In the spirit of the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan, we’re highlighting world-class immigrant athletes who are currently or have competed for the U.S. National Team. Today, we spotlight Canadian American Christina Carreira, one of the team’s premier ice dancers.
Christina Carreira was born in Montreal, Canada, in 2000. She began ice skating by the time she was three, inspired by her mother’s work as a skating coach. Nine years later, she teamed with Simon-Pierre Malette-Paque to win the 2012 Canadian National Championship in the Ice Dancing competition. In 2014, Christina met American Anthony Ponomarenko at the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championship. After the meeting, the two decided to pair up and compete as a duo. Known for their creative, yet technical performance, they’ve since achieved remarkable success, including winning bronze at the 2017 World Junior Championships and silver the following year before taking home the 2018 U.S. junior national title.
The dynamic duo continued their success by earning consecutive bronze medals at the Four Continents Championships in 2022 and 2024 and U.S. national silver medals in 2024 and 2025.
Christina Carreira’s journey to U.S. citizenship began in 2013, when she moved to Novi, Michigan, to develop her skating career with top-tier training opportunities. She received her green card in 2020, but soon after, her team moved their training to the Ice Academy of Montreal. The move presented a challenge to Christina as she needed to maintain residency in the U.S. while waiting to gain citizenship. For the next four years, Christina made the commute from Michigan to Ontario to continue both her career and her journey to U.S. citizenship. In November 2025, Christina was granted her U.S. citizenship, just in time to make her Olympic debut at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and Cortina, Italy.
Other Team USA Olympians we have previously spotlighted
