Team USA Builds Community and Prepares for Milano Cortina 2026 Games At Inaugural Pre-Games Athlete Summit

In addition to hearing from United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee officials, including CEO Sarah Hirshland and Chief of Sport and Athlete Services Rocky Harris, the athletes also learned about personal branding, media training and preparing for the Games, while also taking part in a snow-globe building competition and other team-building exercises.

“There’s this whole collective, coming together, sharing energy, sharing resources, sharing time together, having conversations, starting conversations,” said Burns, who competed in the parallel giant slalom event at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing. “And what it’s doing is it’s ultimately enriching every athlete’s experience of what could be, right? Of what could happen.”

The idea for this week’s event stemmed from athlete feedback. They wanted more opportunities to connect and build community in the lead-up to the Olympics and Paralympics, including for those who ultimately don’t qualify.

A similar pre-Games athletes conference took place about 20 years ago, and the concept was reborn this year thanks to a focused donation from Eric and Wendy Schmidt and their strategic innovation fund.

The response showed the athletes are indeed hungry for community and engagement, said Melanie Phillips, who spearheaded the planning for the USOPC.

“The reality is that not all of these athletes will make it to Milan or Cortina, but it’s really about that broader Team USA community and the journey along the way,” said Phillips, the USOPC associate director of athlete learning and development. “And it’s also really important that athletes know that the USOPC is supporting them regardless of what happens. We support them throughout their entire athlete journey, regardless of if they make the Games or not.”

That was a message echoed by Harris early in the program.

“At the USOPC, we are really focused on your well-being,” Harris said. “It’s not just about winning medals at the Games. It’s also about all the other things that comprise you as human beings.”

This includes physical well-being, mental well-being, financial well-being and, on Monday, also social well-being.

What we ask you to do is just enjoy the day, be present,” Harris continued. “Try to put down your phones; the coaches all the noise, set it aside for one day and be together. And we plan to be here with you every step of the way.”

Johnny Weir, the two-time U.S. Olympic figure skater who is now an analyst for NBC’s Olympics coverage, hosted the Athlete Summit. He told the athletes that he wished the event had been around prior to his two Olympics, in 2006 and 2010.

“The people in this room are the ones that really understand you more than anybody else in your lives," Weir said.

An icebreaker game built around the Olympic and Paralympic tradition of pin trading opened the day.

Jodi Naglie, strategic partner manager at YouTube, led a morning session on personal branding. Participants learned about the three pillars of determining their brand — identity, purpose and audience — and took part in group exercises to practice developing their own brands and content ideas.

Later in the morning, Karen Hansen and Kate Schroeder of Bullseye Communications, walked attendees through media training and how to share their stories in a concise and effective way while still maintaining authenticity.

Athletes also heard from USOPC staff, while representatives from the Team USA Athletes Commission, Team USA Ombuds and various USOPC departments were on hand to answer questions and direct athletes to resources.

For many participants, though, the event’s highlights were the two athlete panels.

In the morning, track-and-field power couple Tara Davis-Woodhall and Hunter Woodhall chatted with trailblazing U.S. swimmer Cullen Jones, the USOPC’s new associate director of athlete marketing.

Davis-Woodhall is the reigning Olympic and world champion in women’s long jump, while husband Woodhall, a sprinter, won his fifth Paralympic medal, and first gold, at the 2024 Games in Paris. Together they have more than a million followers across their various platforms.

They spoke of their journeys making the Games, and how they built their brand.

“There's no rule book to social media,” Woodhall said, adding, “The way you win on social media is you continue to create, you continue to show up, you continue to try stuff, and you do things that inspire you, that get you excited.”

In an afternoon session, four veterans of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games—Alex Deibold, Alana Nichols, John Shuster and Lauryn Williams— chatted with NBC Sports host Ahmed Fareed about what to expect during the Games, including managing emotions, staying focused in the moment and learning to say no.

And, of course, the magic of the experience.

“The Olympics is one place where you’re everyone’s favorite team,” said Shuster, who is aiming to make his sixth consecutive Olympics as a curler. “Like, we get to be everybody in our country’s favorite team, and to (have) that many people actually behind you and rooting for you is incredibly powerful.”

Walker Overstake is a 19-year-old aiming to make his first Olympics this winter as an alpine snowboarder.

Though a self-proclaimed “young, up-and-coming athlete” whose 2026 Olympic status is still to be determined, Overstake made easy company with the more veteran athletes. By day’s end he was hopping on stage to present his table’s snow globe to the full group.

“This is my first event with the USOPC,” said Overstake, of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, “and just to be able to witness and be here with all these amazing athletes and staff and just people you look up to, and be able to meet them and talk with them and learn from them, is an unbelievable experience.”

As much as Burns, 34, appreciated the Athlete Summit for his own preparation, he also recognizes it’s larger important for the next generation, including his teammate Overstake.

“That’s super exciting for me to see, because in comparison to the last Games we went to, this one we’ve got kids coming in, getting excited for what could be 100 days out from the Games,” Burns said. “And that’s only going to serve to propel them and their energy in a positive direction with a force like the USOPC behind them. And that, to me, is like, the proof is going to be in the pudding come February.”

Chrös McDougall has covered the Olympic and Paralympic Movement for the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee since 2009 on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc. He is based in Minneapolis-St. Paul.