{"id":4755,"date":"2026-01-01T00:00:57","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T06:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/?p=4755"},"modified":"2025-12-31T16:18:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T22:18:22","slug":"olympic-qualifiers-overview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/4755\/sports\/olympic-qualifiers-overview\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic Qualifiers Overview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0As the dates for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina grow closer, both sports enthusiasts and casual watchers alike wait in excitement for athletes’ qualifications in the great international games.\u00a0 <\/span>Originating in Ancient Greece<\/span><\/a> as a religious festival in honor of the Greek god Zeus, the Olympics originally focused on sports such as wrestling, discus, javelin, or the long jump. But after the games revival in 1896, the International Olympic Committee set out to integrate as many sports as possible. In 1925, the first Winter Olympics were held, and have been a staple in athlete culture since.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The competitions that determine which athletes will be competing are split between various <\/span>regional or world championships, and specific olympic trials for each event<\/span><\/a>. But depending on the sport, many individuals are chosen in their respective national championships. Over the course of 2025, Olympic competitors were selected in a multitude of winter sports, such as curling, ice hockey, snowboarding, speed skating, and figure skating, among other events. Alpine skiing, luge, bobsleigh & skeleton, and Nordic combined will be assessed <\/span>this month<\/span><\/a>, cutting close to the start date in Milan. New editions to the Winter Olympics include ski mountaineering, in which athletes participate in a race to effectively<\/span> navigate challenging alpine terrain, both up and down hill.<\/span><\/a> Emily Harrop of France and Orio Cardona Coll of Spain <\/span>won the women\u2019s and men’s ski mountaineering sprint race<\/span><\/a> at the Milano Cortina 2026 test event in Bormio last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Other highlights include reigning world champions Ilia Malinin\u2019s and Alysa Lui\u2019s <\/span>participation in ISU Challenger Series Lombardia Trophy<\/span><\/a> in Bergamo, Italy for figure skating. Both from America, Ilia Malinin won the men\u2019s event, and Alysa Lui came in fourth overall in the women\u2019s. But despite their dominance, <\/span>Japan may be a strong competitor<\/span><\/a> in the Milan Cortina Games, boasting top pairs team Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, and two-time olympian <\/span>Kaori Sakamoto, after she won the Japan National Championships<\/span><\/a>. Being Sakamoto\u2019s last games, it\u2019s likely to result in a captivating race for gold between the two countries, echoing their rivalry at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Equally engaging matchups<\/span><\/a> include U.S. vs. Canada for both women\u2019s and men\u2019s hockey. With the exception of the 2006 Winter Olympics and 2019 World Championship, Canada and the U.S. have gone head to head for gold at every world and Olympic competition for women\u2019s hockey since the first IIHF Women\u2019s World Championships in 1990. Similarly, the men\u2019s teams have an equally heated rivalry, as in early 2025 the men\u2019s hockey teams broke out into a brawl at the Four Nations Face-off. Though due to fighting being prohibited in the Olympics, it’s unlikely there will be too many physical altercations during the games.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wisconsin native Jordan Stolz<\/span><\/a>, is the gold-medal favorite for three speed-skating events: the 500m, 1000m, and 1500m. Born just outside Milwaukee, he became the youngest ever world champion and gold medalist at the 2023 World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships, and the youngest man to win an individual World Cup race, among other achievements. Though placing modestly in the 2022 Olympics, he’s emerged out of the 2024-2025 season with multiple records and 18-straight World Cup wins.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In snowboarding, <\/span>Chloe Kim returns to the Olympics after securing the half-pipe world title.<\/span><\/a> After becoming the first woman snowboarder to win back to back halfpipe gold medals at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, her name has skyrocketed to household fame. <\/span>Milan will be her 3rd Olympics, but it may have been her fourth <\/span><\/a>if she was old enough to compete in the 2014 Sochi games. At just 14, she won gold at the X-games and continued to defend that title for many years. Now she aims to become the first snowboarder to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals in halfpipe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, this year\u2019s Winter Olympics are sure to be worth watching\u2013even if it’s to yell at Canadian hockey players over the TV.<\/span><\/p>\n



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\u00a0As the dates for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina grow closer, both sports enthusiasts and casual watchers alike wait in excitement for athletes’ qualifications in the great international games.\u00a0 Originating in Ancient Greece as a religious festival in honor of the Greek god Zeus, the Olympics originally focused on sports such as wrestling,…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":4756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[331],"staff_name":[304],"class_list":["post-4755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-january-26","staff_name-marian-wallace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4757,"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4755\/revisions\/4757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4755"},{"taxonomy":"staff_name","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/staff_name?post=4755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}