…widely expected to be the Greatest Of All Time…
A couple days ago, gold-medal winning figure skater Ilia Malinin popped out of his planned quad axel into a single and crashed on a quad lutz, thus causing the entire corpus of American media into a frenzy. Just days earlier, Malinin had single-handedly lifted Team USA into the gold in Team Figures, gutting out an unforgettable performance with five quads. But with a few off-balanced landings in his Individual competition, he transformed from the “just might be a” G.O.A.T. into the other kind of goat, the Charlie Brown kind.
When I first saw Malinin skate in December at the Grand Prix Skate Final, where he broke the world record for points in Men’s Figures, the commentators were showering syrupy accolades down, repeating that buzzword of the 21st century: Generational Talent. It’s a phrase that used to be “once-in-a-lifetime” or “living legend…” But Generational Talent has to be forged into actual medals, so, for now, Malinin can read the memoirs of Lindsay Vonn, Michelle Kwan, Kurt Browning, Bode Miller, and other great athletes who did not meet the absurd expectations placed on their Olympic shoulders. He is still a gold medal winner and may, still, end up being a G.O.A.T. Yet surely telling someone for years that they just might be the Greatest Of All Time is a burden rather than a compliment.
Meanwhile, since those words Generational Talent are the phrase du jour, I thought this is worth exploring in full, even if Malinin is not the centerpiece.
What kind of Generational Talent are we seeing in the 2026 Games? What does that even mean? There is plenty out there. In fact, there’s another blond young man who just might live up to the phrase, not to mention a handful of women who ski like crazy, some old chicks who have lasted for a generation, and the real GOAT of the Games, the “Speed King,” who is on track to win every race in which he’s entered. Generational Talent can mean a lot of things.
Defining a Phenom
What exactly is Generational Talent? We know it when we see it. LeBron James, Shohei Otani, Simone Biles, Babe Didrickson, Usain Bolt, Yuzuru Hanyu, Michael Phelps. Fill in the names from any country you like. People who were phenoms as kids, then lived up to all the hype and more.
It’s a little mind-boggling to think of Eric Heiden winning five gold medals in 1980, in a sport no one had heard of in the U.S., with no financial backing, no sponsorship, no serious spotlight. Is it generational to be a young man and set a gold medal record that no one then breaks for 46 years? Or does it require you to earn medals in multiple Olympics? Back in the 1980s, athletes could not really continue for long unless they had personal wealth. You weren’t allowed to accept endorsements or be paid for sport, so Eric Heiden had one shot to be a big deal, and then he moved on. He became a successful orthopedic surgeon. Perhaps the idea of a General Talent wasn’t yet in the cards in 1980.
It’s 2026 now, and you can turn pro earlier, enter the World Championships as a teenager, before you’re fully grown. The Olympics have raised the age limits, so we don’t see 12 and 13-year-olds anymore, but 22 is still young. Wunderkind Jordan Stolz is still a phenom, even if he’s no longer a teenage phenom. He won his first US senior title at 16 and qualified for Beijing, placing in the mid-teens and seeing what the hype was all about.
Like Heiden, Stolz is from Wisconsin, which had built world-class facilities near his home. Children could practice speed skating on the track after the Olympians left the ice, so they could watch the big boys and girls train. By his late teens, Stolz began collecting World Records as if they were participation trophies. The only time he did lose in the last several years was at the 2025 Worlds, when he was suffering from pneumonia and strep; he only managed a silver. His prowess earned him a spot on the NBC Olympic poster wall, but he’s still not the household name that others are. However, after blasting through the competition to win his first two races, the expectations are rising. He’s only entered in four, though, so he won’t be able to eclipse Heiden’s record. It’s pretty to hard to do that many things in a two-week stretch.
The Post-National Flier
The entry of X Games’ sports into the Winter Games has created opportunities for a whole new slew of teenagers. Chloe Kim is the big American name in snowboarding, medaling in the Half-Pipe in three games, gold in the previous two. Staying power ought to be a heavy factor. So who else thrived as a teenager and has come back for more? There’s another Californian who has stirred controversy as she’s somersaulted off the ramps.
Eileen Gu, winner of three in Beijing, and a silver so far in Milano-Cortina, would likely be considered GT. Born in San Francisco to a Chinese immigrant, Gu decided to compete for China during the Beijing Games, saying that she wanted to foster international relations and encourage young women in China to take up the sport. Her mother, Yan Gu, was an athlete on the Chinese Short-Track Speed skating team and had emigrated to the U.S. with a chemical engineering degree before earning an MBA from Stanford. Working as a part-time ski instructor in Tahoe, single mother Yan put 3-year-old Eileen on the slopes, and it was the perfect fit.
In 2022, with the Olympics in Beijing, 19-year-old Eileen took two golds and a silver in Freestyle Skiing. In Big Air, athletes whoosh down a ski jump, then perform flips and spins, their skis crossing and uncrossing, sometimes landing backwards. Slopestyle and Half-Pipe are more of the same, only repeated tricks. Gu has already taken a silver in slopestyle and has qualified for the finals in Big Air. She also plans to compete in Half-Pipe, although the schedulers put the training runs at the same time as the Big Air final, which seems rather stupid. TBD how they work through that.
Normally, the American press loves an attractive, intelligent winner, but because Gu chose to compete under a rival flag, they have excoriated her. Some have called her a traitor and defector because she refuses to criticize either country (sufficiently). One journalist decided to call her “post-national,” in sarcasm, as if competing for the love of the sport rather than for country was distasteful. De Coubertin is either smiling or spinning in his Olympian grave.
Others have complained about her financial success–she’s one of the highest paid female athletes in the world. They’ve also lambasted her upbringing in a wealthy San Francisco neighborhood, her early admission to Stanford, and her fashion sensibility. Apparently, it’s only okay for some to thrive under capitalism. Somehow, those same journalists don’t complain about the Stanford athletes who win swimming medals for Team USA; they don’t emphasize Eileen being raised by a single mother and grandmother,as they do with other athletes.
The U.S. Ski team has been grudgingly supportive, but, of course, that was when she decided at 15 to wear a different flag, before she started winning everything. Had she not been so successful, no one might have cared. But now that she’s proven to be “generational talent,” there’s endless griping. She competes in Big Air Monday (tomorrow). It’s hard to know whether a fifth medal will just make people madder.
Bumpin’ and Schussin’
So how about those other American phenoms, the 20-year-old and the 29-year-old, who went 1-2 and 2-3 in the two mogul events? You know, Lemley and Kauf? I repeat… Elizabeth Lemley the young phenom in the freestyle ski moguls competitions? Jaelin Kauf, who earned the GT label when she was #1 in the world before Pyeonchang, then won a silver in Beijing, and took two more silvers here? Three-time medalist Jaelin…? All I hear is crickets.
Let’s back up. Skiing moguls are not for the faint of knee. I haven’t been able to watch much, just because it makes me wince. Skiers fly down the mountain, do a trick, then bump their way through a set of jaw-shuttering lumps of snow. The Athletic praised their grace and agility but wondered whether they were foolishly risking their joints. In other words, the only story to feature them focused on whether it was a good ideas as a sport.
Two races, two racers, four medals. One is at her third Games, just like Chloe Kim.
Maybe it helped that they didn’t earn a spot anywhere on the pre-Games NBC pantheon of Olympic stars. Maybe it’s better to become the GOAT a little quietly, suddenly emerging as one the best one-two punches that the Americans have. Lemley is still a kid at 20, with plenty of competitions ahead of her. If only she can keep her knees springy.
Competing into the Next Generation
After all, doesn’t generational talent mean that you are the best in a generation? And how can we know that when someone has only been in one games, or a few world championships prior to the Olympics? “Just might be the greatest” is a phrase thrown around way too often. The Greatest belongs to those who stay the course. Like a 36-year-old snowboarder and two 40-somethings on the bobsleigh track.
First, for your consideration,Queralt Castellet. While I know the exact length of a generation carries some debate, surely six Olympics ought to be sufficient? Queralt first competed in Snowboard Half-Pipe for Spain–back in Turin in 2006, the same year that Shaun White started. He’s retired. She’s not.
She qualified for every Olympics since, for Spain, which is not a snowboarding powerhouse. In fact, not being a powerhouse probably makes it harder, since she might not have the same access to coaches and resources. Yet she has to qualify amid all the others just the same, time after time after…Shaun White stopped at five. In Castellet’s fifth Games in Beijing, she eked out a silver medal, behind Chloe Kim. Here in Milano-Cortina, she finished seventh best in the world, among all the other “generational talent.”
If Spain is too far away, then think about the two “working moms” who still fly down the track in the bobsleigh. I knew Kallie Humpries was still competing because she’s been featured talking about the thing journalists always like to talk about with women athletes–motherhood. In 2014, Humphries and Elana MeyersTaylor became the first women to compete among the men’s teams in mixed-gender bobsleigh. The Olympics can’t quite swallow that yet.
Meanwhile, Elana Meyers Taylor, the first Black woman on the sled track, has medaled in four Games and is trying for five, just like her partner Humphries in the two-person sled. Taylor was chosen to carry the flag in Beijing during the opening ceremonies but had to withdraw because she had COVID. Luckily, she was cleared before competing and able to take a silver in the Monobob. After two heats in Milano-Cortina, Taylor and Humphries are one and two, right behind Laura Nolte, who is 27 and from the country that owns bobsleigh, Germany. The finals are tomorrow, and they may continue to make history. And continue to be asked about being “working moms.”
The Speed King
Naturally, I’ve saved the GOAT for latest. Imagine, if the US could possible care as much about cross-country skiing as we do about swimming and the 100 meters, think about all the medals up for grabs! It might be hard, though, because one guy is winning all of them: The Speed King. King Klaebo.
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo has now broken the record for the most gold medals at the Winter Olympics. He’s got nine. The previous records of eight were held by other cross-country skiers, biathletes, and speed skaters. You do have to be “lucky” enough to compete in multiple events and somehow have the stamina to get through them. And win in them, too.
Klaebo started back in 2018 as a 21-year-old phenom with three golds, added two golds and two other medals in 2022, and now has four medals in these Games–so far. He’s also entered in the Two-person Men’s Spring–reigning gold medalist–and the 50K. That’s basically the marathon. In other words, he’s had to win in team relays, team sprints, individual sprints, and the 50K. That’s like winning the 100m, the 100m relay, the 1500, a 1500 relay, and the marathon. Let’s see Michael Phelps win in the 3000m as well as the 59m. It might be fun to see some folks try that on the track. So much running they’d get dizzy!
Meanwhile, Klaebo’s done so many medal ceremonies, you could just put them on a loop. Somehow he’s never yet been Norway’s flag bearer, so I got to believe he’ll be coming through the tunnel next week. If he wins the team sprint on Wednesday, that will tie him with Eric Heiden’s unbreakable five-gold record, though he’ll still be two away from Marit Bjørgen’s 15 medal-record. This may not be Klaebo’s last Games, though. If he somehow magically and mysteriously wins the 50K next Sunday, the multiverse will shift and supernovas will begin imploding. Six medals? Including a 50K? not possible. Except maybe for the true mountain GOAT.
Maybe we will have to invent the phrase “Multi-Generational Talent.”