Get ready to watch six Idahoans compete at the Olympics in Milano Cortina
The 2026 Winter Olympic Games are right around the corner in Milano Cortina, and six athletes from Idaho are among the 232 American qualifiers.
The events run Wednesday, Feb. 4, through Sunday, Feb. 22, with the official Opening Ceremony on Friday, Feb. 6. The competition includes alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsled, cross country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, luge, nordic combined, skeleton, ski jumping, ski mountaineering, snowboarding and speedskating.
Here’s a breakdown of the Idaho athletes set to compete, listed in alphabetical order by last name. There are both newcomers and Olympic veterans.
John Steel Hagenbuch, cross country skiing
Making his Olympic debut, the Sun Valley skier currently competes for Dartmouth College, where he won the 2025 NCAA national title in the 7.5-kilometer classic. Hagenbuch was also part of the gold-medal-winning 4x5-kilometer team relay at the Junior World Championships in 2019, and won bronze in the skate sprint at the U23 FIS Ski World Championships. His best World Cup finish is 13th.
Breezy Johnson, alpine skiing
A native of Victor, Idaho, Johnson specializes in the downhill, Super-G and team combined. She has made one previous Olympic team, taking seventh in the downhill and 14th in Super-G in 2018 at Pyeongchang, South Korea. She was scheduled to compete in 2022 at Beijing, but had to withdraw because of a knee injury sustained in a training crash. Johnson most recently won gold at the 2025 FIS Alpine Ski World Championships in downhill and in the women’s team alpine combined with Mikaela Shiffrin.
Chase Josey, snowboarding
The two-time Olympian from Sun Valley competes in the halfpipe, placing seventh at Beijing in 2022 and sixth at Pyeonchang in 2018. The 30-year-old attended Community School in Sun Valley and had his best finish in the World Championships in 2021, when he was fifth. On the World Cup circuit, Josey has 28 top-10 finishes and also won a bronze medal at the X Games in 2016. His teammates have nicknamed him “Chief,” according to usskiandsnowboard.org.
Hilary Knight, women’s ice hockey
The captain of the U.S. team hails from Sun Valley and will be appearing in her fifth Olympic Games. She helped the Americans win the gold medal in 2018 in Pyeonchang and brought home silver medals in 2010, 2014 and 2022, when the U.S. lost to arch-rival Canada. At the World Championships, Knight has racked up 15 medals, including 10 gold and five silver. She holds tournament records for goals (67), assists (50) and points (117). Knight is a bit of an Olympic star, and Chipotle recently debuted the Hilary Knight burrito, which includes white rice, pinto beans, fresh tomato salsa, cheese and guacamole.
Ryder Sarchett, alpine skiing
The 22-year-old from Ketchum cut his teeth with the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation and will be making his Olympic debut in Milano Cortina. Sarchett is coming off a 10th-place finish in the giant slalom at the World Cup in December. He is a former gold medalist in the giant slalom at the 2024 FIS Alpine Junior World Championships in Portes du Soleil, France. He also helped the University of Colorado win the men’s team title in 2024.
Sammy Smith, cross country skiing
A graduate of Boise High School in 2024, the two-sport star qualified for her first Olympics just months after wrapping up a runner-up finish with the Stanford women’s soccer team in the NCAA Tournament. The 20-year-old is the youngest of eight women on the U.S. cross country team. Smith finished 12th in the World Cup sprint classic on Jan. 17 in Oberhof, Germany, and won her second and third national titles in early January in Lake Placid, New York. She also took home a silver medal at the FIS Ski Junior World Championships in 2024, the best-ever American finish in the event.
