2 VA Athletes Qualify For Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Paralymics

Two athletes from Virginia have qualified so far for the 2026 Olympic Games in Italy next month, but more could be added to the Team USA roster in the coming weeks.

So far, the Team USA hockey rosters are complete for the Milano Cortina 2026 Games, taking place from Feb. 6 to 22, and the accompanying Paralympic Games, scheduled for March 6-15.

Evan Nichols of Haymarket will be on the hunt for his second Paralympic medal as a member of the Paralympic Sled Hockey.

During the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing, China, he tallied three assists against South Korea in the preliminary round of competition. Team USA would eventually take home the gold medal in the event.

Athletes have also been named in skiing, skating, curling, snowboarding, ski mountaineering and other teams that are still taking shape.

Brandon Kim, who grew up in Fairfax, will represent Team USA in Milano Cortino in the Short Track Speedskating competition.

After representing Team USA in two world championships, Kim claimed national titles in all three of the events he competed in during the 2026 U.S. Championships. In the process, he broke a nearly 13-year record set by three-time Olympian J.R. Celski, racing the men's 500-meter in 39.83 seconds.

When off the ice, Kim is a student at Stanford University, balancing his studies with his training. Since there's no ice rink on campus, he relies on biking and lifting weights to stay fit. He also took a year off from school to prepare for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

Once Kim graduates from Stanford, he plans to attend medical school and specialize in either orthopedics or neurosurgery.

A third Virginian is expected to qualify for his first Olympic team during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis.

Nicknamed the "Quad God," Ilia Malinin of Vienna has not lost a major competition in men's singles in over two years. He is the only skater in the world to have successfully landed a quadruple axel in an international competition.

Last March, Malinin delivered a high-flying, high-energy performance during the 2025 World Championships. The win not only earned him a standing ovation from the crowd at TD Garden in Boston, it made him the men's singles favorite for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy, according to the Associated Press.

A member of the Washington Figure Skating Club, Malinin trains at the ice rink in Reston.

The figure skating championships area already underway and run through Sunday. The competition can be viewed on Peacock.

Related: NoVA Skater Ilia Malinin Wins Gold Again At World Championships

With competition sites in the city of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, the winter resort in the Dolomites that is more than 250 miles away by road, this will be the most spread-out Winter Games in history. Athletes also will compete in three other mountain clusters besides Cortina, while the closing ceremony will be in Verona, 100 miles east of Milan.

Although the opening ceremony isn’t until Feb. 6, competition begins on Feb. 4 with curling. Here are other key dates:

• Feb. 7: First gold medal events.
• Feb. 8: Gold medal, women’s Alpine skiing downhill.
• Feb. 13: Gold medal, men’s figure skating.
• Feb. 18: Gold medal, women’s Alpine skiing slalom.
• Feb. 19: Gold medal, women’s figure skating. Gold medal game, women’s ice hockey. First gold medals in ski mountaineering, a new Olympic sport.
• Feb. 22: Gold medal game, men’s ice hockey. Closing ceremony.

Dozens of countries will stream or air each day's events, with some delaying broadcasts until primetime depending on the time zone. That will be the case in the U.S., where Eastern time is six hours behind Milan and Cortina. NBC will carry showcase events at night while streaming sports on Peacock.

Among athletes to watch are two of the most decorated Alpine skiers in history, 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin. The pair opened the World Cup season in dominant form, raising American hopes of a golden run in Cortina. Chloe Kim is back in snowboarding. And NHL players are back on Olympic ice for the first time since 2014, so keep an eye on the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby.

It’s unclear if Russian athletes will compete. Some sports federations are deciding whether to let Russians compete as neutral athletes, but only after they are cleared by an independent review to ensure that they have not publicly supported the war in Ukraine and are not affiliated with Russia’s military or other forces.

Ski mountaineering will make its Olympic debut while skeleton has added a mixed team event, luge has added women’s doubles and large hill ski jumping added women’s and men’s super team events.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.