The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan – Cortina takes place from February 6th through the 22nd and within those days, athletes compete for their country, family, and themselves. The athletes push for gold and the world watches and gets to see incredible highs as well as unfortunate lows. The US is no stranger to pressure in competition and returns to the Winter Olympics this year with 232 athletes competing. Here are some of the great story’s, highs, and lows of the competition thus far.
To start out strong, the women’s ice hockey team defeated Canada in an exciting overtime with the final score being 2-1. The team last won the gold in 2018 at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics also against team Canada with the final score being 3-2. Due to the tie game after regulation time, both teams then immediately switch to a 3 vs 3 on the ice plus a goalie for each team. It is then a golden goal, meaning first to score wins. For the women’s ice hockey team, the equalizer came from Hilary Knight with 2 minutes and 4 seconds left in the game, and the final came from Megan Keller for the gold.
Next up is the gold from 20 year old figure skater Alysa Liu, who brings a gold medal back to the US after a 24 year dry spell in the category for the States. The United States last won the gold in the women’s individual figure skating category with skater Sarah Hughes in 2002, making Liu’s win long awaited and ground breaking. Personally, Liu retired from figure skating in 2022 after experiencing a level of burnout and loss of passion for the sport as it took a hit towards her mental health. But on her return Liu stated that this time she was approaching the sport on her own terms, no one was going to tell her what she could and could not eat, or what music to skate to, and she avoided being too extreme and overly intense in her training. This healthy reset had a huge pay out as Liu skated to “MacArthur Park Suite” by Donna Summer for the gold.
There can’t be much mention of the Winter Olympics without Lindsey Vonn, who has been a powerhouse competitor in downhill skiing. Vonn announced her retirement in 2019 and as one of the most decorated skiers she has 82 World Cup wins, and 3 Olympic medals to her name. But the sport took an immense toll on her body causing her to have chronic and severe knee pains, two ACL tears, an MCL tear, a broken ankle and broken arm, all contributing to the end of her career. Everyone thought that was the end for Lindsey Vonn, but she refused and decided to get a partial knee replacement and put in the work on the recovery. In April she announced the surgery and said that it was an effort to return to the sport that has her heart for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy at 41 years old. While practicing in Italy nine days prior to the long awaited run, Vonn crashed and reportedly ruptured her ACL, but she refused to withdraw from the race and opted to continue. Unfortunately, during her Olympic race Vonn’s arm got hooked on one of the gates causing her to crash on the downhill and she broke her tibia and had to be air lifted off the ski slope. Some may say that Vonn was being reckless with her body, but Vonn is a competitor and there are times when they just don’t know how to say no to their sport.
Finally, snowboarder Chloe Kim competed in the freestyle halfpipe competition as she returned to the Olympics to defend 2 consecutive gold medals. A month before the competition Kim dislocated her shoulder and was feeling grateful just to be able to be back on the snow and fight for a medal. Kim’s hard work and impressive run on the halfpipe paved the way for her to earn a silver medal.
As the 2026 Winter Olympics comes to a close the US athletes leave with so much to be proud of and have a total medal count of 27 medals so far. But the spirit of the Olympics is only one part finished because the Paralympics in Milan – Cortina start Friday March 6th and goes to the 15th, so stay tuned for more great Olympic moments to come.
