Almost Half of ESPN’s Top 25 Olympians of the 21st Century Are Winter Sports Athletes

ESPN released its list of the top 25 Olympians of the 21st century and an impressive 11 out of the 25 Olympic athletes are winter sports athletes. The list features ice skaters and ice hockey players as well as a total of six Olympians who are skiers or snowboarders.

Out of the six skiers and boarders, a staggering five are U.S. athletes: Mikaela Shiffrin, Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn, Chloe Kim, and Lindsey Jacobellis. The only non-U.S. athlete is Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjorgen, who has a total of 15 Olympic medals to her name.

Shiffrin was the top-ranked U.S. Ski & Snowboard athlete listed in fifth. She is a three-time Olympic medalist and two-time gold medalist, and the winningest skier of all time with 97 World Cup wins and 60 World Cup slalom wins, the most in a single discipline.

At number seven is retired snowboard star Shaun White. White is a three-time Olympic gold medalist in halfpipe and is a 15-time X Games medalist. One of the most successful men’s snowboarders in history, he is still active in the action sports world, launching his own professional snowboard and freeski league.

Snowboarder Chloe Kim came in at number 12 on the list. Kim is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, nine-time X Games medalist, and the youngest woman to win Olympic halfpipe gold. She is still actively competing and is a fierce competitor on the international circuit.

Retired alpine skier Lindsey Vonn is ranked 16th on the list of top Olympians. Vonn is a three-time Olympic medalist, gold medalist, and holds 82 World Cup victories to her name. Vonn was widely known to be a speed force within the world of alpine skiing. She was also known to have impressive injury comebacks in her tenure within the sport.

Ranked 20th on the list of top Olympians is snowboard cross athlete and most decorated snowboarder in history Lindsey Jacobellis. Jacobellis is a three-time Olympic medalist and won two gold medals at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Jacobellis is the first snowboarder to win multiple golds in one Olympic Games when she earned gold in individual snowboard cross and mixed team.

It is great to see Winter Olympic athletes on such a strong footing compared to the Summer Olympic athletes in the ESPN ranking. The Summer Olympics typically garner a much stronger viewership, with on average 3 billion worldwide TV viewers versus 1.9 billion total viewers for the Winter Olympics.