Staff Writer- Nathan Swanson

With the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics well on their way, there is plenty to watch and get excited for. The Winter Olympics feature many thrilling events. There is Speed Skating, Figure Skating, Snowboarding, Bobsled, Alpine Skiing, and Ice Hockey, just to name a few. So far, for me I have watched Figure Skating, Curling, and Luge. I had never seen the Luge event before, but it was really interesting to watch live, and it was also a little scary. The exciting thing about the Olympics, in my opinion, is that you not only get to experience the performances of world-class athletes, but you also get to hear their stories and the things that inspire them to compete. As of now, the United States is in 3rd place with 7 gold medals, 11 silver medals, and 6 bronze medals. 

Team USA won their first gold medal of the 2026 Olympics in the Downhill Skiing event with an impressive performance from Breezy Johnson. She won the gold medal with a time of 1:36.10. Zooming down the slope, she gained huge momentum and finished strong as she crossed the finish line. For Johnson, her career has been defined by her resilience, especially as she has dealt with a handful of injuries. Winning the gold has shown that it was all worth the wait, and she can now say that she has done it. Not only did she win gold for the United States, but her boyfriend also proposed to her following the event. The second gold medal for Team USA in Alpine Skiing came in the Slalom event with Mikaela Shiffrin. She achieved an impressive time of 1:39.10. Her victory, winning gold, is now her 2nd career gold for the Olympic Slalom, and third gold overall. She won the event by a dominant margin as she finished 1.50 seconds ahead of the silver medalist Camille Rast from Switzerland. Shiffrin’s margin of victory is the largest that has been seen since 1998 in Nagano. 

In Figure skating Team USA has a gold medal in the Team Event, and they have a silver medal in the Ice Dance. Within the Team Event, they finished with 69 points, which was one point ahead of Japan, who finished in second place with 68 points. Italy finished 3rd with 60 points. Medalists for the team consisted of Ilia Malinin, Amber Glenn, Ellie Kam & Danny O’Shea, Alysa Liu, and Madison Chock & Evan Bates. The deciding performance that secured the gold for Team USA came from Ilia Malinin. Even with an imperfect skate, he fought through it and finished with plenty of difficult content, including an impressive triple axel. He took off forward-facing from the outside-edge and did 3.5 revolutions in the air, landing backwards on his opposite foot. It is one of the most difficult jumps to pull off in Figure Skating, and he made it look easy. In the Ice Dance, Madison Chock & Evan Bates won a silver medal, while the French took the gold medal. The event would come with controversy as there was a debate over the close scoring and the French judge who awarded France a higher score. For Team USA in Ice Dance, the silver is their first individual medal since finishing in fourth place in 2022. 

Through the Olympics, both the U.S. Women’s and Men’s Hockey teams have played very well. The Women’s team is 6-0 in the tournament, and has outscored their opponents by a combined score of 31-1! After a shutout victory against Sweden, they will now play for the gold medal in a showdown against Team Canada. Since Women’s hockey debuted in 1998 in Nagano, they have faced off against Canada for the gold six other times. It should be an incredible game, especially since Captain Hillary Knight has said this will be her final Olympics. The Men’s team is 3-0 so far in the games that they have played within the preliminary round. Following wins against Latvia, Denmark, and Germany, they look to face off against Sweden in the quarterfinal. Between Team USA and Sweden, there are a few players to take note of who play with each other on the Minnesota Wild in the NHL. Forward Matt Boldy, and defensemen Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber are representing the Americans. Forwards Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Johansson, along with goaltenders Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt, are representing the Swedes. Along with Sweden, the team to beat for the United States is Canada. Their roster is stacked with NHL talent as well, including Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Maclin Celebrini, and Cale Makar. I am interested to see how Team USA Hockey will fare going forward as they push to fight for a gold medal!