2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics: Storylines one year out from the Games

NBC Sports

12-02-2025

The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics kick off Feb. 6 with an Opening Ceremony at San Siro Stadium in Milan (with non-medal competition beginning Feb. 4).
The 116 medal events — most in Winter Olympic history — will be scattered across Northern Italy from Milan in the west to Cortina d'Ampezzo in the east.
Here are 10 American-focused storylines for the 25th edition of the Winter Games:
Can U.S. challenge Norway in medal standings?
In the last three Winter Olympic total medal standings, the U.S. finished fifth (2022), fourth (2018) and second (2014).
Norway, which won the most medals in 2018 and 2022, and winter power Germany will have an advantage of competing in their own time zone.
But the U.S. could get a boost from rising stars, notably in speed skating (Jordan Stolz won three golds at world championships in 2023 and 2024) and short track (Kristen Santos-Griswold won five medals at worlds in 2024). At the 2022 Olympics, the U.S. won three total speed skating medals (one bronze on the men's side) and zero in short track.
The U.S. won the most total medals at a Winter Olympics twice — in 1932 in Lake Placid and in 2010 in Vancouver.
Then there are questions facing Norway, which is poised to be without three of its biggest current stars: Johannes Thingnes Bø (world's top male biathlete) and Jarl Magnus Riiber (world's top male Nordic combined skier) both announced in January that they will retire after the 2024-25 season. While triple 2022 Olympic cross-country skiing gold medalist Therese Johaug ended a two-year retirement to compete this season, she has said she also plans to stop after this winter.
Best U.S. figure skating team in decades?
At last December's Grand Prix Final, U.S. figure skaters won three events at a major championship for the first time (Olympics, World Championships, Grand Prix Final).
Ilia Malinin, the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, hasn't lost since December 2023. Ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates have one loss since the start of 2023. Amber Glenn has won all five of her competitions this season. Tack on the team event, and it could be a historic medal haul for the Americans at Milan Cortina.
The U.S. last won two individual figure skating events at one Olympics in 1960, the same year the U.S. last won four total figure skating medals at one Olympics. The U.S. did win two golds in 2022, counting the team event, which debuted in 2014.
Skaters from Russia are slated to return to international competition in a limited, neutral capacity for Olympic qualifying next season. Should a women's singles skater from Russia be invited to the Milan Cortina Games, she could be the favorite. As of now, skaters from Russia will not be eligible to participate in the Olympic team event.
Philip Hersh,
Alpine: Mikaela Shiffrin rebounds, Lindsey Vonn returns
The U.S. Alpine skiing team could include the two winningest women in World Cup history — Shiffrin has 99 victories, while Vonn has 82.
Shiffrin, a gold medalist in 2014 (slalom) and 2018 (giant slalom), left the 2022 Beijing Games with zero medals. But she went right back to success on the World Cup and at the World Championships, including breaking the record for most Alpine World Cup wins for a woman or man.
She recently returned after missing two months of competition after tearing oblique muscles in a race crash. Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson teamed to win the world championships debut of the team combined event on Tuesday, three days after Johnson won the downhill at worlds. The team combined makes its Olympic debut in 2026.
Vonn, who in 2010 became the first U.S. woman to win the Olympic downhill, ended a five-year retirement to compete this season at age 40. Her ultimate goal is to make a fifth Olympic team in 2026. She is well on her way, having raced seven World Cups this winter with best finishes of fourth (super-G) and sixth (downhill).
Hockey: NHL returns, U.S.-Canada rivalry reprised
NHL players are expected to participate in the Olympics for the first time since 2014. That means Sidney Crosby could go for a third gold medal, while fellow Canadian Connor McDavid and American Auston Matthews could make Olympic debuts.
This month's 4 Nations Face-Off could be an Olympic preview, pitting the world's top four teams: the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Finland. Russia has been banned from international hockey since shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, but a final decision on its Olympic eligibility has not been made.
The U.S. and Canada remain closely bunched atop women's hockey. They have met in six of the seven all-time Olympic finals. They traded the last two Olympic titles and the last two world titles with Canada taking the most recent of each.
The American roster could include Hilary Knight for a fifth time, plus Kendall Coyne Schofield (who had son Drew in July 2023) and Laila Edwards, who in 2023 became the first Black woman to play for the senior national team, then in 2024 was World Championship MVP.
Nick Zaccardi,
Chloe Kim goes for gold No. 3
Kim, who will be 25 come the Milan Cortina Games, can become the first snowboarder to win the same Olympic event three times (if she isn't beaten to it by Austrian Anna Gasser (big air) and Czech Ester Ledecka (parallel giant slalom).
She took a year off after the 2022 Beijing Games. While she has been challenged — even defeated at times — she won the last two X Games titles. She also became the first woman to land both a 1260 and a double cork 1080 in competition.
Another first for Jessie Diggins?
Diggins is already an Olympic medalist of every color, including winning the first U.S. cross-country skiing gold in the team sprint in 2018 with since-retired Kikkan Randall. In 2026, she can become the first U.S. cross-country skier to win individual Olympic gold.
Diggins won last season's World Cup overall title as the top cross-country skier across all events, plus leads this season's standings. The Olympic schedule could set up well with both the team sprint and the 10km (where she's reigning world champion) being held in her better freestyle technique rather than the classic style.
Mark your calendars for Jordan Stolz
Stolz, a 20-year-old who began skating on a pond in his Wisconsin backyard, is the two-time reigning world champion in three events: 500m, 1000m and 1500m. He can become the second American to take three golds at a single Winter Games after Eric Heiden, who won all five speed skating events in Lake Placid in 1980.
Stolz recently went undefeated over those three distances for more than one year, winning 18 consecutive World Cup races. He also broke the world record in the 1000m.
Kaillie Humphries, Elana Meyers Taylor back in bobsled
Kaillie Humphries owns the most Olympic gold medals in women's bobsled history (three). Elana Meyers Taylor owns the most total Olympic medals in women's bobsled history (five). Each has come back from childbirth in this Olympic cycle with an eye on the Milan Cortina Games.
Humphries had her first child, son Aulden, last June. Meyers Taylor had her second son, Noah, in November 2022, after competing at the 2022 Games two years after having son Nico.
Humphries can tie the overall bobsled record of four gold medals. Meyers Taylor seeks her first gold and is one medal of any color shy of the U.S. Winter Olympic female record of six held by speed skater Bonnie Blair.
Freestyle skiing medals bonanza
In 2022, freestyle skiers accounted for eight of the U.S.' 25 total medals across all sports. It's shaping up to be another bountiful Games in 2026.
The team is led by men's halfpipe skiers. Alex Ferreira, who took silver and bronze at the last two Olympics, won all seven of his competitions in the 2023-24 season. Nick Goepper, a three-time medalist in slopestyle, has switched to halfpipe and defeated Ferreira at the X Games last month. David Wise, a two-time gold medalist, bids to make his Olympic farewell in 2026.
Elsewhere, Americans are medal contenders in moguls (led by 2022 silver medalist Jaelin Kauf), aerials (led by newcomer Quinn Dehlinger) and slopestyle (led by 2022 gold medalist Alex Hall).
Kristen Santos-Griswold's short track revival
Santos-Griswold was vying for her first Olympic medal in 2022 when she got caught up in a crash in the last lap of the 1000m final. She ended up fourth, one spot off the podium.
She contemplated whether to continue competing after those Games. Ultimately, she kept skating. She wasn't so much motivated by just missing that medal, but decided that the journey was more important than the outcomes of races that she couldn't fully control.
Santos-Griswold has thrived since, winning a medal in all five events at the 2024 World Championships. This season, she leads the World Cup overall standings with one stop left on the circuit. Next February, she can become the first U.S. female short track speed skater to win an Olympic medal since 2010.