We’ve entered one of the more magical sports weekends this year.
While today’s focus is on the Super Bowl, the Milan-Cortina Olympics kicked off Friday with an opening ceremony that “was elegant, in a sleek, clean-lined Italian way,” according to my colleague, critic Robert Lloyd.
The United States has 232 athletes at the Milan-Cortina Games, its largest Winter Olympic delegation ever. Depending on whether or not injuries keep some Olympians from their events, the total number of competitors could surpass the record of 228 set at Pyeongchang 2018.
My colleague Thuc Nhi Nguyen is one member of the small but mighty L.A. Times team on the scene in Italy, filing features and coverage.
For those excited about the Games’ start, Nguyen wrote a wonderful primer on the topic Americans to watch.
Let’s take a look at some of her selections.
(Francisco Seco / Associated Press)
The Torrance native is trying to become the first snowboarder to win three consecutive gold medals in the half-pipe, but will be competing with a torn labrum.
Her status for the Games was in question after she suffered the injury during a training run in Switzerland about a month ago.
(Millo Moravski/Agence Zoom / Getty Images)
Six years and one knee replacement after retiring, Vonn is back on the Olympic stage.
She wasn’t placed on the Olympic team simply for sentimental reasons: The 41-year-old earned her first World Cup podium in seven years with a second-place super-G finish in Sun Valley, Idaho, last March, and in December, she claimed her first World Cup win since 2018 at St. Moritz in Switzerland.
Vonn sustained a knee injury when she crashed out in a World Cup downhill race a week before the Games’ start, but she expects to compete Sunday.
(Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
“The Quad God” finally gets to make his Olympic debut after his controversial omission in 2022.
With the world’s only quadruple axel, the 21-year-old Malinin is the overwhelming favorite to win the United States’ second consecutive men’s singles gold medal, following up on Nathan Chen, who won in 2022 but decided not to participate in this year’s Games.
The United States hasn’t had back-to-back Olympic champions since Scott Hamilton and Brian Boitano in 1984 and 1988, respectively.
(Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
The three-time ice dance world champions Chock and Bates enter their fourth Olympic Games together looking to cap off their competitive careers with gold medals in individual ice dancing.
Chock, a Redondo Beach native, and Bates, now in his fifth Olympics, were part of the gold-medal team in Beijing, but neither has finished on the podium in their individual event.
(Seth Harrison / The Journal News / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Welcome to a new era for U.S. curling. For the first time in two decades, John Shuster will not represent the United States at an Olympic Games.
The skip who led his team to the United States’ only curling gold medal in 2018 will give way to the 24-year-old Casper, whose team upset Shuster’s at the U.S. team trials.
Team Casper includes Luc Violette, Ben Richardson, Aidan Oldenburg and Rich Ruohonen. Ruohonen, a 54-year-old alternate, would be the oldest American to compete in a Winter Olympics in any medal sport if he is called into action.
For more, check out Nguyen’s full list here.
(Al Seib / For The Times)
(Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photograph by Noam Galai / Getty Images)
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