Who are the global stars to follow at Milan-Cortina 2026?

Approximately 2,900 athletes from more than 90 countries will compete on ice and snow at Milan-Cortina 2026.

The world’s biggest winter sports stars will descend on northern Italy from Friday 6 February and there is sure to be excitement, drama and groundbreaking performances.

BBC Sport takes a look at some of the global stars and stories to watch out for.

Age: 41 Nation: United States

Just five days before the women’s downhill race takes place in Cortina, Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn revealed she had torn her left anterior cruciate ligament but was still hopeful she could compete on Sunday.

Vonn was airlifted to hospital in Switzerland after crashing in the final World Cup race of the season but remained determined to compete in a fifth Olympics despite her serious injuries.

The experienced skier is no stranger to the former skier, who retired due to injury in 2019, then underwent partial replacement surgery on his right knee and returned to the sport in 2024.

The four-time overall World Cup winner is unsure if she will be able to compete in the super-G and team events, but is determined to make the starting wicket in what will likely be her last Olympics, as she was the heavy favorite for the up-and-down gold medal before her injury.

Age: 30 Nation: United States

Mikaela Shiffrin, the greatest alpine skier of all time competing in her fourth Olympics, said she wanted to “make peace” with the Games following disappointment in Beijing as well as serious injuries and mental health issues.

The five-time World Cup winner overall has 108 World Cup wins and victories in the first five slalom races of the season; This victory, added to his victory in last season’s final slalom, equaled a record of six consecutive wins in the discipline.

But while the two-time Olympic champion aims to return to the podium in Cortina, her fiancé Aleksander Aamodt Kilde is also on the comeback path after a serious injury.

Age: 24 Nation: United States

American figure skater Maxim Naumov’s attendance at the Milan-Cortina Games could be emotional as it is his first Olympic appearance since his parents died in a plane crash in Washington, D.C. last year.

Naumov’s dream of making Team USA was one of the last things he talked about with his family before he was killed.

Her parents, Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, skated for Russia and became world champions in pairs figure skating in 1994.

Age: 28 Nation: France

Ski mountaineering, or ‘skimo’, makes its Olympic debut in Milan-Cortina, with France’s Emily Harrop coming in second, although Great Britain failed to select an athlete for the Games’ new sport.

Harrop could have competed for Team GB with his British parents but chose to represent France, having moved to the French Alps in his childhood.

Harrop is well positioned for an Olympic medal by starting the 2025 season by winning seven of seven events at the ski mountaineering World Cup, winning the sprint and overall crystal globe for the fourth consecutive season.

Age: 28 Nation: Holland

Dutch speed skater Jutta Leerdam will compete in the 1000 meter and 500 meter races in Milan.

A former world sprint champion, Leerdam also won a silver medal in the 1000 meters at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

She is also engaged to YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul. She can often be seen at competitions in Italy, cheering him on from the sidelines.

Age: 19 Nation: New Zealand

Young Finley Melville Ives arrives in Italy as one of the freestyle ski circuit’s most exciting prospects.

Ives’ parents were snowboard instructors, and his twin brother followed in their footsteps, but Ives chose to ski instead from a young age.

His breakout season came last year when he earned his first World Cup victory in Calgary and weeks later became the halfpipe world champion by beating Olympic greats Alex Ferreira and Nick Goepper in the Engadin, Switzerland.

Age: 22 Nation: Chinese

Born and raised in California, freestyle skier Eileen Gu was China’s poster girl for Beijing 2022, winning gold in big air and freeski halfpipe competitions and silver in skistyle at the age of 18.

In addition to his Olympic victories, he is a two-time world champion and three-time Winter X Games champion.

Away from the snow, Gu is one of the most famous winter sports athletes in the world, having modeled at New York, Barcelona, ​​Paris and Milan Fashion Week, as well as studying quantum physics at Stanford University.

For the first time since Sochi 2014, the National Hockey League is allowing its athletes to participate in the Winter Olympics.

NHL stars did not travel to the 2018 or 2022 Games due to financial disputes and pandemic-related complications but will return to the ice this year.

In their absence, the last two men’s championships were won by the Olympic teams of Russia and Finland, while the USA failed to medal in either event, but this could greatly strengthen their hopes of returning to the podium.

Age: 25 Nation: United States

American halfpipe snowboarder Chloe Kim is competing in the three-peat in Italy, eight years after winning gold as a 17-year-old in Pyeongchang.

He successfully defended his title in Beijing four years ago, but his Milan-Cortina preparations were disrupted by a dislocated shoulder at the beginning of the year.

In an update on Instagram, she said she was ready to head to the Games, where she will aim to become the first woman to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals in the halfpipe.

Age: 35 Nation: Germany

Legendary German bobsleigh pilot Francesco Friedrich arrived in Italy hoping to become the first man to achieve a treble double, winning two-man and quadruple gold medals at the third consecutive Games.

He is a 16-time world champion in two-man and four-man races, has over 100 World Cup podiums and achieved his 50th victory in the two-man race earlier this year.

Germany tends to dominate the Olympic bobsleigh events and the question is whether anyone can stop it from making history.

Age: 35 Nation: Italy

Entering her sixth Games, Arianna Fontana is an 11-time Winter Olympic medalist and had won medals in her five previous events, including her performance in Turin as a 15-year-old.

Twenty years later, the short track skater also aims to compete in long track speed skating.

Two-time Olympic champion Fontana will also be one of Italy’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony at San Siro.

Age: 25 Nation: Brazil

Norwegian-born skier Lucas Pinheiro Braathen could make history in Italy by winning the first Winter Olympics medal for a South American country after switching allegiance to compete for his mother’s native Brazil.

The slalom and giant slalom specialist retired in 2023 after competing for Norway, but returned to represent Brazil in 2025, becoming the first Brazilian to finish on the World Cup podium last year and claiming his country’s first victory, adding to the five he has won for Norway this season.

Braathen, a charismatic and deep-thinking character, says people did not believe him when he said he represented Brazil in alpine skiing.

Age: 18 Nation: Independent Neutral Athlete

Russian skater Adeliia Petrosian is one of about 20 Russian or Belarusian athletes competing under a neutral flag in Italy.

The teenager had not competed at senior international level until the Olympic qualifiers due to the ban on Russian athletes, but was a bona fide medal contender having won the qualifying event.

She is coached by the controversial Eteri Tutberidze, who coached Kamila Valieva during the Beijing 2022 Olympics. Valieva was given a four-year doping ban after she helped Russia win the gold medal and was later revealed to have failed a doping test before the Games started.

Age: 21 Nation: United States

Ilia Malinin is the only skater to successfully land the quadruple Axel, the most difficult jump in ice skating, in competitions, earning him the nickname ‘Quadruple God’.

The American, born to Olympic skaters Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, is the heavy favorite for the men’s singles title in Italy with his previous routines including seven quads and backflips.

The reigning world champion will compete in her first Olympics after being controversially left off the U.S. team in Beijing.