Most Popular Athletes at Winter Olympics 2026

Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo never lacked star power during the 2026 Winter Games, but a select few athletes transcended the results sheet and became the faces of the fortnight. From viral routines to history-making medals, these competitors owned the conversation on snow, ice, and every screen in between.

Tessa Virtue, now years removed from competition, still skated across millions of timelines as fans re-posted her signature routines during the ice-dance events, using her performances as the benchmark against which the current field was judged.

Natalie Geisenberger swapped her sled for a headset, joining Eurosport as the network’s lead luge analyst. The most decorated woman in luge history translated the microscopic margins of sliding into must-watch television, drawing rave reviews for clarity and candor.

On home snow in Livigno, Italian hopes rode with Michela Moioli. The reigning 2025 snowboard-cross world champion responded with the same full-throttle racing that has become her trademark, igniting deafening cheers from a crowd desperate for a local hero.

Swiss alpine ace Marco Odermatt arrived as the World Cup’s dominant force and departed with two silvers—Giant Slalom and Team Combined—turning every descent into a physics lesson on precision and power.

Figure skating’s headline plot belonged to France’s Guillaume Cizeron. Skating with new partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry, he captured ice-dance gold, adding a second chapter to an already legendary career marked by seamless, poetic motion.

American phenom Ilia Malinin pushed the technical frontier with audacious quad jumps, but a shaky free skate left him eighth in the individual event. Still, his earlier contribution to the team event medal and his relentless risk-taking kept audiences riveted.

Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto matched Malixin’s silver in the team event and added another in the Women’s Singles, her speed, edge depth, and unfiltered kiss-and-cry emotions turning her into an instant fan favorite.

Dutch speed-skater Jutta Leerdam converted a massive online following into oval dominance, striking gold in the 1000m and silver in the 500m while showcasing the blend of power and poise that has made her a crossover star.

American snowboard legend Chloe Kim spun her way to a third consecutive halfpipe medal—this time a silver—cementing her status as the sport’s enduring icon and proving longevity in a discipline known for rapid turnover.

No athlete, however, controlled the narrative quite like China’s Eileen Gu. The freeskier defended her halfpipe title and piled on slopestyle and big-air silvers, becoming the most decorated freeskier in Olympic history while handling global scrutiny with unflappable calm.

Together, these athletes delivered the moments, medals, and memes that will define Milano-Cortina 2026 long after the snow has melted.