Graphic by Dorothy Lakshmanamurthy.
REESE PARADOWSKI | OPINION EDITOR | rparadowski@butler.edu
Gritty, determined and a little Gen Z: These are all descriptions of Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, Italy. Team USA includes animated and unforgettable figure skaters with nicknames like “Quad God” and “Blade Angels”; and they are already defying the norms of figure skating this Olympics season.
February’s news cycle of Olympics coverage is a breath of fresh air, for the United States deserves some good news. News notifications popping up on my screen are no longer never-ending abominable headlines, but rather inspiring successes of the American athletes.
There’s nothing quite like seeing Team USA racking up gold medals, especially with the different storylines of their journeys to qualify for the games.
Figure skater Alysa Liu, one-third of the “Blade Angels”, bounced back from an early retirement at just 16 years old; now 20 and a promising gold medal contender, she will compete in the women’s single free skating on Thursday, Feb. 19. As of Tuesday, Feb. 17, Liu currently sits third after the short program performance. The women’s final rankings will be determined by the cumulative score of the short program and free skate. Liu, along with her teammates, already won the gold medal for Team USA in the ice skating team event on Feb. 8.
Senior English major Brodie Forman has closely followed the figure skating competitions, especially the team event.
“I watched it all the way through,” Forman said. “[Figure skating] is my favorite sport to watch; they are just so adorable. I think the team event is really fun because all of them get to win together as a team, instead of individually.”
The winning U.S. team consisted of 16 figure skaters, but one of the athlete’s, Maxim Naumov, story began with a heartbreaking loss.
Naumov’s parents were part of the 67 people killed in the Washington D.C. plane crash on Jan. 29, 2025; many of the passengers were a part of the figure skating community. His parents, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, were also professional ice skaters who won the 1994 International Skating Union World Pair Skating Championship.
To see 24-year-old Naumov go through that adversity and still become a first-time Olympian is nothing short of incredible, and I think many Americans feel the same way. With all the political and social divisions in the United States right now, it’s a beautiful thing to see nationwide embrace of Naumov’s success.
Junior arts administration major Emma Huser has noticed the camaraderie between Americans watching the Winter Olympics.
“Well, I think we’re all for Team USA,” Huser said. “It’s kind of like rallying with people who cheer on the same NFL team or the same college basketball team. We all come together despite our differences. We saw that a lot with the IU championship, the whole state of Indiana being so excited, even if you were a Purdue fan. There’s something lighthearted about sports that people find it easier to come together.”
Another American catching national attention is the “Quad God” Ilia Malinin. In 2022, the figure skater became the first and only person to land a quadruple axel in competition. Although Malinin suffered two devastating falls in the men’s free skate final, leaving him in eighth place instead of the anticipated gold medal, his artistry and passion for the sport left viewers speechless.
Malinin is also the first person to legally land a backflip on one skate. It was done before — illegally — by French skater Surya Bonaly in 1998.
No doubt the two-time world champion will come back hungry for gold in 2030.
Sports have a way of tugging at the heartstrings. To have the best athletes from the United States compete for one of the most prestigious titles in sports creates unity within the country. It’s embedded in American culture to be the best, a commonality that offers a rare occurrence of all Americans being on the same “team.”
Senior sports media major Cybil Stillson expanded on the sense of nationwide pride.
“Obviously, here in the United States, it’s so easy to see the issues or the division among our citizens,” Stillson said. “But yet when we watch these athletes over in Milan, I feel like there’s just a general excitement watching Americans competing against other countries in the world. And you know, we are a well-rounded country, and we have good opportunities. It keeps everyone dreaming big.”
The “American Dream” is not dead — it’s alive and well. The Olympian children of immigrants, like Malinin and Liu, remind us that a country of differences should be embraced as a strength, not a weakness.
“To see other Americans doing big things, I think it helps everyone think, ‘wow, that could be me’,” Stillson said. “And I think it’s just a positive to know that we do have the freedom and the rights here in the United States to chase those dreams.”
