Every two years, the Olympics roll around and turn dreams into gold, and athletes into stars.
This week, the 2026 Winter Olympics get underway in Italy, with thousands of dreamers descending upon the northern region of the country to take on the slopes, rinks, sliding tracks, ski jumping hills, and everything else the Games have to offer.
Among those dreamers? Over 200 Team USA athletes, some of whom will become household names over these next few weeks.
Perhaps each of these five athletes ready to storm the global stage.
Let’s meet five likely stars in the making.
Women’s skeleton made its Olympic debut at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, where Tristan Gale and Lea Ann Parsley took gold and silver, respectively, representing the United States. Since then Team USA has managed just one more medal in women’s skeleton, a silver from Noelle Pikus-Pace at the 2014 Sochi Games.
Mystique Ro is hoping to change all that.
Ro’s path to the sled has been an unconventional one. She was a track and field star at Queens University of Charlotte, who competed in several events including the heptathlon. She was part of the women’s 4X100 meter relay team that set a school record back in 2016.
But that same year she attended a training combine for Team USA’s sliding sports, and finished in the top three in skeleton. A new path awaited her.
Ro worked her way through the skeleton world, making her IBSF World Cup debut during the 2023 season. She landed her first World Cup podium in December of 2023, with a second-place finish. She earned her first World Cup victory in 2024, and also took home the gold medal at the Pan American Championships in March of that year. At her first IBSF World Championships in 2025 at Lake Placid, she took silver in the women’s skeleton, and gold with teammate Austin Florian. That silver made Ro the first American to medal in the women’s skeleton at that event since Pikus-Pace back in 2013.
She also took silver in her first World Cup race of 2026, taking second in Winterberg, Germany, at the start of January.
When your nickname is the “QuadGod,” chances are you are going to become a household name.
Over the next few weeks, Ilia Malinin will likely do just that.
His has been an historic rise through the figure skating world, although likely not a surprising one given that his parents — Tatyana Malinina and Roman Skornyakov — were both Olympic figure skaters for Uzbekistan. He was an alternate for Team USA at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and also took gold in the 2022 World Junior Championships.
During the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships he became the first figure skater in history to land six quads in a single performance, landing a quad flip, a quad Axel (a jump no other skater has ever landed), two quad Lutzes, a quad toe loop, and a quad Salchow. While he fell on an attempted quad loop, he captured his third consecutive U.S. title with that skate, winning by 46.82 points over second-place finisher Andrew Torgashev.
Malinin took his fourth title in St. Louis in January.
“It’s such an amazing feeling,” said Malinin in a media statement to SB Nation. “I worked so hard, especially after those 2022 nationals. It has such a huge meaning for me, being able to go there and follow in my parents’ footsteps being two-time Olympians. It’s such an honor and I’m so excited for that experience.”
If the quads were not enough his signature move is the “Raspberry Twist:”
This is a nod to his last name, as the origin of his last name ‘malina’ in Russian translates to raspberry
For the past few seasons, Jordan Stolz has dominated the speedskating sprinting events. He enters the 2026 Winter Olympics having won every single 1,000- and 1,500-meter race during the World Cup season, and five of the nine 500-meter races. This comes in the wake of Stolz sweeping the sprint distances at the World Championships in both 2023 and 2024, and he won the full-season title at all three distances last season.
He made his Olympic debut at the 2022 Beijing Games, where he finished 13th in the 500 meters and 14th in the 1,000 meters. But since then he has been on an absolute tear, starting when he won both the 1,000-meter and the 1,500-meter races at a World Cup event nine months after the 2022 Winter Olympics.
He has his eyes set on three gold medals in Milano Cortina, a result which would make him just the second American to win three or more gold medals in a single Winter Games.
Ilia Malinin is not the only Team USA figure skater who could vault into superstardom over the next few weeks.
Alysa Liu could join him.
The 20-year-old’s journey to the 2026 Winter Olympics has been filled with twists and turns. As just a 13-year-old during the 2019 U.S. Figure Skating Championships she landed a pair of triple axels — something no other female skater had done at the event — and secured her first national title.
She secured a spot on Team USA for the 2022 Winter Olympics, took bronze at the 2022 World Championships and then … stepped away from the sport.
“I’m going to be moving on with my life,” she announced on Instagram.
Liu did just that, enrolling at UCLA to study psychology and spending time away from the rink.
“I really felt trapped and stuck,” Liu said recently. “The only way, in my brain, to reach out (beyond the world of skating) was to leave the sport.”
But a now-famous trip to Mt. Everest with a dear friend not only drew them closer, but drew Liu back to the rink. She claimed the 2025 World Championships in Boston, and took gold at the 2025-26 Grand Prix Final, her debut at that event. At the 2026 U.S. Championships she qualified for Team USA, taking silver behind Amber Glenn.
But after that event, she made it clear what her goals are for Italy.
“I’m so excited to go on the stage to show me off. My hope is to get seen – not even just my skating, just me.”
Laila Edwards has already made history for Team USA.
She will make more when she takes the ice at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Edwards began figure skating when she was just three years old, but a few years later she switched to hockey. She is currently a senior at the University of Wisconsin, and over the past three years she has led the Badgers to three consecutive appearances in the National Championship Game, with Wisconsin winning two titles.
She was named to the U.S. women’s team for the November Rivalry Series against Canada in 2023, becoming the first black woman to play for the senior team. She was named to the roster for the IIHF Women’s World Championship the following spring, and became the first black woman to sore a goal for Team USA at the event with a goal against Czechia. Against Finland in the semifinals she notched a hat-trick, leading Team USA to a win and a spot in the gold medal game against Canada.
With six goals and two assists in the tournament, she became the youngest player to be named Tournament MVP at an IIHF Women’s World Championship at just 20 years old.
She then switched to defense for Team USA ahead of the 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championship, and scored a goal and three assists over seven games as she helped the US win a gold medal.
When she takes the ice in Italy, she’ll become the first black woman to represent Team USA in Olympic hockey.
