Four Stanford athletes to compete at 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan
Four Stanford athletes will compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy: Eileen Gu (China) will be competing in the Freeskiing Slopestyle, Freeskiing Halfpipe, and Freeskiing Big Air; Zoe Atkin (Great Britain) will be competing in the Freeskiing Halfpipe; Brandon Kim (USA)will be competing in four speed skating events (500m, 1000m, 1500m, and 5000m Men’s Relay); and Stanford women’s soccer defender/forward Sammy Smith (USA) will be competing in cross country skiing. The games will begin Friday, February 6th and conclude Sunday, February 22nd.
GoStanford.com: 2026 Winter Olympics Primer
Of the four athletes, Eileen Gu (谷爱凌) is the most internationally well-known and is a global superstar. She won the gold medal in Big Air and Halfpipe at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing while winning the silver in slopestyle. She’ll be looking to defend both of her gold medals while also tacking on a third gold medal in the slopestyle. The San Francisco native is a massive deal in China and takes great pride in representing her Chinese heritage. It’ll be fun to see if she can win gold in all three events this year.
Zoe Atkin will be competing in her second Olympic games after competing at the 2022 Olympic games in Beijing where she reached the final of the halfpipe and finished 9th overall. She competed alongside her sister Izzy. Izzy became the first Olympic medal skier for Team Great Britain at the 2018 Olympic games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Zoe won gold in the Halfpipe at the 2025 World Championships in Engadin, Switzerland; took silver in the Halfpipe at the 2023 World Championships Bakuriani, Georgia; and the bronze in the Halfpipe at the 2021 World Championships in Aspen, Colorado, USA. She also has a two gold medals in the Superpipe at the X Games in Aspen (2023 and 2026) as well a silver medal (2024). She’s coming in with some momentum after getting gold at the X Games earlier this year.
Brandon Kim will be competing in the first Olympic games of his career. He was hoping to qualify for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing but didn’t have the performance he was hoping to have. Now, he’s back and hungry, this time dominating the rest of the US competition to win national titles in in the 500m, 1000m, and 1500m events. He set a new national record in the 500m earlier this winter with a time of 39.83, besting JR Celski’s time of 39.937. A record that stood for 13 years. Kim is coming in as one of the top American short track skaters. It’ll be fun to see if he can get himself on the podium in any of the events that he is set to skate in.
Ending with Sammy Smith, she is one of 16 skiers (eight women) selected to Team USA in cross country skiing. Hailing from Boise, Idaho, she will be making her Olympic debut. It’s pretty amazing that Smith is able to excel at such a high level on both the soccer pitch and the slopes. This past season, she played in 25 games for the Cardinal, getting a start in 14 matches. She totaled one goal and two assists for a total of four points on the season. Stanford soccer fans in particular should be eager to see how she does in Milan.
Big Picture: All four Stanford athletes competing have a chance to make a real impact in their respective sports. It’s neat for Stanford to have some representation in these Olympic games as it shows off the depth and array of talent that is on The Farm. As the games progress, I’ll make sure to provide coverage of how all four of these athletes perform.
CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), & Bluesky: @StanfordRivals
Ben Parker on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), YouTube, & Bluesky: @slamdunk406
Email: [email protected]
