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Team USA isn’t exactly known for its dominance at the Winter Olympics, but the Americans are hoping to change that when it comes to the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.
The Americans finished third in the medal table at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and fourth at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. The United States finished with the most medals at the 2010 Vancouver Games, but had only nine golds to show for it.
Team USA will look to change their fortunes at this year’s Games and, one way or another, finish ahead of Norway, Germany and Canada.
The American team will fight hard to win gold. The Olympic Games will begin on Friday. Read below for some of the athletes to watch closely.
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Alysa Liu
Alysa Liu poses for a photo after the announcement of the Milan 2026 Olympic figure skating team at the Enterprise Center on January 11, 2026. (Jeff Curry/Imagn Images)
Alysa Liu will attempt to reach the Olympic podium for the first time in her career. She will compete in the women’s singles event with Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito. She finished sixth at the 2022 Olympics, but she was only 16 years old at the time.
Now, at 20, Liu enters the Winter Games after having a successful campaign in 2025. She won gold medals at the World Championships and the Grand Prix Final. Liu also won silver medals in 2025 and 2026 at the U.S. Championships.
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Chloe Kim
Chloe Kim (United States) celebrates her gold medal during the medal ceremony for the women’s snowboard halfpipe at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, February 10, 2022. (Danielle Parhizkaran/USA TODAY Sports)
Chloe Kim wowed the crowd in the halfpipe snowboarding event and will look to continue her dominance at the event in 2026. Kim made her debut at the age of 17 at the 2018 Olympics, becoming the youngest woman to win an Olympic gold medal in snowboarding. She followed it up in 2022 with another gold medal.
Kim is aiming for her third consecutive gold medal, but in more difficult circumstances. She dislocated her shoulder three weeks before the Milan Cortina Games. She said she was “ready to go” for the Olympics and would look to overcome her injury.
Elana Meyers-Taylor
Elana Meyers Taylor of Team USA poses during the medal ceremony after the Women’s Monobob Heat 4 race on day four of the 2025 IBSF World Championships at Mount Van Hoevenberg on March 9, 2025, in Lake Placid, New York. (Al Bello/Getty Images)
Elana Meyers Taylor is returning to the Olympics and looking to make more history in her fifth Winter Games. She will compete for the U.S. bobsleigh team in the monobob competition. In 2022, she won her fifth Olympic medal of her career, becoming the first black woman to achieve this feat.
This month, she hopes to return to glory as Team USA attempts to put on a dominant display in Italy.
Erin Jackson
Erin Jackson of the United States competes in the women’s 500m during the ISU Speed Skating World Cup at the Olympic Oval in Calgary, November 22, 2025. (Sergueï Belski/Imagn Images)
Erin Jackson made history in 2022 when she became the first Black woman to win a medal in speed skating. She not only won a medal, but she also won gold in the 500 meters. Jackson is back on Team USA and looking for another medal.
Jackson will once again compete in the 500 meter race with Sarah Warren. She will also run alongside Brittany Bowe in the 1,000 meter race.
Lindsey Vonn
Lindsey Vonn of the United States celebrates on the podium after winning the women’s alpine ski race during the FIS World Cup in Zauchensee, January 10, 2026. (Leonhard Foeger/Reuters via Imagn Images)
Lindsey Vonn qualified for the Winter Olympics this year and is expected to compete in the alpine skiing event. She won two World Cup downhill races and was set to compete in her fifth Olympics, until Friday, when she suffered a devastating injury.
Vonn did not say whether her injury would prevent her from competing in Milan Cortina, but vowed her Olympic dream was not over.
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She has one gold medal and two bronze medals on her CV.
Hilaire Chevalier
Hilary Knight poses for a photo during the U.S. Olympic Team Media Summit in preparation for the Milan 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the Javits Center on October 29, 2025. (Robert Deutsch/Imagn Images)
Hilary Knight is one of the most recognizable faces of the U.S. women’s hockey team. She was with the United States as a teenager and was part of the team that won the silver medal at the 2006 4 Nations Cup.
Knight won a gold medal when the women’s team won in 2018 in Pyeongchang. She has three silver medals, including that of the 2022 Games in Beijing. The team lost to Canada in the match. She has declared that the 2026 Winter Olympics will be her last Games.
“I grew up in this program and it has given me so much. I’m at peace. And I’m grateful that I can hopefully stay healthy, that I can come out when I want to be done. It’s such a privilege,” she said, via Olympics.com.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates
Madison Chock and Evan Bates pose for a photo after the announcement of the Milan 2026 Olympic figure skating team at the Enterprise Center on January 11, 2026. (Jeff Curry/Imagn Images)
Madison Chock will compete with Evan Bates in the ice dance discipline of the figure skating competition. The husband and wife duo were part of the team event that won gold in 2022 and will look to return the United States to first place in 2026.
Chock and Bates have never won a medal on the Olympic stage, but both have won gold medals in the last five U.S. Championships and the last three Grand Prix Finals.
This could very well be their year to put Olympic gold around their neck.
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Maxim Naumov
Maxim Naumov performs during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the Enterprise Center on January 11, 2026. (Jeff Le/Imagn Images)
Maxim Naumov overcame an extremely difficult year to earn a spot on Team USA’s roster for the men’s singles figure skating competition. Naumov’s parents were passengers on a commercial flight that collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, DC.
“They were magnificent people. They were incredibly kind,” he told NBC’s “TODAY” show last March. “The only way out is through. There is no other way. There is no choice but to continue. I no longer have the strength, or the passion, or the drive, or the dedication of one person. It’s three people.”
He returned to skating on March 2 and strived to make the Olympic team. He won a bronze medal at the U.S. Championships and was named to the Olympic team.
Mikaela Shiffrin
American Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates her victory in the Alpine skiing, World Cup women’s slalom, in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic, Sunday, January 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)
Mikaela Shiffrin had a difficult 2022 Winter Olympics to say the least. She was the favorite to win gold for the United States, but she did not finish the giant slalom and slalom and later placed ninth in the super-G.
Since then, she has bounced back and is preparing to reach the podium this year. She won gold medals at the 2023 World Championships in giant slalom and team combined at the 2025 World Championships. In 2021, she won one gold, silver and two bronze medals in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
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NHL All-Stars
Jack Hughes of Team USA warms up before the 4 Nations Championship match between Team Canada and Team USA at TD Garden on February 20, 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Ben Jackson/4NFO/World Cup of Hockey via Getty Images)
For the first time in more than 10 years, NHL stars will return to the ice to represent the United States in men’s hockey at the Winter Olympics.
The U.S. roster includes goalies Jeremy Swayman, Jake Oettinger and Connor Hellebuyck, forwards Brady Tkachuk, Jack Eichel, JT Miller, Matt Boldy, Vincent Trocheck, Matthew Tkachuk, Dylan Larkin, Brock Nelson, Auston Matthews, Jake Guentzel, Tage Thompson, Kyle Connor, Jack Hughes and Clayton Keller and defensemen Zach Werenski, Brock Faber, Noah Hanifin, Charlie. McAvoy, Quinn Hughes, Jacob Slavin and Jake Sanderson.
The United States made its presence known last year during the 4-nation showdown as a bitter rivalry with Canada ignited. The team is scheduled to begin group play on Feb. 12 against Latvia and would not be able to meet Canada until the knockout stage.
