Winter Olympics 2026: Olympians Shine in Diamonds
More than the snow will sparkle from the slopes at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics 2026 games.
Chloe Kim wears Anito Ko diamond earrings while winning the Women’s Snowboard Halfpipe Final during the Toyota US Grand Prix on February 01, 2025, in Aspen, Colorado. (Getty Images)
Sports and fashion are cozying up together, taking in each other’s glamour and cachet a lot lately. Fine jewelry and watches have also joined the coupling, with diamonds as the bling of choice. Who better to don a shining star than a star athlete?
The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics 2026 will highlight a new segment of champions, also gaining buzz in the jewelry world, as tennis seemed to reign in diamond jewelry just last September. In the Italian Alps, the glistening isn’t just coming from the snow but from jewels that Alpine racer Lindsey Vonn, snowboarder Chloe Kim, Alpine racer Mikaela Shiffrin, and Freestyle skier Eileen Gu sport on and off the slopes.
Below, discover how elite winter athletes are redefining the intersection of sport, style, and diamond jewelry in the lead-up to the Winter Olympics 2026.
Meet the Expert
- Roxanne Robinson is an award-winning journalist with over 25 years of experience between New York and Paris.
- She covers the luxury and fashion industries, spending 18 years as WWD’s Accessories and Jewelry Director.
- She is the New York Contributing Editor for Fashion Network, and regularly contributes to the New York Times, the CFDA, Forbes, and more.
Lindsey Vonn: American Olympic Gold Medalist and World Cup Champion Alpine Skier
Gold medalist Lindsey Vonn is no stranger to slopestyle; to wit, her appearance in a Thom Browne Pandemic-era collection film.
Despite nursing a torn ACL, the 41-year-old champion will make a comeback at the Winter Olympics 2026 as the oldest Olympic skier. Celebrating her birthday this past October, she made a major jewelry statement at the Academy Museum Gala, wearing a David Webb necklace totaling 41 carats of diamonds.
The piece features a huge emerald-cut aquamarine nestled inside a diamond-shaped crystal pendant with a white gold cage dotted with diamonds on a pavé chunky chain with alternating rock crystal links. Vonn wore it backwards with her strapless gown, resembling a choker from the front and a pendant from the back, reminiscent of an Olympic medal.
On the 80-plus World Cup champion’s wrist was a Rolex. As an ambassador since 2009, Vonn’s enviable Rolex collection includes a Pearlmaster 39 18K rose gold men’s watch with a diamond bezel and dial, a Cosmograph Daytona in platinum with a bezel set with 36 baguette-cut diamonds, and a dial set with 437 round diamonds.
Chloe Kim: Korean American Olympic Gold Medalist and Professional Snowboarder
Two-time gold medal Snowboarding champion Chloe Kim has been buying herself jewelry to celebrate wins since she was 14, when she bought Tiffany silver hoops. Next came a Tiffany HardWear yellow gold and pavé necklace along with a Cartier Love bracelet.
She has also been collecting piercings—thirteen in total—which she adorns in Anita Ko diamonds. Standout pieces include the Two-Dot earrings, Ko’s signature pavé safety pin, and the double-piercing diamond loop earring. In recent editorials, such as the cover of Elle magazine and Women’s Health, touting her comeback ahead of the Winter Olympics 2026, Kim is seen wearing them.
Los Angeles-based jeweler and Korean-American Anita Ko relates to Kim. “She’s a young California cool girl with a certain taste level and a lot of real estate for piercings. Chloe wears a lot of my stuff because I do wearable luxury. She can wear it during a workout, out at night, and on the slopes. With thirteen, you don’t take them off frequently,” Ko told Only Natural Diamonds, adding, “I’m proud of her. I hope she wins and wears my pieces on the podium when she gets that medal.”
I’m proud of her. I hope she wins and wears my pieces on the podium when she gets that medal.
Her gala dressing features plenty of sparkling diamonds from brands such as Shay Jewelry, David Yurman, Kasun London, and Melinda Maria, another LA-based jewelry brand. Kim is one of Breitling’s “All Star Squad” of athletes and prefers their Super Chronomat 38 with a diamond-flanked bezel and green watch face. With an April birthstone, it’s no wonder this champion loves diamonds.
Makaela Shiffrin: American Olympic Gold Medalist and World Cup Champion Alpine Skier
The internet was buzzing when ski champion Shiffrin and skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde announced their engagement on Instagram in April 2024. Shiffrin displays an engagement ring with a cushion-cut diamond with a textured pyramid-shaped double band.
The double band theme carries over into a ring worn on her other pointer finger and nods to the parallel lines of skis and a new brand logo the skier has created to promote her podcast, “What’s the Point with Makaela Shiffrin,” that debuted in October.
In one Instagram post, ahead of the Winter Olympics 2026, she sported a Tiffany T Bar necklace, a necklace with a single pearl accented with diamonds, and diamond-accented mini-huggie earrings. As a Longines ambassador and watch lover, Shiffrin is hardly seen without wearing a timepiece both on and off the slopes.
Eileen Gu: American World Cup Champion and Chinese Olympic Gold Medalist Freestyle Skier
Two-time Olympic gold medalist and 20-time World Cup-winning skier Eileen Gu has proved to be an equal force in fashion and jewelry as well as sports. At 22, the all-time leader in freestyle skiing—representing both the US and China in the Winter Olympics 2026—has walked runways, modeled in campaigns, and appeared on the cover of VOGUE China and, recently, TIME magazine. These appearances have been opportunities to flex her jewelry style; at a VOGUE China Force of Fashion event, where she wore a sweeping red strapless gown, her multiple diamond accoutrements included an impressive diamond-and-ruby choker necklace.
Gu has professed a love for Tiffany, who, according to representatives, is “a friend of the brand.” Recently, she participated in her second torch-lighting ceremony ahead of Milan-Cortina, wearing rose-gold, oversized, pyramid-shaped drop earrings. She shows a penchant for a small, dangling style, including a pair of pear-shaped diamond earrings worn during a press conference discussing an accident while training in New Zealand.
Her watch tastes also include diamonds. As an IWC Schaffhausen brand partner, she modeled the Portofino Automatic Day and Night that features 12 diamonds at the time markers, among other styles—proof that as the Winter Olympics 2026 near, her style is as disciplined and luminous as her performance on the snow.
As the Winter Olympics 2026 approach, figures like Eileen Gu, Chloe Kim, Mikaela Shiffrin, and Lindsey Vonn are redefining what modern sports stars look like beyond competition. Diamonds, once reserved for formal occasions, have become part of their everyday armor: expressive, personal, and powerful. In Milan–Cortina, the world will watch these champions chase medals, but just as closely, it will watch how they shine while doing it.
