Vonn, Shiffrin and Kim headline US ski and snowboard team for 2026 Olympics

Lindsey Vonn will compete in her fifth Winter Olympics next month after being named to a 97-athlete US Ski & Snowboard roster for the 2026 Milano Cortina Games, a team led by some of the most decorated figures in American winter sports history but also notable for its relative inexperience.

US Ski & Snowboard announced Thursday that it had nominated 97 athletes – 73 skiers and 24 snowboarders – to represent Team USA at the Games, which run from 6–22 February across northern Italy. The team will be officially announced on Monday.

The roster includes 48 first-time Olympians, nearly half the delegation, alongside veterans such as Vonn, Mikaela Shiffrin, Chloe Kim and Jessie Diggins. The athletes range in age from 15-year-old freestyle skier Abby Winterberger to 44-year-old snowboardcross rider Nick Baumgartner, who is headed to his fifth Olympics.

Vonn’s selection caps a sensational return to competition for the 41-year-old alpine skier, who retired in 2019 before returning to racing last season following a partial knee replacement. She has reached the podium in all five World Cup downhill races this season – including two wins, a second place and two thirds – and will be a medal contender in Cortina d’Ampezzo, which hosted the 1956 Games and where the women’s alpine events will be held. Prior to Vonn’s remarkable comeback, the oldest woman to win a World Cup race had been 34.

Shiffrin, the most decorated alpine skier in history, will compete in her fourth Olympics. She enters the Games after a disappointing Beijing Olympics in 2022, where she failed to win a medal, but has rebounded this season with multiple World Cup victories, particularly in slalom.

Kim, a two-time Olympic champion in snowboard halfpipe, is aiming to win gold at a third consecutive Olympics. Her health remains a question after she injured her shoulder in training earlier this month, though US Ski & Snowboard officials said they expect her to be ready to compete in Livigno.

The roster also confirms the absence of Jamie Anderson, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in snowboard slopestyle whose attempted comeback after having two children fell short. Anderson did not reach the podium during the Olympic qualification period and did not earn a spot on the team.

“In many ways, making this team is even harder than the Olympics themselves,” US snowboard program director Rick Bower said in a statement. “The depth of our field is incredible and selection truly came down to the wire. These athletes pushed each other all season and every spot was earned.”

US Ski & Snowboard accounted for more than 40% of the overall US Olympic delegation at the 2022 Beijing Games and won 15 of the country’s 25 total medals. Officials said they expect a similarly large presence in Italy, where the Winter Games will be staged across four main clusters – Milan, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Valtellina and Val di Fiemme – in what organizers have described as the most geographically far-flung Olympics in history.

“The athletes we are sending to the Games represent a large portion of Team USA and I am confident about the impact they will make in Italy,” US Ski & Snowboard president and chief executive Sophie Goldschmidt said.

The alpine team includes 11 women and seven men. In addition to Vonn and Shiffrin, the women’s roster features Breezy Johnson, who returns to the Olympics after missing the 2022 Games with a knee injury, and Paula Moltzan, a former World Cup medalist. On the men’s side, Ryan Cochran-Siegle, a surprise silver medalist in the super-G at the Beijing Games, returns alongside Bryce Bennett and River Radamus.

Jessie Diggins will compete at her fourth Olympics in cross-country skiing and has said this will be her final Games before retiring. Diggins, a three-time Olympic medalist, leads a team that includes returning Olympians Rosie Brennan, Julia Kern and Gus Schumacher, as well as several first-time qualifiers.

Freestyle skiing remains one of the strongest medal prospects for the US team. Jaelin Kauf, the Olympic silver medalist in moguls, returns alongside Chris Lillis, who won gold in mixed team aerials in Beijing. Olympic champion Alex Hall leads the freeski slopestyle squad, while Nick Goepper and Alex Ferreira return for their fourth and third Olympics, respectively.

Snowboarding is again anchored by proven medalists. In addition to Kim, Red Gerard returns for his third Olympics after winning slopestyle gold as a teenager in 2018. Baumgartner, the oldest athlete on the team, will again compete in snowboardcross after winning gold in the mixed team event in Beijing.

“I love setting goals people think are unreachable and then going out there and proving them wrong,” Baumgartner told the Guardian at the Team USA media summit in October. “Father Time is the only undefeated opponent, but he hasn’t beaten me yet.”

The roster reflects the results-based selection process used by US Ski & Snowboard, with most spots determined over the past two seasons of World Cup and international competition. Officials said the team’s depth made final selections highly competitive across nearly every discipline.

“We’ve seen quite remarkable results from our athletes across all 10 of our sports,” said Anouk Patty, US Ski & Snowboard’s chief of sport. “I know this is one of the strongest teams we have sent to the Games.”

Competition venues will be spread across Italy, with men’s alpine events in Bormio, women’s alpine in Cortina, Nordic events in Val di Fiemme, and freestyle skiing and snowboarding in Livigno. A total of 116 medal events are scheduled.

The US Olympic team for Milano Cortina will be formally announced on 26 January, less than two weeks before the opening ceremony in Milan.