Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Another year of the Olympic Games has come and gone. The 2026 edition of the games was the first to ever be hosted jointly by two cities, Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
This dual city approach greatly reduced the new infrastructure needed to host the games. In an interview with NBC the CEO of the organizing committee for the 2026 games said that because of this approach only two new venues had to be built to host these games.
When everything was said and done and the closing ceremonies had concluded, Norway stood atop the medal table for the fourth consecutive time having claimed 18 gold and 41 total medals over the course of the games.
The United States came away with twelve gold medals—their highest number ever won at the games.
The first two gold medal performances came on Sunday, February 8, in womens downhill alpine skiing and the team figure skating. This was followed by two more on Wednesday, February 11, in the womens freestyle skiing and the mens speed skating 1000m, won by Jordan Stolz, who took gold in the 500m event a few days later.
Other events Team USA won gold in include womens bobsleigh, womens slalom alpine skiing, singles figure skating won by Alysa Liu and two medals in freestyle skiing. One was won in the mens halfpipe and another in mixed team aerials.
By far the most impressive feat by Team USA in the games was the double gold medal sweep in ice hockey.
Team USA’s womens ice hockey team began the preliminary rounds on Thursday, February 5, in which they would outscore their four opponents 20-1 to claim the high seed in the tournament. Tournament play on Friday, February 13, resulted in a 6-0 win over Italy. In all, they outscored opponents in the tournament 13-1 on their way to a 2-1 overtime victory over Canada on Thursday, February 19.
Team USA’s mens ice hockey team wouldn’t be quite as dominant in their preliminary rounds, but they did end up winning all three preliminary matches to get an automatic advancement to the quarterfinal match against Sweden where they would win 2-1 in overtime. Two days later, they would follow up by beating Slovakia in dominating fashion winning 6-2.
On Sunday, February 22, the 46th anniversary of the 1980 miracle game against the Soviet Union (yes, the game that the Disney movie is based on), Team USA played the Canadian team. These teams have some recent history between them as Canada had beaten the USA in the finals of the 2025 4 Nations Face Off.
The gold medal game was tied at the end of regulation, especially thanks in part to Connor Hellebuyck, the goal tender for Team USA who made 41 saves over the course of the game. Finally, 1:41 into overtime, Jack Hughes was able to sink the game winning goal to bring home gold in mens hockey for the first time since the 1980 miracle game.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.