Winter Olympics 2026: Meet the oldest and youngest athletes

The 2026 Winter Olympics are right around the corner.

And the Milano Cortina Games could be the biggest yet.

According to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, “[n]early 3,000 athletes from more than 93 National Olympic Committees will take to Milano Cortina to compete on the world stage.” And Team USA could be the biggest contingent yet. “With 232 athletes, and dependent on the number who compete, this will be the largest ever winter U.S. Olympic Team, surpassing the 228 athletes who competed for Team USA at PyeongChang 2018, and the 222 who competed at Sochi 2014.”

“It’s an honor to present the 2026 U.S. Olympic Team, a team full of proven champions and fearless newcomers that have the potential to take Team USA’s winter performance to a new level – and inspire a nation in the process,” said Rocky Harris, USOPC chief of sport and athlete services and Team USA Chef de Mission for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. “These athletes earned their places through years of disciplined focus, competitive excellence, and consistent performance at the highest level of their sport. We are proud to support them alongside our National Governing Bodies as they finalize their preparation and get ready to compete in Milano Cortina against the best in the world.”

These athletes range the gamut from collegiate stars, club sport athletes, and even some with a profession away from their particular discipline.

Their ages run the gamut as well.

Here are the oldest and youngest athletes headed to the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Who are the oldest and youngest athletes on Team USA in 2026? 

Let’s start on the younger end of the spectrum.

The youngest member of Team USA? That would be 15-year-old freeskier Abby Winterberger from California. But her path is a rather unconventional one, beyond her age. Winterberger bypassed the traditional U.S. Ski & Snowboard Rookie and Pro Team pathway, and is the only club-level freeski athlete to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

But she has secured three top-ten finishes this competitive season, and heads to Italy as the Freeski Halfpipe U.S. National Champion. She secured that crown due to her performance at the Aspen Grand Prix, where she finished sixth in a deep field, and the leading U.S. skier.

It is an accomplishment her OVFree Head Freeski Coach Cooper Davidson has expected since she joined the club at just seven years old.

“Abby’s dedication, progression, and fearlessness in the pipe have been incredible to watch,” said Davidson. “She’s earned this nomination through grit, consistency, and an ever-growing competitive presence.”

On the other spectrum of Team USA are an elite group of veterans marking their fifth Games, including Lindsey Vonn — who will ski with a torn ACL after a practice injury — Evan Bates (figure skating), Nick Baumgartner (snowboarding), Faye Thelen (formerly Faye Gulini, snowboarding), Kaillie Humphries (bobsled), Hilary Knight (ice hockey), and Elana Meyers Taylor (bobsled). Humphries has raced in four Olympic Winter Games, and additionally served as an alternate athlete at Torino 2006.

Of those athletes, Baumgartner is the oldest. The snowboarder won gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics at 40 years old, and admits that he is competing against “children” this cycle.

“I’m in a sport against children,” Baumgartner said. “Snowboarding is dominated by youth, and to have a guy like me, the elder statesman, I love it, man. It makes me proud.”

However, Baumgartner is not the oldest member of Team USA.

That would be Rich Ruohonen, a member of Team USA’s curling team. Ruohonen is an alternate, and thus not guaranteed to compete, but at 54 years old he is officially the oldest member of Team USA. If Ruohonen does compete, he will be the oldest Team USA athlete in Olympic history.

He is also a trial lawyer, and a partner at a law firm.

But after years of falling short of the Olympics, he is finally on his way to the Games, where he is excited to embrace the “old guy” role on the team. “I was thinking about getting a shirt that says, ‘I’m not the dad, and I’m not the coach,” said Ruohonen recently.

But he will bring the dad jokes.

Who are some other athletes from around the world?

Beyond Team USA, there are some other athletes on both ends of the age spectrum headed to Italy.

Australia’s Indra Brown will arrive in Italy as the youngest member of their team, having just turned 16 years old.

But her rapid rise up the World Cup ranks has Brown considered a potential medal winner in freestyle skiing. While she only began World Cup competition in December of 2025, she has secured finishes of third, second, first, and fourth in just four halfpipe starts. Those finishes have her at the top of the World Cup standings on points heading into the Winter Olympics.

She also secured a silver medal at the X Games in Aspen, becoming the youngest medalist in the event’s history at 15 years old.

In the sliding sports, after celebrating her 17th birthday in late January, skeleton athlete Marta Andžāne from Latvia is the youngest athlete. Bobsledder Edson Bindilatti of Brazil, born in 1979, will turn 47 in March and is the oldest participant in that event.