U.S. Winter Olympic Athletes To Watch

SI Staff | Feb 5, 2013

U.S. Winter Olympic Athletes To Watch /

U.S. Winter Olympic Athletes To Watch

Ashley Wagner

Wagner was third at the 2010 Olympic trials, where the top two made the Vancouver team. She's since become the class of U.S. ladies figure skating and is a medal contender.

Gracie Gold

Gold, one of two Americans hoping to become the first "Gold" to compete in the Olympics, stormed back from ninth place in the short program at January's nationals to finish second to Wanger. Just 17, she could be the future of U.S. figure skating.

Evan Lysacek

Lysacek, the reigning Olympic men's figure skating champion, hasn't competed since those Vancouver Games. But he plans on coming back and attempting to be the first back-to-back champion since Dick Button in 1948 and 1952.

Jeremy Abbott

Abbott, 27, is a three-time U.S. champion but has never finished better than fifth at worlds or the Olympics. He missed the world championships team this year.

Max Aaron

Aaron was the breakthrough of January's figure skating nationals, landing two quadruple jumps in his free skate to win his first U.S. title.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White

Davis and White claimed their fifth consecutive U.S. ice dancing title this year, and will likely battle Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir for the Olympic gold medal.

Lindsey Vonn

One of the biggest stories of the coming year will be Vonn's rehab and potential return from blowing out her knee at the world championships. Will she make it back?

Julia Mancuso

A big-event skier, Mancuso has more world and Olympic medals than World Cup race wins in her career. She's the reining silver medalist in the downhill and combined.

Mikaela Shiffrin

Shiffrin, 17, was already being groomed as the next U.S. female Alpine skiing star. That process may accelerate with Vonn's injury. Shiffrin could be the gold-medal favorite in the slalom.

Ted Ligety

Ligety, a 2006 Olympic gold medalst, could win multiple Alpine skiing medals after taking world titles in the giant slalom in 2011 and the super-G this year.

Hannah Kearney

Kearney has had dominant stretches and injury issues since her 2010 Olympic gold medal in moguls. The three-time Olympian would be the first moguls skier, man or woman, to win two Olympic golds.

Kikkan Randall

No U.S. women has ever medaled in Olympic cross-country skiing. Randall, who debuted at the 2002 Games at age 19, leads the World Cup sprint standings.

Bill Demong

Demong will be hard-pressed to better his 2010 Olympic performance -- gold, silver, carrying the Stars and Stripes at the closing ceremony and proposing to his future wife. He and the Nordic Combined team haven't posted inspiring results since Vancouver.

Sarah Hendrickson

Sarah Hendrickson already knows what it takes to win on the Olympic ski jumping hill in Sochi -- she won the World Cup event held on the mountain.

Dylan Ferguson

Ferguson made the 2010 Olympic team but did not compete due to an emergency appendectomy. He'll battle the Belarusians and Chinese for an aerials medal.

Heather McPhie

At 28, McPhie is flying toward a second Olympics, winning back-to-back dual moguls World Cups in December and placing second at Deer Valley in January.

Bobby Brown

The 21-year-old leads the pack in the new Olympic sport of ski slopestyle. He's the 2010 X Games champion.

Shaun White

White will not only be going for his third straight Olympic halfpipe title, he also plans on entering the new event of snowboard slopestyle.

Seth Wescott

Seth Wescott is the only snowboarder to win gold in the snowboard cross event at the Olympics (snowboard cross became an Olympic event in 2006). Will he relinquish his title this year, or will he defend for a third straight Olympics?

Arielle Gold

Gold, 16, the other American hoping to be the first 'Gold' to compete in the Olympics. She's the reigning snowboard halfpipe world champion.

Lindsey Jacobellis

Could the third time be the charm for Lindsey Jacobellis? In the 2006 Olympics, she had the snowboard cross event in the bag, until she showboated and fell just before the finish line, and in 2010 she crashed out during the semifinal run.

Hannah Teter

Teter won the 2006 Olympic title and silver in 2010. She'll be fighting teammates Arielle Gold, Gretchen Bleiler, Kelly Clark and Elena Hight for one of four Olympic spots.

Kelly Clark

Clark, known for her big air, won Olympic gold way back in 2002 and bronze in 2010. Since the Vancouver Game, she's won back-to-back-to-back X Games titles.

Heather Richardson

Richardson hopes to two-Olympics medal drought for U.S. female speedskaters. She's the reigning world sprint champion and a podium threat in the 500 and 1,000 meters.

Shani Davis

In 2006 speedskater Shani Davis took gold in the 1000m event, and became the first black athlete from any nation to win an individual gold medal at the Winter Olympics. In 2010 he defended that title. Can he do it three Games in a row?

J.R. Celski

Celski takes the mantle as the top U.S. short track skater with Apolo Ohno and Katherine Reutter retired (though Ohno could come back). Celski won two bronze medals in Vancouver.

John Daly

Daly is the top U.S. skeleton slider, but in a sport dominated by Europeans he ranks outside the top five in the World Cup standings.

Noelle Pikus-Pace

Pikus-Pace retired after finishing fourth in Vancouver but came back last year with a fury. She won silver at the world championships.

Katie Uhlaender

Uhlaender attempted to make the London Olympic team in weightlifting, but her forte is in skeleton, where she's the 2011 world champion.

Julia Clukey

Clukey ended Erin Hamlin's streak of five straight national titles last fall. The U.S. has never medaled in singles luge. Clukey was ninth at the recent world championships.

Steve Langton

Langton (left) is the only new member of the Night Train crew. His three teammates already have Olympic gold medals, but Langton has yet to reach an Olympic podium.

Steven Holcomb

Holcomb pilots the Night Train sled. He snapped a 62-year gold-medal drought for the U.S. in bobsled at the 2010 Olympics.

Elana Meyers

Meyers, a former softball player at George Washington, looks to better her bronze medal from Vancouver, where she was a brakewoman. She now pilots her own sled and recently won world silver.

Lolo Jones

Two-time Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones is trying again to win that elusive Olympic medal -- this time in the Winter Games. Jones qualified for the U.S. world bobsled team as a push athlete, and has a chance at making the Olympic team in a year.

Jonathan Quick

Quick is projected as the U.S. starting goalie after winning the Stanley Cup with the Kings last season. Though Ryan Miller, who was stellar in 2010, could have a say.

Jocelyne Lamoureux and Monique Lamoureux-Kolls

Twin sisters Jocelyne (17) and Monique (7) became the first set of twins to ever play women's ice hockey in the Olympics, when they helped the U.S. team to the silver medal in Vancouver.

Published Feb 5, 2013

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