2025 was a year that pushed athletes to the extreme. Injuries, adversity, and retirements were front-page stories, but so were stories of grit and astonishing comebacks that inspired all those who watched on.

So as we begin counting down to 2026, let’s take a moment to celebrate some of the Olympians whose resilience and belief have encouraged and motivated us all these past 12 months.

Mikaela Shiffrin

In November 2024, Mikaela Shiffrin suffered one of the scariest crashes of her career during a World Cup giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont. She was pushing for her 100th World Cup win when she lost an edge and tumbled into a gate, leaving her with torn oblique muscles and a deep puncture wound in her abdomen that required surgery. At that time, many wondered if she would return at all this season.

Despite the severity of the injury and the months of physical pain, she planned her first race back for a slalom event in Courchevel, France on January 30th. In that first race back, she placed 10th – a humble result compared to her usual podium finishes, but a huge milestone considering what she had been through physically and mentally mere weeks before.

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She followed that up with more races and continued to push forward. At the Alpine World Ski Championships in February, she revealed publicly that her injury had caused intense fear: “I really didn’t anticipate experiencing so much of this kind of mental/PTSD struggle in GS from my injury.” Then came one of the most inspiring moments of her season.

At the World Championships in Saalbach, Shiffrin together with teammate Breezy Johnson took home the gold in the inaugural team combined event – a result that was as much about heart as it was about speed and belief. But she didn’t stop at that.

As the World Cup season wrapped up, Shiffrin returned to her highest form in the final races. In March at the World Cup Finals in Sun Valley, she won the slalom and captured her 101st World Cup victory.

Most recently, in December 2025, she added another major win by capturing the World Cup slalom in Semmering, Austria.  That victory continued her streak of slalom success and showed she’s returning to elite form ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics for which she has already secured a spot.

Dalilah Muhammad

After failing to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic team at the U.S. Trials due to an Achilles injury she faced in 2023, which had slowed her since then, Dalilah Muhammad seriously considered retiring. The injury had affected her performance, but she wanted to end her career feeling strong, not drained. She took time to focus on training and recovery, ultimately deciding to make 2025 her farewell season.

Early in 2025, the two-time Olympic champion returned to the track with determination. She competed in multiple Diamond League 400mH events, winning in Oslo and earning podium finishes in Stockholm and Monaco.

She ran 52.58s in Monaco, the fastest she had run since the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Even at the USA Track & Field Championships, she claimed the 400m hurdles title with a time of 52.65 seconds, proving she still had world-class speed at 35.

However, Muhammad’s final major event was the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. She advanced through the heats and qualifying rounds, earning her last ever spot in a 400m hurdles final. Though in the final, she ran 54.82 seconds and finished seventh, behind stars like Femke Bol, it is Muhammad’s drive to come back for another season that will be remembered.

Hezly Rivera

After shining as the youngest member of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team that won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Hezly Rivera carried that momentum into 2025. At just 17, she didn’t rest on her Olympic success. Instead, she used it as fuel to push herself further in a new season of elite competition in 2025. But it didn’t start on a good note.

In 2025, Rivera began her season competing at the Winter Cup, and placed ninth. Then, in the U.S. Classic, she was unable to replicate her Olympic form, placing 12th after mistakes on the uneven bars and balance beam.

Instead of letting that setback define her, Rivera treated it as a learning moment. In the 2025 U.S. Gymnastics Championships in New Orleans, she led the competition from start to finish, recording the highest combined score in the all‑around with 112.000 points over two days of competition, winning the title.

Summer McIntosh

After taking three golds and one silver at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Summer McIntosh stretched her success into 2025 at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.

She opened the competition with a 3:56.26 win in the 400‑meter freestyle, well ahead of China’s Li Bingjie. The very next day, she bagged a second gold, the 200 meter individual medley in 2:06.69, beating top swimmers such as Alex Walsh (USA).

McIntosh wasn’t quite done yet. She claimed her third title in the 200 meter butterfly with a time of 2:01.99. On the final day of competition, she capped off her remarkable week by winning the 400 meter individual medley in 4:25.78, controlling the race from start to finish and beating the rest of the field by over seven seconds.

She also won bronze in the 800 meter freestyle, bringing her haul to five medals in total at the championships. With four individual golds, McIntosh became only the second female swimmer in history to accomplish this at a single World Aquatics Championships

Alysa Liu

After competing at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and placing sixth, Alysa Liu also took home a bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships. But soon after, at just 16 years old, she shocked fans by retiring from competitive skating. She cited fatigue and burnout from years of intense training and travel, saying she had already achieved many of her early goals in the sport.

Then in March 2024, Liu shocked fans once more, announcing that she would return to competition for the 2024-25 season, ending her nearly two-year retirement. But she didn’t come back quietly; she did so with a bang.

After a season of middling to decent scores, Liu peaked at the right time at the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships in Boston. After the short program, she was in the lead with a personal best score, skating clean and outscoring even the reigning world champion, Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto, who was gunning for her fourth straight title.

But back to the sport with a more relaxed, laid back attitude, Liu didn’t let any of the pressure get to her as she skated her best free of the season set to Donna Summers’ MacArthur Park Suite.

With the Boston crowd roaring on their feet, Liu scored another PB, her total score of 222.97 points enough to edge out Sakamoto, who had a slight stumble in her program. With this victory, Liu became the first American woman to win the world title in 19 years.

2025 has taught us that sports are about more than just victories. It’s about courage and never quitting.