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Team USA isn’t exactly known for its Winter Olympic dominance, but the Americans are hoping to change the narrative 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 gold medals to show for it.
The Team USA roster will look to change their fortunes in this year’s games and somehow finish ahead of Norway, Germany and Canada.
Team USA will fight hard for the gold. The Olympics begin on Friday. Read below for some of the athletes to keep an eye on.
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Alyssa Liu
Alysa Liu poses for a photo after the 2026 Milan Olympic figure skating announcement show at the Enterprise Center on January 11, 2026. (Jeff Curry/Imagn Images)
Alysa Liu will be looking 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 at the time.
Now, at 20, Liu enters the Winter Games after a successful 2025 campaign. She won gold medals at the World Championships and the Grand Prix Final. Liu also took silver medals in 2025 and 2026 at the US Championships.
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Chloe Kim
Chloe Kim (USA) celebrates winning the gold medal during the medal ceremony for the Women’s Snowboard Halfpipe at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games on February 10, 2022. (Danielle Parhizkaran/USA TODAY Sports)
Chloe Kim has wowed crowds in the halfpipe snowboard 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 snowboard gold medal. She followed that up in 2022, when another gold medal.
Kim is going for her third gold medal in a row, but under tougher circumstances. She dislocated her shoulder three weeks before the Milan Cortina Games. She said she was “good to go” for the Olympics and will look to get through the injury.
Elana Meyers Taylor
Elana Meyers Taylor of Team United States poses during the medal ceremony after the Women’s Monobob Race Heat 4 on day four of the 2025 IBSF World Championships at Mt. Van Hoevenberg on March 9, 2025 in Lake Placid, New York. (Al Bello/Getty Images)
Elana Meyers Taylor is back in the Olympics looking to make more history in her fifth Winter Games. She will compete for the US bobsled team in the monobob competition. In 2022, she claimed her fifth career Olympic medal, becoming the first black woman to achieve the feat.
This month, she hopes to return to greatness as Team USA tries to put on a dominant performance in Italy.
Erin Jackson
Erin Jackson of the United States competes in the women’s 500m during the ISU Speedskating World Cup at the Calgary Olympic Oval on November 22, 2025. (Sergei Belski/Imagn Images)
Erin Jackson made history in 2022 when she became the first black woman to medal in speed skating. Not only did she medal, but she picked up gold in the 500 meter race. Jackson is back on Team USA and looking to pick up another medal.
Jackson again competes in the 500 meter race with Sarah Warren. She will also compete with 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 skiing at the FIS World Cup in Zauchensee on January 10, 2026. (Leonhard Foeger/Reuters via Imagn Images)
Lindsey Vonn qualified for the Winter Olympics this year and will compete in alpine skiing. She won two World Cup downhill races and was set to compete in her fifth Olympic Games until Friday when she suffered a devastating injury.
Vonn has not said whether the injury will keep her from competing in Milan Cortina, but promised her Olympic dream was not over.
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She has one gold medal and two bronze medals on her resume.
Hilary Knight
Hilary Knight poses for a photo during the US Olympic Team Media Summit in preparation for the Milan 2026 Olympic Winter Games at the Javits Center on October 29, 2025. (Robert Deutsch/Imagn Images)
Hilary Knight is one of the most recognizable faces on the US women’s hockey team. She has been to the USA as a teenager and was on the team that won the silver medal in the 2006 4 Nations Cup.
Knight picked up a gold medal when the women’s team won in 2018 in Pyeongchang. She has three silver medals, including the 2022 Games in Beijing. The team lost to Canada in the match. She said the 2026 Winter Olympics will be her last Games.
“I’ve grown up in this program and it’s just given me so much. I’m at peace. And I’m thankful that hopefully I can stay healthy, be able to go 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 2026 Milan Olympic figure skating announcement show 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 gold medal-winning team event in 2022 and will look to lift the U.S. back to first place in 2026.
Chock and Bates have never won medals on the Olympic stage, but the two took home gold medals in the past five U.S. championships and the past three Grand Prix finals.
This could very well be their year to get Olympic gold around their necks.
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Maxim Naumov
Maxim Naumov performs at 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 men’s singles figure skating roster. Naumov’s parents were passengers on a commercial airliner that collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, DC
“They were beautiful people. They were so incredibly kind,” he told NBC’s “TODAY” last March. “The only way out is through. There’s no other way. There’s no other option but to keep going. I don’t have the strength or the passion or the drive or the dedication of one person anymore. It’s three people.”
He returned to skating on March 2 and pushed to make the Olympic team. He won a bronze medal at the US Championships and was named to the Olympic team.
Mikaela Shiffrin
Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States celebrates winning an alpine skiing women’s world championship slalom in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)
Mikaela Shiffrin had a tough 2022 Winter Olympics to say the least. She was the favorite to bring home some gold for the US, but she picked up a non-finishing giant slalom and slalom and later ninth in the super-G.
She has since rebounded and is poised for a podium push this year. She won gold medals at the 2023 World Championships in giant slalom and in the team combined at the 2025 World Championships. In 2021, she won a gold, silver and two bronze medals in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
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NHL stars
Jack Hughes of Team United States warms up before the 4 Nations Face-Off Championship game between Team Canada and Team United States 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 over 10 years, NHL stars will return to the ice to represent the United States in men’s hockey at the Winter Olympics.
The American roster includes goaltenders 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 Connors and Clayach Brock Keller’s defense, Jack Z Hugheellers and the defense, Jack Z. Faber, Noah Hanifin, Charlie McAvoy, Quinn Hughes, Jacob Slavin and Jake Sanderson.
The USA made their presence known last year in the 4 Nations Face-Off as a bitter rivalry with Canada was ignited. The team is set to begin group play on February 12 against Latvia and may not face Canada until the knockout stage.
