In her free time, Kearney likes to ride horses, knit, play soccer, read, and watch her brother Denny play hockey.[6] She considers herself "half-Canadian" because her mother grew up in Montreal and she has relatives living in Vancouver and Montreal.[7]
A gold medal favorite entering her first Olympics, Kearney had a poor first run and did not make it out of the qualification round. She stumbled after landing her first jump. Her score of 20.80 points put her in 10th at that point, with 20 skiers left to compete. After the second-to-last skier, she was officially bumped out of the top 20, the ranking she would have needed to advance to the final.
In December 2009, Kearney won the US Olympic trial event at Steamboat, earning a spot on the US Team.[8]
At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Kearney entered the final round with a qualification score of 25.96.[9] As a result of having the best qualifying score, Kearney would be the last skier to ski in the final round. Fellow teammate Shannon Bahrke was in second place, and Canadian Jennifer Heil was in first, with scores of 25.43 and 25.69 respectively. Kearney skied a clean run, earning a score of 26.63 and winning the gold medal.[10]
At the 2014 Winter Olympics, Kearney entered the final round with a qualification score of 21.93 [11] As a result of having the best qualifying score, Kearney would be the last skier to ski in the final round. Canadian sisters Chloé Dufour-Lapointe was in second place and Justine Dufour-Lapointe was in third, with scores of 21.70 and 21.64 respectively. Kearney faltered slightly after the first jump, earning a score of 21.49 to win the bronze medal.
^US Ski Team bio, "Archived copy". Archived from the original on February 17, 2010. Retrieved February 14, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)