BarcelonaAll set in Italy for the Winter Olympics. The opening ceremony will be at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in Milan, although some competitions already started in preliminary stages on Wednesday with an initial scare, as the light failed in the curling hall. The third Winter Games held so far in Italy arrive with the locals presenting a large delegation that aspires to get medals in front of historical powers such as Austria, Germany, Norway, the United States or Canada. A Games still without sanctioned Russia, which explore a model with different headquarters all over the Alps – never before had there been so many sub-headquarters and such a large territory – and with sports that are being released in order to shape a Winter Games that are competitive and spectacular in a context of climate change. Unlike four years ago in China, however, the weather has cooperated and there have been heavy snowfalls.
The Spanish delegation, which in its entire history has won just five medals and a single gold – in 1972 with Paquito Fernández Ochoa – is sending 20 athletes to the Games, 11 of them Catalan, with podium options in different sports. But as always happens, some athletes stand out after years of good work. And, symbol of modern times, also for the virality in the networks on some occasions. These would be some of the names to follow.
Mikaela Shiffrin (United States, 30 years old, alpine skiing)
The skier from Colorado is an international star, with three Olympic medals in skiing, two of which are gold. Four years ago, in China, Shiffrin didn’t get any and it was a surprise, and that’s why he wants to get rid of the thorn in Italy, where he aims for three medals. The only female skier with more than 100 ski World Cup victories years ago surpassed Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark’s record for most successes in this competition and arrives in shape, ready to be world champion and Olympian in the same year. Engaged to Norwegian skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, at home they have experienced the other side of the sport this year, as Kilde will withdraw from the Games because he has not been able to overcome the pains caused by an old fall. In addition to winning tests, Shiffrin is a shareholder in an American professional women’s soccer club, the Denver Summit.
Brothers Domen and Nika Prevc (Slovenia, 26 years and 20 years, jumps)
In recent years, Domen Prevc is the great dominator of a spectacular discipline such as trampoline jumping. This January he has already dominated the Quatre Trampolines tournaments and equaled his brother Peter’s milestone. Never before had two brothers won the Quatre Trampolines, but to top it all off, the younger sister of both of them, Nika, comes stomping along, ready to make her debut at the Games. In Slovenia, sport is in the blood. A small state but which has champions in different disciplines, from basketball to cycling, but where the jumpers are top-level stars. In fact, Primoz Roglic himself, cycling champion, used to jump like the Prevc when he was young. Domen broke the world record last year by jumping 254.5 meters on the giant trampoline in Planica (Slovenia) and looks stronger than his rivals, especially Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi. If Domen aspires to four medals at the Games, Nika is also a favorite, having dominated the women’s World Cup for three years. It should be remembered that two other brothers, Peter and Cene, won silver four years ago in the team competition. That is, if Domen and Nika do not fail, four members of the family will have medals. All but sister Ema. The only one who doesn’t jump in the snow, since hers is a different stage: she’s a dancer.
Johannes Hosflot Klaebo (Norway, 29 years old)
“He plays in a different league,” the Catalan Jaume Pueyo used to say about the great dominator of cross-country skiing. Norway, let’s remember, is still the country with the most Olympic medals in the Winter Games despite having few inhabitants. A state where snow sports are in the blood thanks to people like Klaebo, who has already won seven Olympic medals, five of which are gold. This year he seems destined to win the World Cup for the sixth time ahead of his rival, compatriot Harald Östberg Amundsen. In Norway, Klaebo is a big star with thousands of followers on a YouTube channel he has with his brother. His family, in fact, is key. His father is his manager and his coach is his grandfather, with whom he started skiing when he was little.
Eileen Gu (People’s Republic of China, 22, acrobatic skiing)
Four years ago it was one of the names of the Games. A young woman caught between two worlds. Well, stuck maybe not, as she moves with comfort despite being a California born young woman who decided to be an Olympian with her motherland, China. Two states facing each other politically and sportingly, two opposing cultures. The two she loves. In China she is a media figure with millions of followers for her daring style of dress and for her sporting achievements, since at the age of 18 she won three gold medals in acrobatic skiing. When she competes as a Chinese, she goes by the name Ailing Gu, but her modeling career goes by the American name, Eileen. Cover of the magazine Time, she arrives at the Games in good shape and as a strong favorite to take home even more medals.
Connor McDavid (Canada, 29, ice hockey)
In Canada, ice hockey is a religion. The country that has won gold the most times and enjoys defeating its neighbors to the south. But the Canadians’ last gold in men’s hockey was in 2014. The Russians won in 2018 and the Finns in 2022, editions where the Canadians did not reach the semifinals. To try to solve this national problem, Canada is bringing a big team to Italy in which its biggest star, a man who is considered by some to be the best player in the world at the moment and captain of the Edmonton Oilers, is making his Olympic debut.
Ester Ledecka (Czech Republic, 30 years old, alpine and snow skiing)
Any Czech knows the Ledeckas. In plural Ester Ledecka is a star destined for great things, as the mother was a great figure skater and the father is still a rock star, singer in the group Zentour and judge of TV music shows. Maternal grandfather was Jan Kaplac, who won two Olympic medals and seven world championships playing ice hockey with the old Czechoslovakia. Ester, in fact, started out as a hockey player before jumping onto the ski slopes. And in what form! Four years ago, she became the first woman to win two golds in two different sports, skiing and snowboarding, winning the supergiant and then parallel downhill snowboarding. In the Italian Alps he wants to do it again.
Marco Odermatt (Switzerland, 28 years old, alpine skiing)
It’s hard to imagine any scenario other than seeing the Swiss return home with more medals hanging around his neck. World champion in three different disciplines (downhill, slalom and supergiant), he has been ruling the slopes for a few years with his brave style that has made him the most recognized Swiss athlete along with Roger Federer. Four years ago in Beijing he won gold in the giant slalom event, but this year he wants even more. He has dominated the World Cup all season, although he lost in Kitzbühel just a few weeks ago to young Italian Giovanni Franzoni, who is ready to wage war and make the home fans go crazy on the slopes of Bormio. Odermatt’s challenge would be to win all three individual alpine skiing golds at the same Games, a feat achieved by only two men to date, Austria’s Toni Sailer in 1956 and France’s Jean-Claude Killy in 1968.
Jutta Leerdam (Netherlands, 27, speed skating)
Speed skating on ice, discipline where for the first time a Catalan, Nil Llop, will be an Olympian, he speaks Dutch. Skaters from the Netherlands have won more medals than any other nation and are looking to continue their dominance in Milan thanks to the likes of seven-time world champion Jutta Leerdam. Four years ago he won silver in the 1,000 meters, but now he has vowed to return home with at least one gold medal in a YouTube live stream from his partner, the youtuber American Jake Paul, who is also a boxer. Plegats have millions of followers on the networks, where they share images of their luxurious life. In the Netherlands, the Leerdam lifestyle has caused some debate as many people doubt whether it will be able to compete well with so many pleasure trips. For the time being, the results are in favor of a woman who will be one of the biggest media stars in Milan. win or not
Ilia Malinin (United States, 21, figure skating)
The man who arouses passions in American skating. And as it usually happens, with family roots. His mother was skater Tatiana Malinina, born in Russia but Olympic with Uzbekistan. And the father, skater Roman Skorniakov, who was also Russian but was international with Uzbekistan. The parents sought the American dream and ended up in Virginia, where Ilia began to stand out from an early age. A two-time world champion, he has four United States championships in a row, despite being very young, with a seductive and bold style, which led him in 2022 to become the first man to nail a quadruple Axel in an international competition.
Lindsay Vonn (United States, 41, alpine skiing)
An indomitable woman. A few weeks ago she suffered a hard fall that seemed to put her out of her sixth Games, but the Minnesota skier has announced that she will be there with cruciate ligaments. Vonn is a media star in the United States, with reporters following her love life (she married skier Thomas Vonn and after they split she started a relationship with golf superstar Tiger Woods). She has contracts with commercial brands, and like Mikaela Shiffrin, she has also invested as a shareholder in a professional women’s soccer club, Angel City FC. But if she can do all that, it’s because she’s a great skier who decided to get back on the slopes after five years out of it because of injuries like the one that left her wearing a titanium prosthesis in her knee. After not being at the 2022 Games, she returns at the age of 41 very strong, with two victories in the World Cup. Vonn, Olympic champion a long time ago in 2010, wants to star in a 100% Hollywood story: the great champion who returns after years of retirement and prevails over younger rivals despite injuries. Don’t rule it out.
