What America's Winter Olympic Team Outfits Looked Like the Year You Were Born

U.S. Olympic athletes paraded through the opening ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics wearing Ralph
Lauren ensembles
consisting of red, white and navy blue parkas with built-in heating systems. They also wore skinny jeans, wool sweaters, knit beanies, navy bandanas, brown boots with red laces, and brown suede gloves with fringe at the wrists. Flag bearer
Erin Hamlin
was the only one to wear a white version of the Ralph Lauren parka.

The patchwork sweaters that Ralph Lauren designed for the U.S. team for the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia were as something you'd wear to an ugly sweater party when they were revealed, but at least Team USA stood out amongst a parade of otherwise bland uniforms that year.

In wild contrast to the preppy Ralph Lauren sweaters worn at the opening ceremony, U.S. athletes wore futuristic silver puffer coats designed by Nike to the medal ceremonies in 2014 at the Sochi games. Here, a team of American speed skaters show off the look after winning silver in the Men's 5000m Relay.

Ralph Lauren outfitted Team USA in another of his designs for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics closing ceremony. While they wore the same white pants, black boots, and knitted beanies from the first look, they swapped out their loud and proud cardigans for navy blue pea coats with a wide red strip at the waist.

That wasn't the first time Ralph Lauren dressed the U.S. Olympic Team in white pants. For the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, Ralph Lauren designed outfits that included white cotton fleece pants paired with navy blue puffer jackets with red trim. The athletes also wore white cable turtlenecks, knit beanies, and black mountaineering boots with red laces to finish the preppy look.

Shaun White is seen celebrating his gold medal victory in the Men's Halfpipe snowboarding competition wearing the official U.S. medal ceremony outfit for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games. Nike designed the navy blue puffer coats with light-blue ombre sleeves and paired them with black ski pants and black sneakers.

For the closing ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympic games in Vancouver, Ralph Lauren kept Team USA in the same white pants and black boots from the opening ceremony, but swapped out the puffer coats for a navy and red cardigan, and traded the beanies for navy blue caps that look like something straight out of Newsies.

For the second time in a row, Canadian Clothing Company Roots dressed the U.S. Olympic Team in berets at the opening ceremony. At least at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, the athletes got to pick which color — red, white, or blue — they got to wear with their much subtler white and navy zip-up jackets.

For the closing ceremony of the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games, U.S. athletes wore another look designed by the Canadian brand Roots. The jackets had a retro 70s-vibe complete with stripes in varying shades of blue and a bright red zipper set against a white backdrop. The outfits were accessorized with matching baseball hats and bold red and white USA scarves.

Roots, a Canadian clothing company, designed the U.S. OIympic Team's opening ceremony outfit for the first time at the 2002 Salt Lake City games. While you may not see many poofy fleece berets these days, they were so popular back then that Roots  hats.

The medal ceremony outfits Roots designed for the 2002 Winter Games were basically the same as the ones U.S. athletes wore to the opening ceremony, just with one key difference. While the berets were still there, the zip-up was made from leather. Here, the USA bobsled team shows off their bronze medals in the outfits.

Figure skater Brian Boitano wears a look that could be described more as "1920s mobster-chic" instead of "Olympic athlete" during the opening ceremony of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Canada. In addition to a white fedora and scarf, the men of Team USA wore long navy blue jackets while the women wore white coats with red scarves.

Athletes from the United States went full cowboy for the opening ceremony of the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. The entire delegation showed up wearing cowboy boots, blue jeans with red cuffs, fur-lined coats, leather gloves, Stetson hats, and red, white and blue sweaters.

 The Winter Olympics returned to Lake Placid, New York for the second time in 1980. At the opening ceremony, the U.S. Olympic athletes went more than a little bit country when they showed up wearing matching cowboy-inspired outfits designed by Levi Strauss complete with fur-lined jackets, striped sweaters, Stetson hats, blue jeans, and boots.

U.S. figure skaters Tenley Albright and Hayes Alan Jenkins are seen wearing the official U.S. team jackets at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. The classic white design included wooden toggles and the Olympics shield sewn to the left side of the coat. Both Jenkins and Albright won gold medals in figure skating this year.

St. Moritz, Switzerland held the first Winter Olympics after the end of World War II. Here, the U.S. Olympic speed skating team is seen in front of the Alps shortly after arriving for the 1948 winter games wearing matching U.S.A. sweaters with stripes at the waist, cuffs, and collars with white hats bearing the U.S. Olympic logo.

Ivan Brown and Alan Washbond of the USA won the gold at the two-man bobsleigh event during the 1936 winter games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. The duo wore matching jackets bearing the Olympic shield. It would be another 12 years before the next winter games would be held in St Moritz, Switzerland in 1948 after the 1940 and 1944 Winter Olympics had to be cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II.

Lake Placid, New York hosted the first Winter Olympics outside of Europe in 1932. That year, the official U.S. Olympic team outfit included white pea coats belted at the waist with darker wool pants tucked into mountaineering boots. The Olympians also wore matching sweaters underneath the coats along with white baseball hats bearing the same Olympic shield as the coats.

Figure skating became part of the Summer Olympics in 1908, but winter sports didn't get their own separate games until 1924. Originally called "International Winter Sports Week," the 1924 games held in Chamonix, France retroactively become the first official Winter Olympics. Here, a group of American skaters wearing white pants, shirts, and hats bearing an American flag shield, practice for their race high in the French Alps.