Nick ZaccardiMon, November 24, 2025 at 2:57 PM UTC·6 min readFifteen athletes have already made the U.S. Olympic team for the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.
They are snowboarders Chloe Kim and Red Gerard, the mixed doubles curling team of Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin, skiers Alex Hall (slopestyle/big air), Alex Ferreira (halfpipe), Jaelin Kauf (moguls) and Quinn Dehlinger (aerials), hockey players Jack Eichel, Quinn Hughes, Auston Matthews, Charlie McAvoy, Brady Tkachuk and Matthew Tkachuk and biathlete Campbell Wright.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe rest of Team USA will be determined through international competition results, selection committees and U.S. Olympic Trials in some sports. There will ultimately be around 200 athletes on the team overall.
Here's a look at who is on the team so far:
Snowboard Halfpipe
Kim, a two-time Olympic snowboard halfpipe gold medalist, became the first athlete to mathematically clinch a spot on the team via her No. 1 world ranking on April 1.
Kim won the two biggest competitions this past season: January's X Games, her seventh title at the annual Aspen, Colorado, event, and the biennial World Championships for a third time.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementNext February, she will bid to become the first person to win three consecutive Olympic snowboard halfpipe gold medals.
Snowboard Slopestyle/Big Air
Red Gerard, the 2018 Olympic snowboard slopestyle gold medalist, clinched a 2026 Olympic spot by meeting criteria in May 1 world rankings: as the highest-ranked American man in slopestyle who is also ranked in the top three in the world.
Gerard is ranked second behind Canadian Liam Brearley.
Gerard, who in 2018 became at age 17 the youngest snowboarder to win Olympic gold, added X Games slopestyle titles the last two years.
No American woman met that May 1 world ranking criteria in slopestyle. Up to four U.S. men and women will ultimately be named to the team for slopestyle and big air by next January.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementCurling
Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin won the U.S. Olympic Trials for mixed doubles curling in February, then clinched their Olympic spots by placing fifth at the world championship on May 2.
Combined results from the 2024 World Championship and the 2025 World Championship determined the first seven nations to qualify quota spots (along with automatically qualified host nation Italy).
Thiesse and Dropkin, who previously combined for four runner-up finishes at Olympic Trials, are each in line to make their Olympic debut. They will be the first U.S. athletes across all sports to compete at the Milan Cortina Games given the Olympic mixed doubles event starts two days before the Opening Ceremony.
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Freestyle Skiing
Hall, Ferreira, Kauf and Dehlinger qualified via world rankings lists on June 10.
Up to one male and one female athlete in specific freestyle skiing disciplines can clinch an Olympic spot via International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) base ranking lists that are largely determined by results from the previous season.
The highest-ranked American man and American woman in aerials, halfpipe, moguls, ski cross and slopestyle clinched an Olympic, should they also be ranked in the top three in the world.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHall (2022 Olympic slopestyle gold medalist), Ferreira (two-time Olympic halfpipe medalist), Kauf (2022 Olympic moguls silver medalist) and Dehlinger (world championships gold (team event) and silver (individual) medalist) met that criteria. More skiers will be named to the Olympic team in all of those events next season.
Hockey
Each of the 12 Olympic men's hockey teams named their first six players on June 16.
The U.S. chose six players, all age 28 and younger who came through its national team development program, who will make their Olympic debut in 2026. NHL players will be part of the Olympics for the first time since the 2014 Sochi Games.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMatthews captained the U.S. at February's Four Nations Face-Off and is the most prolific American goal scorer in NHL history on a per-game basis.
The Tkachuks, sons of four-time Olympian Keith Tkachuk, are the first brothers to be named to a U.S. Olympic hockey team since 1998.
Hughes, the 2024 Norris Trophy winner as the NHL's top defenseman, is one of three brothers who could all make the team. The full 25-man roster will be named closer to the Games.
Eichel is set to be the first U.S. hockey player to play in both a Youth Olympics and an Olympics. He played at the first Youth Winter Games in 2012.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMcAvoy is a already a world champion on the U18 and U20 levels. His father-in-law is U.S. Olympic head coach Mike Sullivan.
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Biathlon
Wright, a 23-year-old who competed at the 2022 Olympics for New Zealand, clinched his spot on Aug. 29 when U.S. Biathlon published its final Olympic selection procedures.
Wright, who won two silver medals at last February's World Championships, was the lone U.S. biathlete to meet the early Olympic selection criteria of two top-10 finishes last season (World Cup or World Championships) or by finishing in the top 25 of the final World Cup season standings.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMore biathletes will make the team based on results this upcoming season.
Biathlon is the lone Winter Olympic sport where the U.S. has yet to win an Olympic medal.
Wright could change that, though he ranked 17th overall over the December-to-March World Cup season with a best finish of fourth outside of the World Championships. Wright was the top man in the standings under the age of 23 as of last season.
He was born and raised in New Zealand to parents who were born in the U.S. He grew up skiing at the Snow Farm in Wanaka on New Zealand's South Island.
He switched representation from New Zealand to the U.S. in late 2023.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“When I went to the U.S., I was just like, ‘You guys actually have facilities you can stay at for free?’” he told the Threshold podcast. “‘And you have a physio and a gym and a massage and a shooting coach?’ So I was just absolutely blown away by the support that those guys get.”
His bio now reads, “Kiwi racing for USA.”
Other athletes have moved closer to making the team this fall. Here's a brief look:
Speed Skating
Jordan Stolz, Erin Jackson and Mia Manganello each met Olympic qualifying criteria by making podiums at each of the first two World Cups.
They will clinch Olympic spots by skating at January's Olympic Trials, regardless of their results at that event in Milwaukee.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementCurling
The men's curling team of Danny Casper, Aidan Oldenburg, Ben Richardson and Luc Violette and women's curling team of Tabitha Peterson, Tara Peterson, Taylor Anderson-Heidi and Thiesse won the Olympic Trials in November.
Each team will make the Olympics if they finish in the top two of a last-chance global qualification tournament in Kelowna, British Columbia, in December. The tournaments will not include the world's top teams that already qualified for the Games.
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