The 2026 Winter Paralympics opened Friday, marking the Games' 50th anniversary. Team USA sent 72 athletes to compete across six sports, with 20 women set to represent the US in Milan — including the most decorated Winter Paralympian in US history.
This year, Team USA athletes will feature across women's para alpine skiing, para cross-country skiing, para biathlon, and para snowboard. Spanning three generations of Paralympic competition, US women's sports veterans like Oksana Masters will compete alongside first-time competitors like Audrey Crowley.
Here are five US women's sports athletes to watch at the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Milano-Cortina.
Oksana Masters, Para Cross-Country Skiing and Para Biathlon
Masters holds 19 Paralympic medals total — 14 from the Winter Games and five from the Summer Games. The 36-year-old won seven medals across seven events at Beijing 2022, becoming the first US athlete to achieve the feat.
Born in Ukraine and adopted into a US family, Masters had both legs amputated before the age of 14. She later began her international career with para rowing at London 2012, before transitioning to winter sports at Sochi 2014.
A recent bone infection subsequently sidelined her entire 2024/25 season, returning weeks before the 2026 Games. Despite the setbacks, she dominated the 2025/26 World Cup circuit. She finished no lower than second in any individual cross-country event and won five of her last seven biathlon races. She later claimed the overall FIS Para Cross-Country World Cup title and secured the Big Crystal Globe.
Masters's winter medals include three cross-country and two biathlon golds, while her summer medals include four cycling golds and one rowing bronze.
How to Watch Oksana Masters at the 2026 Winter Paralympics
Masters will launch her 2026 Paralympic campaign with para biathlon on Saturday, March 7th, before competing in para cross-country skiing on March 10th. All events will be broadcast live on Paramount+.
Kendall Gretsch, Para Biathlon and Para Cross-Country Skiing
Kendall Gretsch made history at PyeongChang 2018 when she topped the 6-kilometer biathlon podium, becoming the first US athlete to win Olympic or Paralympic biathlon gold. She went on to also take gold in the 12-kilometer cross-country race at PyeongChang.
Born with Spina Bifida, multi-season athlete later won triathlon gold at Tokyo 2020. She returned to the snow in 2022 to claim a complete medal set — gold, silver, and bronze — across Beijing's biathlons. She enters Milano-Cortina with seven Paralympic medals under her belt.
"Whatever season I'm in, that's what I am fully focused on," she told the IPC ahead of the 2026 Winter Games. "It is one sport at a time and focusing on that versus trying to do everything all year long."
This year, the 33-year-old finished second behind Masters in the 2025/26 cross-country World Cup and fourth in the biathlon World Cup. She holds 34 world championship medals across triathlon, cross-country skiing, and biathlon — including 19 gold.
How to Watch Kendall Gretsch at the 2026 Winter Paralympics
Gretsch will open her 2026 Paralympic run with para biathlon on Saturday, March 7th, before competing in para cross-country skiing on March 10th. All events will be broadcast live on Paramount+.
Brenna Huckaby, Para Snowboard
30-year-old para snowboard legend Brenna Huckaby holds three Paralympic gold medals and one bronze. After losing her leg to bone cancer at 14, Huckaby discovered snowboarding and quickly excelled in the sport.
Huckaby won two golds at PyeongChang 2018. However, the IPC excluded the LL-1 class from 2022's snowboard events, effectively banning Huckaby and other athletes with severe lower-limb disabilities from competing. While the IPC initially barred her from participating as an LL-2 athlete, the Louisiana native fought the ruling and eventually won a court injunction in Germany. Hitting the slopes in Beijing, she went on to claim gold in banked slalom and bronze in snowboard cross.
Huckaby enters the Milano-Cortina games with five world championships and two ESPY awards in addition to her Paralympic medal count.
How to Watch Brenna Huckaby at the 2026 Winter Paralympics
Huckaby kicks off her 2026 Paralympic run with para snowboard cross on Saturday, March 7th, before dropping in for para snowboard slalom on March 14th. All events will be broadcast live on Paramount+.
Audrey Crowley, Para Alpine Skiing
Born without her lower right arm, 19-year-old Paralympic debutant Audrey Crowley first gained attention for skiing as a second-grader. And last month, she reached the podium in two World Cup downhill races.
Crowley finished the 2024/25 World Cup season with two podium finishes in giant slalom. She took bronze in giant slalom and placed fifth in slalom at world championships, before officials canceled her three additional events.
"It really is that peak of ski racing for me, having that exhilaration, the jumps, the big long turns," the Colorado native said ahead of this weekend's Winter Games. "Everyone is just starting to arrive at the [Olympic and Paralympic] village. We've been trading pins, eating at the dining hall together."
How to Watch Audrey Crowley at the 2026 Winter Paralympics
Crowley opens her 2026 Paralympic alpine skiing campaign with downhill standing on Saturday, March 7th, before kicking off Super-G standing on March 9th, giant slalom standing on March 10th, and slalom standing on March 14th. All events will be broadcast live on Paramount+.
Meg Gustafson, Para Alpine Skiing
16-year-old Minnesota native Meg Gustafson was born with a condition affecting the ligaments in her eyes, leading to limited vision. The youngest member of Team USA, Gustafson competes with her older brother Spenser as her guide.
"He's the best brother you could imagine and an amazing skier," Gustafson told Vail Daily in 2025. "I definitely think it brings us closer and we have a little bit of a different way of communicating than some of the other teams."
Skiing talents extend beyond Gustafson's brother, as their father raced alpine skiing for Boston College and taught her to ski at a young age. She finished no lower than fourth in every race she attempted leading up to the 2026 Winter Paralympics, winning seven consecutive FIS races in giant slalom, slalom, and super-G.
"As my dad tells me, I always approach every day like I am that Paralympian that I want to be," she added. "So I just go into the mindset that I can do it."
How to Watch Meg Gustafson at the 2026 Winter Paralympics
Gustafson will compete in all five Paralympic alpine disciplines — slalom, giant slalom, super-G, downhill, and super combined — starting with downhill vision impaired on March 7th. All events will be broadcast live on Paramount+.
The International Paralympic Committee announced record women's participation at the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Milan Cortina, with 160 women's sports athletes competing across six sports.
The milestone marks the fourth consecutive Winter Games to feature a record number of women's sports athletes.
Women's participation increased by 24 athletes compared to the Beijing 2022 Games. The growth demonstrates expanding opportunities for women's Paralympians throughout winter sports.
"That's fantastic," US wheelchair curler Laura Dwyer said of the record. "As a female, as a mom, as someone injured, it feels amazing to be a part of that, to show the way for others."
Dwyer became paralyzed from the waist down in 2012, after a 1,000-pound tree branch fell on her while on the job as a landscaper. She now competes for Team USA in wheelchair curling.
Five sports are seeing record women's participation this year. Para alpine skiing leads with 57 women's competitors, followed by para cross-country skiing with 65, para biathlon with 45, wheelchair curling with 25, and para snowboard with 15.
Para ice hockey will feature a female athlete for the second consecutive Games and fourth time overall since the sport joined the Paralympic program. The sport remains mixed-gender despite excluding a separate women's competition.
The 2026 Winter Paralympics opened Friday with a ceremony in Verona, Italy, as 616 total athletes from 56 nations compete for 79 medal events through March 15th.
The competition coincides with the Winter Paralympics' 50th anniversary, after the inaugural 1976 Games featured fewer than 200 athletes from 18 countries competing in just two sports.
Women's para ice hockey will not compete at the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Italy, despite a men's tournament taking place. Both athletes and the associated governing bodies have now shifted their focus to the 2030 Paralympic Games in the French Alps.
The sport reached a major milestone in August 2025 when Slovakia hosted the first-ever women's Para Ice Hockey World Championships. The men's World Championships predates the women's by more than 25 years.
USA Hockey defeated rival Canada 7-1 in the inaugural gold medal game. The tournament featured teams from Norway, Great Britain, Australia, and Team World, with Kelsey DiClaudio earning tournament MVP honors for Team USA.
"This event itself, it felt groundbreaking and hopefully it is groundbreaking," DiClaudio said in August.
The sport needs more fully functioning national teams to qualify for Paralympic inclusion. Team World represented a step forward at Worlds, featuring athletes from nine different countries aiming to help grow the sport in their home nations.
"We're not going to stop until we get to the Paralympics," DiClaudio continued. "My teammates and I, we dream of being Paralympians."
With the 2026 Winter Paralympics decision in the books, the sport remains focused on 2030. The World Championship has also become an annual event, providing regular international competition between Winter Games.
USA head coach Rose Misiewicz acknowledged the work ahead. "To get to the Paralympics would be a dream," she said. "The World Championships were a huge milestone that needed to be accomplished, and we have some more milestones to go."
USA Hockey captain Hilary Knight opened up this week, telling CBS Mornings on Monday that she played with a torn MCL at the 2026 Winter Olympics — and skated through the injury to a gold medal.
"To be able to play through injury was definitely a mental sort of gymnastic challenge for myself — and also physical," said Knight on the morning show. "We've got some amazing support staff that did their best to get me out there and perform at my best, as best as I could."
Knight's best translates to the USA's best, as the 36-year-old became the all-time top US scorer during last month's Olympics when she slotted in the game-tying goal that sent the team's 2-1 gold medal win over Canada into its decisive overtime.
"I'm not walking around the best," Knight said about her injury. "I'm missing a few games for the Seattle Torrent now."
Her club team placed the PWHL pioneer on their long-term injured reserve, with Hilary Knight joining her USA teammate and Minnesota Frost captain Kendall Coyne Schofield on the third-year pro league's injured list for the foreseeable future.
The Torrent currently sit last in the 2025/26 PWHL standings, while the two-time reigning champion Frost are currently in third place — just five points below the league-leading Montréal Victoire — with just under two months left in regular-season play.
Acclaimed actor Stanley Tucci hosted the US women's hockey team for lunch in Milan earlier this month, shortly before footage of the men's team eating McDonald's at the White House sparked widespread fan reaction.
USA Hockey posted photos on Instagram showing Tucci dining with the women's Olympic team on February 10th, captioning the image "Lunch with @stanleytucci…an absolute dream for members." The post subsequently earned more than 90,000 likes and 574 comments.
The 65-year-old actor is known for his roles in The Devil Wears Prada as well as hosting the food series Searching for Italy. He is also an Olympic sports enthusiast, rubbing elbows with gold medal-winning women's hockey stars Hilary Knight and Kendall Coyne Schofield during the Milan lunch.
Meanwhile, a video showing the US men's hockey team eating McDonald's at President Trump's White House recently circulated on Reddit and social media. In the clip, players in navy "USA" shirts sat around a long table stacked with burgers and fries.
Fans were quick to point out the difference between the two victory meals. One user tweeted that the women's lunch was "infinitely cooler than a White House visit," while another fan said they would "give anything to share a meal with stanley tucci."
While both US teams won Olympic gold medals, the conflicting meals have followed the conversation off the ice.
US captain Hilary Knight criticized comments Trump made about the women's hockey team on Wednesday, as the Olympic gold medalist called the President's words a "distasteful joke" during a SportsCenter appearance.
Trump made the comment during a congratulatory call to the men's hockey team, as the players celebrated their Olympic gold medal win. He invited the men's team to the State of the Union address at the White House, then joked he would have to invite the women's hockey team too or face impeachment. Several men's players laughed at Trump's remarks, drawing public criticism after the video went viral.
Knight later said Trump's comment overshadowed the women's team's Olympic achievements. "I thought it was sort of a distasteful joke and unfortunately that is overshadowing a lot of the success," she told the ESPN broadcast, emphasizing celebrating accomplishments rather than focusing on lapses in support.
Knight led Team USA to its third Olympic gold this year, scoring the tying goal against Canada in the final game's last two minutes. Megan Keller then netted the overtime winner to secure the 2-1 victory — and the Knight's second gold medal.
The 36-year-old also became the most decorated player in US women's hockey history, capping her Olympic career ranked first among US skaters in goals (15) and points (33) over five Winter Games.
With the PWHL and NCAA hockey returning to the ice this week, the women's team opted to decline their White House invitation.
"Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate," the team stated Monday.
US skier Lindsey Vonn faced a possible left leg amputation after a devastating crash in the downhill event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, the decorated star said in a social media video on Monday.
In addition to a broken right ankle and left fibula fracture, Vonn suffered an extremely complex left tibia fracture after clipping a gate mere seconds into her downhill run on February 8th — just days after tearing her left ACL in the leadup to Olympic competition.
In the aftermath of the trauma, the 41-year-old experienced compartment syndrome, a complication in which bleeding or swelling cause significant pressure that, in serious cases, can lead to nerve damage, muscle damage, and even limb loss — necessitating a procedure called a fasciotomy.
Vonn actually credits her torn ACL with saving her leg, as the previous injury was the reason that Team USA orthopedic surgeon Dr. Tom Hackett, who performed the emergency fasciotomy, traveled to Italy with the skier.
"If I hadn't [torn my ACL,] Tom wouldn't have been there. He wouldn't have been able to save my leg," Vonn said. "I feel very lucky and grateful for him."
Following multiple surgeries in both Italy and the US, Vonn is out of the hospital but wheelchair-bound, as the five-time Olympian faces an extended rehabilitation and recovery period that will likely take longer than a year.
"It has been quite the journey and by far the most extreme and painful and challenging injury I've ever faced in my entire life times 100," Vonn explained. "It's going to be a long road."
That said, Vonn has "no regrets" about her fight to return to the Olympic stage.
"I wish it had ended differently, but I'd rather go down swinging than not try at all," she said. "This year was incredible and so worth everything."
Eileen Gu capped her 2026 Olympic run with a bang, as the Chinese freestyle skier won her first gold medal of the Milano-Cortina Games — and the third of her storied career — in the women's halfpipe final on Sunday.
After successfully defending her 2022 halfpipe crown, Gu has now medaled in every Olympic event she's ever attempted, earning three gold and three silver medals at the age of 22.
"The reason I love the records so much is that it's not about man or woman," Gu said. "I'm the most decorated freeskier of all time, male or female."
The San Francisco-born freeski star has become the relatively new Olympic sport's premier global ambassador, entering the 2026 Winter Olympics as its highest-paid athlete while opting to compete for her mother's homeland of China — a choice that ruffled some political feathers.
"Somebody who grew up in the United Sates of America, who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that make this country a great place, I would hope they want to compete with the United States of America," Vice President JD Vance told Fox News. "So, I'm going to root for American athletes."
"So many athletes compete for a different country… people only have a problem with me doing it because they kind of lump China into this monolithic entity," Gu said in response. "And also, because I win. Like, if I wasn't doing well, I think that they probably wouldn't care as much, and that's OK for me."
Another winter sports icon is hanging up her skis, as Team USA cross-country star Jessie Diggins competed in her final Olympic race on Sunday, finishing fifth in the inaugural women's 50km mass start classic to round out her decorated career.
"If you had told me even a year ago, I'd be in the fight for a bronze medal in a 50K classic, I would not have believed you," said the four-time Olympic medalist. "I can confidently say I could not possibly have tried harder or gotten more out of my body."
"I got to end [my Olympic career] on a beautiful day and at a venue that I love so much," Diggins added. "I'm just really proud of this last Olympics, really grateful, and really happy. I'm leaving here full of joy."
The 34-year-old revolutionized the sport in the US, joining teammate Kikkan Randall in leading the nation to its first-ever cross-country gold medal when the pair won the team sprint at the 2018 PyeongChang Games.
Diggins then picked up three more medals, earning silver in the 30km freestyle and bronze in the individual sprint at the 2022 Beijing Olympics before taking bronze in last week's 10km interval start freestyle.
Saying that this season would be her last as a professional, Diggins also announced plans to close out her career at the World Cup finals in March.
"I'm just so proud of being gritty and being able to give my best and not just in a bib, off the snow as well, doing what I need to do to be a good human and try to make the world a little bit better," she said.
Now that the final anthem of the 2026 Games has sounded, Team USA has officially shattered the women's Winter Olympics medal count record with 17 total medals across all sports — excluding mixed events.
Six of those 17 were golds — from alpine skier Breezy Johnson's downhill win and bobsled legend Elana Meyers Taylor's first-ever Olympic gold to the US women topping the hockey podium — adding another high-mark to the list as the USA collectively took home a program-record 12 gold medals in 2026.
"Our team is so strong," said slalom champion Mikaela Shiffrin. "Everybody just showed up with so much courage and heart here. I'm so proud to be part of this American team."
Counting individual, team, and mixed events, more than 40 US women's sports athletes are leaving the Games with at least one medal — another Winter Olympics record for Team USA.
Along with mixed events, USA women helped earn 21 of the team's 33 medals in Milan, with their medal count including eight of the team's 12 golds and all but one of the nine 2026 bronzes.
"You still have to look back and point to Title IX and the effects of the ability to have those competitive years in an elite collegiate system that helps drive the success for women in ways that other countries just haven't yet benefited," explained US Olympic and Paralympic CEO Sarah Hirshland.