Corrections & clarifications: This story has been updated to correct statistics that were inaccurate in Team USA's initial news release.
The United States is sending 223 athletes to the Winter Olympics in Beijing next month, including 108 women – its second-largest female contingent ever at a Winter Games.
This will be the third consecutive Winter Olympics in which Team USA has had 100 female athletes or more, and the closest it has come to gender equity. There were 109 women named to the U.S. Olympic team at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018, 101 of whom competed. (The U.S. regularly sends more women than men to compete in the Summer Games.)
This year's delegation also features one nonbinary athlete, pairs figure skater Timothy LeDuc.
Overall, Team USA's roster for Beijing – which was announced Monday – is its second-largest ever, trailing only the 228 athletes that competed at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang. This group features athletes from 31 states and 39 previous Olympic medal-winners.
"This is an exciting 2022 U.S. Olympic Team – a great mix of returning champions building on remarkable legacies and first-time Olympians eager to show what they can do on the biggest stage in sport," said Rick Adams, the chief of sport performance at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
"The dedication of these Team USA athletes to train and compete in this unpredictable global environment is exemplary. It’s an honor to support and celebrate Team USA, and we can’t wait for the Games to begin."
The United States will have four five-time Olympians on its roster: Snowboarders Lindsey Jacobellis and Shaun White, curler John Shuster and Katie Uhlaender in skeleton. Eight others will be competing in their fourth Winter Games.
All told, 92 of Team USA's athletes – or 41% of its delegation – have previous Olympic experience, while 131 athletes will be making their Olympic debuts.
The youngest athlete on Team USA is figure skater Alysa Liu, 16, who secured her spot despite testing positive for COVID-19 midway through the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Nashville, Tennessee, earlier this month. Snowboarder Nick Baumgartner, who turned 40 in December, will be the oldest.
Having secured their spots, the 223 members of Team USA will next focus on traveling to China and clearing the country's COVID-19 protocols, which include multiple tests prior to departure and another immediately upon arrival.
Select competitions will begin Feb. 2, with the opening ceremony in Beijing slated for Feb. 4.
Contact Tom Schad at [email protected] or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.
