A guide to the Utah athletes competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics
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Team USA's Alex Hall of Salt Lake City practices Thursday in Livigno, Italy. Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images
With the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony at noon Friday, it's time to scan through Team USA for Utahns to watch — and when you can see them on NBC.
The big picture: About 80 athletes in the games have Utah ties — more than a third of the 232 Americans competing on one of the biggest stages for winter sports.
Freestyle skiing
🎿 Utah dominates slopestyle with three-time medalist Nick Goepper and 2022 gold medalist Alex Hall leading the team.
- Read: Goepper spills the tea on his SLC neighbors.
- Tune in: 6am Saturday for qualifying rounds.
🗻 SLC's Jaelin Kauf is the reigning dual moguls world champion and 2022 moguls silver medalist.
- Watch: Kauf swept both events in Deer Valley last year.
- Tune in: 6:15am Saturday for moguls qualifying round 1 and dual moguls at 2:30am Saturday, Feb. 14.
⛷️ Park City's Kaila Kuhn, Quinn Dehlinger and Chris Lillis — part of 2022's gold-medaling mixed aerials team — are the current world champions in the event, with Kuhn also holding the title for women's aerials.
- Listen: Lillis also teaches piano and guitar.
- Tune in: Tuesday, Feb. 17 with women's aerials starting at 2:45am and men's at 5:30am. Mixed team aerials start 2:45am Saturday, Feb. 21.
Elsewhere on the slopes
⚕️Lindsey Vonn has had us on pins and needles since announcing she will race with a "completely ruptured" ACL after a crash last week in Switzerland during her return from retirement.
- Tune in: 3:30am Sunday for downhill; if that goes well, Vonn says she'll attempt team combined at 2:30am Tuesday and the super-G at 3:30am Thursday.
🇺🇸 Also back from retirement is Park City ski jumper Kevin Bickner, who still holds the national record he set in 2017.
- We'll see how he does against the flying crotches of Norway.
- Tune in: 10am Monday for normal hill and 9:30am Saturday, Feb. 14 for large hill.
Brrrrr in a blur
These Utah women are driving forces on two blades.
⛸ Short track
Corrinne Stoddard heads to Italy ranked third globally in the 500m and 1,000m short track and fourth in the 1,500m after breaking her nose during her first race in the 2022 Olympics.
Kristen Santos-Griswold, 2024's world champion in the 1,000m short track, is hot on Stoddard's heels, ranked No. 5 in the 500m and No. 6 in the 1,500m short track.
- She was poised to win bronze in 2022 when another skater bumped her in what was deemed a penalty.
- Tune in: 2:30am Tuesday for the 500m short track, with the 1,000m at 12:15pm Saturday, Feb. 14 and 1500m at 12:15pm Friday, Feb. 20.
🏅 Speed skating
Erin Jackson made history when she topped the podium for speed skating's 500m in 2022, making her the first Black woman to win gold in an individual Winter Olympics event.
- She arrives in Italy ranked No. 3 worldwide in the same event.
Brittany Bowe, a two-time Olympic bronze medalist, is ranked No. 3 in the 1,000m and No. 5 in the 1,500m.
- She's also an accomplished in-line skater and basketball player.
- Tune in: 9:30am Monday for the 1,000m, with the 500m at 9am Sunday, Feb. 15 and the 1,500m at 8:30am Friday, Feb. 20.
Zamboni time
🏒 Women's hockey captain Hilary Knight is leading Team USA to her fifth Olympics with a gold medal and three silvers already around her neck.
- She's also half of an Olympic power couple with Bowe, whom she lives with in SLC.
Tune in: After Thursday's 5-1 prelim victory over Czechia, USA faces Finland at 8:40am Saturday.