Winter sport athletes will have their moment in the spotlight once the opening ceremony Friday kicks off the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Italy, and several of Team USA’s competitors, including one of its brightest starts, are from the D.C. area.
Team USA’s roster includes athletes from D.C., Maryland and Virginia, who are competing across several sports. Some local competitors have been named as alternates but are not listed below.
The Games begin Friday with the opening ceremony and end Feb. 22. The Paralympics will also take place in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy and will begin March 6 and end March 15.
A list of athletes representing the D.C. region are below.
Know of an area Olympian who is not listed? Reach out via the WTOP “Contact Us” page.
Ilia Malinin — figure skating
Perhaps the best figure skater in the world, 21-year-old Ilia Malinin, figure skating’s “Quad God,” may reach a new level of stardom once the dust settles in Italy.
Malinin was born in Fairfax, Virginia, to parents Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, both Olympic figure skaters in their own right. Malinin graduated from Marshall High School in Falls Church and currently attends George Mason University.
Due to his young age in 2022, Malinin was passed over for Team USA’s Beijing roster. Since then, his meteoric rise in figure skating assures he’ll be leading the group of men’s figure skaters representing the U.S.
WTOP spoke to Malinin in 2024 after he won the gold medal at the World Figure Skating Championships, and said then there’s no specific accomplishment that will satisfy him — he just wants to keep improving.
“There’s not always a certain thing that I want to accomplish. I always try to see what I can improve on myself. And in terms of my skating, it’s what I can improve there — make more difficult jumps or make more difficult programs. But overall, I’m just really, try to see how it takes me and just enjoy the whole process,” Malinin told WTOP.
Carsten Vissering — bobsled
Growing up in Bethesda, Maryland, Carsten Vissering swam at the same club as nine-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky. After graduating from Georgetown Prep, Vissering attended the University of Southern California and ended his collegiate swimming career placing second in the 100-yard breaststroke at the 2019 NCAA championships, according to his Team USA bio.
Vissering, now 28, started bobsledding at age 25, and competes as a push athlete, meaning in a four-person sled, he is one of the two athletes in the middle. As a push athlete, Vissering is largely responsible for generating the power to get his team’s bobsled to max speed before entering the sled.
“I was colloquially named the lifter who swam, I was always known for wanting to do cliff jumping or adventurous things so, for a lot of people, it didn’t shock them. I think people found it was consistent with my personality,” Vissering said on his Team USA bio.
In January, he finished a career-best fourth place at an IBSF World Cup event in the two-man bobsled and was named to his first U.S. Olympic team shortly after.
Bryan Sosoo — bobsled
A converted track athlete, which is common in bobsled, Bryan Sosoo grew up in Laurel, Maryland, attended Reservoir High School and was the Maryland state champ in the 55-meter and triple jump.
After graduating college, Sosoo continued his track and field career and competed internationally for Ghana before making the switch to bobsled in 2024 and joining Team USA, the team said on his profile.
Sosoo, now 29, only made is IBSF World Cup debut this season, and has already been named to his first Olympic team for the upcoming Games in Italy.
Also a push athlete, Sosoo’s years of training in short-distance sprints and jumps on the track has translated to bobsled, a sport in which accelerating the sled as fast as possible in the first approximately 50 meters is vital.
Mystique Ro — skeleton
Nokesville, Virginia, native and Brentsville High School graduate 31-year-old Mystique Ro will make her Olympic debut in Italy in the sport of skeleton.
Originally a track and field athlete, Ro first saw bobsled and skeleton on TV during the Vancouver Olympics, but dismissed the idea of doing it because she thought “it was insane,” according to her Team USA bio.
A college teammate of Ro’s invited her along to a combine test in the sport, and now she’s at the forefront of American success in skeleton. In 2024, she became the first American to win a skeleton race on the world cup circuit in eight years.
At least year’s FIL World Championships, Ro became the first American to win a world medal in the sport in 12 years, taking home silver in women’s skeleton. She then won gold with Austin Florian in the mixed team skeleton event, an event that’s making its Olympic debut in Italy.
Conor McDermott-Mostowy — long track speedskating
Conor McDermott-Mostowy is a D.C. native and will be making his Olympic debut in Italy in long track speedskating at 26 years old.
After battling illness leading up to 2022’s Olympic Trials, McDermott-Mostowy came up short. This time around, he captured first place at trials in the 1,000-meter race — the only event he’ll be competing in during the Olympics.
After winning the national championship in the event in 2021, McDermott-Mostowy chose to speak publicly about being a gay athlete, according to his Team USA bio.
“As a gay athlete, I think visibility is extremely important,” he said. “(Sports) is an area in which gay people are underrepresented, and hopefully by seeing more ‘out’ athletes, more gay people will feel comfortable coming out and participating in sports.”
McDermott-Mostowy is a graduate of Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Brandon Kim — short-track speedskating
Short track speed skater Brandon Kim grew up in Fairfax, Virginia, where he got his start in speedskating. Alongside McDermott-Mostowy, Kim will be making his Olympic debut in Italy.
Kim also missed out on 2022’s Winter Games after a disappointing trials, but came roaring back this season with strong performances on the world circuit and in U.S. National Championships, where he broke the national record in the 500-meter race with a blazing fast time of 39.83 seconds.
Kim, 24, attends Stanford University and is a graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School in Fairfax County.
On Facebook, the county’s public school system wished him luck in Italy.
“Congratulations to TJ alum Brandon Kim ’20!” the post reads. “We’ll be cheering Brandon on all winter long, Go Team USA!
Evan Nichols — sled hockey
Evan Nichols is just 21 years old, and yet, the Paralympic stage is nothing new to him.
At just 17, the Haymarket native and Battlefield High School graduate was the youngest member of Team USA’s gold medal sled hockey team in the 2022 Paralympic Games. He’ll be looking to add another gold to his trophy case in Italy.
Nichols was born with Arthrogryposis, a condition that affected his joints in his knees and ankles. At age 5, he was diagnosed with bilateral Perthes’ disease, which affected both of his hips, according to his Team USA bio.
He got his start playing sled hockey in D.C. after a friend suggested he try the sport.
Noah Grove — sled hockey
Noah Grove is a Frederick, Maryland, native, a graduate of Towson University and developed his sled hockey game through the Bennett Blazers program in Baltimore.
He’ll be looking for his third gold medal in Italy. Grove was 18 when he made his Paralympic debut in Pyeongchang, where the U.S. sled hockey team won gold in 2018. Grove was also a part of Team USA’s 2022 gold medal squad.
Diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer, in his left leg when he was 4 years old, Grove had his leg amputated right after turning 5, according to his Team USA bio. He played soccer, baseball and lacrosse with a prosthetic leg in his childhood, then found success playing sled hockey.
Before even making the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team, Grove represented the U.S. at age 15 at the 2014 Amputee World Cup of Soccer.
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