The 2026 Winter Olympics kick off this week, and Team USA is hoping to improve upon its strong track record. During the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Team USA claimed 25 medals overall, including eight golds.
The roster features 98 returning Olympians, with 33 Olympic medalists. Per usual, this year’s United States Olympic team includes a diverse group of athletes from a number of different age groups.
Here’s a look at the youngest and oldest athletes representing the United States in this year’s Winter Olympic games.
STREAM: Watch U.S. Figure Skating Championships live with Peacock
Who are the youngest athletes on Team USA?
The youngest athlete on Team USA im 2026 is freeskier Abby Winterberger, who skis the halfpipe. Abby is 15 years old from Truckee, Calif., and began skiing at the age of two. She started competing in competitions at the age of 6 and qualified for the 2026 Olympic team a bit untraditionally.
Although athletes usually qualify for the Olympics through the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Rookie and Pro Team, Winterberger made the team as a club-level freeskier. Winterberger earned a spot after finishing sixth at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Aspen Snowmass in Colorado on Jan. 10. She has racked up three top-10 finishes on the 2025-26 international circuit so far.
Winterberger’s parents, Jim and Rosemary, are avid skiers, and Abby’s brother Mack also competes in the halfpipe. Here’s more via her official Team USA bio:
She captured gold in both slopestyle and halfpipe at the 2024 USASA Open Class Nationals at Copper Mountain, Colorado, defending her halfpipe title from the previous year. Her versatility across disciplines showcased her technical foundation and natural talent. Despite not having an Olympic-sized halfpipe at her home mountain for regular training, Winterberger’s grit and determination enabled her to compete against athletes with more consistent access to world-class facilities.
Making her world cup debut during the 2025-26 season, she earned three top-10 finishes in her first season on the circuit, including sixth place at the final Olympic qualification event in Aspen, Colorado—the highest finish among American women at that competition. She also placed eighth at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain and ninth at Secret Garden, China. Her consistent performances throughout the qualifying period demonstrated her ability to compete against the world’s best halfpipe skiers despite her young age.
Another strikingly young member of team USA is 16-year-old snowboarder Lily Dhawornvej, from Copper Mountain, Colo. Dhawornvej is a first-generation Thai-American who qualified for the X Games in Aspen as a 15-year old just last year. She won bronze in the women’s snowboard, and will be participating in Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle and Big Air in Italy.
Who are the oldest athletes on Team USA?
The oldest athlete on Team USA is curler Rich Ruohonen, who is 54 years old. Ruohonen, who is a personal injury attorney from Minnesota is an alternate for USA’s curling team. This will be Ruohonen’s first trip to the Olympics, but he has represented the United States in the world games and senior world games in curling.
Ruohonen joins fellow 50-something-year-old Olympian Oyuna Uranchimeg, who does wheelchair curling at 52. Team USA has five athletes over 40 in this year’s games, including 44-year-old snowboarder Nick Baumgartner, bobsledders Kaillie Armbruster Humphries (40) and Elana Meyers-Taylor, as well as skier Lindsey Vonn, who are both 41.
Youngest athlete in Team USA history
Dorothy Poynton-Hill was 13 when she competed for Team USA as a diver at the 1928 Amsterdam Games. Impressively, she won silver for three-meter springboard diving, making her the youngest Olympic medalist in history at the time.
She earned her first gold in 1932 (Los Angeles) for winning the 10-meter platform and repeated in 1936 (Berlin), becoming the first Olympic diver to win the event twice. Poynton-Hill also earned a bronze medal in 1936 for the three-meter springboard.
She was inducted into the Swimming Hall of Fame in 1968 and passed away in 1995.
MORE: A look at American skier Lindsey Vonn’s injury history
Oldest athlete in Team USA history
Thomas Scott competed at the 1904 Olympics for Archery in St. Louis at the age of 71. He was born in 1833, but tragically died just seven years after the 1904 Games, where he failed to claim any medals.
His daughter, Matilda Howell, was also an Olympic archer who competed in the 1904 Games where she won three gold medals.
