Team USA Olympians to watch at 2026 Winter Olympics

Round 2,900 prime athletes from all over the world converged on Italy to participate within the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, hoping to deliver house medals throughout 116 occasions. 

Olympians from Staff USA have gained a complete of 330 Winter Olympic medals by way of Beijing 2022 — second solely to winter sports activities powerhouse Norway. This yr, Staff USA is bringing around 230 athletes to the Winter Olympics, which run from Feb. 6 to Feb. 22. 

These are among the American athletes to observe.

Alex Ferreira

That is freestyle skier Alex Ferreira’s third journey to the Olympics. Ferreira took house silver at PyeongChang in 2018 and a bronze medal in Beijing in 2022. 

“It is superior representing Staff USA, as a result of I have a look at us and I feel we’re the very best group on the planet, after which it is particular,” Ferreira just lately advised CBS Information. “It is a huge deal to Staff USA, to deliver house a medal for America and on your city, on your state, on your nation. It is big.”

If he could not compete in his Olympic sport, Ferreira mentioned he’d compete in both monitor and discipline or trampoline.

The 31-year-old athlete, who began snowboarding at age 3 and commenced competing at 10, specializes within the halfpipe. His first competitors was an aerials occasion, which his mom enrolled him in with out informing him, in accordance with Team USA. He is additionally medaled on the Winter X Video games. Through the 2023-2024 season, Ferreira swept 5 world cups, X Video games Aspen and the Dew Tour. Ferreira additionally skis underneath his alter ego, an older man who goes by the identify Hotdog Hans.

Alex Corridor

Milano Cortina is 27-year-old freestyle skier Alex Corridor’s third journey to the Olympics. He made his debut on the PyeongChang Video games in South Korea in 2018. Corridor mentioned he has extra confidence now and a special outlook than he did then. 

“Going to take pleasure in among the smaller issues on the Olympics, not essentially the grandiose issues,” Corridor advised CBS Information.

He gained gold in slopestyle in Beijing in 2022, and earned gold in 4 totally different disciplines on the X Video games: huge air, slopestyle, knuckle huck and actual ski.

Corridor, who was born in Alaska to an Italian mother, spent greater than half of his life in Europe. He grew up only a few hours away from the place he’ll be competing. 

The skier mentioned he is wanting ahead to assembly with athletes from all over the world and listening to their tales, one thing which needs to be simple for him since he speaks a number of languages, together with English, French, Italian and German.

Alysa Liu

Determine skater Alysa Liu, now 20 years outdated and again from a shock retirement from the ice at 16, headed to the Olympics for her second time this yr. She was the youngest U.S. determine skating nationwide champion in historical past, profitable the title at age 13. She gained one other nationwide title at 14 earlier than taking a break from skating after the 2022 Olympics. 

The U.S. took house gold within the figure skating team competitors this yr, with Liu skating the brief program.

After her comeback to skating, Liu gained the ladies’s singles world title on the 2025 World Championships. Olympic males’s skating gold medalist Brian Boitano called it “the most important comeback in sports activities historical past.”

Liu just lately advised “60 Minutes” that as she prepares for the Olympics, she views herself as extra of an artist than an athlete.

“I view competitions extra as, like, a stage for performing,” she mentioned. 

Amber Glenn

Determine skater Amber Glenn, 26, made her Olympics debut simply weeks after profitable her third straight U.S. title. She’s the primary girl to take action since Michelle Kwan. 

The U.S. took house gold within the determine skating group competitors this yr, with Glenn taking over the ladies’s free skate. She’s additionally amongst American athletes who’ve been speaking up about the political situation at house.

Glenn advised CBS Information that being an Olympian is “an unimaginable alternative” as a result of she’d “get to be on the most important stage an athlete could be on, and I would be capable to voice my beliefs and my opinions and my message.”

The skater has spent years advocating for psychological well being consciousness and the LGBTQ+ group; Glenn got here out as bisexual and pansexual in 2019.

“After I got here out initially, I used to be terrified. I used to be scared it will have an effect on my scores or one thing, however I did not care,” she mentioned in a Team USA publish from 2024. “It was value it to see the quantity of younger individuals who felt extra comfy of their environments on the rink, who really feel, ‘Oh, I am represented by her, and she or he’s one of many prime skaters.'”

Brittany Bowe

That is Florida speedskater Brittany Bowe’s fourth journey to the Olympics. The 37-year-old two-time Olympic bronze medalist focuses on lengthy monitor. She mentioned her earlier experiences within the Olympics have taught her to give attention to the method.

“In years previous, it has been very easy to be outcome-oriented, and I’ve discovered that that does not work. That may be develop into actually debilitating in your preparation,” Bowe advised CBS Information. “The playing cards will fall as they may, and for me to only keep centered within the second, within the course of and be able to go when that gun goes off.”

Bowe carried the American flag through the opening ceremony of the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.

“Being an Olympian is so vital to me as a result of it has given me the platform to encourage folks, to encourage folks, and it is also given me a possibility to reside out my childhood dream,” Bowe mentioned. “It is given me a possibility to deliver an entire squad of individuals alongside, and with the ability to take my household all all over the world, for them to be part of it has been actually, actually significant.”

She was edged out on Monday within the 1,000 meters, ending in fourth. 

Caroline Harvey

As a 3-year-old beginner to ice hockey, Caroline Harvey advised her aunt she’d make the 2022 U.S. Olympic group, in accordance with Staff USA. Her childhood prediction got here true when she grew to become the youngest member of the group and helped the U.S. earn a silver medal in Beijing. 

“Anytime you get to put on that crest and symbolize your nation, it is the most important honor, and with the ability to do it at an Olympic setting is simply one thing that’s unforgettable,” Harvey advised CBS Information.

The 23-year-old athlete was named the very best defender on the 2024 and 2025 IIHF Girls’s World Championships. She’s additionally a two-time NCAA champion for the Wisconsin Badgers. 

She’s hoping to take house gold in Milano Cortina, however mentioned success is finally “figuring out we did the whole lot we may to achieve success in enjoying our group sport.”

Corinne Stoddard 

Milano Cortina is 24-year-old skater Corinne Stoddard’s second journey to the Olympics. 

She went to Beijing in 2022, the place she broke her nostril throughout her very first race, in accordance with  Staff USA. Stoddard competed in the remainder of her races whereas unable to breathe out of 1 nostril. 

Stoddard began curler skating in kindergarten, then switched to inline skating a yr later. When she was 11, she started velocity skating. Whereas Stoddard doesn’t but have any Olympic medals, she’s a three-time world medalist in brief monitor speedskating.

The skater mentioned she’s dreamed of the Olympics since she was a toddler, which required a number of arduous work alongside the way in which.

“I’d at all times have coaching every single day after college, so there wasn’t a lot time for like, play dates or sleepovers rising up,” she advised CBS Information. “There wasn’t a lot time as, like, an adolescent, to exit with pals on the weekends. After which for my final two years of highschool, I did on-line after I moved out to Salt Lake to begin coaching with the nationwide group, so I did not get to do any of, like the everyday like, promenade and stuff like that. However to me, that is all value it.”

Deedra Irwin

Deedra Irwin grew up eager to be an Olympian, however she was desirous about the Summer time Olympics, not the Winter Olympics. 

“I needed to be an Olympic monitor star. I had no concept the Winter Olympics had been a factor,” Irwin advised CBS Information. 

The 33-year-old athlete picked up snowboarding in highschool as a option to keep in form between the autumn cross-country season and the spring monitor and discipline season, in accordance with Staff USA.  It wasn’t till she was 25 that she began taking part in biathlon. 

She went to the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the place she completed seventh, the very best end ever for an American in a person biathlon occasion on the Olympics.

“We have educated a lot all through our lives to only get to this stage,” Irwin mentioned. “And so I feel for me, it means a number of, like, group and household and pals. I do not bear in mind the final time I used to be house for Christmas previously, like, eight years.”

Erin Jackson

Gold medalist speedskater Erin Jackson, 33, is making her third Olympic look — and this yr, together with bobsledder Frank Del Duca, she additionally led Staff USA as a flagbearer through the opening ceremony.

In 2022, Jackson grew to become the first Black woman to win gold in a person occasion on the Winter Olympics — after almost failing to make the group that yr. 

Jackson slipped on the U.S. trials. Teammate Bowe, who certified for the five hundred, 1,000 and 1,5000-meter races at trials, gave up her spot within the 500-meter race to make sure Jackson would get to skate in Beijing.

“Every of my Olympic appearances have been tremendous totally different, identical to coming in in any respect totally different phases of my profession, and this one coming in because the reigning champion, there’s going to be a number of stress, however that is what I am wanting ahead to,” Jackson advised CBS Information.

Jackson first started ice skating shortly before her first journey to the Olympics. She first stepped onto an ice rink in 2016. Jackson spent years inline skating earlier than that.

“I am simply tremendous grateful to have the ability to skate in circles for a residing, and I simply need to preserve doing it so long as I can,” she mentioned. 

Jackson participated within the 1,000 meters on Monday, briefly holding the lead, earlier than ending in sixth.

Hilary Knight

Ice hockey participant Hilary Knight, 36, has been to the Olympics 4 occasions and has medaled every time, taking house a gold and three silver medals. Milano Cortino can be her fifth Olympics. 

“And by no means would I’ve imagined with the ability to compete in 5 Olympic Video games,” she advised CBS Information. “I imply, that is simply, that is loopy in the easiest way.”

Ice hockey play has develop into rather a lot sooner over time, Knight mentioned.

“It is much more technical, tactical. There’s extra of a dynamic, skillful degree to it as properly, and the visibility is ever rising, which is admittedly thrilling,” she mentioned. 

Knight performed a key function in creating the Skilled Girls’s Hockey League.

Ilia Malinin

Determine skater Ilia Malinin is making his Olympic debut. The 21-year-old, often known as the “Quad God,” is the primary athlete to efficiently land every of the six kinds of quadruple jumps in a single program. His robust efficiency helped lead the American skaters to a gold medal in the team event, and he is aiming for extra within the particular person competitors.

In response to Staff USA, Malinin eats a chocolate bar earlier than every competitors.

Malinan, whose dad and mom had been Olympic determine skaters for Uzbekistan and whose grandfather was a determine skater for the us, began skating at 6.

He gained gold at each the 2024 and 2025 ISU Determine Skating World Championships.

See Malinan’s interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” here.

Jaelin Kauf

That is freestyle skier Jaelin Kauf’s third journey to the Olympics. The 29-year-old silver medalist focuses on moguls and twin moguls, the latter of which is able to make its debut on the Olympics this yr — one thing Kauf mentioned she’s been ready a very long time for. 

“It is simply such an thrilling sport,” she advised CBS Information. “I’ve in all probability excelled in that traditionally greater than singles, and so it’s going to simply be actually cool to be part of that on the Olympic stage, being part of that debut.”

Each of Kauf’s dad and mom had been skilled mogul skiers.

“My mother has at all times been my greatest hero and function mannequin, simply watching how she’s simply gone at life and completed what she’s completed, pushing the boundaries,” Kauf mentioned. 

Jordan Stolz

Velocity skater Jordan Stolz, 21, began skating on the pond behind his household’s house after watching Apolo Ohno and Shani Davis within the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, in accordance with Staff USA. 

He made his Olympic debut in 2022. Stolz specializes within the 500-meter, 1,000meter and 1,500-meter. He grew to become the world champion in all three classes on the ISU Single Distance World Championships in 2023 and once more in 2024. 

Stolz additionally skates professionally for the Dutch group, Albert Heijn Zaanlander. Speedskating is a widely-followed sport within the Netherlands, and Stolz mentioned he hopes to deliver extra consciousness to hurry skating within the U.S.  

“It is clearly not going to be as a lot as it’s in Holland. I want it was however perhaps sometime it is going to be, however a minimum of I can perform a little bit,” Stolz advised CBS Information.

Kendall Coyne Schofield

Milano Cortina can be ice hockey participant Kendall Coyne Schofield’s fourth journey to the Olympics. She beforehand took house a gold and two silvers. 

“I am simply so excited to really feel revived by way of these video games with household, pals, followers, pleasure, simply vitality, all of the issues that we weren’t in a position to expertise in Beijing as a result of [of] the pandemic,” Coyne Schofield advised CBS Information. 

This may even be the 33-year-old athlete’s first Olympics as a mother, one thing that she mentioned has made her a greater hockey participant. 

“It is put my life into perspective,” she mentioned. “It is offered me with [an] abundance of endurance that I did not have beforehand.”

Her son chants “USA, USA,” whether or not the group wins or loses, she mentioned. 

Off the ice, Coyne Schofield voiced a hockey announcer within the Pixar film “Inside Out 2.”

Korey Dropkin

This can be 30-year-old roller Korey Dropkin’s first journey to the Olympics, although he is been curling for many of his life. 

“It is a household sport. Actually, it is like faith to me,” Dropkin advised CBS Information. “I grew up on the curling membership. My dad and mom had been tremendous concerned with a junior program at our curling membership. My brother was 5 years older. He was already curling. I {followed} in his footsteps. I used to be like his shadow.”

After graduating from highschool, Dropkin moved to Duluth, Minnesota, which has develop into the U.S. curling capital.

“I’ve devoted my complete life to attending to the Olympics and hopefully medaling on the Olympics,” he mentioned. “I moved myself and relocated and actually devoted a number of blood, sweat and tears. So being an Olympian, lastly, I have been shut, and now lastly realizing the Olympics is only a huge dream come true.”

Kristen Santos-Griswold

Speedskater Kristen Santos-Griswold, 31, nearly selected to not go to this yr’s Olympics after heartbreak in 2022. She was in bronze medal place with simply two laps to go within the 1,000-meter when a bump by an opponent prompted her to fall. The bump was later dominated a penalty, however the disheartening end had Santos-Griswold contemplating retirement. 

“After I determined that I used to be going to maintain going, I used to be like, ‘All proper, I am doing it for me. I will make all of it value it. I will benefit from the journey,” Santos-Griswold advised CBS Information. “I feel that is simply helped to, like, catapult me into going into Olympic yr with primary on my helmet.”

Santos-Griswold has been coaching for many of her life. She began determine skating at 3. When she was 9, Santos-Griswold noticed speedskating in a industrial on TV, determined she needed to strive it, and fell in love. 

“Being an Olympian means the whole lot,” she mentioned. “It is one thing that I have been working in direction of my complete life. I began skating after I was 3 years outdated, and I am 30 now, so stable 27 years of dreaming about this.”

Santos-Griswold is at present engaged on a doctorate, with plans to be a bodily therapist as soon as her skating profession is over, in accordance with Staff USA.

Lindsey Vonn

Alpine skier Lindsey Vonn, who made a comeback a number of years after retiring, was decided to compete in her fifth Olympics — regardless of a latest injury on the slopes that left her with a ruptured ACL. However the effort ended in a crash simply seconds into her downhill race, with Vonn being airlifted off the mountain in entrance of surprised spectators. (Teammate Breezy Johnson went on to win the gold.)

The 41-year-old Vonn beforehand competed on the Olympics in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2018, taking house gold and two silver medals.

She’s the one American girl to win Olympic gold in downhill, in accordance with Staff USA, and she or he additionally has essentially the most victories by any skier — male or feminine — in a single self-discipline. 

Vonn began snowboarding at 3. She realized along with her father and grandfather, each of whom had been aggressive skiers, and made her Olympic debut at 17. She retired in 2019 amid extreme knee injury. Vonn has since had knee surgical procedure and advised CBS Information she’s now the strongest she’s been in her profession. 

“The one factor I feel that is perhaps tougher at 41 is simply the grind of being away,” she mentioned. “I type of acquired used to being at house with my canine and my household, and I acquired away from, you already know, the routine of being on the street, which does not essentially change due to age, simply, I feel, extra from being away from the game for six years.”

In 2022, John Clarey, then 41, made historical past because the oldest alpine skier to medal at an Olympic Winter Video games. Vonn mentioned her age will not cease her from competing on the coming Olympics. 

“If I’ve the chance to compete, I will,” Vonn mentioned. “Simply because I am 41 doesn’t suggest I can not do this if I bodily really feel good, which I do, I really feel higher now than I did in my 20s. So you already know, I do not see there to be any purpose why I can not do it at 41.”

Every week earlier than the beginning of the Video games, Vonn crashed in one of her final downhill tune-ups. Whereas she was airlifted off the mountain to obtain medical remedy after injuring her left knee, she assured her followers on social media that her Olympic dream was “not over.”

“It is a very troublesome end result one week earlier than the Olympics… but when there’s one factor I understand how to do, it is a comeback,” she wrote.

“I am not letting this slip by way of my fingers. I am gonna do it. Finish of story,” she mentioned. 

Madison Chock and Evan Bates

Ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates are again for one more the Olympics — they usually’re already setting a excessive bar, scoring a world-best 91.06 factors in rhythm dance because the competitors started on Feb. 6.

 Chock, 33, competed in 2014, 2018 and 2022, whereas Bates, 36, started his Olympic run in 2010. 

Their partnership started in 2011, they usually gained Olympic gold through the group occasion at their third Olympic Video games. 

“There’s a lot delight behind it,” Chock advised CBS Information. “I feel rising up and seeing different athletes symbolize Staff USA meant rather a lot and formed a number of how I view sport and athleticism, and there is a lot delight that comes with representing your nation within the Olympic Video games on the most important stage for sports activities on the planet. And it is simply been the best honor of my life to be a member of Staff USA.”

Chock and Bates have additionally gained three consecutive ISU World Determine Skating Championships, beginning in 2023.

They’re companions off the ice, too. The couple acquired married in 2024.

Maxim Naumov

Determine skater Maxim Naumov will make his first look on the Olympics after a yr marked by tragedy and an emotional comeback.

His journey to the Olympics comes a yr after his dad and mom, former world champions Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, died when their airplane collided with a navy helicopter on method to Washington, D.C. His dad and mom, who had been popular coaches on the Skating Membership of Boston, had been among 67 people killed within the crash. 

Naumov held a photograph of his dad and mom as he waited for his scores after competing through the males’s brief program on the U.S. Determine Skating Championships in January.

“Having function fashions be proper there in the home, on the rink, simply all over the place, they impressed me to need this dream and it will imply completely the whole lot for me to be on the Olympics,” Naumov mentioned in a social media post. “I am working as arduous as I probably can and I am doing the whole lot in my energy to take action. Doing it for them could be much more lovely.”

Mikaela Shiffrin

Skier Mikaela Shiffrin, 30, headed to the Olympics for the fourth time. She first skied within the Olympics in 2013 and has earned two gold medals and a silver.

Shiffrin focuses on slalom, big slalom, super-G and downhill. She’s the primary alpine skier to record 100 FIS World Cup wins and the primary athlete in FIS Ski World Cup historical past to win in all six disciplines.

In 2024, Shiffrin crashed after shedding management whereas on the course for the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics. Then final yr, she mentioned she was coping with post-traumatic stress dysfunction from one other crash, throughout which she suffered a puncture wound and extreme trauma to her indirect muscle groups.

Mystique Ro

Skeleton racer Mystique Ro, 31, headed to the Olympics for the primary time, however she’s no stranger to competitors. 

Ro competed in monitor & discipline. Then, in 2016, she was invited to a rookie camp by USA Bobsled/Skeleton. Coaches there advised her she was somewhat small for bobsled and pushed her to strive skeleton.

Throughout skeleton, racers on sleds — head first and face down — can attain speeds of round 80 miles per hour, utilizing physique shifts to information the sled by way of the course. 

“When you get away from the worry, it begins to develop into a sport,” Ro advised CBS Information. “So for those who get previous the worry, that is step one, after which you possibly can type of benefit from the sport for what it’s.”

Whereas loads of children journey sleds down hills, Row mentioned this is not the identical. 

“The velocity is considerably sooner, and there is much more peril concerned for those who’re not ready for it,” she mentioned. 

She made her FIL World Cup debut in 2023 and, the next yr, grew to become the primary American athlete to win a skeleton race on the World Cup circuit in eight years. 

Nick Goepper

Milano Cortina is skier Nick Goepper’s fourth journey to the Olympics. In 2014, he took bronze in Sochi, contributing to a U.S. podium sweep in males’s slopestyle snowboarding. Goepper gained silver on the Olympics in 2018 and once more in 2022. 

“To me, being an Olympian has meant legacy,” he advised CBS Information. “I’m an enormous fan of historical past. I really like studying about individuals who have completed, you already know, wonderful issues and household connections and identical to, you already know, folks’s eyes at all times mild up whenever you speak concerning the Olympics.”

The 31-year-old athlete retired after Beijing, however then returned lower than a yr later to compete in halfpipe as a substitute of slopestyle. 

Goepper mentioned his method to competitors and the Olympics has modified over time. 

“I can sit again and benefit from the little moments somewhat bit extra. I can savor issues somewhat extra, which is sweet,” he mentioned.

Paula Moltzan

Alpine skier Paula Moltzan made her Olympic debut in 2022.

“I really feel like I realized rather a lot in my first Olympics, and so to take all these classes realized into one other alternative would imply rather a lot to me,” she advised CBS Information. 

Moltzan, now 31, gained the junior world slalom title when she was 20, turning into the primary American girl to win the occasion on the junior world championships. She additionally gained the NCAA girls’s slalom title as a freshman on the College of Vermont.

After her Olympics debut in Beijing at 27, Moltzan grew to become a two-time world medalist. She gained a title within the parallel group occasion in 2023 and her first particular person world medal, a bronze, in big slalom in 2025.

She mentioned her household sacrificed rather a lot to assist her snowboarding profession. 

“I feel they took second mortgages out on my home to permit me to compete in sport. After which my siblings as properly, I undoubtedly had the precedence due to my athletic skill. They gave up perhaps smaller moments, like going to summer season camp so I may go to ski camp,” she mentioned. “But it surely all turns into value it whenever you’re there together with your group, representing Staff USA.”

Purple Gerard

That is Purple Gerard’s third journey to the Olympics. The 25-year-old snowboarder gained gold in slopestyle in 2018 when he was simply 17, turning into the youngest American snowboarder to realize the feat, in accordance with Staff USA. 

“I shortly realized that first Olympics how huge it’s and the way cool it’s,” Gerard advised CBS Information. “Ever since, you simply type of need to get again on that stage as a result of there isn’t any stage larger than the Olympics.”

Gerard returned to the Olympics in 2022, ending fourth in slopestyle and fifth in huge air. The snowboarder gained in slopestyle on the 2024 and 2025 X Video games.

Gerard began snowboarding when he was simply 2-years-old. In 2007, his household moved to Colorado, the place they constructed a snowboarding park of their yard to assist Gerard’s ardour. 

Ryan Cochran-Siegle

Alpine skier Ryan Cochran-Siegle, 33, heads to the Olympics for his third Video games. Cochran-Siegle, the son of an Olympian, began snowboarding on the age of two. 

He tore his ACL and lateral meniscus in 2013 on the FIS Alpine Ski World Championships, in accordance with Staff USA. 5 years later, he made his Olympic debut in 2018 in PyeongChang. Cochran-Siegle gained his first FIS World Cup Race in 2020, however missed the FIS Alpine Ski World Championships in 2021 with a fractured neck. 

The skier got here again in 2022, the place he gained silver in super-G on the Beijing Video games. He was the one U.S. alpine snowboarding medalist on the Beijing Video games. 

Cochran-Siegle advised CBS Information that in his earlier Olympic appearances, he realized to embrace the second and to belief and consider in himself. 

“Simply going on the market and doing what I really like and placing myself out there’s what’s vital,” he mentioned. 

Elizabeth Campbell

contributed to this report.

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