With 100 days until the 23rd Olympic Winter Games kick off in PyeongChang, South Korea, it’s time to meet a few of the top medal contenders.
With the Opening Ceremony on Feb. 9, athletes from around the world will compete for at least one of the 102 gold medals up for grabs in 15 sports, including alpine skiing, curling, figure skating and speed skating.
The PyeongChang Paralympic Winter Games will take place in March with 80 medal events.
From figure skaters and skiers, to bobsledders and snowboarders, meet some of Team U.S.A.’s Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls poised to captivate the world:
The Shibutani Siblings
Ages: Maia, 23, and Alex, 26
Hometown: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Category: Ice Dancers
Before they became ice dancers, Alex and Maia Shibutani were just a brother and sister who loved to sing and dance in their parents’ living room.
When Maia Shibutani started ice skating at age 4, her brother Alex was more interested in basketball before switching sports.
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“We had the hoop in the backyard and I would drive for layups with my tongue out like Michael Jordan and that was my passion,” Alex Shibutani said. “But I got taken to the rink to watch [Maia] skate and I saw she was having such a good time, and so I gave it a try.”
Related: After a Decade of Ice Dancing, Shibutani Siblings Stand Together as New U.S. National Champions
The siblings initially skated separately, but joined forces when Maia was 10 and Alex was 13 — and they never looked back. The “Shib Sibs” said both their partnership and performances have never been stronger, and they are determined to finish on the podium in February.
“I think we’re hoping for that moment that you always dream about,” Maia Shibutani said. “We had that great experience in 2014 being on Olympic ice so we’re both excited to be back. We’ve changed so much since then, we’ve grown and improved so to really just take that moment and show what we’ve been doing that would be amazing.”
Bryan Fletcher
Age: 31
Hometown: Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Category: Nordic Combined
Bryan Fletcher first fell in love with skiing at age 4, a year after he was diagnosed with leukemia.
“I remembering asking at some point, ‘Am I going to die?’” he said. “They were like ‘No, of course not, you just have to do this, get through this sickness so you can be a normal kid again.’”
Fletcher said it was difficult to be a normal kid because he constantly felt tired once he started chemotherapy. He also suffered a stroke at age 5 due to an allergic reaction from a chemotherapy drug.
Related: When Greatness Runs in the Family: Parents of Olympic Siblings Talk About What it Takes
But leukemia never changed Fletcher’s adventurous spirit. He grew up in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where his parents would drive him to ski jumps after his treatments in Denver twice a week.
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Fletcher said skiing helped him get through the most difficult part of his life. After chemotherapy and lots of skiing, he went into remission at age 8.
“Going through something like that, it gives you a little bit of maturity at a younger age, but you also realize that there is more out there than just the competition,” Fletcher said. “You’re not so focused on, ‘I have to do well in this competition to be happy or to be fulfilled in life.’ I’m grateful just to be out there with the opportunity and try to achieve a better me every day.”
Elana Meyers Taylor
Age: 33
Hometown: Virginia Beach, Virginia
Category: Bobsleigh
After losing the gold medal for bobsledding by one-tenth of a second during the Sochi Olympics, Elana Meyers Taylor is eager for her another chance.
Meyers Taylor said it was difficult to process taking home the silver after hitting the wall in 2014.
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“To be that close to a gold medal and to have it so close you can taste it, and then you make a mistake like that, you know, it was very hard and very devastating for me,” Meyers Taylor said.
Related: Elana Meyers Taylor, Kehri Jones Win Gold at IBSF World Championships
But in December 2014, Meyers Taylor became the first American woman to compete in a four-man bobsled World Cup event against and alongside men. She became the first American woman to win a world title just two months later.
“In [the] bobsled, the only thing left for me to do is go out and win that gold medal. I want it really bad. I want it so bad I can taste it,” she said. “The biggest advice that my father has given me … He’s always told me that [my] career as an athlete is very short, so [I] have to take the moment and enjoy it.”
Amy Purdy
Age: 37
Hometown: Las Vegas, Nevada
Category: Snowboard
In July 1999, snowboarder Amy Purdy was a 19-year-old working as a massage therapist in Las Vegas when her life took an unexpected turn.
Less than 24 hours after she left her job early suffering from flu-like symptoms, Purdy was fighting for her life after contracting bacterial meningitis. She was given a less than 2 percent chance of living.
Purdy managed to survive the infection, but lost her spleen, kidneys, hearing in her left ear and both of her legs below the knees.
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“I was absolutely physically and emotionally broken,” she said during a TED Talk. “But I knew that, in order to move forward, I had to let go of the old Amy and learn to embrace the new Amy.”
Related: Paralympian Medalist Amy Purdy Stars in Super Bowl Ad
Purdy longed to snowboard again, and spent more than a year researching prosthetics and talking to manufacturers about creating legs that would allow her to snowboard. A week after her 21st birthday, she also received a life-saving gift from her dad — one of his kidneys.
Several months after her kidney transplant, Purdy embarked on a snowboarding trip where she met her husband, and soon founded Adaptive Action Sports, a non-profit organization dedicated to introducing people with physical disabilities to action sports. Purdy later went on to become a three-time snowboarding world champion, winning the bronze medal during the 2014 Sochi Winter Paralympics.
“I’ve had so many challenges in my life that have turned out to be blessings in disguises, and so I try to focus on that,” she said. “I try to remember that some of the worst-case scenarios that I was faced with happened, and that I survived.”
