While there was a men's and women's individual combined event at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the event will be replaced with the men's and women's team combined event. Whereas one skier performed both the slalom and downhill runs in the individual combined, one skier from each country's team now will perform each discipline.

Additionally, the mixed team parallel event, added to the Alpine skiing disciplines at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, has been removed from the catalog of events.

From the U.S., speed specialist Lauren Macuga plans to ski at her first Winter Olympic Games in Milan Cortina. Macuga earned her first FIS World Cup win in January 2025 at age 22, winning the super-G in St. Anton, Austria. A month later, she finished tied for third at the 2025 World Alpine Skiing Championships in the super-G, and was runner-up in the downhill at the Kvitfjell World Cup stage a month after that. Macuga has a chance to shine in the super-G during the 2026 Winter Olympics and make her mark on Alpine skiing's biggest stage.

While he earned gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics in the men's giant slalom, Switzerland's Marco Odermatt has taken the skiing world by storm. Since 2022, Odermatt has won four consecutive FIS World Cup overall Crystal Globes and three titles at the Alpine skiing world championships (downhill and giant slalom in 2023, super-G in 2025). Odermatt's international performances, highlighted by 13 Crystal Globes, make him a contender for the downhill, giant slalom, super-G and team combined at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Since Beijing, the U.S. has had moderate success in international Alpine skiing competition, with a majority of that success attributed to Mikaela Shiffrin.

Shiffrin starred at the 2023 Alpine Skiing World Championships, winning the giant slalom and finishing runner-up in the super-G and slalom. While she struggled at the 2022 Winter Games, Shiffrin won the 2022 FIS World Cup overall Crystal Globe a month later. She followed it up in 2023 with an even better season, clinching the overall title again as well as the slalom and giant slalom Crystal Globes. While she did not win the overall title in 2024, she finished third in the standings and won her second consecutive slalom title.

Though a crash at Killington took her out of contention in the 2024-25 FIS World Cup standings, Shiffrin captured more headlines that season with her 100th World Cup win in Sestriere, Italy, on Feb. 23. She captured the win in the slalom, following it up a month later with win No. 101 in the slalom at Sun Valley.

At the 2025 Alpine Skiing World Championships in Saalbach, the U.S. women's team secured three medals, including two wins from Breezy Johnson, who previously was suspended from all Alpine skiing competition for 14 months for a substance violation. Johnson won the women's downhill at Saalbach and paired up with Shiffrin to take the women's combined. Macuga tied for third in the super-G, earning her first world championships podium.

Success has been more limited by the men's Alpine team in recent years since Beijing. Ryan Cochran-Siegle, the U.S. team's sole medalist in 2022, has had one podium since the Winter Games on the FIS World Cup circuit when he secured third place at Val Gardena in December 2024. He finished inside the top-10 rankings for downhill events in 2022 and 2024 and in the No. 10 spot for the super-G in 2022.

Bryce Bennett found success on the FIS World Cup stage in the downhill, finishing within the top-10 downhill rankings in the same years as Cochran-Siegle. He had standout wins on the World Cup stage in each year and two total podiums during the 2024 season, solidifying him in the No. 5 spot in the 2024 downhill rankings.

On the technical side, River Radamus achieved his first individual podium in 2024 in the giant slalom and finished just outside the top-10 rankings in the event. The U.S. men's Alpine team has not earned a medal in an event at the world championships since 2015.

The U.S. team also captured their first mixed team parallel title at worlds, with skiing from Radamus, Tommy Ford, Paula Moltzan and Nina O’Brien.

After missing out on medals at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, Shiffrin will attempt to secure hardware at Milan Cortina. The most accomplished U.S. skier of all time and winningest skier on the FIS World Cup stage is fresh off her 101st win, which she earned at Sun Valley in the slalom. With a gold medal in 2026, she'd earn the most gold medals of any U.S. Alpine skier all time, breaking her three-way tie with Ted Ligety and Andrea Mead Lawrence. She is one medal off tying Julia Mancuso for the most Alpine skiing medals by an American woman and three medals off Bode Miller for most U.S. Alpine skiing medals.

In a surprise comeback, Lindsey Vonn has returned from a six-year hiatus in hopes of ending her historic career on a high note with a medal at Milan Cortina. Vonn's last medal came at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, a bronze in the downhill, her best event. Despite the six-year hiatus, Vonn managed to finish runner-up in the super-G at the FIS Ski World Cup Finals at Sun Valley, her first podium finish in over 2,500 days.

With a plethora of talent on the U.S. women's Alpine team, there are multiple choices for who will be selected for the Alpine combined event. Shiffrin most likely will partake in the slalom run, and a trio of speed athletes are in consideration for the downhill run: Johnson, Vonn and Macuga.

The U.S. men's Alpine ski team represented the sole medal for Americans in Alpine skiing events in 2022, as Cochran-Siegle will look to add another medal after his downhill bronze at the Beijing Games. Radamus, who missed a bronze medal by one spot in the 2022 Beijing Games, looks to finish business in the super-G and take home his first Olympic medal.

After dominating the sport last Olympics with nine Alpine skiing medals, the Swiss Alpine team is looking to repeat their success in Milan Cortina, headlined by Odermatt, a contender in every men's discipline. Lara Gut-Behrami, a three-time Olympic medalist, two-time world champion and two-time FIS World Cup overall winner, announced that the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics will be her last. She attempts to ride into the sunset after a strong World Cup campaign highlighted by her super-G title.

Two notable women's Alpine skiers will be skiing in the comfort of their home country: Italians Sofia Goggia and Federica Brignone. Goggia, a speed specialist, finished third in the overall World Cup standings in 2025 after returning from a season-ending leg injury in 2024. The longtime friend of Vonn will look to swipe a medal at Milan Cortina; her last came at the 2018 PyeongChang Games when she won gold in the downhill. Brignone, who dominated the 2025 World Cup season and captured the overall Crystal Globe, suffered a season-ending injury at the 2025 World Championships, tearing her ACL and fracturing her leg in multiple places. It is unknown if Brignone will be ready for the Milan Cortina Games.