Meet Team USA’s Olympic Opening Ceremony Flag Bearers

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The torch has been passed to two new flag bearers. 

Speedskater Erin Jackson and bobsledder Frank Del Duca, both Olympians from the 2022 Winter Games, will carry the American flag at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina. Both athletes expressed their excitement about being chosen for this honor.

Erin, 33, said it’s a huge honor to represent the United States in the Olympics. In a statement released on February 3rd, she explained that this moment isn’t just about her, but also about her family, teammates, community, and all Americans who believe in the positive impact of sports. She feels the Olympics demonstrate the ability of sports to bring people together and inspire, and she’s proud to be a part of that on the world stage.

Erin and Frank both earned this recognition by being chosen by their teammates on Team USA.

“It really means the world to me,” said Erin Jackson, the Ocala, Florida native who made history as the first Black woman to win an individual gold medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics. She shared on Today on February 3rd that a teammate told her he’d been voting for her enthusiastically. “It’s a huge honor,” she added.

Frank, a sergeant in the U.S. Army and a native of Bethel, Maine, feels incredibly fortunate to be serving his country.

It feels like balancing two very different roles, and I really appreciate the chance to do both,” the 34-year-old told Today. “My time in the U.S. Army has taught me a lot, and I believe it’s made me a better athlete, and a better person – a better father, husband, and teammate. I’m just incredibly thankful for everything.”

To meet more of Team USA’s star athletes, read on…

Mikaela Shiffrin is a decorated Olympian with three medals, but she’s hoping to bounce back at her fourth Olympic Games. She didn’t perform as well as she wanted at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, and she recently suffered a serious injury in November 2024 – a puncture to her abdomen that needed surgery.

In a recent interview with TIME, Mikaela Shiffrin explained that she’s acutely aware of the unpredictable nature of competition. She understands that even with perfect preparation, success isn’t guaranteed. However, she feels a strong connection with her team – coaches and staff alike – and believes that together, they can overcome any challenges. She says that’s all she can ask for.

Mikaela Shiffrin has been supported for years by Norwegian skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, and the two are now engaged to be married.

He keeps telling me to stay positive and that everything will be alright, she shared with Olympics.com. Last season was particularly tough, and she often wondered if pushing to return was too ambitious or even possible. But he reassured her, saying she knows her own limits and that as long as she’s giving it her all, it’s okay if things don’t work out.

After struggling with repeated knee injuries, Lindsey Vonn retired from competitive skiing in 2019. She was a five-time Olympian, earning a gold medal in downhill and a bronze in Super-G at the 2010 Winter Olympics, and another bronze in downhill at the 2018 Olympics.

After a successful partial knee replacement in 2024 finally relieved her pain – something she hadn’t experienced since her initial surgery in 2013 – she rediscovered her passion for speed.

While I appreciate board calls and investing, nothing compares to the thrill of downhill skiing,” said the 41-year-old in a December interview with NBC News. “I’ve built a good life beyond skiing, and I accept that it will always be unique. But I’m going to savor this last rush of adrenaline, because I know I can’t recreate it.”

Vonn’s crash during a World Cup race in Switzerland on January 30th was serious enough that she needed to be rescued by helicopter, and it almost ended her attempt to return to competition.

Despite tearing her left ACL, the experienced athlete announced she was healthy enough to compete in the women’s downhill race on February 8th in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Cortina is hosting the skiing, snowboarding, and sliding events for the games, while Milan will host skating, curling, and other sports. This announcement comes after she previously stated she was prepared to risk everything to compete.

Speaking at a press conference on February 3rd, she declared she wouldn’t give up. ‘I’m not upset,’ she stated, ‘I’m holding my head high and I’m going to give it everything I’ve got.’

Jessie Diggins, the most accomplished American cross-country skier ever, is competing in what will be her last Olympic Games.

And the Afton, Minn., native is headed to Italy with a purpose.

In a recent Instagram post, the 34-year-old shared that they have the freedom to choose who they compete for and live according to their beliefs. They dedicated their efforts to those who care for others, protect their communities, and approach people with kindness, stating that these individuals inspire them and make them proud to represent their country. They hope to bring happiness to these supporters in the coming weeks.

After retiring, she shared with NPR’s All Things Considered that she’s looking forward to spending time gardening and, most importantly, being at home with her husband.

Seventeen-year-old Stolz first competed in the Olympics in Beijing, and although he didn’t medal, he’s now a strong contender to win gold in several events at the Milan Cortina Games. These include the 500, 1,000, and 1,500-meter races, as well as the mass start race – a 16-lap, 6,400-meter competition.

The 21-year-old athlete believes he has a strong chance of winning gold if he performs his best. Speaking with the Associated Press in January, he said he feels prepared to handle the pressure, explaining that he’s used to competing in high-stakes races and doesn’t anticipate it being a problem. He added that as long as nothing unexpected happens, he’s confident he’ll be able to perform well.

Four years after making history in Beijing as the first Black American woman to medal in speed skating – and the first Black woman to win an individual gold at the Winter Olympics – 500-meter champion Erin Jackson will be a flag bearer at the 2026 Games. She’ll share the honor with bobsledder Frank Del Duca at the Opening Ceremony on February 6th.

It’s a huge honor to represent the United States internationally,” said the 33-year-old from Ocala, Florida. “This isn’t just about me; it’s about my family, teammates, hometown, and all Americans who believe in the impact of sports.

Although she’s not retiring immediately, Jackson plans to launch an organization dedicated to helping young Black athletes achieve their goals in speed skating.

She believes seeing people who share your background succeed is incredibly important, and that’s been lacking in winter sports, especially speed skating. She feels a strong sense of pride in being a role model and hopes to inspire others to try the sport, doing everything she can to help them achieve their goals. She told NBC Olympics that she wants to make that possible for others.

Kim sustained a minor labrum tear in January after dislocating her shoulder during training in Switzerland, but this wouldn’t prevent her from participating in her fourth Olympics. There, she’ll be aiming to add a third gold medal to her collection in the women’s halfpipe event.

The 25-year-old athlete from Torrance, California, expressed disappointment in a video posted on January 13th that she won’t be able to snowboard again until just before the Olympics, which will make preparation difficult. She acknowledged she hasn’t had as much practice as she’d hoped, but remains optimistic.

She anticipates a relaxed period leading up to the 2026 Games. In an interview with NBC Olympics on January 22nd, she explained she was currently at home and planned to travel to Europe early the following week for some training before heading to Milan for the event.

And once she was there, she’d be fired up and ready to go—just like everyone else.

It’s hard to put into words what it’s like,” said Kim, who has been snowboarding since she was a child, “but it feels like everyone reaches their full potential out there.”

Gerard first won an Olympic gold medal in slopestyle at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games when he was 17. Now a two-time X Games champion, he’s aiming to carry that success into his third Olympic appearance.

The 25-year-old, originally from Ohio and now living in Colorado, told People magazine in January that she still feels young and in excellent health. She also expressed how rewarding it is to have been part of Team USA since age 13 and to now be able to mentor the younger athletes.

When it comes to competing at the Olympics, Gerard focuses on treating it like any other competition. He acknowledges it’s a much larger event with a bigger audience, but ultimately, the snowboarding itself doesn’t change. He tries to stay focused on his own performance and approach it the same way he always has, blocking out the extra pressure.

The 31-year-old snowboarder is aiming for gold at his third Olympic Games, hoping to add to his previous silver (2018) and bronze (2022) medals.

Skier Ferreira believes this is his year to win a gold medal. He told the Daily Express that he’s entering the games healthy for the first time, unlike his previous two attempts where he was injured – he broke his collarbone weeks before one competition and sprained his ankle three weeks before another. He feels more prepared now, being older and incredibly focused.

Beyond his sister Lourdes and athletic parents – Marcelo, a former soccer player from Argentina, and Colleen, a competitive relay racer – he also has a rescue dog named Brandy by his side.

“The thing I love most about Brandy is that she’s not counting medals,” Ferreira, an ambassador for Nulo pet food, said in an interview for the brand. “She’s just wagging her tail when I get home, so she’s there for me—the good, the bad, the ugly, everything—and I absolutely need her.”

Oh my gosh, I can’t even! Hall is going for his third Olympic gold! It’s incredible – he totally crushed it and won gold last time, but it’s amazing to think back to 2018 when he was just starting out and finished 16th. Now he’s back and better than ever, pushing the limits and soaring to new heights! I’m already on the edge of my seat!

Beyond potentially winning another slopestyle gold—a medal he famously keeps in his sock drawer—the laid-back 27-year-old is also aiming to do better than his eighth-place finish in Big Air at the 2022 competition. He said winning once was incredible, and doing it again would be a dream.

In an interview with POWDER magazine in October 2025, Hall expressed his enthusiasm for the return of the Olympics to Europe, noting the potential for excellent skiing conditions and a dramatic mountain backdrop – something the last two Olympics lacked. He also shared a personal connection to the event, explaining that his mother is from Bologna, Italy, and many of his family members who still live there will be attending the games, which he anticipates will be a special experience.

The 29-year-old freestyle skier is competing in her third Olympic Games and hopes to build on the silver medal she won in Beijing.

She always knows who to ask for help, whether it’s about getting better at her sport or dealing with the stress of competing on the world stage.

Patti Sherman-Kauf is a decorated athlete: she won two championships on the World Pro Moguls Tour, even while pregnant with her daughter, and her husband, Scott Kauf, won five. After retiring from mogul skiing, Patti excelled in skicross, earning three bronze medals at the X Games.

Jaelin wasn’t like most babies; she preferred being bounced instead of rocked, according to her mother, Patti, in an interview with NBC Olympics.

Jaelin admitted that she didn’t initially love mogul skiing. “I’d always choose a powder day over bumps,” she told Teton Gravity Research in November 2025. However, watching her parents build careers as professional skiers showed her it was possible for her too. She realized not everyone has that kind of example or support, but she always felt confident she could pursue it.

Team Jaelin also includes her boyfriend, Bradley Wilson, a two-time Olympic skier who is now retired, and his brother Bryon Wilson, a bronze medalist who also coaches Kauf.

Humphries’ journey has had more twists than a bobsled run.

Originally from Calgary, this 40-year-old athlete represented Team Canada in two-woman bobsled and achieved Olympic success, winning gold medals in both 2010 and 2014, and a bronze medal in 2018.

In 2019, she surprised everyone in the sports world by announcing her departure from the Canadian national team after 16 years. She explained that she feared for her safety due to a harmful atmosphere within the team leading up to the 2018 Olympics.

In 2019, Humphries began competing for the U.S. team while also maintaining her Canadian citizenship, stating she didn’t intend to choose between the two nationalities.

She clarified that her affection for Canada hasn’t diminished, but she’s also capable of loving someone and something else equally. Having lived in the U.S. for four years, she found love with an American, whom she married. Now, life has presented them with new opportunities, and they’re navigating the choices that come with those changes.

Elana Humphries became a U.S. citizen in 2021 and then, in 2022, she won a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in the first-ever Olympic monobob competition – a one-person bobsled race.

This will be her fifth Olympic Games, but the first since becoming a mother. She and her husband, Travis Armbruster, welcomed their son, Aulden, in June 2024.

For a long time, people have said that having a baby means an athlete’s body will change, their performance will suffer, and their sporting career is over. Kaillie Humphries told The Athletic that this used to be true, but she and other athletes are now showing that it’s possible to have a child and still compete at a high level – you don’t have to choose between the two.

For five-time Olympian, bobsledding is now her personal escape. Since becoming a mother to two sons with her husband, Nic Taylor – Nico in 2020 and Noah in 2022 – she finds time for herself through the sport. Nico has Down syndrome, and both boys are deaf. This deafness is due to a genetic mutation that both parents carry, which they discovered after Nico’s birth.

Even though her home life was incredibly busy, Meyers Taylor really wanted her children to see what she did at work.

“The challenges they’ll face are beyond what I can imagine,” the 41-year-old explained to The Athletic. “I hope they learn that even when things get hard, you can still chase your goals. I want them to see my successes – me standing there with medals. But it’s also important they see my struggles, how I’ve fallen, gotten back up, and kept fighting.”

Although Kaillie Meyers Taylor has won five Olympic medals – four in two-woman bobsled and a silver in monobob in 2022 – she’s still aiming for her first gold medal.

There’s something undeniably cool about a sport where athletes race headfirst down an icy, winding track at nearly 90 miles per hour.

Ro, who in 2025 became the first American to win a medal in skeleton at the IBSF World Championships in over a decade, initially didn’t believe she’d succeed.

She remembers her first time trying skeleton in 2016 vividly. After being told she was too small for bobsled, the coach guided her to the starting line, and then everything happened incredibly fast. “I couldn’t see or think,” she told The Athletic. “When I reached the bottom, I was done – I knew I wasn’t doing that again!”

But after listening to enough people rave about how cool it was, she tried it again.

Ten years after starting her journey, the athlete from Virginia is now competing in her first Olympics. She’ll be participating in both individual events and the new mixed-team competition, which is being introduced at the 2026 Games.

Let me tell you, balancing a demanding athletic career isn’t always glamorous! When I’m not training or competing, and honestly, even with 10 siblings – yes, you read that right, including my twin sister who’s just 14 minutes younger than me – I need to make ends meet. So, I work as a tour guide at the historic Lake Placid Olympic Center. It’s pretty common for athletes in sports that don’t get a ton of media attention to have a ‘side hustle,’ and this is mine! It keeps me grounded and helps fund my training.

She described being fully immersed in her training environment, saying it’s her life. Tourists enjoy tours led by athletes who offer a special behind-the-scenes look at the facilities. While she loves sharing her experience, she emphasized that these tours won’t provide enough income to fully support her athletic career.

Illya Malinin comes from a family of figure skating stars – both his parents were champions in Uzbekistan. He started skating at age six, but growing up in Virginia, he actually preferred playing soccer outdoors and wasn’t initially thrilled about practicing in the chilly rink.

At age 17, he achieved a historic feat at the 2022 CS U.S. International Classic by becoming the first—and so far only—skater to successfully land a quadruple axel with a full rotation in an international competition.

Ilia Malinin, known as the “Quad God,” has successfully landed four quadruple jumps in a single program several times. With Nathan Chen, previously known as the “Quad King,” not competing in the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, Malinin is currently the top U.S. male skater with a strong chance of winning another individual gold medal.

Four years after not making Team USA, the 20-year-old is now concentrating on preparing himself to perform well.

I don’t focus on winning medals when I compete,” Ilia Malinin explained on the USA Today podcast, Milan Magic. “I concentrate on giving a strong performance and doing what I need to do as a skater. I really prepare so I can skate my best. If I do that, I figure the medals will take care of themselves.

After competing in the Beijing Olympics and World Championships—where she earned a bronze medal—Liu retired from competitive skating in 2022.

Liu explained to NBC News that she began her training at age five and continued until she was sixteen. Having been homeschooled throughout her life, she decided to retire at seventeen. She shared that, despite being a very social person who needs connection with others, she spent many years training in isolation, without family or friends nearby.

She explained that she had very little control over her own choices, saying people often picked her outfits and activities for her. She felt like she was simply being used, and didn’t enjoy it, but she felt obligated to compete in the Olympics to fulfill a promise to her younger self.

After starting her studies at UCLA in the fall of 2023 and enjoying a typical college experience, she rediscovered her competitive spirit during a January ski trip. By March 2024, she was actively competing again. The 20-year-old Californian went on to win a gold medal at the World Championships in 2025 and is now aiming to win a medal – and ideally another gold – at the 2026 Games, ending the 20-year drought for American women in the individual event.

When she takes the ice now, “it’s fully for myself,” Liu explained. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool.”

This Olympic Games marks the fourth time these partners have competed together, and it’s their first time competing as a married couple since tying the knot in June 2024.

Chock shared with TopMob News in December that getting married strengthened their partnership both personally and professionally. They already had a strong connection through skating, but marriage has allowed them to fully support each other as true partners, both on and off the ice, in all their pursuits.

Though they helped the U.S. figure skating team win gold in Beijing in 2022, the three-time world champion pair haven’t yet earned an Olympic medal of their own.

We’ve been working incredibly hard and dedicating a lot of time and effort,” Bates shared with TopMob, “but we truly appreciate every day and the chance we’ve been given.

As a lifestyle expert, I’ve been following Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and while they haven’t officially announced retirement, it’s clear they’re aware this Olympic journey is likely heading towards a beautiful conclusion. They’re embracing the idea that this could be their last competitive performance, and you can feel that in their skating – it’s a really special moment to witness.

At the 2026 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Bates told NBC Olympics that they were trying to stay focused and not get overwhelmed by the emotions of the event and their 15-year partnership. They explained that performing well was the best reward, but they also wanted to savor the moment, knowing it might be their last competition. They went on to win gold at the championships.

The veteran U.S. women’s hockey player, a gold medalist in 2018, has announced that the upcoming Milan Cortina Olympics will be her last. At 36 years old, this will be her fifth Olympic Games, making her the American hockey player—male or female—with the most Olympic appearances.

Although Knight hopes to win another gold medal, she explained to Today.com that a large portion of the team – possibly more than half – are first-time Olympians. She emphasized the importance of ensuring everyone feels comfortable and can perform at their best. Knight believes the team has incredible talent, and getting everyone to reach their full potential will be key to a strong performance.

A University of Wisconsin graduate, this athlete currently plays hockey for the Seattle Torrent as their star forward, based in Washington. However, she and her partner, Brittany Bowe—a veteran speed skater competing in her fourth and final Olympics shortly before turning 38 on February 24th—have made their home in Salt Lake City, where they recently purchased a house.

As elite athletes, you develop a strong sense of what someone else needs – whether it’s encouragement or time to themselves,” Knight explained to NBC Olympics in June 2025. “Having both competed at a high level for so long allows us to really understand each other.

This mixed doubles curling team, paired up after the 2022 Beijing Olympics, will be making their Olympic debut together. They previously placed fifth at the 2025 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship and won a world championship in 2023. They believe their success is due to both their talent and how well their personalities mesh.

Ahead of the Milan Cortina Games, figure skater Dropkin, 30, explained how well she and her partner, Cory, work together. “We’re able to stay relaxed and focused on the present,” she said. “We also just really click as personalities. Someone recently described us as ‘the calm and the fire’ – Cory is calm and steady on the ice, while I bring a lot of energy and passion. It’s a great combination.”

He and his wife, Thiesse, who married Sam Thiesse in June 2022, live in Duluth, Minnesota. They both work regular jobs to support their passion for curling.

Dropkin works in real estate, and Thiesse is a lab technician who tests wastewater for mercury. Thiesse shared with Duluth’s ABC 10 that she’s thankful to have a stable job while pursuing her passion for curling, something she and her teammates have dreamed of since childhood.

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2026-02-06 16:22