- - Brian Boitano, Christine Brennan on 2026 Winter Olympics and Team USA | The Excerpt

Dana Taylor, USA TODAYFebruary 5, 2026 at 9:14 AM

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On the Thursday, February 5, 2026, episode of The Excerpt podcast: One day out from Milano Cortina 2026, USA TODAY National Sports Columnist Christine Brennan and Olympic Gold Medalist Brian Boitano, hosts of USA TODAY’s Milan Magic Olympics podcast, join The Excerpt for a look at Team USA and the Olympic stories to watch out for.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Dana Taylor:

We are now just one day away from the roar of the opening ceremonies of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan in Cortina, Italy. Team USA is on the hunt for gold as figure skater Ilia Malinin, who some have dubbed the quad god, pushes the sport of ice skating to dizzying heights.

Hello and welcome to USA TODAY's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Thursday, February 5th, 2026. Joining me now to discuss one of America's favorite events, ice skating, and what else to watch out for at Milan Cortina 2026 is USA TODAY National Sports Columnist Christine Brennan and Olympic Gold Medalist Brian Boitano, the host of USA TODAY's Milan Magic Olympics podcast. Christine and Brian, it is so wonderful to have you here on The Excerpt. Thanks for joining me.

Brian Boitano:

Thank you so much for having us.

Christine Brennan:

Thanks. Yeah, you know what? We're getting a little sick of each other, just the two of us, so it's good to have you join.

Dana Taylor:

Christine, of course, anything can happen at the Olympics, but Team USA is stacked. Who are the mega stars we'll be watching?

Christine Brennan:

You certainly mentioned one right off the bat. Ilia Malinin who is the quad god, as you said, he is two-time world champ, four-time US national champ. He is the prohibitive favorite to win the men's gold medal early in the Olympics, the first week. So in fact, the team competition is beginning on the same day as the opening ceremony. So you'll see Ilia probably quite early in the Olympics. But as Brian knows well, the winter sports by design are ice and snow. And that means that they can be very slippery. It's not like someone swimming in a pool. And yes, something can go wrong for Katie Ledecki, but the odds are it's not going to be the elements. And yet with ice, with snow, that skating is a slippery sport. Ilia Malinin, we're going to be keeping an eye on Amber Glenn, the three-time US Women's Champ, and also Alyssa Liu, the defending world champion on the women's side.

And then of course, there are the other sports, including skiing, two huge names, Michaela Schiffrin and Lindsay Vonn. So this is a stacked, power packed US Olympic team.

Dana Taylor:

Brian, let's go in depth on the US skaters. Who are the favorites?

Brian Boitano:

Where do I start? Well, Ilia Malinin, this guy has set the technical bar so high, higher than ever in the history of our sport. He is just phenomenal. But taking that into effect, nothing is for sure. He has some contenders that if he doesn't have a great night, that they'll be able to come in and steal his thunder, but nobody's expecting that. But just having that amount of pressure, imagine going in and wanting to win a gold medal, but at the same time having expectation from everyone that it's a shoe-in. That's a hard, hard amount of pressure to skate under. So he has his country, he has the quad god title. He's set the bar higher than ever. He's literally probably the most favorite for an Olympic gold medal that we've ever had. And that's a lot of pressure. So I like to give him a chance to take a little bit of the pressure off.

So nothing's a given for sure, but he is certainly the most dominant. And then the women, we have three really strong women, Alyssa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito. We could really have a sweep of the podium. I don't think it is the most likely chance, but that's how talented our women's team is, is that if there are mistakes by some of the Japanese team and other people who are competitive with them, we could have a sweep of the podium.

Christine Brennan:

Brian, I agree with you on that. And women skating, obviously men's skating is a very big deal, especially in 1988 when a certain guy won the Olympic gold medal in the Battle of the Brian's. And that was my first Olympics, winner Olympics I covered. And men's skating, certainly. I mean, with Scott Hamilton, Brian Boitano, and there have been others most recently, Nathan Chen winning the gold four years ago, and then will Ilia be the one this time? But the women, that's right, that's Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill. And so many of those great names that are iconic cultural names in our country and in the world, not just sports superstars. And the question is, to Brian's point, will there be an American woman who will rise up, or two, or three because it has been 20 years since a US woman has won an Olympic medal.

Sasha Cohen, silver medal, 2006 in Torino, just a few hundred miles from where the Milan Olympics will be. That's a long drought for a country that has just produced gold medalists, silver medalists, Michelle Quon, Tara Lapinski, you name it. And that's the real question and they know it. Amber Glenn told us right away, she said, "We understand there's this drought and we are going to end the drought." One of those three American women, maybe two, maybe three, they're the ones that can do it.

Dana Taylor:

And of course, the games showcase athletic excellence from across the globe. Brian, who are a few of the international Olympians to watch out for?

Brian Boitano:

For the first time in years, we have two of the... They're not Russians. They're representing a neutral country in the men's event and the women's event. And they are touted to give a challenge to our American skaters, not so much Ilia, but in the women's event, Patrushian is touted to give our women a run for their money. There is a talented cast of skaters. For Ilia Malinin, we have Yuma Kagayama from Japan, who is just an incredible... He's probably the generation after Ilia. And we have our American guys that are doing so well. Andrew Torgeshev and Max Namoff, of course, who is well known for a tragic reason because his parents were on flight 5342 in Washington, that tragedy. But the phoenix rising from the ashes is Max being able to make the Olympic team, which was a little bit of a surprise, but he's always had the talent, but he really put it all together to make the Olympic team. And everybody's hearts are going to be with Max as soon as he steps on the ice.

Christine Brennan:

And I'll mention also ice dance because we'd love to talk about bears, but the US pairs last won an Olympic medal in 1988 when Brian won his gold medal. That was the bronze medal. And it's nothing against the pears. They're trying hard, but the US has just not been able to really put together a strong pair team for a long, long time to be on the Olympic stage. A couple world medals and certainly national champs. But ice dance is another story entirely. As Brian knows well, there are five now, last five Olympics there have been medals won by the Americans in ice dance, in part because of the scoring system change. It has made ice dance in particular fairer, and none of the nonsense, or at least less of the nonsense of the judges cheating. And so that has opened up the opportunities for Americans.

And as of course, Brian knows well, Madison Chalk, Evan Bates, seven time national champions are going to try to finally win their first individual in the sense of ice dance medal. They are the gold medalists in the team competition. They finally got that medal two and a half years after the last Olympics in Beijing. So they are gold medalists, but in the team, they would love to win the gold obviously in the individual ice dance, but there's some tough teams, a French team. The Canadians are good. We'll see how it all plays out, but watch ice dance as well, especially wonderful, great leaders and just terrific veteran skaters, Madison Chalk and Evan Bates.

Dana Taylor:

Christine, we all love a Cinderella story. Which Olympians on the US roster do you think could surprise the world?

Christine Brennan:

Wow. Well, I'll tell you, in figure skating, since we're talking a lot of skating, and why not? Because it is so popular and Americans love it. Brian mentioned her, Isabeau Levito. She is only 18, so she's the youngest of the three. Amber Glenn's 26 and Alyssa Lu's 20. So Isabeau Levita, one-time national champ. So she's been there. She's been at the top. But to me, she looks like she's the ballerina and the jewelry box. It's Audrey Hepburn out there. Just that classic, beautiful look. Could she slide in the way Sarah Hughes did back in 2002 in Salt Lake City where the other skaters, the top ranked ones didn't do as well, made some mistakes, and all of a sudden Sarah Hughes won the Olympic gold medal, deservedly so.

Isabeau Levito, could she have that couple days of competition? I think that's certainly worth watching. And then these Japanese women skaters that Brian referred to, they're good. They're really, really good. And Japan, Russia, and South Korea have dominated the metal podium in women's skating since, again, since the days of Syracuse, Michelle Quon, Tara Lapinski, Sasha Cohen.

Brian Boitano:

And that's what makes it so... Figure skating is so dramatic. You never know. I mean, Christine knows when you go into the building that night, sometimes the energy is there and it's so different. Sometimes it's often you're like, the energy's off in this building. Then how the entire night unfolds, sometimes it's one surprise after another. Sometimes it's not great skating. Sometimes it's fantastic skating. You never know what to expect when you go in the building. And so that's why when we say someone can slip in there, it can be someone that you never even counted on coming in, having a fantastic night and placing right up there on the podium. So that's what's so exciting.

Dana Taylor:

So Brian, if you were to highlight just one, is there an athlete story this year that's compelling to you, perhaps something that goes beyond meddling?

Brian Boitano:

Yeah. I have to say, and I'm directly related to it. So Alyssa Liu, who is world champion from last year, US champion from last year as well, she is the youngest ever to be national champion in our country. And then she retired and came back to skating in full force, and won the world title out of the blue last year, a total surprise to everyone. But she's come with a renewed passion. She decided she wanted to come back with this joie de vivre. She's not going to feel pressure. She's going to have fun. She's going to be a great teammate, and inspire and encourage her other teammates. And she just has this lightheartedness. When you watch her, you smile. She doesn't care about medals. She doesn't care about placement. She cares about that she loves the sport again, and she's doing really well because of it.

And because she doesn't feel this pressure and because she doesn't care so much, she has so much less pressure on herself, because most of the people in the events are like, "I really want to get a medal and I'm nervous." And she's like, "I'm just going to go out there and have fun." So she has all this energy and she has all this love. And when she skates so well, the audience gets totally behind her. She is the energy of the future. And she is starting this sisterhood with the other two teammates that is literally capturing the nation by storm. And we're going to see a lot more of that when we watch the Olympics.

Christine Brennan:

And Dana, Brian has a bird's eye view, as he said, because he's skating with her a couple of times a week. So Brian Boitano is literally on the ice with Alyssa Liu. And Brian, you mentioned something that I actually captured because I was sitting in press row at the nationals a few weeks ago, the US Championships in St. Louis. So this is remarkable. Our country right now, we got people at each other's throats. We've got a lot of controversy out there. We're talking sports here, obviously, right now. And you just refer to it. The cultural significance of Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito, and Alyssa Liu, the three of them, and they finished each other's sentences. They laugh at each other's jokes. They're just great pals. They're always hugging each other. You don't see that all the time at all. In any sport, a competitive sport, which of course skating is, and what I witnessed was amazing.

So Alyssa Liu is the second to last skater in the long program, the final night of competition for the women a few weeks ago, the US Nationals. She's in first place. There's one skater left. That's the only skater who can beat her. It's Amber Glenn. Now, a lot of times skaters will leave the ice, go back behind the curtains, not want to watch. It makes sense. You're sweating, you're huffing and puffing and you just want to get away from it. You're not going to watch the last person. No. Alyssa Liu just literally crouches down right in front of us on the press row, right at the ice. And she's there cheering for Amber Glenn, the woman who can beat her. And sure enough, Amber Glenn did beat Alyssa Liu. I've covered sports a long time, lots of sports, football, golf, you name it. That's one of those stories you go, "Wow, I cannot believe I'm just watching this."

And that's Brian, the woman that you know so well.

Brian Boitano:

Yeah.

Dana Taylor:

Brian, you uniquely understand the immense pressure athletes from around the globe are feeling right at this moment. What does the mental preparation look like and feel like for the athletes we'll be watching?

Brian Boitano:

Well, I've explained it to Christine before that it's like the layers of an onion. We, from childhood, getting used to different layers of pressure, and expectation, and all these layers of onion keep building on top of you, on top of you, on top of you. And you know what the pressure's going to be like. You know what it's like to defend a national title, which is one level of pressure. You know what it's like to defend a world title, which is another level of pressure. Well, the level of pressure when you get into an Olympics and there's a possibility that you can win a gold medal is times seven. So all these athletes have prepared for this. They have done their mental exercises. They have done as much mental training as they have done triple lutz's. And that's the most important part, is having that at your availability whenever you need it.

It's your toolbox of things that you will use right when the competition starts. Because when things go down on the ice during competition, it unravels really quickly. And it can unravel in a good way and it can unravel in a bad way. So the tools that you have in your toolbox that you deal with pressure are literally 97% of your work, and the 97% of the most important things that you can have going into the Olympics when there's that pressure involved.

Dana Taylor:

I'll never look at an onion the same way again. Christine, can you share with us something about the backdrop, the venues, the Italian winter scape that I'll be watching on my screen and the two of you will be experiencing on the ground?

Christine Brennan:

This is a unique setup. For the first time ever, you have at least first time... Well, I think it is the first time ever. I've covered every Olympics, as I said, since Calgary in 1988, where I met Brian Boitano, who then of course won the incredible gold medal. But in general, Calgary, the skiing, which I covered some of that, was a half hour drive and you'd go in back and forth, maybe 45 minutes if you were in traffic. Vancouver, 2010, hour and a half on the media shuttle to Whistler, and then you come back and you're back in time for dinner. Well, this is different. This is six, seven, eight hour drive away. So Cortina is absolutely gorgeous. This is going to look terrific on your TV set. It's going to look terrific as you look at the incredible photos being shot by USA TODAY photographers and all of the things that will be part of our stories.

But Brian and I are going to be in Milan and among many of the other journalists, and we're not going to be able to just, oh, wander over and watch Lindsey Vonn. No, no. And that's different. I actually love it because there's three or four smaller towns, including Cortina, but that they are going to have a big role to play because they're hosting some of the events. But hockey, men's and women's hockey, and let's not forget the US Canada, women's hockey, guaranteed they're going to be playing for the gold medal and that's all they... Either Canada or the US has won all of them. But hockey will be in Milan. The speed skating, Jordan Stolls from Milwaukee, great speed skater, among others, that will also be in Milan. And then of course, figure skating. So that's where the big base of support will be and we're going to be based.

Although again, there'll be a lot of different venues with a lot of really cool things going on.

Dana Taylor:

I do want to talk about the podcast, because we have been following your coverage leading up to the games. It's USA TODAY's Milan Magic podcast. What do you have in store for us now that competition is underway?

Brian Boitano:

We're going to talk about everything. We're talking to legends. We're talking to current skaters. We're going to talk judging system, costumes, and that's just the figure skating part. We're going to get into other events as well. I know Lindsay Vaughn will be a big topic and Michaela Shiffrin for us. Jordan Sultz, like you said, in speed skating. Yeah, we're going to be talking about pretty much everything, but we want to surprise you a little bit. We don't want to tell you everything that we have up our sleeves, so keep listening.

Christine Brennan:

Yeah. And what's fun for me is, so I'm the journalist and Brian's the skater, and we do. We've known each other since '88. So just great friendship and respect. But I think, and I've heard this from people already, we're very honored that people listen and watch, and we already had several, obviously, episodes that we're very proud of. A great team, as you do, Dana at USA TODAY, getting this out to everyone. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts, of course, and on the YouTube channels. But the idea being that we come at things from a different point of view. And if there's news to break, I'm going to be breaking it. And Brian will probably in many cases then comment on that. And his view commenting, Brian, as you are as an athlete, obviously as a personality, as an icon in the sport, I don't think anyone else is giving all of the fans, the thousands, millions of fans that are going to be watching these Olympics that care about it, maybe don't care right now.

And here's the opening ceremony. Now you're going to now, oh wow, it's happening the next three or four weeks. Come to us, because I think we figured this out, your first Olympics was 1984, Brian, mine was 1984. Mine was summer, yours winter. So if we just do quick math here, that's 42 years of Olympics for me and 42 years of Olympics for Brian, which if we get a calculator out, we can say that that is 84 years of Olympics

Brian Boitano:

A century.

Christine Brennan:

Almost. Well, a couple more and then we'll add it up. But we're having a ball. We love to have smiles on our faces and tell really positive, happy stories. And if there's stuff that we have to get into that's a little negative, absolutely we will. We will tell you the truth. You're going to get stories here and information that you're not going to get anywhere else, with 84 years, my gosh, of experience on this exact topic over the next three weeks.

Brian Boitano:

Christine and I really dive into it, and we talk about what's important, and we answer people's questions like what are they thinking? So it's really fun and satisfying for us to even be able to talk at depth about everything.

Dana Taylor:

And Christine, I hear that USA TODAY has a new book out called Chasing Gold. What can you tell me about that?

Christine Brennan:

Yeah, it's a unique thing, a book, USA TODAY with a children's book for these Olympics, Chasing Gold. A kid's guide to the 2026 Winner Olympics, a complete breakdown of winter Olympians and Paralympians for kids and adults of all ages to enjoy, while they learn about the stars heading to Milan and Cortina. It's a hardcover book, includes 40 full color pages with photos of the biggest athletes preparing to compete. There are fun facts, but there's also crafts to create your own Olympic medals and torch, and even a bingo game for when you're watching the games as a family. So with so much to look forward to with the 2026 Winter Olympics, Chasing Gold, that's the name of it. Chasing Gold is the perfect asset to get the family together for the biggest sports event in the world. Head to usatoday.com to place an order as the 2026 Winter Olympics take off.

Dana Taylor:

And you can join Christine and Brian in Milan on their series, Milan Magic airing in the Sport Seriously podcast feed. Find it wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch their show on USA TODAY's Sport Seriously YouTube channel. Christine Brennan is a national sports columnist for USA TODAY, and Brian Boitano is a US Olympic gold medalist. Thank you both so much for taking the time and being on the excerpt.

Brian Boitano:

Thank you. Thank you so much. Cheers.

Dana Taylor:

Thanks to our senior producer, Kayely Monahan, for her production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts at usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. I'll be back Monday morning with another episode of USA TODAY's The Excerpt.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Olympics are here! Which athletes will USA TODAY be watching? | The Excerpt

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