Opening Ceremonies to the 2026 Winter Olympics will occur later Friday afternoon and includes around 30 Minnesotans competeing in the games. Only Colorado features more Olympians than the North Star State.
Many of Minnesota's Olympians will be playing hockey, with four of them participating in women's hockey. And they all just happen to play for the PWHL's Minnesota Frost.
"They have so much pride to, to wear the nation's colors," Frost GM Melissa Caruso explains. "Like, they're just so proud that they have this opportunity and that they certainly earned it. But I think, you know, in the back of their heads, like they've been - this has been a dream of theirs since they were little girls."
22-year old Iris Pflum from Minneapolis will compete in snowboarding's parallel giant slalom. Her mother Teena says her daughter was recently inspired by another Minnesota Olympian.
"She read Jessie Diggins' book, you know, and that really helped her realize, 'oh wow, there's other people out there that are like me.' The ups and downs and the experience and her having read that book really was a game changer for her," says Pflum.
Diggins is again competing in the games, and is widely considered the greatest American cross-country skier ever. Diggins, now 34-years old, grew up in Afton, Minnesota. Diggins has won three World Cup overall titles, three Olympic medals, seven World Championship medals, and numerous other event championships, in a sport typically dominated by European athletes.
And then there is one of America's greatest alpin skiers, Burnsville, Minnesota-native Lindsey Vonn. She had her first successuful downhill training run on Friday. The 41-year-old completely ruptured the ACL in her left knee a week ago but still plans to race with a large brace on that knee. The downhill is Sunday, with another training race Saturday.
Vonn holds the record of 12 World Cup wins in Cortina.
On the younger end of Minnesotans in Milan-Cortina is 22-year old Minneapolis snowboarder Iris Pflum. Because she had no sponsorship money, she had to raise all the money to compete in Italy on her own.
"She's had to really get creative with how to finance this, and we help her a bit with coaching," her mother, Teena Pflum, explained to WCCO. "But she works a side job and she banks everything she's got. So she's got enough to pay for her flights, pay for coaching, pay for lodging, pay for race fees."
Pflum's first race will be this Sunday.
FULL LIST OF MINNESOTA ATHLETES
Lucinda Anderson -Biathlon - Golden Valley
Taylor Anderson-Heide - Curling - Minneapolis
Giorgia Birkeland -Speedskating - White Bear Lake
Jessie Diggins - Cross-Country Skiing -Afton
Korey Dropkin - Curling - Duluth
Brock Faber - Ice Hockey - Maple Grove
Margie Freed - Biathlon - Apple Valley
Aileen Geving - Curling - Duluth
Paula Moltzan - Alpine Skiing - Prior Lakes
Greta Myers - Speedskating - Lino Lakes
Kelly Pannek - Ice Hockey - Plymouth
Tara Peterson - Curling - Eagan
Tabitha Peterson Lovick - Curling - St. Paul
Rich Ruohonen - Curling - Brooklyn Park
Lee Stecklein - Ice Hockey - Roseville
Cory Thiesse - Curling - Duluth
Grace Zumwinkle - Ice Hockey - Excelsior
Aidan Oldenburg - Curling - Mapleton
Rory Guilday - Ice Hockey - Chanhassen
Taylor Heise - Ice Hockey - Lake City
Jake Guentzel - Ice Hockey - Wodbury
Brock Nelson - Ice Hockey - Warroad
Jake Oettinger - Ice Hockey - Lakeville
Jackson LaCombe - Ice Hockey -Eden Prairie