The Skiers We're Watching 150 Days Out From Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics

Alpine Skiing Contenders on the Olympia delle Tofane

Assuming that the gondola construction is finished on time and Olympic spectators arrive in full force, Italian fan favorites Sofia Goggia and perhaps teammate Federica Brignone, who continues a difficult rehabilitation of a fractured left leg and torn ACL suffered last season, will receive loud applause and fervent support from the Italian ‘Tifosi.’  

Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn have shined on the venerable Italian piste, while also sustaining untimely spills. Shiffrin, 30, charged to three medals at the 2021 Alpine Ski World Championship in Cortina and also landed her first downhill podium in 2018. She added a super-G win the following season. 

However, the most decorated World Cup racer in history crashed violently into the safety nets near the top of the course in January 2024. Fortunately, Shiffrin walked away with only a sprained MCL and tibiofibular ligament in her left knee. The outcome could have been much worse.

Returning to ski near the site of the incident a few months later with Slovenian Olympic champion Tina Maze, Shiffrin expressed herself via Instagram video: “A day for the soul – what a funny thing to return to the scene of the crash, and feel totally at peace while freeskiing right past it."

“We live, we crash, we learn, we grow, and hopefully don’t allow fear to dictate how we experience the things we love to do,” said the five-time overall World Cup champion.

Vonn, 40, who is continuing her improbable comeback this season, has been dominant on Cortina’s future Olympic track. The 2010 Olympic downhill champion amassed a staggering 12 victories and 20 podiums on her favorite race slope. However, upon her return to the Cortina World Cup last season, after six years of retirement, she crashed twice over four days of training and racing. Fortunately, Vonn averted serious injury.

U.S. Ski Team veteran Jackie Wiles, 33, has also found success at previous Cortina races and blossoming talent Lauren Macuga, 23, attained her first career World Cup win in Austria, last January. Both are highly capable of contending for Olympic hardware in February.

Freestyle Skiers and Snowboarders Striving for More Olympic Medals

U.S. men’s alpine racers, top freestyle skiers, and talented snowboarders all appear on course to contribute to the country’s medal count. They will compete in the neighboring resorts of Bormio and Livigno, far from Cortina, some 160 miles and roughly a five-hour drive apart.

An Olympic record 13 freestyle skiing events will be held at new venues in Livigno. A mainstay on the World Cup since 1995, dual moguls action will thrill fans as the event makes its Olympic debut. American Jaelin Kauf is poised to add to her singles silver medal, while Canadian legend Mikaël Kingsbury can medal at a fourth consecutive Olympics, while seeking a second gold or more.

Two-time Olympic halfpipe gold medalist David Wise, 34, three-time World Cup champion Alex Ferreira, 31, along with reigning Olympic slopestyle champion Alex Hall, 26, and silver medalist Nick Goepper, 31, are all proven winners and good bets to increase their medal collections.

Snowboarders will soar and showcase scintillating new tricks, competing across nine medal events in Livigno. U.S. heart-warmer Chloe Kim, 25, is expected to once again dazzle in the women’s halfpipe, arriving as the two-time defending Olympic champion. A third consecutive triumph would equal mega-legend Shaun White’s hat trick of halfpipe gold medals.

In men’s alpine skiing, Beijing 2022 Olympic super-G silver medalist Ryan Cochran-Siegle, 33, Bryce Bennett, 33, Jared Goldberg, 34, and River Radamus, 27, will lead the veteran American brigade on Bormio’s daunting Stelvio piste.

Ski mountaineering joins the Olympic program, also in Bormio, for the first time. Athletes will battle in high-tempo and unpredictable elimination sprints. It is a fan-friendly format deviating from the roots of the sport. Colorado’s Cam Smith, 29, and Utah’s Griffin Briley, 20, aim to represent Team USA.

Remembering Cortina 1956 and Embracing a 70-year-old Legacy

As Milan Cortina 2026 organizers handle crucial final preparations across the Dolomites and in the cosmopolitan co-host city, it’s hard to fathom that skiers, skaters, sledders and ski jumpers last competed on Cortina’s Olympic stage seven decades ago.

The “Queen of the Dolomites” winter resort has the golden opportunity to strengthen its Olympic legacy from 1956, potentially creating new opportunities and impact, across the vast Italian mountain landscape.

Although diminishing, there are still some local residents who witnessed and fondly recall Cortina’s 1956 Winter Olympics. At those Games, 822 athletes representing 32 countries competed in 24 medal events. In February 2026, approximately 2,900 athletes from over 90 nations will take on an unprecedented 116 medal events.

Bruno Colli is a 93-year-old resident of Cortina who carried the Olympic Flame one day before the 1956 opening ceremony. “It was a very cold winter – minus 24 degrees (Celsius) the day of the opening ceremony,” Colli recalled. “I felt honored to carry the torch with the responsibility not to drop it and keep the flame burning.”

Colli noted that Cortina’s first Olympic Games vastly improved the lives and lifestyles of the local Ampezzano residents. “The Olympics really changed tourism for Cortina with new ski slopes and new people visiting after the Games,” he said.

Colli inspires his 23-year-old grandson Giacomo, who is striving to make the Italian Olympic Curling Team and compete in the family’s hometown.

Battista “Tita” Pordon, an Italian ski racer who garnered headlines for his horrific training crash at the Squaw Valley 1960 Olympics, recalls Cortina 1956, having attended competitions beside his grandfather as a 15-year-old local boy.

“It was a beautiful Olympics because everything was right there in Cortina,” said the lifelong resident of neighboring San Vito di Cadore. “There is no place with mountains like this anywhere in the world – it’s a special place.  “It was two weeks of big festivities, not just for Cortina, but for Italy. They did a good job – it was something special.”

Stay tuned in here at POWDER for weekly stories leading up to the 2026 Winter Olympics.