Which California athletes will compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics? See the list
The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics start this week, with more than 200 athletes competing under the U.S. flag in 21 Olympic and Paralympic sports.
Although California is not known to be a particularly cold state, there are still a handful of delegates from the Golden State hoping to win a gold medal.
There are 23 athletes from California competing in 10 events during this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games. According to official Team USA channels, not all Paralympic athletes have been announced yet, with final confirmation coming in March ahead of the Paralympic Games.
If you’re trying to decide which events to watch and who to root for, these are the California hometown heroes. The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics are Feb. 6-22 and the Paralympics are March 6-15.
2026 Milan Cortina athletes from California
Ski and snowboard
The Sierra Nevada mountains offer peak West Coast skiing and riding conditions, so it’s unsurprising that California is sending a number of snow sport athletes to the Olympics and Paralympics.
Palisades Tahoe posted a video on Instagram Wednesday wishing five athletes who hail from the Olympic Valley resort luck at the Milan Olympic Games.
Seven U.S. Olympic and Paralympic team skiers and six snowboarders have roots in California, according to the Team USA website.
Chloe Kim
Torrance
The record holder for the youngest woman to ever win an Olympic snowboarding gold medal, at just 17 years old, calls Southern California home.
Kim, now 25, is set to go to Milan for her third Olympic Games, with the opportunity to defend her Olympic halfpipe title once again for a hat trick. At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, she became the first woman to win two halfpipe snowboarding gold medals.
Maddie Mastro
Wrightwood
The record-setting halfpipe snowboarder from Southern California is heading to her third Olympics in 2026 after winning a coveted World Cup Crystal Globe for her 2024-2025 women’s halfpipe season.
Mastro, 25, is pushing the boundaries of women’s halfpipe snowboarding with numerous “never-been-done” skills at national and international competitions. At 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, she placed 12th and in 2022 Beijing, she finished in 13th place.
Nina O’Brien
San Francisco
An eight-time U.S. alpine skiing champion and a world champion in team parallel skiing, O’Brien, 28, will look for a chance to redeem herself at her second Olympic Games in February.
Though she participated in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, she was disqualified in her second run of the women’s giant slalom after crashing just before the finish line.
Abby Winterberger
Truckee
15-year-old Winterberger qualified for her first Olympic Games during her debut season on the World Cup circuit, before even making it onto a national U.S. Ski and Snowboard freestyle ski team.
Winterberger won a national halfpipe ski championship in 2025 as part of the club-level Olympic Valley Freestyle Freeride Team based at Palisades Tahoe. She started skiing at FIS-sanctioned events in early 2024, according to FIS records.
AJ Hurt
Carnelian Bay
Hurt, 25, grew up on the north shore of Lake Tahoe, skiing as part of Team Palisades Tahoe as early as four years old.
Milan Cortina 2026 will be Hurt’s second Olympic Games. At 2022 Beijing, she placed 34th out of 51 skiers in the women’s slalom and fourth place in the mixed team parallel event.
Bea Kim
Palos Verdes
Bea Kim is headed to her first Olympic Games less than a year after graduating from high school and only two weeks after her 19th birthday.
The young athlete took her inaugural International Ski and Snowboard Federation Alpine Ski World Cup podium in 2024 when she won second place in the snowboard halfpipe, according to U.S. Ski and Snowboard.
Bryce Bennett
Olympic Valley
One of the tallest men currently skiing competitively — standing at 6’7” — the Lake Tahoe-area native punched his ticket to his third Olympics.
In 2021 and 2023, Bennett, now 33, won World Cup gold medals in men’s downhill. At Beijing 2022, he finished 16th in the downhill event and 17th in the Alpine combined. At the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, he finished 17th in the super-G and 19th in the downhill.
Hahna Norman
Truckee
Norman, 21, is heading to her first Olympics after a strong 2024-2025 season in the snowboard slopestyle and big air events, according to U.S. Ski and Snowboard.
In 2023, she became a national champion in snowboard slopestyle.
Hanna Percy
Truckee
Going into her second year on the U.S. Ski and Snowboard national snowboard cross pro team, the 18-year-old from Truckee qualified for her first Olympic Games.
JC Schoonmaker
Tahoe City
After strong showings in NCAA cross-country sprint skiing and at national cross-country skiing championships, Schoonmaker is set to go to his second Olympics.
At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Schoonmaker, 25, earned ninth place in the classic team sprint and 15th in the freestyle sprint.
Kate Delson
San Diego
The three-time para snowboard World Cup gold medalist earned her spot at the Paralympic Games after only two seasons competing on the World Cup circuit. She is competing under the LL2 classification, which encompasses athletes with impairments in one or both of their legs.
Delson, 20, won the U.S. National Championships and a World Championship silver medal in para snowboard cross in 2025.
Kate Gray
Mammoth Lakes
The 19-year-old jumped from the U.S. national rookie freestyle ski halfpipe and slopestyle teams straight to her first Olympic Games in 2026. She grew up skiing at Mammoth Mountain in the southern Sierra Nevada.
In 2024, Gray won a bronze medal in freeski halfpipe at the Youth Olympics in Gangwon, South Korea.
Keely Cashman
Strawberry
A Tuolumne County native, Cashman, 26, is returning to the Olympic Games after competing in 2022 Beijing.
At her first Games, Cashman placed 17th in downhill alpine ski and 27th in super-G. She competed in the Alpine combined event, but she did not finish her run.
Figure skating
With strong programs in both Northern and Southern California, the Golden State has produced some legendary figure skaters and ice dancers.
In 2026, five Californians out of 16 total skaters are toe looping and twizzling in Milan for the U.S. Olympic team.
Alysa Liu
Oakland
The reigning women’s singles figure skating world champion is set to return to the Olympics after coming out of retirement at only 18 years old.
At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the Bay Area native took sixth place. Liu, now 20, was the U.S. champion in 2019 and 2020, and she took silver in 2026 and 2025. Following the 2022 Games, she took a two-year hiatus from figure skating.
Madison Chock
Redondo Beach
The reigning U.S. Olympic figure skating team gold medalist is headed to her fourth Games looking to defend the nation’s hardware. Chock, 33, competes with Evan Bates, her longtime ice dance partner-turned-husband.
At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Chock and Bates earned fourth place in the mixed pairs ice dance category. The power couple are three-time world champions from 2023-2025 and seven-time U.S. champions.
Anthony Ponomarenko
San Jose
Ponomarenko, 24, is headed to his first Olympics with ice dance partner Christina Carreira. While he trains in Montreal, he is a native of the East Bay.
Ponomarenko and Carreira have been on the podium at four U.S. national championships, and they were junior national champions in 2018.
Andrew Torgashev
Irvine
24-year-old Torgashev punched his first-ever ticket to the Olympics after a silver medal-winning performance at the 2026 U.S. Championship. Though Torgashev calls Coral Gables, Florida, home, he trains in Southern California, according to U.S. Figure Skating.
Torgashev earned another men’s singles silver medal at the 2025 national championship and a bronze medal in 2023. He was national champion three times in the junior, intermediate and juvenile categories.
Spencer Akira Howe
Los Angeles
The U.S. Army soldier-athlete is competing at his first Olympic Games in Milan with pairs skating partner Emily Chan.
Howe and Chan are a relatively new pair, having started their competitive partnership in 2019. Since then, they have earned a silver medal at the U.S. Championship in 2023 and earned fourth place in three other national championships.
Bobsled
Kaillie Armbruster Humphries
Carlsbad
40-year-old Humphries is on her way to her sixth Olympic Games, looking to defend her monobob gold medal from the 2022 Beijing games.
Though she has won three Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal, only one of the medals was for Team USA. In 2019, the former Canadian athlete began competing for the U.S. and she obtained citizenship in 2021.
Azaria Hill
Santa Clarita
The second-generation Olympian will make her debut in Milan along with bobsled partner Kaysha Love. Hill, 27, is a member of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program and competes as a brakewoman — the backseat pilot.
Hill and Love won a World Cup silver medal in the two-woman bobsled event in 2025, and were fourth at the World Championship in 2024.
Ice hockey
Cayla Barnes
Eastvale
Known as “Barnsey” on the U.S. women’s ice hockey team, the 27-year-old defense player is heading to her third Olympic Games, where the U.S. women’s team will hope to maintain its podium streak.
At the 2022 Beijing games, Barnes helped the team win an Olympic silver medal, and at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics the U.S. women won a gold medal. Barnes also plays for the Seattle Torrent in the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
Sled hockey
Jen Lee
San Francisco
Three-time Paralympic sled hockey gold medalist Lee is competing in his fourth Games in 2026. Lee, an Army combat veteran, was injured in a motorcycle accident in 2009 and had his left leg amputated above the knee. During his recovery, he was introduced to sled hockey through a veterans’ support organization.
In Milan, Lee, 39, will seek his fourth consecutive Paralympic gold as the U.S. men’s sled hockey goalie. At the 2022 Paralympics, he did not let a single goal past, according to Team USA. Lee helped the men’s sled hockey team bring home World Championship gold five times and silver two times since 2012.
Biathlon
Joanne Reid
Palo Alto
Two-time Olympian Reid fought a steep uphill battle to qualify for her third Games. Following a hiatus from competing after a SafeSport investigation into years of sexual abuse Reid suffered in the U.S. Biathlon organization, she had only weeks to race as cleanly as possible to earn herself a spot on Team USA, according to Colorado University.
The 33-year-old has won multiple U.S. Championship titles in biathlon after switching from cross-country skiing in 2015. At the 2022 and 2018 Olympics, she competed in four events each, earning her highest placement at 11th in the 4x6km women’s relay.
This story was originally published February 2, 2026 at 12:43 PM with the headline "Which California athletes will compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics? See the list."
