The 2026 Winter Olympics are formally right here — and Workforce USA is arriving in Italy with star energy, storylines and sky-high expectations.
Because the world’s finest athletes descend on Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, all eyes are on the People: from Ilia Malinin’s can’t-miss second in males’s determine skating to Mikaela Shiffrin’s long-awaited redemption tour on the slopes, and Madison Chock and Evan Bates chasing gold as newlyweds of their fourth Olympic Video games collectively.
With stress mounting and historical past on the road, these athletes aren’t simply competing for medals — they’re skating, snowboarding and sliding into a number of the most defining moments of their careers.
Us Weekly spoke solely to a few of Workforce USA’s largest stars as they put together to take middle stage when the Milano Cortina Video games kick off February 6.
Redemption Mode
A number of the strongest Olympic tales are born from heartbreak.
In 2022, alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin arrived in Beijing as a heavy favourite, anticipated to dominate the slopes. As a substitute, she suffered a shocking collection of DNFs (Did Not End) and left and not using a medal. “Lots of people who have been tuning into Mikaela Shiffrin for her largest race have been tuning in after I didn’t win a medal,” Shiffrin tells Us. “They have been saying, ‘Don’t even come residence. You failed us. You didn’t deliver residence any gold.’”
The emotional weight of that second has stayed together with her — and reshaped her perspective heading into 2026. “That’s the toughest factor or probably the most loaded factor, and I’m very conscious of it now, emotionally and mentally,” she continues. “The hurdle I’ve been engaged on with my staff and with my psychologist and with my household and everyone round me is: We may go to those Video games and we may do every little thing proper, and it may nonetheless go improper.”
Now, coming off a dominant season that noticed her make World Cup historical past, Shiffrin, 30, is embracing a special mindset. “Going into (the Olympics) as an athlete, you’ve actually obtained to be open-minded,” she explains. “Now that we’ve got all of this in- formation, all of this expertise, may we boil it down a bit bit and do not forget that we’re simply ski racing right here?”
Redemption can be entrance and middle for the U.S. girls’s determine skating staff, which heads into Milan Cortina with unfinished enterprise. After leaving Beijing with out the gold many believed was inside attain, the People are skating with one thing to show — and the depth to do it.
Amber Glenn, Isabeau Levito and Alyssa Liu headline a stacked subject, mixing technical firepower with hard-earned expertise on the world stage. For these skat- ers, 2026 isn’t simply one other Olympic cycle — it’s an opportunity to show lingering frustration into gold.
“If we do our jobs in Milan, then greater than possible some- one goes to be up there,” Glenn has stated of the rostrum.
American Delight
For a lot of athletes, the Olympics symbolize greater than medals — they’re a uncommon likelihood to unite a nation.
“It’s one of many best honors to have the ability to go to the Olympics and symbolize the U.S.,” ice dancer Madison Chock33, tells Us. “For us being People, we’ve got such pleasure in our patriotism and actually, the American dream.”
That accountability isn’t misplaced on veterans like hockey participant Hilary Knightwho will compete in her fifth and closing Video games. “If you wish to name us sports activities ambassadors or sports activities envoys, we will have an effect on somebody’s life in a small approach,” Knight, 36, says. “I do suppose there’s a better accountability whenever you’re representing your nation on the world stage.”
Honorary coach and NBC correspondent Snoop Dogg agrees. “One factor concerning the Olympics that I really like is that it provides me an opportunity to be in entrance of individuals to symbolize what People seem like, what we really feel like, how we love, how we recognize,” he’s stated.
Excessive-Stakes Drama
If any occasion captures the emotional depth of the Olympics, it’s determine skating — and few perceive that higher than Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir.
“You hear the music, you see the rings, there’s this magic to it,” says Lipinski, 43, who received gold on the 1998 Nagano Olympics at simply 15 years outdated. “I feel that’s why the entire world loves this occasion. It’s considered one of these items the place you understand that this group of athletes has sacrificed their complete life. They’re constructing to this one second in time. It’s 4 minutes on the ice that would change their whole life.”
For Lipinski, that emotional cocktail is precisely what makes the game unforgettable.
“It’s every little thing you would need,” she provides. “The stress, the suspense, the glitz, the glamour.”
Now working collectively as NBC Sports activities analysts, Lipinski and Weir expertise these moments from the sales space — however the nerves by no means disappear.
“Determine skating isn’t often known as probably the most hugs and kisses, heat and fuzzy sport,” Weir, 41, explains. “However all of us recognize how small and area of interest and particular this household is. Because the older era watching the youthful era of skaters, we wish one of the best for them as a result of we all know precisely the way it feels to be of their sneakers.”
Snowboarder Chloe Kim25, has already had a front-row seat to Olympic drama earlier than even strapping in. The reigning halfpipe famous person entered the season sidelined by a torn labrum in her shoulder that left her standing unsure.
For the athlete, the weeks main as much as the Video games grew to become a take a look at of persistence and resilience — rehabbing, recalibrating and ready to see if her physique would cooperate in time. Whether or not she’s at full energy or combating to search out her rhythm, Kim arrives carrying the emotional weight of a comeback that began lengthy earlier than the Opening Ceremony.
Should-Watch Phenom
The Olympic expertise is one in contrast to every other — with athletes from all around the world converging in a single place, every chasing a second of immortality. Sixteen completely different sports activities disciplines will probably be featured in Milano Cortina, with greater than 3,500 athletes representing 93 nations.
And whereas the depth of competitors is staggering, a choose few nonetheless rise above the noise and turn into must-watch storylines. One in every of them is Workforce USA’s Ilia Malininwho could have all eyes on him when the lads’s determine skating competitors begins.
“There’s form of alternative ways I method it,” Malinin, 21, tells Us. “I wish to embrace it quite a bit, particularly nearer to a contest. Feeling that stress is form of like, ‘OK, everybody’s taking a look at me. Now I actually should be at my finest. Be on my A-game.’”
However even the game’s most dominant skater admits the stress can lower each methods.
“There’s additionally days that received’t be one of the best days,” he continues. “A whole lot of the time, what I’ll do is say, ‘OK, there’s loads of stress on me, let me simply block this out and give attention to what I really want to do and take a look at not to consider folks’s expectations of me.”
Nicknamed the Quad God, Malinin is aware of followers usually see him as untouchable — one thing he’s desirous to problem on Olympic ice.
“Everybody sees me at competitions and I’m simply so targeted, I’m actually in a special mindset the place I’m just about as excellent as I will be,” Malinin explains. “However in actuality, I’m not excellent. I’ll have dangerous days, I’ll have good days. It’s actually the factor that tells folks, ‘Oh, he’s actually human like the remainder of us.’”
The MVPs You Received’t See on the Podium
Past the athletes, the Video games will probably be stacked with scene-stealing personalities, led by Snoop Dogg, who’s returning as an on-air commentator and cultural ambassador — and promising to maintain issues something however predictable.
“You realize, one factor about me, I’m surprising, I’m unorthodox, however I’m at all times filled with enjoyable,” Snoop tells Usincluding that his mission is “ensuring that America is represented in a peaceable, lovely option to the globe.”
Whereas he’s comfortable to entertain Olympic viewers, the rapper admits he’s nonetheless studying — although there’s one occasion already on the high of his watch checklist. “I feel the game I’m wanting ahead to probably the most (is) determine skating, as a result of I simply actually, really recognize and love the artwork and the craft that it takes to turn into a determine skater,” he says — particularly with the music, the style and the likelihood that “my woman, Martha Stewart, might meet me on the market on the entrance row of the determine skating closing.”
He’ll be joined across the Olympic universe by Taste Flavofficial sponsor and “hype-man” for the USA Bobsled and Skeleton staff, bringing his trademark vitality as an enthusiastic supersupporter within the stands. Additionally on board: Stanley Tucciwho’s set to lend his signature allure and class to cultural and culinary storytelling from Italy — proving that at these Video games, the characters off the sphere could also be simply as compelling because the competitors itself.
Vonn Is Again — and So Is the NHL
The 2026 Video games mark a few noteworthy returns: skier Lindsey Vonn and NHL gamers collaborating within the Olympics for the primary time since 2014 in Sochi.
Vonn, 41, who final competed within the Olympics in 2018, introduced her return to the game in November 2024 and earned a spot on the staff in December 2025, a miraculous comeback that felt practically unfathomable after having a partial knee alternative simply months earlier than popping out of retirement.
“However after a profitable season that noticed her attain the rostrum in seven of eight races, the legend declared, “I’m not the underdog anymore!” Vonn, a three-time Olympic medalist, mirrored, “That is 24 years after my first Olympics. I’ve received every little thing I may have ever received. I’m not doing this to show something to anybody. I’m doing this as a result of I feel I can do nicely, it’s a significant place for me, and I feel I could make a constructive affect.”
Regardless of tearing her ACL throughout a World Cup race in Switzerland simply days earlier than the beginning of the Video games, Vonn stated she nonetheless meant on competing.
“I do know what my possibilities in these Olympics have been earlier than this crash, and though my possibilities aren’t the identical now, there’s nonetheless an opportunity,” she shared through Instagram. “And so long as I’ve an opportunity, I can’t lose hope. I can’t surrender! It’s not over but!”
Males’s hockey may even be a focus, because the NHL’s finest gamers will symbolize their residence nations for the primary time in over a decade.
New Jersey Devils star Jack Hughes will play for Workforce USA alongside his older brother, Quinn Hugheswhich suggests your entire Hughes household is wanting ahead to a European trip.
“A bunch of my cousins, aunts and uncles are making the journey,” Jack, 24, tells Us. “We’ve obtained some pals coming over, too. All of the folks in our lives are so excited to be a part of this. It’s such a particular occasion. You by no means know if we’ll have the ability to return.”
Pomp and Circumstance
In fact, no Olympics can be full with out the spectacle. The 2026 Video games formally kick off February 6 with a large Opening Ceremony at Milano San Siro Olympic Stadium — a second athletes say by no means will get outdated.
This yr’s will characteristic performances from international tremendous stars Mariah Carey and Italian icon Andrea Bocelli, setting the stage with equal components star energy and nationwide pleasure. “I’m simply wanting ahead to soaking all of it in,” bobsledder Boone Niederhofer says.
For Chock, the highlight is a reminder of what it took to get there. “It’s the years, many years of labor that you simply put in,” she says. “However that’s what makes the Olympics particular.”
And when the Video games draw to an in depth, the celebration will come full circle on the Closing Ceremony on February 22 on the historic Enviornment di Verona, the place athletes lastly get to exhale, have a good time their accomplishments and go the Olympic flame ahead — a closing, emotional ship off to 2 unforgettable weeks in Italy.