The 2026 Winter Olympics came to close on Sunday, Feb. 22. The Olympics lasted for two weeks with the U.S. team winning 33 medals: 12 gold medals, 12 silver medals and nine bronze medals.
Some of the main medals won this year for the U.S was by Jordan Stolz winning both gold medals in the the men’s 500m and 1000m in speed skating. In the figure skating category, Alysa Liu won gold for the women’s singles event and the U.S won gold for the team competition as well. Our last gold medal was won by Elana Meyers Taylor in the women’s monobob for bobsleigh. Taylor is the most decorated woman in bobsled history and has won a medal at all five Olympics she’s been to.
Liu is the first U.S Olympic woman in figure skating to win two golds in a single Olympics. She came back to the ice after retiring after the Beijing Olympics in 2022. She is also the first U.S woman to win a gold in figure skating since the 2002 Olympics where Sarah Hughes took gold home for the team.
Hockey was a major source of pride for the U.S.. The U.S women’s hockey team had a big win against Canada after not winning the Olympics in 2018. The winning goal was scored in the last few minutes of the game by Megan Keller after the game was sent into overtime. They previously won silver at the 2022 Olympics. The same goes for the men’s team this year in their overtime game against Canada. Jack Hughes scored the winning goal and led them to gold. This was the first Olympics since 2014 where NHL players were allowed to play and it’s the first gold for them since 1980.
Another major event was Lindsey Vonn getting injured and the women’s half=pipe snowboarding. Vonn suffered a complex tibia fracture which added to her already-existing ACL injury during a downhill crash 13 seconds in her run. Snowboarder, two-time gold medalist and reigning Olympic champion Chloe Kim was predicted to be the first snowboarder to win three consecutive gold medals in the half-pipe event, but she got silver instead, which she was still very pleased by.
A controversy this year at the Olympics was “skategate.” A French judge was allegedly exposed for over-corring the French ice skaters during the ice dancing portion of the figure skating events. This led to the American duo, Madison Chock and Evan Bates earning silver instead of the favored gold. The ISU (International Skating Union) is currently defending the judge and denying the allegation of favoritism, but many people are confused by their decision to support him.
Overall this year the U.S took home many medals for the nation and had a very successful Olympics. They’ve won the most gold medals they’ve ever won at the Olympics.
