12 Athletes to Watch on the 2026 Winter Olympics

With every passing Olympic Video games, there’s one thing new to admire. Sometimes, it’s a cool costume on the opening ceremony, or a brand new cauldron for the Olympic flame, or perhaps a brand new fancy stadium the host metropolis can have no use for in 10 years. Then there are the brand-new data set throughout every Video games, jaw-dropping examples of human power, expertise, and mind-melting perseverance.

However for the 2026 Winter Olympics, a few of the most notable firsts are popping out of the Olympic Village slightly than the person venues. They’re those pushing their sports activities ahead and making historical past within the course of. Listed here are 12 athletes set to make historical past at this 12 months’s Winter Olympics.

Sport: Determine Skating

Amber Glenn, one of the vital attention-grabbing and multi-faceted determine skaters in current historical past, has already racked up three US nationwide titles and one Grand Prix Closing championship. Overtly pansexual, she is understood for taking victory laps draped in a Delight flag. Glenn additionally speaks frankly about her struggles with psychological well being and ADHD. (She’s additionally a giant fan of Star Wars, Pokémon, and Magic: The Gathering.) Whereas her Madonna-themed brief program is effectively value a watch, her 2024 exhibition efficiency set to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” is even higher.

Notable quote: “The concern of not being accepted is a big battle for me. Being perceived as [going through] ‘only a section’ or [being] ‘indecisive’ is a standard factor for bisexual/pansexual girls. I don’t wish to shove my sexuality in folks’s faces, however I additionally don’t wish to cover who I’m.” —Amber Glenn to The Dallas Voice

Sport: Ice Hockey

If you (or anybody who’s watched Heated Rivalry) suppose “hockey participant,” the picture that usually involves thoughts is of some burly Russo-Canadian, fast on his skates and together with his stick however lacking just a few tooth. Laila Edwards is something however that. As the primary Black girl to play on the US Olympic hockey workforce, Edwards treads an entire new path. She’s getting somewhat assist alongside the best way, too, with fellow Cleveland Heights, Ohio natives Travis and Jason Kelce donating $10,000 to the GoFundMe that the Edwards household set as much as pay for the journey to observe their daughter within the video games.

Notable quote: “Strolling right into a rink and having somebody say ‘the basketball courtroom’s that approach,’ having expertise with microaggression, taught me classes and had me develop a thicker pores and skin in a predominantly white sport.” —Laila Edwards to TV station KARE 11

Sport: Alpine Snowboarding

At simply 17, Tallulah Proulx is already breaking data, changing into not solely the primary Filipina to ever qualify for the Winter Olympics but additionally the youngest Filipino individual to qualify ever. Although she was born in California and now lives in Utah, Proulx is competing within the Video games underneath the flag of the Philippines. Although she’s unlikely to medal, having completed sixteenth within the Asian Winter Video games, her slalom and big slalom runs in Milano—and her entrance through the opening ceremony—needs to be one to observe.

Notable quote: “I am simply actually glad, and I hope I is usually a function mannequin to different younger Filipina ladies and Filipinas normally.” —Tallulah Proulx to ABS-CBN Information within the Philippines

Kim Meylemans and Nicole Silveira, and Anna Kjellbin and Ronja Savolainen

Sports activities: Skeleton (Meylemans and Silveira), Ice Hockey (Kjellbin and Savolainen)

OK, certain, perhaps it’s doable that wives have performed on opposing groups on the Olympics earlier than, however the truth that two units of wives are competing in opposition to one another on the 2026 Winter Video games feels fairly monumental. For the skeleton competitors, it’s Belgium’s Kim Meylemans trying to finest her partner, Brazil’s Nicole Silveira. Within the ice hockey rink, it’ll be Anna Kjellbin’s Swedish Staff trying to outmatch spouse Ronja Savolainen’s Finnish squad. And for Meylemans and Silveira, being in and out competitors throughout these video games is about extra than simply being a cute story. Because the couple posted on Instagram, “With the Video games being in Italy and the present Italian authorities making choices/legal guidelines that harm the LGBTQ+ neighborhood (learn up on it in case you don’t imagine it), it feels additional particular to doubtlessly compete as a married couple and shine a lightweight on marriage equality whereas doing so.”