After the stunning Milan Cortina Olympics closed, we get to take a look back on all the achievements, wins, and loses we experienced in the 2026 Olympics. Team America broke records and performed very well in almost every sport, cementing their reputation as a hard-working and well-played team.
The winter Olympics include some well-known sports, such as snowboarding and ice hockey, but also more unique sports, such as luge and curing. The variety of Olympic sports made watching the games super fun and interesting. Team America competed in all 16 sports and won medals in 11 of them.
A huge comeback this year for the US Hockey teams for both the men and women. The women’s team battled it out on the ice against Canada and came out triumphant with their first gold medal since 2018. Even more astounding was the men’s team (also versus Canada), winning gold for the first time since 1980! Jack Hughes, who made the game winning goal, said: “This is all about our country right now. I love the USA. I love my teammates. It’s unbelievable. The U.S. are a hockey brotherhood. It’s so strong and we had so much support from ex-players. I’m so proud to be American today.”
Lindsey Vonn returned to the Olympics after retiring from a crash that had allegedly ended her career, and her skiing only ended in more disappointment. Only 13 seconds into the downhill ski event, she crashed and had to be carried in a helicopter off the mountain. Later, Vonn tells us that her injury had almost caused her to have to amputate her leg, but she is ready to get back into rehab as soon as possible. Luckily, her teammate, Breezy Johnson, won gold, the second woman to do it after Vonn in U.S. history.
Figure skating this year was phenomenal; America did exceedingly well. The U.S. won the team event and pair Madison Chock and Evan Bates won silver in the pair event. The tides changed, however, when Ilia Malinin, age 21 and only figure skater able to do a quadruple Axel, scored 8th place after an astonishing skate full of mistakes and falls. While no skater is ever perfect, Ilia blames most of his mistakes on the pressure from competing in the Olympics. When asked about his performance Ilia replied: “Honestly, I still haven’t been able to process what just happened, it’s a lot of mixed emotions…I just thought that all I needed to do is go out there and trust the process that I’ve always been doing with every competition. But of course, it’s not like any other competition. It’s the Olympics…it was really just something that overwhelmed me and I just felt like I had no control.”
Team USA also won golds in Alpine Skiing, Speed Skating and Bobsleigh. In all, Norway got the most medals 41 and 18 gold. USA came in second with 33 medals and a record breaking 12 gold medals. Third was the Netherlands, and in fourth came Italy with their best Winter Olympics yet. They won 30 medals and 10 golds. The 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics was not one to miss, and I am very excited to watch the Paralympics later this March!
By Gabri Ottaviani ‘30, Faith Editor
30gottaviani@montroseschool.org
Sources:
Fox News-
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/team-usas-jack-hughes-shares-patriotic-message-after-olympic-thriller
NBC News-
https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/olympics/moments-defined-milan-cortina-winter-olympics-rcna259965
Tri-City Herald-
https://www.tri-cityherald.com/sports/olympics/article314722456.html
Milano Cortina 2026-
