Nick ZaccardiWed, November 26, 2025 at 11:59 AM UTC·5 min readThanksgiving weekend in Olympic sports features the Stifel Copper Cup in Copper Mountain, Colorado, the first of two Alpine skiing World Cup stops in the U.S. this season.
It’s Mikaela Shiffrin’s first time racing in her home state since 2017. Shiffrin’s first recorded International Ski Federation level races were also at Copper Mountain in 2010 at age 15.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementShiffrin is the clear favorite for Sunday’s slalom, having won the first two slaloms this World Cup season by dominating margins of 1.66 and 1.23 seconds over Lara Colturi of Albania. She extended her career records to 103 Alpine World Cup wins and 66 in slalom alone.
Saturday’s giant slalom should be a greater test. Shiffrin was a promising fourth in the season-opening GS on Oct. 25, her best result in the discipline since crashing in a November 2024 GS, puncturing oblique muscles and missing two months. Shiffrin owns a World Cup record 22 women’s GS wins, her most recent in December 2023.
Mikaela ShiffrinHow to watch Mikaela Shiffrin in Stifel Copper Cup Alpine skiing World Cup
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMikaela Shiffrin headlines Alpine skiing World Cup races at Copper Mountain, Colorado.
Nick Zaccardi,
Paula Moltzan emerged in the last year as an Olympic medal contender in giant slalom and slalom. She had a career-best giant slalom finish of second in the season opener, plus earned a bronze medal in the event at last February’s World Championships. She also finished between third and sixth in the last five World Cup slaloms.
In the men's races, Swiss Marco Odermatt is the favorite in Thursday's super-G and Friday's giant slalom as the reigning World Cup season champion in both events. Odermatt, the 2022 Olympic GS gold medalist, also owns world titles in downhill, super-G and GS. For the Milan Cortina Games, he’s a gold medal contender in all three of those races, plus in the new team combined.
Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, an Olympic and world super-G medalist, said on Monday that he may make the Copper super-G his comeback race. Kilde, who is engaged to Shiffrin, has not competed since sustaining a severe right leg laceration and torn left shoulder ligaments in a January 2024 race crash. If Kilde skips Copper, he hopes to return next week at Beaver Creek.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe short track speed skating World Tour season concludes in Dordrecht, Netherlands, where Olympic quota spots will be finalized on Saturday and Sunday.
American Corinne Stoddard finished second or third in six of the nine individual World Tour races thus far, consolidating her status as an Olympic medal contender in the 500m, 1000m and 1500m. She ranks second in the overall standings behind Courtney Sarault of Canada after finishing last season third overall.
American Kristen Santos-Griswold, the circuit’s No. 1 overall skater last season, made two podiums over the nine races thus far (both third-place finishes) after being sidelined by a back injury in late summer.
The U.S. could qualify both men’s and women’s Olympic relays for the first time since 2010. The U.S. women are in strong position, while the U.S. men are in the eighth and last qualifying spot going into the final relay in Dordrecht.
Image for Corinne Stoddard earns second silver of the season at Gdansk World CupCorinne Stoddard earns second silver of the season at Gdansk World Cup
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHow Kristen Santos-Griswold, Corinne Stoddard, and more fared on the final day of competition at the third World Tour.
The bobsled World Cup moves to Igls, Austria, for races Saturday and Sunday.
In the opening World Cup last week, Germans Laura Nolte and Johannes Lochner grabbed key early Olympic momentum by sweeping the bobsled events in the first races to be held at the 2026 Games venue in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
American Kaysha Love was second in both women’s bobsled races in Cortina as the top challenger to Nolte. Love, who switched from brakewoman to driver after the 2022 Olympics, won the monobob world title last March in Lake Placid, New York.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThree-time Olympic gold medalist Kaillie Humphries also had a promising start to the season with third- and fourth-place finishes in Cortina, making the podium for the first time since June 2024 childbirth.
Five-time Olympic medalist Elana Meyers Taylor rebounded from a 19th-place finish in the first race in Cortina to place sixth in the two-woman event the next day.
The skeleton races scheduled for Igls were canceled due to inadequate track preparation.
Image for Love, Humphries make podium in two-woman bobsled, Meyers Taylor in 6thLove, Humphries make podium in two-woman bobsled, Meyers Taylor in 6th
Kaysha Love and Kaillie Humphries both finished on the podium in the first two-woman bobsled race of the World Cup season, while Elana Meyers Taylor finished in sixth.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe first cross-country skiing World Cup of the season will be held in Ruka, Finland, from Friday through Sunday.
Jessie Diggins, the most decorated U.S. cross-country skier in history, announced last week that this will be her final season. Diggins is already a three-time Olympian with an Olympic medal of every color, including teaming with Kikkan Randall in 2018 for the first Olympic cross-country skiing title in U.S. history.
Diggins won the last two World Cup overall titles as the world’s best all-around cross-country skier over the November-to-March seasons.
Norwegian cross-country skier Johannes Høsflot Klæbo could be the biggest star of the Milan Cortina Games. He won all six events at last season’s World Championships in his hometown of Trondheim. He can become the first person in any sport to win six medals of any color at one Winter Olympics.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementKlæbo begins this season with 98 career individual World Cup victories, meaning he could reach 100 in Ruka. The only cross-country skier with more World Cup wins is retired Norwegian Marit Bjørgen (114), who also owns the most medals in Winter Olympic history (15).
In luge, the first top-level event of the season is a significant one given it’s the Olympic test event at the Cortina track, which will hold its first luge competition.
While Germany and Austria are the traditional powers in the sport, American Emily Fischnaller earned a bronze medal at last February’s World Championships in Canada. Fischnaller (née Sweeney) married Italian luger Dominik Fischnaller in May.
Mikaela Shiffrin26 U.S. athletes to watch at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Games will feature the best competitors from across the globe in every sport. Here are 26 of the top Olympic hopefuls to keep a close eye on as they look to lead Team USA to victory in February.
NBC Sports,
