These women helped shaped the 2026 Olympics — and they're not done yet. Read on to learn more about the elite competitors and officials you should still be following after the Games.
Gaon Choi returned from a brutal crash on her first run to win gold in snowboarding halfpipe on her final run – becoming the first female Korean athlete to win a medal in a snow sport. She has been friends with fellow Olympic champion Chloe Kim since she was little, when Kim and her dad helped bring Choi to the U.S. to train with at Mammoth Mountain. With a gold medal already at only 17, she's just getting started.
Mikaela Shiffrin is one of the greatest alpine skiers of all time. She entered the Olympic stage with a gold medal in slalom in 2014, following up with giant slalom gold and an alpine combined silver medal in 2018. In 2024, Mikaela Shiffrin suffered a horrific crash where she punctured her abdomen, had surgery to fix damage, and was diagnosed with PTSD. She returned to competition and earned yet another gold medal at the 2026 Olympics, making Shiffrin the most decorated alpine skier in the history of the sport.
After a leg injury dashed her 2022 Olympic dream, Breezy Johnson returned to the very same Cortina course where she was injured four years earlier and won gold in the women's downhill at the 2026 Games for her first-ever Olympic medal. The victory made her the first American woman to win Olympic downhill gold since Lindsey Vonn in 2010, and it was the first gold medal awarded to Team USA at the 2026 Winter Games.
Lindsey Vonn is an Olympic legend whose power and fearlessness reshaped alpine skiing. One of the most dominant downhill racers of all time, she captured gold in the downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics, along with a bronze medal in super-g in 2010 and a bronze in downhill in 2018. Vonn competed through injuries and setbacks that would have ended most careers, but continued to showcase grit and determination on the world’s biggest stages.
One of the key members that made history as part of the first U.S. team to win Olympic gold in cross-country skiing, Jessie Diggins is the USA’s most accomplished athlete in the sport's history, having won three World Cup overall titles, three Olympic medals, seven World Championship medals, and numerous other event championships. After competing in ’14, ’18, and ’22, earning a gold, a silver, and a bronze medal. 2026 was Diggins’ final Olympics, where she battled back from bruising her ribs early in the games to winning a bronze medal in the 10k freestyle.
Cory Thiesse came into the Olympics hot, having just won the 2025 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Mixed Doubles. She’s a three-time defending U.S. women's champion, winning titles in 2021, 2023, and 2024. Thiesse was one of the top junior women's curlers in the United States, winning four of the six she competed in. At the 2026 Olympics, she won the mixed doubles silver medal, becoming the first American woman to ever medal in curling.
A dominant Olympic medalist, Kaillie Armbruster Humphries has won across the sport of bobsled in different eras, teams, and even national programs. She has earned 3 gold medals and one bronze, competing in 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022, while being an alternate in 2006. At Milano-Cortina, she won a bronze medal in monobob and a bronze in the two-woman bobsled with teammate Jasmine Jones.
At the 2022 Winter Olympics, Eileen Gu captured two gold medals and a silver, dazzling the world with her creativity and fearless style as she competed in three events: big air, halfpipe, and slopestyle. Representing China, she has become the all-time winningest freestyle skier at the Winter Olympics. She’s widely known as one of the best skiers in the world, winning a gold and two silver medals at the 2026 Games, medalling in all three of her events.
Sophia Kirkby, the U.S. world champion in doubles luge, has been sliding on the luge track since she was a little kid. Her father was a bobsledder, and he introduced her to the track when she was only eight years old. By age 10, she was on USA Luge’s development team. At the same age, she started her other passion, pottery. She has spent months making ceramic pins and earrings to sell and trade at the games. Kirkby earned a 5th place finish in the Women’s Double Luge, which was a brand new event at the Milan Cortina Games.
Karin Harjo
With over 20 years of experience, Karin Harjo has worked at the highest levels of international ski racing. She’s served in a variety of roles — from a regional coach with Team USA, to a U.S. Assistant World Cup coach, to making history as the head coach of Canada’s women’s Alpine ski team — becoming the first woman ever to lead a women’s World Cup team. In 2023, Harjo stepped into the role of personal head coach for ski legend Mikaela Shiffrin.
Nika Vodan is a Slovenian ski jumper who made her World Cup debut in 2015-16 at the age of 15. In the 2020-21 season, she won the Overall FIS Ski Jumping World Cup titlewhich earned Slovenia its first Crystal Globe in women’s ski jumping. In Beijing 2022, she won gold in the mixed team event and bronze in the women’s individual competition. She’s had multiple World Cup podiums since the last Olympics. At Milano-Cortina 2026, she won gold in the mixed team event.
A standout in track, cross-country, and Nordic skiing in high school, Anna Gibson won 17 Wyoming state titles and was named a Gatorade Wyoming Athlete of the Year. She then continued competing in middle-distance running at the University of Washington, even advancing to the 1500m semifinals at the 2024 US Olympic Trials. Gibson started ski mountaineering in 2025 and, at her very first World Cup, won the mixed relay at an International Ski Mountaineering Federation event, which is the first World Cup gold for the United States in mixed relay — all while securing a roster spot for Ski Mountaineering’s Olympic debut in Milan. She placed 4th at the 2026 Olympics, just barely missing the podium.
Tallulah Proulx is an alpine skier competing at the Olympics for the Philippines. At just 17 years old, she has already made history as the youngest Filipino Winter Olympian ever and the first Filipina to qualify for the Winter Olympic Games, earning spots in both the slalom and giant slalom events at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics. Proulx began skiing at age three, racing at seven, competing in FIS races at 15, and has already represented the Philippines at the 2025 Asian Winter Games, where she finished 16th in the slalom. At Milano-Cortina, Proulx placed 50th in slalom and 52nd in giant slalom, but learned a lot from veteran skiers.
Dr. Lana Haddad
Currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer of the IOC, Dr. Lana Haddad has one of the most influential leadership roles in international sports. She was appointed to this position in 2019 after previously serving as the IOC’s Chief Financial Officer. In her role, Dr. Haddad oversees a wide range of duties including finance, legal, human resources, information technology, and event operations, while playing a key part in delivering the Games and supporting long-term strategic goals. She has also been a prominent voice on gender equality and diversity within sports and the Olympics.
Kirsty Coventry
Kirsty Coventry is the first woman, and the first African, to be named President of the International Olympic Committee. A former Olympic and world champion in swimming, she has won seven of Zimbabwe's eight Olympic medals. Coventry has worked for the IOC since 2013 and was elected as President in June of 2025. Previously, she served as the Minister of Sport, Art & Recreation in Zimbabwe from 2018 to 2025. Milano-Cortina 2026 will be the first Olympics she has presided over.
Laila Edwards is the first Black woman to be named to a U.S. Olympic roster and play for the U.S. women’s national team. In 2024, Edwards was named MVP at the IIHF Women’s World Championship – the youngest American ever to earn the honor. Currently a senior at the University of Wisconsin, Edwards has won two national championships with the Badgers. During these Games, she contributed two goals and six assists en route to becoming the first Black woman to win gold with Team USA in women’s hockey.
