The Sheraton Milan Malpensa Airport Hotel isn’t the most ceremonious of locations, but it was something of an American athlete-sighting hotspot over the first few days of the Milano Cortina Winter Games. As competitors deplaned, the first stop for many would be the “Team USA Welcome Event” in a temporarily built-out atrium on the Sheraton’s first floor, with booths from Ralph Lauren, Skims, New Era, and even Starbucks—all Team USA sponsors, and all ready to heap swag upon the inbound athletes. I think Access Hollywood even had a reporter on site.
There, at Ralph Lauren’s set-up (where the company had tailors on hand, just in case), I met brothers and hockey phenoms Jack and Quinn Hughes. They’d flown overnight from JFK and were dropping in to pick up their closing ceremony outfits: color-blocked parkas with “2026” printed on the front.
I felt a little bad that there were so many cameras around—kind of tough after a redeye—but the guys didn’t seem to mind. “We’re not too bad,” said Quinn of the jet lag.
Orlando, Florida-born Quinn, 26, and Jack, 24, are big names in the National Hockey League—an organization that has its stars, for sure, but does not project or vaunt celebrity quite as much as the NBA or NFL. Jack is a center forward on the New Jersey Devils, and holds that franchise’s record for the most points scored in a single season—99 (43 goals, 56 assists)—which he set between 2022 and 2023. He’s been named an NHL All-Star three times. Quinn, a defenseman currently with the Minnesota Wild and a two-time All-Star, led the entire NHL in defenseman points over that same season (back then, he played for the Vancouver Canucks). Quinn was drafted in 2018, Jack in 2019.
The Hughes boys hail from a notable hockey family. Their younger brother, Luke, also currently plays for the Devils. Their mother, Ellen Weinberg-Hughes, is a consultant for the US women’s hockey team at these same Olympics—a squad that claimed an early 5-0 victory over rival Canada. (It was the first time Canada’s women’s team had been shut out in any Winter Games.) Weinberg-Hughes was also on the US Women’s National Team herself, helping them win a silver medal at the 1992 World Championships.
True to their athlete bones, the prize is what they’re here for; family time can wait. “I think all three of us have come to try to win the gold medal. That’s the most important thing: coming here and trying to do well,” Jack said. “Doing this with Quinn, though… it is super special, and it’s something that I’ve really been looking forward to.” (US men’s hockey has another pair of brothers, too: Matthew and Brady Tkachuk.)