Meet Isabeu Levito, the Youngest Member of the U.S. Olympic Figure Skating Team

There’s a video circulating of Isabeau Levito as a toddler, strapped into a car seat, loudly declaring her Olympic dream. “I skate every day so then I can go to the Olympics,” she says. “So much I want to go to the Olympics. I can be the winner ever and the whole entire day! And I need to do it so much!”

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Now Levito is indeed doing it. And given that the Winter Games take place in Milano Cortina, her first trip to the Olympics is also a homecoming of sorts—her mother, Chiara, is from Milan and much of her family is there. “No one has to go to a hotel, no one has to travel,” Levito says. “The only person who needs to make plans is my mom.” (Levito’s father passed away in 2019.)

Levito, who grew up in New Jersey, started skating when she was 3, after she imitated the skaters she saw on TV while her mom watched the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. “She was excited to see if I was interested, because she enjoyed watching figure skating,” Levito says. “I always enjoyed it—gliding is my favorite part, and why I was so hooked as a kid. I liked the sensation of gilding.”

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Levito took ballet classes as well, which explains her distinctly dance-influenced style on the ice. But when she was 6, her mother, finding it challenging to shuttle her between classes for both while holding down a job as an embryologist, told her she needed to pick one. Chira referred to skating as ballet on ice in Italian, so Levito was given a choice: ballet on ice and ballet on the floor. She opted for the lure of the glide, but still takes ballet classes several times a week.

Since debuting at the senior level in 2022, Levito has stood on the podium at U.S. nationals every year, becoming national champion in 2023. The following year, she earned her first world championship medal when she finished second. 

In addition to her balletic line, one of Levito’s hallmarks is her consistency, something she attributes to her perfectionist nature and ability to manage the stress and nerves associated with competition. “This season I feel like I’m very in tune with myself,” she says. “I get the intuition like I should not use earphones or earbuds and listen to music before a competition and that I should just listen to nothing. Everyone on the floor before a competition has earbuds in and they’re focused. I realized how that stresses me out even more. I feel I need quiet in my mind. I need stillness. Because once you’re on the ice, the light is so bright and it’s very overstimulating.”

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It’s a strategy Levito is taking with her into Milan. “I’m very concentrated on staying present this year, going from competition to competition, and I’ve been gaining confidence with my performing ability going into the Olympics,” she says. “I’m trying to ground myself as much as possible. I want to enjoy every moment of the Olympics and not be stressed about how rare and crazy it is to go to the Olympics.”

After learning she had made the team in January, Levito joked that she was perhaps more excited for the Olympic Village than the competition itself. “I’m just so excited and stoked for the Village. I don’t feel like I’ll be worried about the reason I was sent there for—that’s the added part, the side quest,” she said. “It’s really the Village, that’s what I’m stoked about.”

But don’t let Levito’s humor give you the wrong impression. Her consistent jumps and elegant flow have earned the attention of international judges. She relies on her coach, Yulia Kuznetsova, to provide her with music choices each season and collaborate on choreography. “She knows me very well, and I’ve always loved everything she picked,” says Levito. “When I was younger, Yulia gave me five different pieces [of music] and I chose which one I liked the most. As I got older, it became three options, then two options, then one. She just knows me so well.”

For this season, with the Milan Olympics as a target, they chose Italian-themed programs for both her short and long routines, with music from Houseboat starring Sophia Loren and Cinema Paradiso. “We very much kept in mind the Olympics and how it’s in Milan and my ties there,” Levito says

The youngest of the three women on Team USA, Levito, 18, will likely remain in the elite skating mix for years to come. And with so much focus on the increasing level of technical ability in women’s figure skating, Levito knows that even as an Olympian she can expand her skill set. “I won’t leave the sport until I compete with a triple axel,” she says. “It’s something I want to get badly.” When she’s trained the jump, or a quad jump in the past, she injured herself, so she’s looking forward to tackling the more challenging jumps after this season. “It’s a goal for myself,” she says. “It’s coming.”