‘Making It To Milan’ Elevates Women’s Olympic And Paralympic Journeys

As global attention squarely focuses on the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, so does demand for deeper, more authentic athlete storytelling, particularly around women’s sport.

For decades, media coverage has peaked during medal ceremonies. Now, women-led and women-focused media platforms are investing earlier in the narrative arc: qualification pressure, comeback seasons, funding gaps, and the Olympic and Paralympic pathway. The result is a shift in both representation and market value.

The digital series Making It To Milan, (co-produced by storytelling studio Flame Bearers and digital media platform Culxtured) sits at the center of that movement, chronicling women athletes long before the spotlight turns on.

According to Jamie Mittleton, founder of Flame Bearers, the success and momentum of the company’s storytelling around the Paris Games (16 million cross platform views) created an opportunity to work with founder of Culxtured and three time US Paralympian Dani Aravich for the Milan 2026 Winter Games.

Mittleton said, “Coming out of Paris, we were definitely very bullish and hungry to do more storytelling content with athletes as the hosts, as the moderators, as the facilitators really driving these conversations, not me, not someone who hasn’t been in their shoes.” She continued, “It is not just be about the gold medal moments, but also the community of people who help get you to the games. That’s why, in every interview we bring on the spouse, the coach, the one person who the athlete chooses, who they want to honor in their episode.”

The Making It To Milan series features: four-time National Champion Spanish figure skater Olivia Smart, US Hockey Captain and Gold Medalist Hilary Knight, Kenya’s first-ever female Olympic skier, Sabrina Simader, US figure skater Amber Glenn, Madagascar’s first-female Olympic skier, Mia Clerc, South Korean ice dancer Hannah Lim, and US figure skating legend Kristi Yamaguchi.

In addition, as the start of the Paralympic Games begins in Milan on March 6, the series features: co-host and cross-country skier Aravich, three-time US para-snowboarding gold medalist Brenna Huckaby, Austrian cross-country skier Carina Edlinger, Canadian cross-country skier Natalie Wilkie, Brazilian skier Aline Rocha, wheelchair curler Polina Rožkova, Canadian cross-country skier Brittany Hudak, and Spanish para-alpine skier María Martín-Granzio Ferreiro.

Disrupting The Olympic And Paralympic Media Model

For Aravich, alongside her co-host and US figure skater Ashley Cain, the thesis of the series is to demonstrate to audiences the level of sacrifice, training, and work to get to and compete at the Games. Aravich explained, “We want audiences to understand what it truly takes to get to an Olympic or Paralympic starting line; the financial realities, the injuries, the self-doubt, the part-time jobs, the travel, and the communities that carry athletes through it all.”

She elaborated, “For me personally, as someone preparing for my third Paralympics, it’s important that people see Paralympic athletes as high-performance professionals, not inspirational side stories. The goal is credibility, depth, and respect.”

At a time when women’s sports media is redefining value and visibility, Making It To Milan demonstrates the commercial and cultural power of athlete-first storytelling. Rather than treating Olympic and Paralympic competitors as seasonal content, the series invests in their narratives early, building connection, audience loyalty, and long-term equity around their journeys to Milan 2026.

Cain described the approach stating, “It is important for the athlete to be able to share their story on their own terms and in the way that they want to. Getting to speak to another athlete 1-on-1 can allow for more connection and shared understanding. Traditional coverage tends to focus more on podium moments and the highlight reel.”

Cain continued, “The Winter Olympics and Paralympics are built on niche sports with incredible depth, risk, and economic complexity and we wanted to showcase the ways that athletes are making it possible to compete at the most elite level in their sport. The podcast allows for quick and easy listening to be able to deliver storylines and facts that are digestible to listeners. This allows for those listeners to become supporters of the athlete and their journeys.”

The Expanding Role Of Athletes As Advocates For Equity And Inclusion

Furthermore, the web series dives into the human elements, identities, and how the athletes are using their platforms to elevate their communities. For example, Knight and Glenn have been LBGTQ+ advocates, voicing the disparities that need to be changed, addressed, and are under attack in the current political climate in the United States.

Additionally, Yamaguchi champions further diversity and representation in winter sports, alongside Huckaby and Aravich who push for systematic change in the ways in which para athletes are portrayed and discussed in mainstream society and media.

The ability for Aravich, Cain, and their guest(s) to authentically combine grit and inspiration, alongside venerable personal struggles and larger inequities in sport seems to resonate with audiences.

The episode on Amber Glenn: I’m Done Comparing Myself, and its related social media posts reached over 300,000 total viewers with 621,000+ views, 24,000 interactions, 593 comments, 377 shares and 677 saves on Instagram.

Further, content is being amplified to six million total followers worldwide across Flame Bearers (YouTube, social, podcast feeds), athlete (hosts and particular guests Amber Glenn, Hilary Knight, and Kristi Yamaguchi), and partner channels (The Meteor, Togethxr, MAKERS Women, Yahoo Creator Network).

Closing The Media Coverage Gap

Finally, the series looks to close the media coverage gap, explore the stories of Paralympians, and thrust them squarely in the spotlight they deserve. For Mittleton, Aravich, and Cain this about creating more visibility and using digital platforms such as a podcast and YouTube web series allows them to circumvent many of the traditional media structural barriers.

Aravich explained, “When it comes to the Winter Paralympic Games, coverage still tends to fall into two extremes: medal-focused during the Games or heavily framed through inspiration narratives. What often gets missed is high-performance context.”

She continued, “Paralympic athletes are training at the same intensity, managing sponsorship gaps, navigating funding challenges, and competing within complex classification systems yet those layers are rarely explored in depth. The complexity of para sport is often simplified rather than analyzed.”

As Mittleton expressed, “I think when you are able to take a step back and see literally the best athletes in the world as humans, as people. And I think for us, it’s important to show this multidimensionality, because so often athletes are reduced to clickbait and headlines and it loses the power and the nuance of who they really are.”

Beyond the series, Aravich and Mittleton recently wrote an opt-ed in the Sport Business Journal about how even in the rise of women’s sports coverage and fandom, Paralympic coverage still lags behind. This is further supported by research from the Women’s Sports Foundation that found, there is stark lack of articles being written about the Paralympic Games, especially in the largest sport media spaces of ESPN, the New York Times, or USA Today.

Thus, this is why women-led and owned media entities are vastly important and have had a large presence in Milan; their mission is to drive more accurate and transparent narratives and make audiences keenly aware of the incredible women athletes from around the globe.

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