It’s time to strap on the ski boots and wrap up warm – the Winter Olympics begin this Friday. After the Opening Ceremony for Milan-Cortina 2026 is held, the sport properly kicks into gear over the weekend, as skiing and the widely anticipated ice hockey tournament get underway. In total, there will be 116 medal events across 16 sports from February 6-22, the most in Winter Olympics history.
You can fire up Peacock or NBC to watch in the U.S. or Warner Bros Discovery streamers or public broadcasters in Europe, but what should you be looking out for as crowds flock to icy venues scattered around northern Italy? We’ve put together a list of 10 American and international athletes who look set to make headlines during the next two weeks and assess their chances of post-Olympics breakout status.
Lindsey Vonn
Event: Women’s downhill skiing
Arguably the biggest name at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Lindsey Vonn is America’s alpine ski racing superstar. She’s a multiple World Cup winner and won Olympic gold in downhill back in 2010, also collecting two bronzes along the way. She became the oldest downhill skiing World Cup winner a year later, at 41, setting her up for a final Olympics appearance. Despite a horrific crash on January 30 in which she suffered a ruptured ACL — an injury that has ended other careers — Vonn plans to compete in the women’s downhill on Sunday. Already with Hollywood representation, could she add to her solitary acting appearance, in a 2010 episode of Law & Order, once the snow has settled on her career?
Agent: Sue Dorf/Mark Ervin, WME/IMG
Matthew (left) and Brady Tkachuk
Event: Men’s ice hockey
The cover stars of EA NHL 2026 are the Winter Olympics’ most high-profile siblings. Brady and Matthew Tkachuk will lead Team USA in search of its first gold in the event since 1980’s “Miracle on Ice.” Matthew has won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Florida Panthers, while Brady is the captain of the Ottawa Senators. Together they form a formidable pairing in a U.S. team featuring another set of brothers, Jack and Quinn Hughes. Off the ice, they host the video podcast Wingmen with Matthew and Brady Tkuchuk and have appeared on New Heights, the sports and comedy podcast hosted by those other famous American sporting brothers, Jason and Travis Kelce.
Agent: Craig Oster, Newport Sports Management
Tomàs-Llorenc Guarino Sabaté
Event: Figure skating
Tomàs-Llorenc Guarino Sabaté was name known to virtually no one a week ago, until a music row with Universal Pictures threw him into the spotlight. The flamboyant Spanish figure skater had been gaining a cult following by performing a Minions musical medley to tracks including Pharrell Williams’ “Freedom” dressed in yellow and blue overalls, but Universal objected over copyright breaches. A social media outcry followed, and Guarino Sabaté said Tuesday that Universal had granted him special permission to dance to the music. We’ve reached out to Universal for confirmation, with the International Olympics Committee saying it would update when official information comes. Either way, it’s made Guarino Sabaté box office material.
Chloe Kim
Event: Snowboarding
Despite being just 25 years old, snowboarder Chloe Kim is among the biggest names in winter sports and a veteran of two Olympics. Her medal haul stands at two halfpipe golds, with the first coming when she was just 17 in Pyeongchang. She’s also one of the world’s most marketable stars, with a documentary from Sue Kim (no relation) in the works. Kim also was revealed as Jellyfish in Season 4 of The Masked Singer in 2020 and has been turned into a Fortnite character. At Milan-Cortina, she’ll be aiming to become the first woman to win halfpipe Olympic gold three times in row.
Agents: David Park, Theresa Peters, Lauren Nogy, Michelle Kim – UTA
Manager: Jeanne Yang, Anonymous Content
Ilia Malinin
Event: Figure skating
Ilia Malinin hasn’t competed in a Winter Olympics yet, but he’s already had a profile in The Atlantic, which over the weekend described the American figure skater as “The Man Who Broke Physics” and as having “a face like a Disney prince.” The 21-year-old has been winning recent events by such margins that comparisons to great Olympians such as Michael Phelps have become inevitable. Supremely confident in his own abilities, Malinin is as close to a sure thing at Milan-Cortina as it gets. The “Quad God” also has struck endorsement deals with the likes of Comcast’s Xfinity and Coca-Cola.
Agents: Ari Zakarian, Ari Xtreme; Sheryl Shade, Shade Global
Jordan Stolz
Event: Speed skating
Just days ago, Time magazine wrote that Jordan Stolz could be the “Michael Phelps” of speedskating. Turning pro just six years ago, he became the youngest single-distance world champion in history in 2023 and is widely tipped for glory in the 500m, 1000m, 1500m and mass start events. Despite becoming the dominant force in his sport, Stolz has spoken of having almost no profile in the U.S., and instead experiencing fame in countries such as the Netherlands. Will that change in the next two weeks?
Agent: Janey Miller, Octagon
Francesco Friedrich
Event: Bobsled
Francesco Friedrich, a multiple-world champion bobsledder out of Germany, will be looking to add more gold to his collection, which already includes four of them. One more and he’ll become the most-decorated Olympian in the sport’s history. At 35, it’s likely to be his last in the always-exhilarating bobsled event, where competitors launch themselves around narrow ice runs in aerodynamic sleighs. Away from the track, Friedrich is a working police officer, adding an air of normality to an all-time great athlete. He generally shies away from publicity, but that could change if he makes history.
Erin Jackson
Event: Speed skating
One of two Team USA flagbearers, Erin Jackson already is a history maker as the first Black woman to win a Winter Olympics gold medal in an individual sport. She is a prodigy on blades, qualifying for the 2018 Games after just four months’ experience on the ice. Jackson’s Instagram account currently has 124,000 followers, but you can expect that to balloon if she gets the gold again. She has done surprisingly few TV appearances, but that could be about to change.
Agent: Jeannie Goldstein, Chicago Sports & Entertainment Partners
Jessie Diggins
Event: Cross-country skiing
The 34-year-old Jessie Diggins is the U.S.’ most-decorated cross-country skier, with three Olympic medals, three World Cup wins and seven world championship medals. A full-length doc, Threshold, about her will launch on Peacock on February 23, after the Olympics – and her career – are over. Patrick Dempsey is an exec producer on the film, which will explore Diggins’ 2023-24 World Cup season and how she has used her platform to spotlight eating disorders and mental health issues.
Agent: Patrick Quinn, Chicago Sports & Entertainment Partners
William Dandjinou
Event: Speed skating
Among Canada’s big hopes for Milan-Cortina is William Dandjinou, the short-track speed skater who is a four-time world champion. The Toronto Star claims the athlete has “star of the Games potential,” with his story swinging from the disappointment of being left out Beijing 2022 to becoming a national hero for both Canada and a leader in his sport. Standing 6-foot-2, Dandjinou is one of the tallest skaters on the Italian ice, another reason he could stand out in Milan.
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