This month, the world will tune in to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, Italy. We are going to see some 3,500 athletes signify 93 international locations or territories — together with the Individual Neutral Athlete delegation made up of these with Belarusian or Russian passports — in favorites like Alpine snowboarding, bobsledding, curling, determine skating, ice hockey and pace skating, in addition to in six new sports. We may additionally catch a glimpse of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who will reportedly be working in U.S. safety roles — a call that’s already the topic of controversy and anger among the Italian hosts and certain to create some uncommon optics.
That’s as a result of past medals and achievement, the Olympics shine a light-weight on how expertise and alternative transcend borders. This international competitors is constructed not simply on a range of athletes throughout nations, however inside them — and few delegations reveal it extra clearly than Staff USA.
Our examination reveals that seven of the 230 athletes competing on Staff USA are foreign-born and one other 31 are kids of immigrant dad and mom. Collectively, they remind us that immigration is a lifelong expertise that connects all ranges and sectors of society — as much as and together with the worldwide athletic stage.
The street to those Winter Video games various for foreign-born U.S. athletes. Some have twin citizenship, resembling biathlon competitor Campbell Wright, born to American dad and mom who emigrated to New Zealand within the Nineteen Nineties. Different athletes resembling ice dancers Vadym Kolesnik and Christina Carreira and bobsledder Kaillie Armbruster Humphries acquired naturalized U.S. citizenship on their very own.
Amongst America’s Olympians with foreign-born dad and mom, 13 have dad and mom born in Asia. Ten have dad and mom born in a European nation, 5 in Canada, two in South America and one in Mexico. This contains second-generation immigrant and determine skater Ilia Malinin — a pupil at George Mason College, the house of our immigration analysis institute — whose dad and mom are each from Uzbekistan.
For native-born determine skater Maxim Naumov, the Olympics can be bittersweet. He is not going to have his Russian-born dad and mom, themselves former Olympians, by his aspect as he takes to the ice and competes in his first Winter Video games. Each had been killed when American Eagle Flight 5342 collided with a U.S. Military Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River and our nation’s capital final 12 months.
Others missed their probability to take part within the Video games as a result of ambiguity of their citizenship standing. Two-time reigning nationwide determine skating champion Alisa Efimova was born in Finland, married her husband and skating associate (U.S.-born Misha Mitrofanov), and acquired her inexperienced card in 2024. The Worldwide Olympic Committee requires athletes to be residents of the international locations they signify, and foreign-born people married to U.S. residents should wait three years for citizenship. Efimova could signify the purple, white and blue in 2030 however not in 2026.
Per the ideals of the Olympics — excellence, respect and friendship — the U.S. has for a lot of generations and in some ways met immigrants and refugees with a welcoming spirit. This spirit has been instrumental in offering a sanctuary and alternatives to hundreds of thousands of displaced people. In return, most immigrants and refugees work arduous, contribute and provides again to their new communities. Some grow to be naturalized residents. A choose, devoted few even signify their new nation on a worldwide stage as Olympians. We’ll be watching and cheering them on no matter their homeland.
