Want more Olympics updates? Subscribe here to get our newsletter, Rachel Goes to the Games, delivered to your inbox for a behind-the-scenes look at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

MILAN — The “Blade Angels” are about to take off.

That’s the official trio nickname for Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito, the figure skaters representing Team USA in the individual women’s competition. They voted on the name last month (it was Liu’s suggestion) and were re-introduced to the world this week in a video narrated by none other than Taylor Swift.

Glenn, Liu and Levito are widely considered the country’s strongest female field in decades: Any one of them — or potentially multiple — could become the first U.S. woman to win an individual figure skating medal since 2006 .

“This is the first time in, I would say, about four Olympic cycles that we have three women who could realistically end up on the Olympic podium,” three-time national champion and 2014 Olympic medalist Ashley Wagner told NPR in January.

The trio — who might have been dubbed the “Powerpuff Girls” or “Babes of Glory” if not for copyright concerns — have an impressive array of accolades between them. Glenn is the three-time reigning U.S. champion, Liu is the reigning world champion and Levito is the 2024 world silver medalist.

But what makes them even more notable is their fierce friendship, which many see as a refreshing change from the dynamic of Olympics past.

“Something that [Liu has] been saying throughout all the press conferences and stuff is… ‘Why is it so shocking that we’re being friendly, that we’re friends?’ They obviously are much younger than I am,” said Glenn, who is 26. “So they don’t know what the atmosphere might have been like before. Not that it was all bad, but there was definitely some intensity.”

Liu is 20 — returning to the sport after her teenage retirement — and Levito is 18.

The three have talked about their friendship as a source of comfort and normalcy in such a high-stakes environment. They have showered praise on each other at every opportunity, including at a press conference at U.S. Figure Skating championships last month.

“I love Isabeau’s wittiness, I’m sure everybody says this, but truly she’s the funniest person I’ve ever met,” Liu said. “And then Amber … you have a lot of love and you give a lot of love. She just radiates that.”

Their support has shone through publicly on social media and in quieter moments. At nationals, Liu, the penultimate skater of the night, bucked tradition by standing rinkside to watch Glenn take the ice — and showered Glenn with hugs after she overtook her for gold. The three were then named to the Olympic team, and reflected on the dynamic they would bring to Italy.

“We all three of us know, OK, yes, we’re competing against each other, but we’re competing to go and do our programs the best we possibly can,” Glenn said. “And wherever that lands us, whatever the judges do, that’s none of our business. As long as we are happy with what we do, I think everyone will be happy.”

Glenn and Liu are already gold medalists, having contributed to the U.S.’ win in the team event — before the week’s series of podium disappointments in the ice dance and men’s categories. The women will compete for the last figure skating medals of these Olympics on Tuesday and Thursday.

Who are the Blade Angels? 

Glenn is the three-time reigning U.S. champion, the first woman to hold that title since Michelle Kwan.

She’s also an outspoken mental health and LGBTQ+ advocate. Glenn has been open about her struggles with an eating disorder, anxiety and depression, including the break she took from skating about a decade ago to navigate a mental health crisis.

“I’ve been very outspoken about the ups and downs that I’ve had in my career because I want people to know that that’s okay,” Glenn said last month.

The Texas native has been skating since age 5, but didn’t win an international competition until she was 24. She reached her first Olympics two years later.

Glenn’s artistic power and technical skill — including her consistent triple Axel — make her both a threat and a delight on the ice. She has particularly won over fans with her “Like a Prayer” short program this season, which set a record score at the U.S. championships. Her mantra is “breathe and believe.”

Amber Glenn, pictured on the ice in January, is skating at her first Olympics at age 26.

Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Off the ice, Glenn is credited with helping change the culture of the women’s sport by fostering a culture of support and inclusivity, particularly as the first openly queer U.S. women’s champion.

“I saw some of the tension between some of those athletes that are a bit older than me and how it affected their relationship with the sport, with each other, with themselves particularly, and the comparison just got really out of hand,” Glenn told reporters in December. “And I just wanted to be able to feel comfortable in the locker room.”

The younger members of Team USA say they have benefitted from that shift.

“I feel like we’re all so intelligent and mature. And I think it’s also why everyone gets so along in the locker room, because we all realize it’s not that deep,” Levito said at nationals. “And we’re all doing something that we’re passionate about and that we love.”

Liu has also been a positive force for change in that regard.

Alysa Liu (R) takes a selfie at the team event earlier in the Olympics.

Wang Zhao/AFP

hide caption

Advertisement

toggle caption

Wang Zhao/AFP

The California native broke onto the scene with her technical prowess at age 12 in 2018, becoming the youngest skater to land a triple Axel in international competition. The following year, she became the youngest-ever U.S. women’s champion. She made her Olympic debut in Beijing in 2022 — then abruptly retired from the sport at age 16, burnt out from years of nonstop training.

Liu used her time away to do regular teenage things like get her driver’s license, travel and enroll in college classes. But a ski trip in 2024 reminded her of what she loved about the sport, and she tentatively returned to the rink. But she hit a full-force comeback when she won the 2025 World Championships, the first American woman to do so since Kimmie Meissner in 2006.

“Quitting was definitely still to this day, like one of my best decisions ever,” Liu said in October. “And coming back was also a really good decision.”

Liu has returned to competition with a renewed love of the sport and sense of self, taking more control over things like costumes and music. She’s stayed true to her own personal style, rocking a smiley piercing and halo hair (“I kind of want to be a tree, add a new ring every year”). And she’s spoken about newly enjoying competition as a chance to showcase her creative artistry.

“I want [the audience] to see my hair, my dress, my makeup, the way I skate,” Liu, now 20, said at the start of the Olympics. “I want people to see everything about me.”

Isabeau Levito channeled Audrey Hepburn’s character in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” short program in the 2024-2025 season.

Geoff Robins/AFP via Getty Images

hide caption

Advertisement

toggle caption

Geoff Robins/AFP via Getty Images

Levito, 18, is the youngest member of the team — though has said she feels wiser after a foot injury forced her to take a break in the 2024-2025 season.

“It just made me more grateful for every opportunity I have to skate,” she said.

She is known for her poise and grace on the ice — earning her the name “Tinkerbeau” from some fans and her sense of humor off of it.

Levito, a New Jersey native whose mom hails from Milan, went viral just this week for her enthusiastic response to an interviewer’s question about how much fun she’s been having in the Olympic Village: “You can’t evict me.”

Who is their biggest competition? 

Japan has been the U.S.’ closest challenger in the rink this Olympics, and that is poised to be the case for the women’s event too. The rivalry is a respectful one: Skaters from both countries have spoken highly of each other, and several Japanese skaters have gone viral for their wordless tribute to Glenn’s success at a 2024 competition.

Leading the Japanese trio is Kaori Sakamoto, looking to close out her career with Olympic gold. Sakamoto, 25, has said she will retire after these Games, and picked a fitting song for her short program: “Time to Say Goodbye.”

Silver medalist Mone Chiba, gold medalist Amber Glenn and bronze medalist Kaori Sakamoto pose after the women’s event at the 2024 ISU Grand Prix Finals.

Laurent Cipriani/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Laurent Cipriani/AP

Advertisement

The three-time world champion and three-time Olympian won bronze in 2022, and helped Japan win silver in this year’s team event.

She is also seen as a “big sister” to her younger Olympic teammates, 2025 world bronze medalist Mone Chiba and 2026 Four Continents silver medalist Ami Nakai — both of whom are also considered strong podium contenders.

But if figure skating at these Olympics have shown us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. Potential wildcards include Russia’s Adeliia Petrosian, who is competing as a neutral athlete.

Due to Russia’s exclusion from international competition over its war in the Ukraine, the three-time Russian champion has only taken the ice in one senior competition outside of her homeland: the qualifier that got her this spot in Milan.

Petrosian is coached by Eteri Tutberidze, the controversial and prolific women’s coach whose many former charges include Kamila Valieva — the Russian skater who was disqualified from the 2022 Olympics over a doping scandal.

Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch
Police Turned Blind Eye to Pedophilia …
New Owner Says

Published
February 17, 2026
3:46 AM PST

Want more Olympics updates? Subscribe here to get our newsletter, Rachel Goes to the Games, delivered to your inbox for a behind-the-scenes look at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

MILAN — Hundreds of incredible athletes are taking part in these Winter Games. And a number of them just happen to be dating — or engaged or married to — each other.

Some participate in the same sports, as teammates or even opponents, while others come from different athletic backgrounds.

Take U.S. Paralympians Oksana Masters and Aaron Pike, who both compete in several summer and winter sports. They first met at a Para Nordic competition in 2013, where they bonded over their love of coffee, before connecting on a deeper level at the 2014 Sochi Games.

“We had a really special moment where we kind of realized on a gondola that this is more than just a friend — like a hug that spoke a thousand words kind of thing,” Masters told NPR in October. “[I] realized, ‘Oh my gosh, this is not just something like a small attraction here.’”

Fast forward to 2022, and Pike proposed to Masters on a gondola in Wyoming. Masters has very publicly gone dress shopping — even bringing her two Paris 2024 gold medals with her — but they haven’t announced a wedding date yet. They said they were considering getting married after the Paralympics in Italy, while their families are already gathered together.

“In Italy would be a perfect way for our forever journey [to] start together, because of skiing in the mountains,” Masters said. “But, then, you need to ask him, too — more — because he’s doing nothing for the planning at all.”

NPR did ask Pike.

“I made a joke one time like: I proposed, now it’s your turn,” he said with a laugh. “And she will not let that go.”

Below are some of the Team USA winter power-couples to know, plus a few honorable mentions.

Hilary Knight and Brittany Bowe

At the socially-distanced Beijing Games in 2022, Hilary Knight asked Brittany Bowe if she wanted to go for a walk.

“That became our routine,” said Bowe. “We’d walk the Village after dinner and just talk. It was cool living in a bubble and not having outside distractions.”

Now they’re sharing another Olympics together.

It’s the fifth for Knight, the women’s hockey captain and all-time leading scorer for Team USA, and the fourth for Bowe, a two-time medalist in long-track speed skating. And this time, they’re not isolated in a bubble.

“It’s always nice to be able to support Hilary, and when we can see each other’s events,” Bowe said after attending Knight’s first match. “Her family was there, my whole family was there. It just brings additional energy to the atmosphere.”

Kaysha Love and Hunter Powell

Bobsledders Kaysha Love and Hunter Powell celebrate after Love won a race in Lake Placid, N.Y., in March 2025. The couple is now engaged.

Al Bello/Getty Images

hide caption

Advertisement

toggle caption

Al Bello/Getty Images

Bobsled athletes Kaysha Love and Hunter Powell met when they were track and field stars at their respective colleges. Love switched to bobsled and made the 2022 Olympics, then urged Powell to do the same.

“She convinced me to go to #SlideToGlory [a USA recruitment event,] which I was very resistant to, but she talked me into it, and I’m so thankful that she did,” Powell said from Cortina.

They got engaged in July 2025. Now, they’re Olympic teammates.

“It’s the coolest thing in the world,” Powell added. “I’m travelling the world for the first time in my life, chasing the dream, with the woman I love and my best friend. It doesn’t get cooler than that.”

Red Gerard and Hailey Langland

Snowboarders Red Gerard and Hailey Langland at an event in 2023 at Park City, Utah.

Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for JBL

hide caption

Advertisement

toggle caption

Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for JBL

Snowboarders Red Gerard and Hailey Langland have known each other since they were 12, and have been in a relationship for the past eight years.

They both competed at the Olympics in Pyeongchang in 2018 — where Gerard won gold — and 2022 in Beijing. He is competing again this year. She’s sidelined by an ACL injury, but staying with him and his parents in Italy.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates

Evan Bates took Madison Chock on a date on her 16th birthday, though it didn’t immediately lead to anything.

Several years later, in 2011, they partnered up in ice dance. Six years later, Bates confessed his feelings.

“Well, I pretty much told Maddie that I loved her,” Bates told NBC in 2018. “Last year I told (her) how I really felt and that changed things a lot.”

The two got engaged in 2022 and married in the summer of 2024 in Hawaii, where Chock’s parents are from. Bates told NPR in October that while “the skating career is short and finite, the relationship is much, much longer.”

“We love what we do, but we also really love each other,” Chock added. “And we’re able to take this passion and use it to foster our connection as a couple. And I think from that we’ve grown a lot through our sport, and that’s been such a great teacher for us.”

They’re not the only ice dance power couple on Team USA: Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik have been partners on and off the ice since 2022.

Other couples to know

Marie-Philip Poulin, right, and Laura Stacey of Team Canada celebrate after winning the hockey gold medal match against Team United States.

Elsa/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

Elsa/Getty Images

• Hockey greats Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey play together for the Montreal Victoire, and for Team Canada (of which Poulin is the captain). They’ve been together since 2017 and married since 2024. 
• Kim Meylemans and Nicole Silveira are both skeleton racers, representing opposing teams (Belgium and Brazil). They’re also newlyweds, having married less than a year ago after sparking up a relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Anna Kjellbin and Ronja Savolainen met while playing together in the Swedish pro women’s hockey league, before getting signed to separate teams in Canada. The now-fiances are playing for separate teams at the Olympics, too: Sweden and Finland. 
• There are three married couples in this year’s 10-team mixed doubles curling field: 
• Italian ice dancers Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri have been together since 2009, with the on-ice PDA to prove it. 
• Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant of Canada, Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller and Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann, and Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten of Norway.