American Winter Olympics fans will have plenty of hopefuls to root for who will contend for medals at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games. The United States features athletes capable of standing on the podium for a number of events, including figure skating, ice hockey, snowboarding, speed skating and Alpine skiing.
Whether or not the U.S. can improve on its third-place in the medal count from the Beijing Games has yet to be seen. But here are 10 competitors who are among America's best candidates to return from Italy with a medal for their trophy case.
Chloe Kim, snowboarding
Kim, 25, won gold in the halfpipe competition at both the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and 2022 Beijing Olympics. She is expected to follow up with a third gold in Milan-Cortina, something no Olympic snowboarder has ever accomplished. Last year, Kim became the first woman to ever land a double-cork 1080 — two forward flips while spinning 360 degrees — in competition. However, a recent shoulder injury suffered during training could make her pursuit more difficult.
CHLOE KIM STOMPS IT IN RUN 1.@ChloeKim's 94.00 puts her in the top spot in the Snowboard Halfpipe Final!#WinterOlympics📺:@nbc&@peacockTVStream:https://t.co/HTEl6kZ7K4pic.twitter.com/EP7RnV2qxf
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics)February 10, 2022
Ilia Malinin, figure skating
The "Quad God" brings his quadruple-jumping prowess to his first Olympics after winning four U.S. championships, two World titles and three Grand Prix Finals. At 21, Malinin is the first and only skater to complete a quadruple axel in international competition. And he is the only athlete to land seven quadruple jumps, doing so at the 2024 Grand Prix Final. That makes him the clear favorite for a gold medal.
Alex Hall, freestyle skiing (slopestyle)
Hall, 27, is pursuing his second consecutive Olympic gold medal. Competing in Milan-Cortina will be sort of a homecoming for the freestyle skier, whose mother is from Bologna, Italy. Hall has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Italy because of that. A gold medal win for Hall would give the U.S. top honors in the slopestyle event for the third time in the past four Winter Olympics. (Sage Kotsenburg won gold at the 2014 Sochi Games.)
ALEX HALL'S GOLDEN RUN. 🥇@TeamUSA's Alex Hall captured the Olympic gold medal in men's freeski slopestyle on his very first run.#WinterOlympicspic.twitter.com/Pwvrtmk1Te
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics)February 16, 2022
Jordan Stolz, speed skating
After dominating the world in the 1000- and 1500-meters last season (plus three World Cup wins in the 500), Stolz, 21, goes into the 2026 Winter Games as a favorite to medal in his second Olympics. No American man has earned a medal in the 500m event since 2006 or the 1000 since 2010. And if Stolz wins in more than one of those three races, he'll be the first American since Eric Heiden in 1980 to seize multiple medals in speed skating.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates, ice dancing
The husband-and-wife team will compete in their fourth Winter Games together in Milan-Cortina and an ice dance Olympic medal is really the only prize the ice-dancing duo haven't won. Chock and Bates have won the past five U.S. championships — and seven overall, surpassing Meryl Davis and Charlie White for the most — while also earning the last two Grand Prix Finals and three World championships.
Jessie Diggins, cross-country skiing
Diggins. 34, will attempt to medal for the third consecutive Winter Games after winning bronze and silver at the 2022 Beijing Games, in addition to earning a team sprint gold at Pyeongchang in 2018. Her individual medals were the first won by an American woman in cross-country skiing. Diggins is considered a contender for gold in the 10 km freestyle event and could also medal in the skiathlon, which also combines traditional cross-country skiing and freestyle techniques.
😲 When a 16-minute race comes down to just 0.19 seconds! 🥇🇺🇸⛷️ Jessie Diggins' lunge at the end of the PyeongChang 2018 women's cross-country team sprint will never be forgotten.We can't wait to watch this week's team sprints at#Trondheim2025, on the Road to…pic.twitter.com/Wek4GpI9N3
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics)March 4, 2025
Lindsey Vonn, Alpine skiing
Vonn, 41 is competing in her fifth Winter Olympics after coming out of retirement. The only American woman to win a downhill skiing gold medal in Olympic competition, in addition to two bronze medals, she has won 12 World Cup races in Cortina. That success, along witha partial knee replacement, was a contributing factor to her returning after a five-year hiatus. Vonn will compete in the downhill and Super-G events, increasing her chances of getting a medal.
Alysa Liu, figure skating
As part of one of the strongest figure skating contingents the U.S. has sent to an Olympics, Liu is making a comeback after retiring at 16 years old following the Beijing Games. Following a two-year hiatus, she found her love for skating again. Liu, 20, showed she could still compete at the sport's highest levels by winning the 2025 World championship, the first American woman to do so since 2006. In 2019, she was the first American woman to land a quadruple jump at the 2019 Grand Prix.
Alysa Liu at US Nationals 2025SP 76.36pic.twitter.com/dFRk3VPL68
— figure skating archive (@skatingarchive)January 24, 2025
Kallie Humphries, bobsled
Humphries, 40, is pursuing gold in her second consecutive Olympics for the U.S. Prior to winning the women's monobob event in Beijing, Humphries had medaled in two-woman bobsled in three Winter Games (gold in Vancouver and Sochi, bronze in Pyeongchang) for Canada. Those accomplishments make her the first athlete to win gold medals for both Canada and the U.S., where she became a citizen in 2021.
Erin Jackson, speed skating
Jackson, 33, won gold in the 500-meter event in Beijing. That made her the first Black American woman to win a medal in speed skating and the first to win an individual medal at a Winter Olympics. Making her accomplishments even more impressive is that she didn't participate in speed skating until 2016, previously competing in figure skating, inline skating and roller derby. The Milan-Cortina Games will be her third Olympics as she attempts to win gold in the 500m competition again.
