Every four years, the world’s top winter sport athletes gather to compete on the biggest stage. While some of these athletes have dedicated their lives to the sport they will be competing in, others have flashed their athletic abilities by competing in different sports at high levels – specifically at the collegiate level. 

Out of the sports that will be contested at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, skiing and ice hockey are the only ones that have championships administered by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Yet, there are over two dozen U.S. athletes competing at Milan Cortina that competed collegiately in other sports. 

Athletes such as U.S. speed skater Brittany Bowe and U.S. snowboarder Nick Baumgartner have gained reputations for their multiple Olympic berths. But before they excelled at their winter sports, Bowe competed in basketball at Florida Atlantic University, while Baumgartner competed in football at Northern Michigan. 

At the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, 15 first-time U.S. Olympians will begin their journeys in different sports than they competed in at the NCAA level. 

From the oval to the Cortina Sliding Centre 

At the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, seven former track and field athletes will compete in sliding sports at their first Olympic Games. 

Three men’s bobsled push athletes – Bryan Sosoo, Hunter Powell and Caleb Furnell – competed in track and field at the collegiate level. Sosoo was a sprinter and school-record setter at Monmouth University, Furnell was a multi-time NCAA Regionals qualifier in sprinting events at Utah Valley University and Powell was a two-time conference champion at Colorado State University. Powell was recruited to the sport by fellow Olympian, world champion and former collegiate track and field athlete Kaysha Love. 

Love shares another unique bond with a member of this year’s bobsled team. Azaria Hill, Love’s former collegiate track and field teammate at UNLV, will compete as a push athlete at her first Olympic Games. 

Hill is joined by Jadin O’Brien and Jasmine Jones. O’Brien was a three-time NCAA champion in pentathlon and 10-time All-American at Notre Dame, while Jones competed as a sprinter at Eastern Michigan and was recruited to the sport by five-time Olympic medalist Elana Meyers Taylor. 

Mystique Ro will compete in skeleton after competing in hurdles, sprints, javelin and heptathlon at Queens University of Charlotte. Ro earned a silver medal at the 2025 IBSF World Championships, becoming the first American to win a world medal in skeleton in eight years. 

Collegiate skiers expand their horizons 

Two former collegiate skiers will compete in biathlon, while another former collegiate skier will compete in skeleton. 

Lucinda Anderson, who skied for the University of New Hampshire for five seasons, switched over to biathlon in 2024. She will be joined by fellow first-time Olympian Margie Freed, who competed in skiing for the University of Vermont. 

Austin Florian was a four-year member of the ski team at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. Florian and his family stopped by Lake Placid on a trip back to school, and after taking part in a “land luge” tourist activity, Florian decided to pursue an open tryout for U.S. sliding sports later that fall. Florian then balanced skeleton training with ski training during his final two years of college. 

History with the sport

Some former college athletes have qualified in sports that they simultaneously trained for throughout their lives. Samantha Smith, a sophomore at Stanford University and a member of the soccer team that competed in the national championship this past fall, has competed in skiing throughout her life. In January 2025, shortly after her freshman soccer season at Stanford, Smith won the U.S. national championship in the classic sprint. She will compete in cross-country skiing at Milan Cortina.

Sarah Warren, a former soccer player at Illinois, has trained as a speed skater since age 13. In 2024, she achieved a 2nd place finish at the World Championships in the team sprint event. Warren will compete in the women's 500m at Milan Cortina.

Anna Gibson, a former track and field and cross county athlete at the University of Washington, is a first-time Olympian in a brand new Olympic sport – ski mountaineering. The Jackson, Wyoming native who competed in Nordic skiing throughout her life said she has basically been participating in ski mountaineering since she was young. In track and field, Gibson was a member of an NCAA record-setting distance medley relay in 2023. 

Embracing a new passion

Carsten Vissering, a former swimmer at Southern California, will compete in bobsled at Milan Cortina. After growing up swimming at the same club as nine-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky, Vissering went on to become a five-time All-American and NCAA relay champion. Vissering transitioned to bobsled at age 25, motivated by his love for strength training. 

Boone Niederhofer, a former wide receiver on the football team at Texas A&M, attended a bobsled combine in summer 2019 after his football career concluded. He will compete in his first Olympic Games at Milan Cortina as a push athlete.