From 'Quad god' to a Kelce favorite, these are the potential breakout stars of the Milan Cortina Olympics

If you know the Milan Cortina Olympics start in 100 days, then you probably already know about returning stars like Lindsey Vonn, Chloe Kim and Mikaela Shiffrin. But every Games also features first-time Olympians who go from anonymity to the A-list overnight. Laila Edwards of the United States during a game against Switzerland in Utica, N.Y., in 2024.Troy Parla / Getty Images Amber Glenn of the United States performs in Chongqing, China, on Oct. 16.Lintao Zhang / International Skating Union / Getty Images Lauren Macuga of the United States competes in Kvitfjell, Norway, on March 1.Stian Lysberg Solum / NTB / AFP / Getty Images Connor McDavid of Canada in Montreal on Feb. 12.Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images These are the athletes who could do just that. Ilia Malinin brings quads, backflips, raspberry twist to figure skating Malinin, the son of figure skaters from Uzbekistan who settled in Virginia, has accomplished so much by age 20 that Olympic gold is just about his only box left to check. And all signs point to Malinin’s dominating in Milan, much as fellow American Nathan Chen did at the 2022 Beijing Games (Chen left competitive skating after his gold). Malinin is undefeated since December 2023, including winning back-to-back World Championships and performing the greatest collection of jumps in one program in history: all six types of quadruple jumps, including the most difficult, the quad Axel, which no other skater has ever landed cleanly in competition. Malinin is expected to go for a seven-quad program this season and has teased trying a quintuple jump in the future. Malinin unveiled separate new moves each of the last two seasons: the raspberry twist - a corkscrew-like aerial maneuver - and a backflip, which international officials previously outlawed from competition. Laila Edwards takes hockey to new Heights Over the last two years, Edwards became the first Black woman to play for the U.S. national hockey team, was MVP in her World Championship debut and then converted from forward to defense. She was also shouted out on a podcast you may have heard of that’s co-hosted by a pair of fellow athletes from her hometown of Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Along with veterans like Hilary Knight and Kendall Coyne Schofield, Edwards is expected to be a key player as the United States looks to take the Olympic crown back from rival Canada. Siblings Miro, Flora Tabanelli fly high for host Italy When you think of Italian Winter Olympians, the names that come to mind could include those of Alpine skiing greats like Sofia Goggia and Alberto Tomba or Arianna Fontana, a short track speed skater with 11 medals. Italy hasn’t been associated much with freestyle skiing, until now. The brother-sister Tabanelli tandem could win the country’s first medals of any color in the discipline. Each won an X Games big air title in January, with the older Miro entering the Guinness World Record book as the first skier to land a 2340 (that’s 61⁄2 rotations) in competition. Amber Glenn...

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