By Amy Tennery and Dan Fastenberg
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The United States are “bullish as ever” about their medal chances at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, as the 100-day countdown to the Games kicks off on Wednesday.
The U.S. project they will send 294 competitors to Milano Cortina – 225 Olympic and 69 Paralympic – but only a small fraction of those have qualified so far, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s Chief of Sport & Athlete Services Rocky Harris said.
“We have a lot of work to do in the next 100 days to get the full team there,” said Harris. “We’ve, across the board, really put a focus on winter sport.”
‘VERY, VERY ENCOURAGED’
While the large and well-funded United States delegation frequently tops the medal table at the Summer Games, they have only done so once at the Winter Olympics, in 1932.
“It’s game time,” said USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland. “We’re very, very encouraged by what Team USA promises to be by the time we get to Milano Cortina. We’re feeling, I think, as bullish as ever about the winter team.”
Olympic veterans and newcomers descended on New York City this week for a massive publicity blitz at the Team USA Summit, where dozens of athletes were expected to shuffle through a gauntlet of media interviews.
“There’s a lot of hype, I think, and you feel it around the U.S. athletes,” said bronze medallist Jason Brown, a figure skater who hopes to compete in his third Games in Milano Cortina.
“It’s so special also to all get together in one spot to celebrate this moment, knowing that hopefully the next time we’re all together we’ll be in Milan.”
The United States finished third on the medal table in Beijing, where the COVID-19 pandemic kept athletes’ friends and loved ones at home and stadium stands sparse, and fourth on the medal table in 2018 and 2014.
“Coming from one where there was COVID and no fans – now we’re going to Italy and it’s gonna be crazy,” said Nick Baumgartner, who picked up gold in the mixed team snowboard cross in 2022.
“The athletes are super excited and that excitement is gonna push us to do some incredible things.”
The Milano Cortina Games run from February 6 to February 22.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery and Dan Fastenberg in New York, additional reporting by Hussein Waaile; Editing by Michael Perry)
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