Meet the Bay Area Athletes Competing at the Winter Olympics

The 2026 Winter Olympics are almost here, with a Feb. 6 kickoff — and this year’s squad of Bay Area athletes is a force to be reckoned with.

While some are trend-setting Gen Z athletes, others are seasoned international pros, and many are both.

They’ll be showing off their stuff starting this week, so to help you follow along, we’ve compiled a list of all of the athletes who are from or have strong ties to the Bay Area so you can cheer them on from the comfort of your own home.

Or, jump straight to information on how to watch the 2026 Winter Olympic Games and what’s new for this year.

Figure skating: Bay Area athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Making an iconic comeback this year is Alysa Liu: the Richmond-born Oakland-dwelling young figure skating phenom who became the youngest U.S. women’s champion when she was just 13 and took 6th place on the podium at the Beijing Olympics. After retiring at 16 to live a normal teenage life, Liu announced her return to competition in 2024 and went on to win the 2025 World Championships.

San José ice dancer Anthony Ponomarenko will be taking the ice with his longtime skating partner, Christina Carreira. Ponomarenko comes from a family of Olympians, as the son of two Russian ice dancing medalists (and whose mother set him up with Carreira 12 years ago).

Alpine skiing: Bay Area athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics

This year’s U.S. Alpine Ski Team is chock full of Bay Area and Lake Tahoe-area athletes, including San Francisco native Nina O’Brien, who’s returning to ski racing after breaking her leg at the last Games in 2022 and then again in 2023.

O’Brien, like many others, did most of her early career training at Palisades Tahoe. Other Sierra-based athletes include Tahoe City resident and three-time Olympian Bryce Bennett, who will be competing in speed events as a new dad, and two-time Olympians and close friends Keely Cashman, from Strawberry, and AJ Hurt, from Carnelian Bay.

There’s also Lila Lapanja, who will be competing for Team Slovenia and trained for most of her childhood at Diamond Peak in Incline Village (full disclosure: alongside this story’s author!).

Lapanja has been a high-level competitor on the world ski racing circuit since 2017, but an Olympic appearance has eluded her — until now.

Snowboarding: Bay Area athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Speaking of Tahoe-area medalists, keep an eye out for Jamie Anderson of South Lake Tahoe, a mother of two and slopestyle champion — the first woman to win more than one gold in the sport.

Making their Olympic debuts this year are Truckee-raised athletes Hanna Percy, competing in snowboard cross, and Hahna Norman, headed to Italy for slopestyle and big air competitions after she barely missed the 2022 games due to an ACL tear.

Freestyle skiing: Bay Area athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics

On the freestyle skiing side, Stanford is sending two athletes to the Games this year, including Zoe Atkin, who came ninth in Beijing and won this year’s X Games.

She’ll be going up against classmate Eileen Gu, born and raised in San Francisco, but who is once again competing for Team China. Gu’s earlier decision not to compete for Team USA in the 2022 Olympics drew some measure of controversy, especially after she earned three medals, including two golds, one in big air and the other in halfpipe. At just 18, Gu became the youngest Olympic gold medalist ever in the sport.

And at just 15 years old, Abby Winterberger of Truckee, directly qualified to the Games for freeski halfpipe, bypassing the typical pathways after a fiery run earlier this year in Colorado.

Cross-country skiing: Bay Area athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Yet another Stanford athlete, Sammy Smith, qualified for the Olympics — just two months after her soccer season as a starting defender for the Cardinal ended.

Smith will be joined in Italy by Truckee native JC Schoonmaker, who’ll be returning for his second Olympics.

Biathlon: Bay Area athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Biathlete Joanne Reid, born in Palo Alto, is back for her third Games after becoming a major voice unveiling allegations of ongoing sexual harassment in her team. Reid comes from a family of Olympians, with a mom who’s a bronze medalist in speed skating and an uncle who’s a five-time gold medalist in the sport.

Speedskating: Bay Area athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Brandon Kim, a rising senior at Stanford University majoring in computer science on the pre-med track, is the athlete to watch in this intense short-distance sport — even though he doesn’t even have a rink to practice on at Stanford while he’s dedicated to his studies. This is Kim’s first Olympic Games, and his most competitive event is the 500-meter race.

Ice hockey: Bay Area athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics

A handful of players on the San José Sharks made their respective countries’ teams. These include Pavol Regenda, representing Team Slovakia, Philipp Kurashev for Team Switzerland, Alexander Wennberg for Team Sweden and Macklin Celebrini for Team Canada. While it’s Regenda’s second Olympics, after he won bronze for Slovakia in 2022, it’ll be the first Games for the rest of the squad.

Sled hockey: Bay Area athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Paralympian and Daly City resident Jen Lee is coming back for his fourth — and possibly final — Paralympic Games as the goalie for Team USA’s sled hockey team.

Lee is somewhat of a dominator on the ice, having won gold in all three of his Paralympic appearances and having zero goals scored against him in Beijing. Lee is also a military veteran and came into the sport during rehab after losing his leg in a motorcycle accident while on leave.

How to watch the 2026 Olympic Games

The 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games are taking place in Northern Italy, split between hubs in Milan for indoor sports and Cortina d’Ampezzo for outdoor mountain sports.

While the opening ceremony isn’t until Friday, the first events actually begin on Wednesday, kicking off with some alpine ski training and preliminary curling events. Paralympic Winter Olympic Games events will start on March 6.

There is one new sport premiering at the 2026 Olympics: ski mountaineering, affectionately nicknamed “SkiMo.” It’s a mix between cross-country, backcountry and alpine skiing, featuring sprint and relay events.

The full schedule of Olympic and Paralympic events is listed on the NBC Olympic website. You can tune in via NBCOlympics.com or with a subscription to streaming service Peacock.