Why America Could Dominate the Winter Olympics Like Never Before

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Why America Could Dominate the Winter Olympics Like Never Before

Led by Mikaela Shiffrin, Ilia Malinin and Jordan Stolz, Team USA is heading to the Milan Cortina Games with a shot at an unprecedented medal haul

By Rachel Bachman

Feb. 5, 2026

Team USA aims to surpass its record of 10 Winter Olympic gold medals, with expectations of 12 golds and a potential for 16.

The U.S. is an oddball among Olympic nations, the only one that tallies up gold, silver, and bronze when it counts its medals at the end of the Games. Everyone else focuses only on gold.

But this time, the U.S. might want to be more like the rest of the world.

As the Milan Cortina Olympics open on Friday, Team USA is poised to beat its all-time record for golds in a Winter Games.

The U.S. set its mark of 10 golds at Salt Lake City in 2002, and this Olympics will have nearly 50% more events. But that’s not the only reason these Italian Games could go down in American history. Even if the U.S. simply meets oddsmakers’ expectations and wins 12 golds, it will be enough. Should the Americans suddenly catch fire, they could even begin to dream about the all-time winter record of 16 golds, set by Norway at the last Olympics.

Team USA is most likely to see the biggest gains from Beijing 2022 in speed skating, figure skating and alpine skiing.

But the folly of predicting sports contested on ice and snow became clear in a race exactly one week ahead of the Opening Ceremony, when Lindsey Vonn crashed and imperiled her stunning comeback at age 41.

The three-time Olympic medalist was favored to win a medal in Sunday’s downhill and possibly grab another in the alpine combined a few days later. But Vonn careened into the fence last Friday and revealed on Tuesday that she had torn the ACL in her left knee—the one that wasn’t surgically repaired. Vonn said she planned to still race the downhill, acknowledging that her chances to medal aren’t what they were. “As long as there’s a chance,” she said, “I will try.”

Even without Vonn, the Americans have the most successful skier, who is making a comeback of her own. Four years ago in Beijing, Mikaela Shiffrin entered as a favorite but failed to finish three of her six races and left without a medal. Since then, she has become history’s all-time winningest skier. In Cortina d’Ampezzo, the three-time Olympic medalist returns to the Winter Games once again expected to win gold in slalom and maybe one or two more medals.

Back in Milan, the U.S. figure skating team is on course for its strongest Olympics since the 1950s. This time, a human gyroscope leads the way. Ilia Malinin, known as the “quad god,” is the heavy favorite to win gold, and those who haven’t watched the reigning world champion will be tantalized by his quadruple jumps, including a quad axel that many in figure skating previously dismissed as impossible.

“He is man-on-the-moon type material,” 1998 Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski said. “The things he does I thought I’d never see in my lifetime.”

In addition to Malinin, the U.S. also boasts the reigning world champions in women’s singles, Alysa Liu, and ice dance, Madison Chock and Evan Bates. In the team event, one thing that will help the Americans is that they won’t have to beat the typically dominant Russians. Only three athletes were cleared by skating’s governing body to compete as “neutral” figure skaters in Milan—and they won’t be part of a team.

Across town, at the speed skating oval, the latest U.S. star is a Wisconsinite named Jordan Stolz. Just 21 years old, Stolz has scooped up golds at international competitions and has a rare shot at sweeping the 500, 1000, and 1,500 meters at the Games.

Erin Jackson is a flag-bearer for the U.S.

Erin Jackson is a flag-bearer for the U.S. Sarah Stier/Getty Images

And while he is one of Team USA’s newer faces, the Americans are also bringing back plenty of names that might sound familiar from recent Olympics: speedskater and U.S. flag-bearer Erin Jackson, freestyle skier Alex Hall, monobob specialist Kaillie Humphries and snowboard queen Chloe Kim, who is nursing a shoulder injury while going for her third consecutive halfpipe gold.

If the U.S. were ever an underdog at the Olympics, it was in cross-country skiing—until Jessie Diggins came along. In 2018, she led the U.S. team sprint to gold, the first American medal in the sport in more than 40 years. In 2022, she added two more medals.

And in the most anticipated hockey tournaments in recent memory, the U.S. women are hoping to repeat their recent success against Canada following a four-game sweep last year.

“This definitely gives us confidence,” U.S. defender Laila Edwards said. “But I wouldn’t mistake it with satisfaction.”

As for the men, Canada is also standing between the Americans and their first Olympic gold since the Miracle on Ice team in 1980. The difference this time is that they will be stocked with NHL players—and they won’t have to get past any Russians.