2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics Preview: Team USA Anchored by Malinin, Naumov, Stolz, Shiffrin, and McAvoy

For the first time, in a long time, the world will truly feel like the Winter Olympics is back. The last Winter Olympics in 2022 in Beijing, China was a disaster thanks to COVID-19 ravaging the planet and as a result, fans were banned from attending the games. Taking place in northern Italy, (the official name is “Milano Cortina 2026” - however, other towns in Italy are hosting events in these Olympics) this is the first Winter Olympics since 2018 that fans will be able to attend the games and the first Winter Olympics hosted in Italy since the Torino 2006 games.

So, now that the fans are back, this Winter Olympics will once again make the spectators and athletes feel interconnected to each other. Right? Well, not really.

If you look at northern Italy on a map, you see a country that is full of land. However, to get a better sense of the organization of these Olympics, the average viewer needs to view these Olympics as if they are taking place on a chain of islands. That is because commuting between some locations of these Olympics depending on your route could take up to 10 hours. Not ideal. To combat bad commuting for athletes and spectators, Milano Cortina 2026 events will take place in locations that will be largely cut off from each other. This separation of the athletes will become apparent almost immediately as the Opening Ceremony will take place simultaneously in three arenas at the same time. This is to combat the rush of spectators and athletes getting to locations such as Cortina (hosting the games for the first time since 1956) that are far away from the main Opening Ceremony arena in Milan after the event is over.

As a result of this, the United States will not have a central headquarters unlike what they had in the Paris 2024 games. Also, the US is collaborating with other countries to coordinate personnel and equipment such as working with Canada and Finland when it comes to the medical field.

Perhaps the biggest boost to the Winter Olympics as a whole is the most anticipated return of NHL participation in the games.  The NHL has not participated in the games since 2014, and the games were clearly missing the star power. Unfortunately, NHL participation has come at a price in this year’s Winter Olympics. The hockey arena will be incomplete when the games start as the rink will be functioning, but the seating will be unfinished. As a result, the hockey arena will be something akin to the Second Death Star - fully functional, but incomplete structurally (even though one is a real-life hockey arena and the other is a fictional battle station that is the size of a small moon and capable of destroying planets with its laser, but that is here nor there).

The NHL and the Olympics for these games are now in some sort of imperfect marriage for at least the 2026 games. The NHL owners has informed the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) that this is unacceptable going forward in 2030. This strongly worded message was delivered as if everybody was in some rip-off of The Godfather which, by coincidence, has some Italian roots in the movie.

Imperfections aside, eight members of the Boston Bruins will be participating in the Olympics as a whole such as David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha on the Czechia and Hampus Lindholm on Sweden. The United States will have Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman from the Bruins on the team. I am unfortunately predicting that we will see a lot more of McAvoy on the ice as I believe that Swayman is the 3rd stringer goalie on the depth chart. Sorry Jeremy.

On the women’s side for hockey, seven members of the Boston Fleet of the PWHL will be participating in this Olympics. The United States will have Aerin Frankel, Megan Keller, and Haley Winn of the Fleet on the team.

Several native New Englanders will be on both US hockey teams. Jack Eichel of North Chelmsford, MA, Noah Hanifin of Norwood, MA, and Matt Boldy of Millis, MA represent the New Englanders on the men’s hockey team. Alexandra Carpenter of North Reading, MA and Caroline Harvey of Salem, NH will represent the New Englanders on the women’s hockey team.

The United States will have 232 athletes represented in the games. There are 23 athletes that are from New England (4 from Vermont, 3 from New Hampshire, 3 from Maine, 4 from Connecticut, and 12 from Massachusetts). Norway is the favorite for most medals once again. However, a significant chunk of the athletes for Norway that competed in the last Olympics will not be in these games. Russia and Belarus are banned from these games as well (excluding athletes that have cut ties or have been cut off from their governments). As a result of what is said above, the United States is poised to have considerable improvement in these Winter Olympics as opposed to the past two Olympics.

The areas of improvement that could be possible noticeable in these Winter Olympics would be in Speedskating (Long Track) and Figure Skating. In Speedskating (Long Track), Jordan Stolz for the men, who has been declared the “fastest man on ice” despite not winning a gold medal yet, and Erin Jackson for the women are the favorites to help bolster the prospects in the improvement of the United States gold medal count. 

In Figure Skating, the United States may be fielding its strongest contingent ever led by Ilia Malinin. Figure Skating will also feature Maxim Naumov from Norwood, MA and is the head of the Skating Club of Boston after he tragically lost his parents, the previous heads, in an aviation incident in Washington, D.C last year. He will be dedicating his performances to them throughout the Olympics.

For many different athletes, the Olympics are way to cerement their legacy into the games. Outside of hockey, the Winter Olympics is the one time the American people pay attention to sports that they normally do not do in their everyday lives. The storylines will be fascinating and it is not just about the athletes winning medals. Mikaela Shiffrin looks to continue her domination on the Super-G. Ryan-Cochran-Siegle looks to be the first American man on the podium for Alpine Skiing since Bode Miller in 2010. Chloe Kim looks to continue her successful run in snowboarding. 

In conclusion, the Winter Olympics will continue to generate eye-catching headlines for the United States and for New England in general.

This blog will be publishing Espresso Olympics, raw observations on the events during the games.

In the meantime, cappuccino anyone?