The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics could also be winding down, however the reminiscences will linger for years to return.
The competitors started on Wednesday, February 4, with the official opening ceremony on Friday, February 6. Slightly greater than two weeks later, the Video games will conclude with an epic closing ceremony on Sunday, February 22.
A lot motion was packed into these Video games that it was a full-time job maintaining. Since lots of people have precise full-time jobs, right here’s a glance again on the highlights, endearing moments, and heartbreaks of the XXV Winter Olympics.
How can I monitor 2026 Winter Olympics medals?
First issues first. You may keep updated with all the medals and medalists who’ve emerged victorious this winter with this handy medal count tracker on Olympics.com. Now for the highlights.
The primary gold medal of the Video games
Whereas it’s fairly a formidable accomplishment to even qualify for the Olympic Video games, let’s be actual—most athletes need to win all of it.
Franjo von Allmen got to live out his wildest dreams when he took dwelling the primary medal of the Video games for Switzerland within the males’s downhill alpine snowboarding occasion. He appreciated profitable gold a lot that he did it once more two extra occasions.
His story off the slopes highlights the power of neighborhood.
When von Allmen misplaced his father when he was simply 17 years outdated, it appeared that his snowboarding aspirations may need to be placed on maintain due to funds. As a substitute, these round him crowdfunded so the younger athlete may proceed to pursue his goals.
Workforce USA’s first gold medal
The primary gold medal for Workforce USA got here within the ladies’s alpine snowboarding downhill occasion. Breezy Johnson’s time of 1 minute, 36.10 seconds, bested Germany’s Emma Aicher by a mere 0.04 seconds.
Johnson is now one of only two American women to win the Olympic downhill. Her gold medal? Nicely, it broke shortly after Johnson was offered it. Fortunately, she finally obtained a alternative.
Lindsey Vonn’s Crash
The opposite American girl to win a gold medal in alpine downhill snowboarding is Lindsey Vonn—she gained it in 2010. She additionally has two bronze medals, one for the Tremendous-G (2010) and the opposite for alpine downhill (2018).
On the identical day of Johnson’s win (February 8), Vonn’s 2026 Olympic medal goals got here to an unlucky finish when she crashed and fractured her left leg.
Curling child
A happier Olympic moment entails the 1-1/2-year-old son of Swiss curlers Briar Schwaller-Huerlimann and Yannick Schwaller.
After his mother and father gained their opening recreation in additional time, River took to the ice to get in on the motion. Followers thought he seemed lovely with the curling broom. It’s by no means too early to start your Olympic goals.
A shirtless celebration
On the other facet of the age spectrum, Austrian Benjamin Karl could not contain his excitement after profitable gold within the males’s parallel large slalom snowboard occasion.
After the medal ceremony, he ripped off his shirt to have fun the achievement. It was his second consecutive win within the occasion, having additionally taken dwelling gold in 2022. Karl proves that age is only a quantity, as his newest victory made him the oldest particular person gold medalist in Winter Olympic historical past, at 40 years and 115 days outdated.
This title was short-lived, as Elana Meyers Taylor’s life expertise uncrowned Karl shortly after (see beneath).
Favourite meals of Olympic athletes
Regardless of how outdated they’re, rivals must gas their our bodies to compete. Communal meals within the athlete villages are there to assist. In Paris, chocolate muffins have been all the craze.
In the meantime, a number of social media posts have celebrated totally different cuisines in Milan and Cortina.
Lava cake and tiramisu appear to be the sweet-treat favorites of the 2026 Video games. For carb-loading functions, pasta was served within the form of the Olympic rings. This meal was a triple menace: scrumptious, fairly, and sensible.
Ilia Malinin’s backflip
Backflips have been as soon as a no-no within the determine skating world. American Terry Kubicka made historical past on the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, when he efficiently landed the transfer in competitors for the primary time.
The subsequent 12 months, the Worldwide Skating Union banned it, citing security and technical causes. Backflips contain taking off and touchdown on two toes, whereas different jumps solely make the most of one foot.
The transfer didn’t disappear from determine skating fully, although it was outlawed. Many athletes selected to execute the transfer in exhibition skates. Within the 1998 Nagano Video games, French skater Surya Bonaly added it to her routine.
Final 12 months, the Worldwide Skating Union reversed the ban, paving the way in which for American skater Ilia Malinin to do his factor in 2026. Malinin was dubbed the “Quad God” due to his means to land a quadruple axel in competitions whereas persevering with to boost the technical stakes even increased.
He was the clear favourite to win gold in males’s singles determine skating. After the quick program, he was even 5 factors forward of the pack. However he fell twice in the course of the lengthy program, leading to an eighth-place end.
Regardless of his heartbreak, he instantly congratulated gold medalist Mikhail Shaidorov—instructing the world how you can lose with grace. Nonetheless, Malinin did take dwelling a gold medal from the sooner workforce skating occasion, and it’s uncertain the Olympics have seen the final of him.
American ladies’s hockey takes dwelling gold
Issues have lengthy been tense between the USA and Canada, and we aren’t speaking tariffs. The long-lasting rivalry between the ladies’s hockey groups was on full show within the 2026 Winter Video games.
This time round, Workforce USA took dwelling the gold after a nail-biting ultimate matchup. American captain Hilary Knight scored the objective that tied the sport, forcing an additional time battle. This arrange Megan Keller to internet the ultimate nail in Canada’s defeat. The group went wild.
Among the many loudest supporters of the women have been Haley Winn’s older brothers: Casey, Ryan, and Tommy Winn. This trio went viral for carrying over-the-top matching outfits and posting their help on social media. The Winn household’s dwelling movies additionally present how Haley’s brothers have been instrumental in instructing her the love of the sport.
Determine skating gold medal
Extra excellent news on the ice: Workforce USA’s 24-year gold medal drought in ladies’s determine skating was put to an end by Alysa Liu.
The 20-year-old had walked away from the game when she was 16 as a result of she was burned out.
After the quick program, she was in third place. Her spectacular efficiency to Donna Summer time’s “MacArthur Park” centered on pleasure. This propelled her to win that gold medal.
A Canadian curling scandal
A much less joyous event occurred when two Canadian curlers were accused of dishonest.
The primary incident happened on Friday, February 13, when Canada was up in opposition to Sweden. Canadian Marc Kennedy was accused of double-touching the stone, which is in opposition to the foundations. He had some heated phrases for his opponent Oskar Eriksson.
The next day, an identical incident occurred when Canadian ladies’s captain Rachel Homan confronted extra dishonest accusations. These occasions prompted the World Curling governing physique to additional clarify the foundations of the sport.
The game doesn’t use video playback, so no retroactive penalties are added, as on-ice calls are thought of ultimate.
A wolfdog will get in on the motion
Who mentioned people get to have all of the enjoyable on the Winter Olympics? Not this four-legged pal.
Throughout the ladies’s cross-country skiing team sprint, Nazgul wished to play. This 2-year-old Czechoslovakian wolfdog might not have gained a gold medal, however he certain stole everybody’s hearts.
Sturla Holm Lægreid’s confession
They are saying cheaters by no means prosper, however Sturla Holm Lægreid has won five medals at the time of this writing—three silver and two bronze within the varied particular person and relay biathlon occasions (cross-country snowboarding and rifle capturing).
Whereas Lægreid’s athletic feats are spectacular, he went viral for one more dramatic purpose as an alternative. Throughout a dwell on-camera interview, he admitted to dishonest on his ex-girlfriend—in an try to get her again.
Whereas this could possibly be thought of a grand romantic gesture, his ex does not appear to think so and issued an announcement saying she needs she wasn’t within the highlight.
Elana Meyers Taylor’s bobsled victory
Elana Meyers Taylor, 41, is not any stranger to Olympic competitors. She debuted in 2010 and has medaled in all 5 of her appearances.
She had let or not it’s identified that she was going to retire from the game after these Milan Cortino Video games. And boy, did Meyers Taylor exit on high, profitable her first gold medal. She was victorious within the monobob, a one-person bobsled occasion.
Her triumph was earned by being 0.04 seconds sooner than Germany’s Laura Nolte. This mother of two was on the point of quitting earlier this winter, saying she felt responsible in regards to the time the game took her away from her household. This made the viral second of her signing to her boys—5-year-old Nico and 3-year-old Noah, each of whom are deaf—that she gained even sweeter.
Chloe Kim’s sportsmanship
American Chloe Kim is the golden girl of snowboarding. The 25-year-old was closely favored to win the gold medal at these Video games, defending her 2022 win.
This was not the way it went down on the halfpipe. As a substitute, South Korea’s Ga-on Choi took dwelling the gold, with Kim getting silver. In a beautiful show of sportsmanship (as an alternative of getting indignant), Kim instantly went over to have fun along with her 17-year-old rival.
The sweetness didn’t begin there. Even earlier than the Video games, Kim’s household helped deliver Choi to the USA to coach after seeing her potential, regardless of competing for various nations. Kim noticed herself in Choi and acted as a mentor. Maybe that’s the true that means of the Olympics in any case.
