The Summer Olympic Games feature disciplines built around fundamental human movements—running, jumping, and throwing—alongside team sports familiar to a broad global audience, such as basketball. The Winter Olympics, by contrast, center on highly specialized, technical events, including big air snowboarding and bobsledding at speeds approaching 80 miles per hour. These disciplines are less accessible to casual viewers, who may lack firsthand experience or intuitive reference points. Even so, the Winter Games consistently deliver a combination of risk, precision, and spectacle that produces sustained drama and captures attention throughout the competition.
How Did Team USA Do at the Last Winter Olympics?
At the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing four years ago, Team USA put on an impressive performance. American athletes earned medals in figure skating, snowboarding, freestyle skiing, bobsleigh, hockey, and other events, garnering 25 medals in all (8 gold, 9 silver, and 7 bronze). This put the USA in third behind Germany (27) and Norway (37), who racked up medals in biathlon, cross-country skiing, and Nordic combined events. Now, as the 2026 Games approach, many fans are wondering what to expect from the Americans this time around, and which athletes to watch.
Snowboarding – Sending It and Landing on the Podium
After the opening ceremony on February 6th, one of the first events held will be snowboarding. What once was an outsider sport sneered at by skiers has fully arrived as a thrilling powerhouse of the Winter Games. With eye-popping big air tricks, unbelievable halfpipe runs, and edge-of-your-seat snowboard cross 4-person races, the sport keeps fans glued to the screen.
Many of the riders competing in 2026 will draw inspiration from the original U.S. champion, Shaun White. Nicknamed the “Flying Tomato” thanks to his vibrant red hair, White earned gold medals in the halfpipe in 2006, 2010, and 2018. Now retired, his example has set the bar incredibly high for American snowboarders. But when it comes to the Olympics, high hopes are the only hopes to have.
There are many snowboard events to watch:
- Halfpipe – as the name indicates, a trail is made on the mountain that looks like a long pipe cut in half. Riders go up one side, fly into the air, and pull a trick. Then, they travel across the pipe and shoot up the opposite side and pull another trick. These stunts are chained together, and the rider is then given a score that combines their performance on all attempts into the air. Scoring is based on jump height (amplitude), difficulty, variety, execution, and progression.
- Big air – riders launch off of huge jumps and perform great difficulty tricks, like the “backside triple cork 1800” (spinning and flipping several times on a slanted axis) that helped China’s Su Yiming win the gold in 2022.
- Slopestyle – snowboarders slide and spin on and off of rails and ledges, then attempt some big jumps.
- Parallel Giant Slalom – two racers go head-to-head on two gated/flagged slalom courses that are side by side.
Snowboard Veterans to Watch
All eyes from U.S. fans will be on Chloe Kim, who is an international superstar on the halfpipe. Kim has two Olympic golds and is chasing a third consecutive title that would put her collection of Olympic golds right up against Shaun White’s. Her preparation has been complicated by a gnarly dislocated shoulder and torn labrum suffered after a fall in training in January 2026. Despite the injury, she reports that she will be “good to go” at Milan-Cortina, where she will likely still be the favorite to win it all.
Americans should also keep a watch for Red Gerard, who won the gold in slopestyle in 2018 in South Korea. Returning for his third Games, Gerard will be pitted directly against Yiming. The competition between the riders points up a broader ongoing discussion about how the sport should be judged. Which is to be preferred: Gerard’s creative, flowing style, or Yiming’s highly technical big air progression? 2026 will likely be another piece of evidence in the debate.
Newer Athletes with Breakout Potential in Snowboard Halfpipe
On the men’s side, Lucas Foster (known for his signature alley-oop double McTwist) is younger than the established U.S. pipe core, but has steadily closed the gap on difficulty and amplitude. This is what keeps most newcomers off Olympic podiums. He needs to go big and stick his tricks if he wants to have a breakout Games.
On the women’s side, the team is top-heavy, and it’s quite hard for newer athletes to make their mark. Maddie Mastro has a lot of experience, however, and may have the potential to take things to the next level. The world will see in 2026 if she can make the leap.
Newer Athletes with Breakout Potential in Snowboard Slopestyle and Big Air
Dusty Henricksen is already well known in snowboarding circles thanks to his X Games Slopestyle gold medal, but 2026 could be the Olympics where he becomes known to the rest of the nation. He combines slick technical rail tricks with massive jumps and could seriously impress some judges. With a focused performance, Luke Winkelmann could also make the leap from East Coast “finals guy” to medal recipient.
Among women, San Clemente’s Hailey Langland could be poised for a breakout. She has the skill set to medal and has been to the Olympics before. One dialed-in slopestyle run could put her right in the running for some hardware.
Freestyle Skiing – Talent that Can Reach the Mountaintop
Much like snowboarding, freestyle skiing offers American fans a lot to cheer for. Team USA has won quite a few medals in freestyle skiing events in recent games.
Moguls
Jaelin Kauf will lead the way for the women’s moguls squad. She already has an Olympic silver from the Games in 2022, and will look to finally race her way to the top spot in 2026. Standing in her way will be France’s Perrine Laffont, the most dominant mogul racer of the current era. Connecticut’s Olivia Giaccio will join her, having been pulled away from working on her Master of Social Work degree at Columbia University. She looks to improve on her sixth-place finish at the Games in 2022.
Slopestyle / Big Air
Alex Hall is back and better than ever after winning a gold medal in slopestyle in 2022. The 27-year-old is one of the best in the world with a shining collection of X Games medals and World Cup trophies. As always, he will have to deal with his main rival, Norway’s Birk Ruud. The two competitors have traded wins back and forth across events for years, and routinely push each other to their best performances. Vermont’s Mac Forehand is also one of the stronger breakout candidates in this event. He took silver in the slopestyle event at the 2025 FIS Ski Freestyle World Championships, throwing a switch left triple 1620 mute that locked in a very high score from the judges.
Halfpipe
Veteran Nick Goepper returns for his fourth Games, bringing tremendous experience to the squad. His “retirement” only lasted 10 months. The multiple-time Olympic medalist debuted in Sochi in 2014 and has now switched events late in his career from slopestyle to halfpipe. For the women, Mammoth Mountain’s Kate Gray could bring the stability and consistency needed to earn a podium spot if she goes big enough.
Aerials
In aerial skiing, athletes launch off of a near-vertical ramp, soar 40 or 50 feet in the air, and flip and spin all the way home. Now in his 12th year with Team USA, Christopher Lillis looks to add to his trophy case after winning gold (mixed team) and silver (individual) in 2022. 27-year-old Winter Vinecki, the 2025 US National Champion, is also likely to be in the mix in the women’s competition.
Cross-Country Skiing – America’s Most Decorated Athlete, Jesse Diggins, Returns to the Trail
Norway typically dominates cross-country skiing events, but the U.S. has entered the conversation in distance, sprint, and relay events, especially for the women. Why? Jesse Diggins. She enters 2026 as the most accomplished American cross-country skier ever. She’s a World Cup champion and a proven medalist who does outstanding work under. A Diggins race isn’t about blowing the competition away with power, but with smart racing choices. She knows just when to surge and when to keep some energy in the tank. She has always shown world-class stamina when she needs to hold her pace late in a race when competitors are fading. For the “mass start” and skiathlon events, that’s where her strengths will shine.
The U.S. Women’s Cross-Country Team
Diggins is joined by a group that is capable of putting real pressure on their European competitors, especially in relays and team events. Depth and consistency will win races, and the U.S. team now has skiers who can hold leads, not just chase. These include Rosie Brennan (the 2022 team sprint silver medalist) and Novie McCabe (silver medalist in the 2022 women’s 4×5 km relay). Fans can expect American women to be competitive in the 4×5 km relay, team sprint, and possibly some individual distance races, depending on the course profile. That is, if conditions favor endurance over pure speed, the U.S. could become more of a threat.
Newer Athletes with Breakout Potential in Cross Country Skiing
In cross-country skiing, the next wave of U.S. athletes is starting to move beyond “supporting cast” status. In addition to Novie McCabe, national champion Kendall Kramer has shown flashes of strength in classic races and could turn in a surprising result. For the men, Vermont’s Ben Ogden has proven in sprint events that he can hang with top Europeans on the World Cup circuit. JC Schoonmaker is also one of the nation’s top sprinters and could turn a strong qualifying run into a triumphant final.
Alpine Skiing – American Speed on Display
82-time World Cup winner Lindsey Vonn has been a defining presence for Team USA in alpine skiing across four Olympic Games. After retiring in 2019, citing a “body broken beyond repair,” she made a remarkable comeback following a knee replacement at age 41, demonstrating the resilience and determination that have defined her career. On January 30, 2026, however, Vonn suffered a ruptured ACL during training, a serious setback that would have ended the season for most athletes. Undeterred, she remains on track to compete in Milan–Cortina, focusing on downhill and Super-G, events that demand both precision and fearlessness at top speeds. Her decades of experience, combined with an unwavering competitive fire, make her one of Team USA’s most formidable medal contenders. Even in the face of these challenges, Vonn continues to push boundaries, showing that age, injury, and adversity are no match for her determination to leave an indelible mark on the 2026 Games.
The story is much the same for longtime Team USA veteran skier Mikaela Shiffrin. Following a bad crash during a World Cup giant slalom skiing race in 2024, the road to recovery from a punctured wound and muscle trauma has been challenging, especially when it comes to restoring her confidence and mental focus. Shiffrin remains one of the most versatile U.S. skiers with multiple Olympic medals to her name. Expect her to show up in a big way in slalom and giant slalom events as she seeks to rebound from a disappointing outing in 2022. As in many previous years, Shiffrin will have to deal with the reigning champion, Slovakia’s Petra Vlhová, who is herself recovering from a knee injury. The two have been the defining figures in women’s slalom for the past ten years. The question now is: which one still has enough left in the tank to edge past the competition?
Athletes with Breakout Potential in Alpine Skiing
27-year-old River Radamus only missed the podium by three tenths of a second in 2022. He’ll likely be back with a vengeance in giant slalom this year. Nina O’Brien, now in her second Games, is a world champion and could look to close the gap between herself and top competitors. Salt Lake City’s Isabella Wright also has been putting in strong finishes in the past year in competition, and could find an opportunity at the 2026 Games to show her true potential for speed in the downhill event.
Figure Skating – Continuing Greatness
In 2022, Team USA didn’t exactly win the gold. Their silver-medal finish was the last news most fans saw of the event. But due to a doping violation by a Russian athlete, the gold was stripped from the ROC and awarded years later to Team America. It was their first-ever team gold.
Nathan Chen captured individual gold in 2022 with a historic display of technical mastery, landing one quadruple jump after another and cementing his place in figure skating history. With Chen now turning his focus to medical school, the spotlight shifts to teammates like Ilia Malinin, who will be aiming for the top podium spot in 2026. Malinin is expected to face stiff competition from Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, whose precise and high-scoring routines earned him the silver medal in Beijing.
For the women, Lysa Liu has demonstrated the ability to compete with the best in the world. Her world title and Grand Prix Final championship show that she is ready to skate with both eyes on the podium’s top spot.
Execution, artistry, and consistency matter more than ever, and throwing highly ambitious jumps is essential. For Team USA, medal hopes hinge on skaters who can deliver clean programs. The challenge on that point is that one unfortunate edge catch can lead to a disappointing result after four years of preparation.
Newer Athletes with Breakout Potential in Figure Skating
Isabeau Levito, who finished third at nationals, may well be ready to move from contender to centerpiece. Amber Glenn has multiple national titles to her name, and represents a classic high-risk, high-reward breakout threat. In pairs, underdogs Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea have been on the verge of the podium at nationals, taking 4th this last year. With a bit of a push, they could enter the conversation at Milano-Cortina.
Ice Hockey
Men’s Hockey – Prepare for a Big Run
For the first time since 2014, NHL players will be playing for Team USA at the Olympics. The roster includes star forwards like Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews, and the Tkachuk brothers. They’ll join other professionals, including Jack Hughes (center for the Devils), Kyle Connor (left wing for the Jets), and Dylan Larkin (captain of the Red Wings). This means that the U.S. will have seriously lethal scoring ability across multiple lines. Defensively, elite players like Quinn Hughes, Charlie McAvoy, and Noah Hanifin will be on the roster. Connor Hellebuyck and Jeremy Swayman are the netminders.
The team is quite good, and is fresh off an IIHF World Championship gold in 2025 – the American men’s first since 1933. They beat Switzerland in overtime and proved that they can hang with anyone.
The U.S. is expected to advance out of group play and into the knockout rounds. If the team can avoid facing other hockey superpowers like Canada, Sweden, and Finland until later stages, the team’s chances of a medal improve even more. The team’s last gold medal came in 1980 after the famous “Miracle on Ice,” when the Americans topped the Soviets. The next one could come this month.
Women’s Hockey – Favorites to Medal
The U.S. women’s team is one of the best in the world, and with several returning legends on the ice again, America is one of the favorites to medal.
These include Hilary Knight, a veteran scorer (one of the best in history), brick walls Alex Cavallini and Aerin Frankel in net, and talented forwards like Lauren Springer, Brianna Decker, and Sophia Shaver. The next generation of players is also integrating nicely into the team’s plan to emerge victorious. Players like Grace Zumwinkle, Taylor Heise, and Caroline Harvey have emerged as impactful competitors at the international level. This team is talented, deep, and likely to exert maximum pressure on any squad they share the ice with.
Team USA enters Milano-Cortina as probably the top favorite to win the gold in women’s hockey. As in previous years, they will probably have to overcome the Canadian squad. These two nations have faced off in nearly every major international final for decades, and 2026 will likely be yet another emotional head-to-head clash with a championship on the line.
Sliding Sports – Bobsled, Skeleton, and Luge
When it comes to sliding sports, Team USA enters the fray with a mix of proven medal winners and athletes seeking to show their mettle.
Bobsled
Here, the headline-getter is Kaillie Humphries, a two-time Olympic champion. She’s been the backbone of the U.S. program for some time now. She’s a gold-medal threat in women’s monobob and two-woman events. On the men’s side, pilots like Frank DelDuca and Josh Williamson will anchor a competitive group eager to show what they can do.
Skeleton
Kelly Curtis (returning from the 2022 Olympics team) and Mystique Ro will be up against stiff competition from athletes from Germany and Great Britain, who have owned the podiums at the Olympics in recent years.
Unfortunately, Katie Uhlaender, one of the most decorated skeleton athletes in U.S. history, will not compete at the 2026 Games. Despite winning her final qualifying North American Cup race in January, late withdrawals at that event reduced the field size and limited the number of qualification points available. As a result, Uhlaender finished just short of the required points to make the Olympic team. She appealed the decision, but ultimately, the Bobsled and Skeleton Federation determined that no rules had been broken.
Luge
Medaling here will be hard for Americans like Emily Sweeney, who took a bronze in luge at the 2025 FIL World Championships in Whistler, Canada. European powerhouses are still winning competitions at a steady clip, and Germany looks to continue its era of dominance here.
Paralympics – Elite Resilience and Golden Performances
Team USA is among the top-performing nations at the Paralympic Games, which typically take place shortly after the Olympics conclude. In 2022 in Beijing, the Americans brought home 20 medals: 6 gold, 11 silver, and 3 bronze, finishing fifth in the overall standings.
Oksana Masters is America’s Paralympic leader, competing in multiple ski sports and winning across a number of events. She’ll be joined by Brennan Walker and Andrew Kurka, both experienced ski racers who can finish strong. For Nordic events, Jake Adicoff (likely to qualify for the team) and Sydney Peterson will anchor the cross-country and biathlon squads.
Newer athletes expected to make waves include Declan Farmer, a major force in sled hockey. Teammates Jack Wallace and Josh Pauls will help round out the team to take on Canada and the European squads. In snowboarding, Keith Gabel is still a gold-medal threat in banked slalom.
The Final Result
For Team USA, longstanding heroes and energetic newcomers will once again compete against the best in the world for a chance at glory. Upstarts will arrive with a desire to make their mark on history. As ever, Team USA is positioned to deliver and earn an impressive collection of medals. Fans will cheer on the red, white, and blue as the world comes together in the spirit of good-natured fraternity, but also intense competition hot enough to melt the hardest winter ice.
