From figure skating royalty to bobsled bronze medalists, Northern Virginia has produced a remarkable lineage of Winter Olympians. As the 2026 Milan Cortina Games begin, we look back at the athletes who have represented our region on the world’s biggest stage.
While Virginia boasts a storied history of Summer Olympians, Winter Olympians from Northern Virginia are notably rarer—particularly before the 1990s. The region historically lacked the specialized training facilities necessary to produce elite winter athletes: year-round ice rinks, high-altitude ski slopes, and bobsled tracks simply didn’t exist here. It wasn’t until facilities like SkateQuest opened in Reston in the early 1990s that local athletes could train seriously for winter sports without leaving the area. This exhibit traces the emergence of Northern Virginia’s winter sports tradition, from those early pioneers to today’s world champions.
2026 Milan Cortina: The Current Generation
This year’s Winter Olympics features the strongest contingent of Northern Virginia athletes in recent memory, led by the sport’s biggest star.
Ilia Malinin – Figure Skating (Vienna)
The 21-year-old Vienna native enters Milan as the overwhelming favorite to win gold in men’s figure skating. A graduate of Marshall High School who still trains at Reston’s SkateQuest, Malinin has earned the nickname “Quad God” for his unprecedented mastery of quadruple jumps.
In September 2022, Malinin became the first skater in history to land a quadruple axel in competition, the most difficult jump in figure skating. In December 2025, he pushed boundaries further by landing seven quadruple jumps in a single program at the ISU Grand Prix Final.
Achievements:
- 2x World Figure Skating Champion (2024, 2025)
- 4x consecutive U.S. National Champion (2023-2026)
- 3x Grand Prix Final Champion
- First to land quadruple axel in competition
Both of Malinin’s parents, Tatyana Malinina and Roman Skornayakov, were Olympic figure skaters for Uzbekistan. They now coach at SkateQuest in Reston, where their son has trained since childhood.
Brandon Kim – Short Track Speedskating (Fairfax)
A Thomas Jefferson High School graduate and current Stanford University student, Kim was inspired to try speedskating after watching the 2010 Vancouver Olympics at age nine. He joined a local speedskating club near his Fairfax home and never looked back.
Kim won a bronze medal at the World Junior Short Track Speedskating Championships while still a junior in high school. At the 2026 U.S. Championships, he earned national titles in all three events and broke a nearly 13-year-old record set by three-time Olympian J.R. Celski in the 500-meter.
Mystique Ro – Skeleton (Nokesville)
A Brentsville High School graduate from Prince William County, Ro made history by becoming the first American in eight years to win a skeleton race on the World Cup circuit. At the 2025 World Championships, she won silver, the first American world medal in skeleton in 12 years, then took gold in the mixed team event.
2022 Beijing: Gold Comes to Ashburn
Ashley Caldwell – Freestyle Skiing Aerials (Ashburn) – GOLD MEDALIST
After three previous Olympic appearances, Ashburn native Ashley Caldwell finally struck gold in Beijing. She and her teammates won the first-ever Olympic mixed team aerials event, capping a remarkable journey that began when a 13-year-old gymnast from Loudoun County watched aerial skiing on TV during the 2006 Turin Olympics.
“Mom said, ‘Hey, I think you’d be great at that,'” Caldwell recalled, “and then she literally typed the words ‘freestyle skiing in America’ in a Google search, and we found a camp.”
Caldwell trained at APEX Gymnastics in Leesburg before transitioning to skiing. She attended Hillside Elementary and Blue Ridge and Harmony middle schools in Loudoun County before leaving Virginia at 14 to train full-time.
Olympic History:
- 2022 Beijing: GOLD (Mixed Team Aerials)
- 2018 PyeongChang: Competed in Aerials
- 2014 Sochi: 10th place in Aerials
- 2010 Vancouver: 10th place in Aerials (youngest competitor at 16)
Caldwell holds the world record for the hardest acrobatic trick ever landed by a female skier, a “full, double-full, full” (triple-twisting quadruple backflip).
Maame Biney – Short Track Speedskating (Reston)
Ghana-born and Reston-raised, Maame Biney made history in 2018 when she became the first Black woman to qualify for a U.S. Olympic speed skating team. She was introduced to skating at SkateQuest in Reston at age six.
Biney competed in both the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics, becoming a media sensation and powerful advocate for diversity in winter sports.
2018 PyeongChang: Vienna on Ice
Garrett Roe – Men’s Ice Hockey (Vienna)
Hockey has been in Garrett Roe’s blood since childhood. His father, Larry Roe, co-founded the Reston Raiders Hockey Club, and Garrett was chasing pucks almost as soon as he could walk.
After attending Wolftrap Elementary and Kilmer Middle School in Vienna, Roe left for Minnesota’s prestigious Shattuck-St. Mary’s boarding school to pursue hockey seriously. He set records at St. Cloud State University and was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings, but his NHL dreams didn’t materialize.
Instead, Roe found success playing in Europe. When the NHL declined to participate in the 2018 Olympics, it opened an unexpected door. Roe, one of the top American players in European hockey, was selected for Team USA.
“The moment is big, but believe in the things you’ve done and all your preparation,” Roe later said. He still returns to Vienna every summer with his family.
2002 Salt Lake City: Bronze for Chantilly
Mike Kohn – Bobsled (Chantilly) – BRONZE MEDALIST
Mike Kohn’s path to Olympic glory began during his senior year at Chantilly High School in 1990 when he discovered bobsledding. A student at George Mason University, Kohn became a world-class push athlete.
At the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, Kohn won a bronze medal in the four-man bobsled event as part of Brian Shimer’s crew, one of the few Olympic medals ever won by a Northern Virginia athlete in winter sports.
Kohn returned to compete in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics before retiring and becoming an assistant coach for the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation.
1998-2002: The Michael Weiss Era
Michael Weiss – Figure Skating (Fairfax)
Before Ilia Malinin, there was Michael Weiss. A graduate of Woodson High School in Fairfax, Weiss represented a golden era of Northern Virginia figure skating.
Weiss competed in two Winter Olympics:
- 1998 Nagano: 7th place
- 2002 Salt Lake City: 7th place
But his record extends far beyond the Olympics:
- 3x U.S. National Champion (1999, 2000, 2003)
- 2x World Championship Bronze Medalist (1999, 2000)
- U.S. Olympic Committee’s Skater of the Year (1999, 2000)
- Inducted into U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame (2018)
Weiss came from a family of champion figure skaters and became a symbol of the region’s growing prominence in the sport. After retiring, he established the Michael Weiss Foundation to provide scholarships to young figure skaters.
The SkateQuest Connection
SkateQuest in Reston has emerged as a crucial training ground for Northern Virginia’s Olympic figure skaters. The facility, locally owned and operating for over 30 years, has produced multiple Olympians including Ilia Malinin and launched the career of Maame Biney.
Malinin’s parents, both former Olympic skaters themselves, work 12-hour days coaching at SkateQuest, continuing a tradition of Olympic-caliber training in our community.
Northern Virginia’s Winter Olympic Medal Count
| Athlete | Year | Sport | Medal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ashley Caldwell | 2022 | Freestyle Skiing | GOLD |
| Mike Kohn | 2002 | Bobsled | BRONZE |
As the 2026 Olympics unfold, Ilia Malinin has a chance to add to this list and cement Northern Virginia’s place in Winter Olympic history.
Sources
- Northern Virginia Magazine: Ilia Malinin and Other NoVA Athletes Go for Gold
- Northern Virginia Magazine: How Growing Up in NoVA Led Ashley Caldwell to Her Fourth Olympics
- Northern Virginia Magazine: How Vienna Kid Garrett Roe Made His Olympic Hockey Dreams a Reality
- Visit Fairfax: Olympic Athletes from Fairfax County
- FFXnow: When to catch Fairfax natives at the Winter Olympics
- WSLS: Virginia Athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics
- Wikipedia: Michael Weiss (figure skater)
- Wikipedia: Mike Kohn
- Team USA: Maame Biney
- Team USA: Mike Kohn