the miles to build up strength and endurance. In distance running, it’s all about trying to hang in there mentally.”

Stay in the moment, keep a positive mindset, fight through the pain and embrace it for what it is: worth it. “Just like with anything in life, the only way to find out is to try,” he said. “If you want it bad enough, you can do it.”

Stephen Dropkin, 23, and Korey Dropkin, 18 | Team USA curlers

Like many brothers do, Stephen and Korey Dropkin joined the family business. It just so happens their “family business” is curling.

“We were raised into it,” said Korey, who started curling when he was 5, as did older brother Stephen.

The Dropkin Family Curlers, of Southborough, began with dad, Keith, who took up the sport as an activity for his college fraternity. Then mom, Shelley ~ whom both boys said figured she had to get into the sport in order to stay with their dad ~ started curling. When the curling couple had children, they brought them along.

“I grew up at the curling club,” Stephen said, referencing the family’s longtime Broomstones Curling Club in Wayland. “I was there for five years, and when I could, I started curling.”

He and Korey fell in love with the sport and began curling competitively. With their dad as their coach, the brothers made a splash in the junior curling circuit. Stephen earned a U.S. Junior Men’s National Championship in 2012, while Korey took home the 2012 and 2013 U.S. Junior National Championship and USA Curling Male Athlete of the Year in 2012.

The Dropkin brothers played together for a few years, but now, each has his own team (Korey is still a junior at 18, while Stephen aged out at 21 and has a men’s team). However, they’ve partnered for Project 2018, a training program aimed at identifying and developing the USA’s best young talent for future competitive success. Last July, USA Curling and the U.S. Olympic Committee selected six teams to be part of the program this season. Under this high-performance program, Stephen and Korey competed for Team USA in the Winter World University Games, while Korey’s junior team also participated.

“My dream is to medal in 2018, but my goal is 2022,” Korey said. “I’m not sure if 2018 is realistic.”

Olympic dreams are the reason the brothers Dropkin left Massachusetts for Minnesota. Korey is a freshman at University of Minnesota-Duluth and Stephen is a new resident of the St. Paul area. Because curling is more popular in the Midwest than it is on the East Coast, it’s a better environment to hone their skills.

Although they live in the same state, Korey and Stephen don’t play together much, save the occasional practice or tournament. But that doesn’t mean they’ve lost that loving feeling.

“A couple months ago at the St. Paul Cash Spiel, we played each other in a round robin,” Stephen said. “Fortunately, I won. He’s never beaten me, but if he did, I probably wouldn’t ever hear the end of it.”

Despite wanting to beat his older brother, Korey has nothing but respect for him. “I was always looking up to him, watching him play,” he said. “He was my motivation and inspiration to keep going.”