Eileen Gu of China in action during the final run of the Freeski Slopestyle World Cup on Jan. 17 in Laax, Switzerland. At 22, Gu is the favourite to claim slopestyle gold in Italy.Andreas Becker/The Associated Press
More than 2,900 athletes – 207 representing Canada – will be chasing their Olympic dreams at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.
For some, the competition is a chance to cement their sporting legacies, while for others, it’s an opportunity to prove – or redeem – themselves on the world stage. And with 116 events across eight sports and 16 disciplines, there will be plenty of thrilling performances by familiar faces and new Olympians alike.
Here are 10 athletes from around the world to watch as Milan Cortina 2026 gets under way.
Mikaela Shiffrin (alpine skiing) – U.S.
Mikaela Shiffrin in action during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women's Slalom on Jan. 25 in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic.Millo Moravski/Agence Zoom/Getty Images
Considered the greatest alpine skier of all time, two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin is looking for redemption after a lacklustre 2022 performance in Beijing. Shiffrin, one of the most decorated in the sport, became the youngest-ever slalom Olympic champion when she won gold at the 2014 Sochi Games.
The 30-year-old five-time Overall World Cup champion also has the most World Cup wins of any alpine skier in history. Shiffrin headed into Beijing in 2022 a favourite to win gold in three of her six events, but failed to win a medal after she uncharacteristically missed gates and did not finish her signature slalom and giant slalom races.
After a crash in late 2024 left her with deep puncture wounds, severe trauma to her oblique muscles and PTSD, Shiffrin has battled back and skied a near-perfect World Cup season in the lead up to the Olympics. These Olympics could also see her form a “Dream Team” with fellow American skiing titan Lindsey Vonn.
Lindsey Vonn (alpine skiing) – U.S.
Lindsey Vonn smiles after the podium ceremony of the Women's Super G event of FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup in Tarvisio, Italy, on Jan. 18.MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP/Getty Images
Sixteen years after she topped the podium in Vancouver, the queen of downhill is back and fighting through a torn ACL to go for gold at her final Olympics. Lindsey Vonn, now 41, is considered one of the greatest – and most decorated – alpine skiers of all-time. After injuries forced her into a five-year retirement in 2019, the American made a hard-fought comeback and was skiing like a medal favourite in downhill and super-giant slalom this season until she crashed in her last race before the Olympics.
The four-time Overall World Cup champion said Monday she is “confident” she can still compete in her sixth Olympic Games, but the injury has jeopardized the golden finish she returned to chase. In this last season before Vonn plans to retire for good, she became the oldest winner of a World Cup race, and with seven podium finishes across eight events, no ski racer on the World Cup circuit had been more consistent. But no matter what happens in Italy, Vonn has already made history as she caps off her storied career.
Ilia Malinin (figure skating) – U.S.
Ilia Malinin performs during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Miss.Jeff Curry/Reuters
After narrowly missing the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, Ilia Malinin’s Olympic debut is sure to leave heads spinning. Fresh off a fourth consecutive win at U.S. nationals, the two-time defending World Champion has taken the skating world by storm and is the favourite to bring home the men’s singles gold in Milan.
The 21-year-old earned the nickname “Quad God” when he became the first – and so far only – skater to successfully land a fully rotated quadruple Axel jump in competition in 2022, and in December, he became the first to land seven quad jumps in a single program. That skate set the world record score for a men’s singles free skate and helped Malinin win his third straight Grand Prix Final title. Keep your eye out for his signature sideways “Raspberry Twists” and backflips on the ice in Italy.
Kaillie Humphries (bobsled) – U.S.
Kaillie Humphries celebrates after winning the women's monobob at the IBSF Bobsleigh & Skeleton World Cup in Altenberg, Germany, on Jan. 17.Annegret Hilse/Reuters
The first woman to win Olympic gold medals for two countries and the only female bobsledder to win three golds, Kaillie Humphries is on track to make even more history in Milan. The dual citizen claimed gold for Canada in two-woman bobsled in 2010 and 2014 – plus bronze in 2018 – with Sochi making her the first woman to defend an Olympic bobsled title. But in 2018, Humphries accused Canada’s federation of alleged mental and verbal abuse, and switched to training with the United States the next year.
Her American citizenship came though just two months before the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, where she won gold in the inaugural monobob competition. After taking time off for her health and to start a family, 40-year-old Humphries slid to her first victory in three years at the World Cup earlier in January and is looking to keep up that momentum as she defends her Olympic monobob title in Italy.
Chloe Kim (snowboard) – U.S.
Chloe Kim trains ahead of the women's snowboard halfpipe finals during the Toyota US Grand Prix 2025 in Copper Mountain, Colo., on Dec. 19, 2025.Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
For Chloe Kim, Olympic gold is the standard. The American snowboarder and two-time halfpipe Olympic champion is in a league of her own. But whether she will be at her best is the question looming after a shoulder injury jeopardized her chances of competing at all in her third Games.
Kim has been making history – and pushing the boundaries of what was possible in the sport – for nearly a decade. At 17, her halfpipe gold at Pyeongchang made her the youngest women’s snowboarding champion ever, and she became the only woman to win two golds in the event when she successfully repeated her victory in Beijing.
The 25-year-old holds a record eight Winter X Games golds and three world championship titles, but she sets herself apart by doing tricks nobody else even attempts: Kim was the first woman to successfully land a 1260 in 2024 and a double-cork 1080 (two head-over-heels flips while spinning 360 degrees) in competition in 2025. Assuming she’s back in peak form, watch to see if she can land the 1260 again at the Olympics.
Eileen Gu (freestyle ski) – China
Eileen Gu reacts after competing in the women's freeski final on day three of the FIS Freeski Halfpipe World Cup 2025 at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, China, on Dec. 13.Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
The undeniable star of the sport, Eileen Gu is looking to defend her big air and halfpipe Olympic titles and nab the slopestyle gold she narrowly missed in Beijing. Born and raised in California, Gu was hailed as a prodigy for landing the first forward double cork 1440 jump by a woman at just 18 years old in late 2021.
Her decision to compete for her mother’s native China stirred controversy ahead of the 2022 Winter Games, but her stellar Olympic debut cemented her as a triple-threat around the world: Two golds and a silver made her the youngest-ever freestyle Olympic champion and the first action-sports athlete to win three medals at a single Olympics.
Now 22, China’s “Snow Princess” is heading to Italy as the favourite to claim slopestyle gold, fresh off a fourth slopestyle World Cup win – Gu’s record-extending 20th victory.
Choi Min-jeong (short-track speed skating) – South Korea
Choi Min-jeong reacts after winning the women's 1,500-metre final during the short-track speed skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing on Feb. 16, 2022.Bernat Armangue/The Associated Press
The two-time 1,500-metre defending Olympic champion is hoping her third Winter Games is the charm. Choi Min-jeong turned heads in 2016 when she set the short-track 1,500-metre world record at just 18 years old, and won back-to-back Olympic golds in the event in 2018 and 2022. She achieved hometown hero status in Pyeongchang despite early disappointment.
After a penalty kept her off the 500-metre podium in which she set an Olympic record, Choi went on to win the 1,500-metre gold and anchored her team to the 3,000-metre relay gold by more than eight seconds. In Beijing, the four-time World Cup champion defended her 1,500-metre title in Beijing and set a new Olympic record in the quarterfinal, also picking up silvers in the 1,000-metre and 3,000-metre relay.
Nicknamed the “Queen of South-Korean Short-Track,” Choi is considered one of the country’s greatest female speed-skaters of all time and will be looking to hold court on the track once again in Italy.
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (cross-country) – Norway
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo celebrates after the men's 20-kilometre mass start classic skiing race during the FIS Cross-Country World Cup in Geschinen, Switzerland, on Jan. 25.SALVATORE DI NOLFI/The Associated Press
Cross-country and around the world, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is the one to beat. The Norwegian star is not yet 30 but is already cross-country’s most decorated male skier – and among the winningest Winter Olympians – of all time with five gold medals to his name.
Klæbo won three golds (sprint, team sprint and 4x10-kilometre relay) at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics at age 21, making him the youngest-ever male Olympic cross-country champion and tying for the most decorated athlete at the Games. In Beijing, he successfully defended the sprint and team sprint titles, nabbed silver in 4x10 kilometres and claimed bronze in the 15-kilometre race.
A four-time Overall World Cup champion, Klæbo is a regular on the World Cup circuit podium and ended the 2024-25 season with a sweep of all five team and individual events at the World Championships on home-snow in Trondheim. The Nordic powerhouse will be looking to continue his domination – and add to his seven-medal tally – in the Dolomites.
Bruce Mouat (curling) – Great Britain
Bruce Mouat throws a stone during Scotland's gold-medal game against Switzerland at the BKT World Men's Curling Championship in Moose Jaw, Sask., on April 6, 2025.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
The greatest curler in the world will be calling the shots for Great Britain as he aims for the only prize that has sofar eluded him: Olympic gold. Scottish skip Bruce Mouat’s team are the reigning World Champions and the favourites to top the Olympic podium in Italy, four years after narrowly losing to Sweden in an extra end of the gold-medal game in Beijing.
Since that 2022 heartbreak, the 31-year-old has led his team to victories at two World Championships, four European championships and eight Grand Slams. Mouat’s team has been No. 1 for the last 65 weeks – the longest stretch in the history of the sport – and an Olympic victory would give the birthplace of curling its first men’s gold medal since the sport was officially added to the Winter Games in 1998.
Luckily, Mouat is no stranger to historic wins: He became the youngest-ever Grand Slam champion at age 23 and in 2023, his World Championship victory made him the first openly gay curler to win a World Men’s Curling Championship title.
Julia Taubitz (luge) – Germany
Julia Taubitz in action during the FIL Luge World Cup Women's Singles first run on Dec. 7, 2024, in Innsbruck, Austria.Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images
The reigning World Champion has momentum on her side as she aims to overcome Olympic heartbreak and claim her first Winter Games title in Italy. German luge star Julia Taubitz joined her country’s heavy-hitting team as a teen and achieved veteran status early on.
A litany of World Championship and World Cup wins made her the favourite to win the singles race at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, but a crash erased her early singles lead and derailed her hopes of an Olympic medal. Taubitz finished seventh while teammate Natalie Geisenberger took gold to complete Germany’s sweep of all four events in the sport.
However, Taubitz appears to have bounced back in even more superior form: Since Beijing, the 29-year-old has won five golds and three silvers at the World Championships, becoming a fixture on the World Cup circuit podium as well. All eyes will be on Taubitz as she and Team Germany try to defend their country’s Olympic luge hegemony.
With reports from The Associated Press