Young Athletes To Watch At The 2026 Winter Olympics
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The 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics will officially kick off on February 6, 2026, with a grand opening ceremony at Milan’s San Siro Stadium. Running through February 22, the Games will feature about 2,900 athletes competing in 16 sports. With 116 medal events — from snowboarding to speed skating — fans can expect nonstop action on ice and snow. Here are a few young stars to watch this year.
Giorgia Collomb - Alpine Skiing (Italy)
At just 19 years old, Italian alpine skier Giorgia Collomb is rapidly becoming a household name. The teenager rose to fame at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games in South Korea after winning gold in the women’s giant slalom. She also earned a silver medal and a bronze medal in two other events.
Her momentum only grew in 2025. In February, Collomb helped Italy win its first-ever gold medal in the mixed team parallel event at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Austria. One month later, she claimed another gold in the giant slalom at the FIS Alpine Junior World Ski Championships in Italy.
With victories at both the junior and senior levels, Collomb is one of the top young athletes to watch at the 2026 Winter Games.
Choi Gaon — Snowboarding (South Korea)
Choi Gaon is a 16-year-old snowboarding prodigy from South Korea. Inspired by Korean-American snowboarding star Chloe Kim, she began the sport as a young child. Her natural talent for the halfpipe — a U-shaped snow structure where riders perform jumps and tricks — soon became clear.
Gaon met Kim through competitions, and the two quickly formed a close friendship. With Kim’s guidance, Gaon later moved to the United States to train at one of the world’s top snowboarding programs.
That hard work paid off. On January 28, 2023, at just 14, Gaon became the youngest female X Games halfpipe champion. The record was previously held by her mentor, Kim. Later that same year, she won her first World Cup halfpipe competition.
In 2024, Gaon was sidelined by a serious back injury. However, she returned even stronger, winning back-to-back World Cup halfpipe events in December 2025 and January 2026. She was the only competitor to score above 90 points.
As the Games begin, all eyes are on Gaon as she looks to win South Korea’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in snowboarding.
Alysa Liu — Figure Skating (USA)
Alysa Liu, 20, is one of figure skating’s most inspiring stories. She rose to fame in 2019 as the youngest US national champion at just 13. Liu repeated the feat in 2020 and made further history as the first American woman to land a quadruple jump in competition. Two years later, she became the youngest athlete on Team USA for the 2022 Beijing Olympics, finishing sixth. Later that year, Liu earned a bronze medal at the World Championships.
Shortly after the competition, Liu, 16 then, decided to retire. She shifted her focus to college life, studying psychology at UCLA and exploring her interests in fashion and photography.
It wasn't until a family ski trip in 2024 that Liu remembered the joy of being on the ice, leading to a legendary comeback. In March 2025, she stunned the skating world by winning the World Championships. She was the first American woman to do so in 19 years. Liu followed that with a silver medal at the 2026 US Figure Skating Championships. This secured her spot on Team USA. She is now a top gold-medal contender for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.
Resources: Olympics.com, wikipedia.org, sports.yahoo.com, xgames.com
