2026 Winter Olympics
American figure skater Alysa Liu (courtesy of Matthew Stockman of Getty Images)
By William Winkelman, Website Editor, and Aiden Damasco, Staff Writer
The 2026 Winter Olympics has delivered the United States second place with 33 total medals.
This year’s Milano-Cortina Olympics, held in northern Italy, offered the tourists and the athletes alike a splendid view of the snowy Alps, which was especially fitting for the various winter sports. The standard Olympics, held from 6 to 22 February, with the Paralympic games underway from 6 to 15 March, offered the competitors many chances to go for gold and make their home nations proud.
On 22 February, Team USA went against Team Canada in ice hockey after both teams reached the top of their brackets. After an intense matchup, both of the teams were tied 1-1 after three periods of play, sending the game into overtime.
During the main game, Team Canada’s Samuel Hughes knocked Team USA’s Jack Hughes’ mouth with a high stick, causing him to lose at least three teeth. Despite his broken smile, many hockey players consider broken teeth a rite of passage. Hughes continued to play, and one minute and forty-one seconds into overtime, Hughes scored the “golden goal,” or the game-winning shot, allowing Team USA to take home gold with a final score of 2-1.
Another major event this year was figure skating, with two huge surprises happening in both men' s and women's events.
In the men's figure skating for the United States, Ilia Malinin, was projected to win the gold with a 99% or higher chance to win on many online gambling websites. Ilia is a professional by all metrics, being able to perform quads, a jump when one spins four times in air, and even a backflip with ease. But during his performance, he fell twice, making him get eighth place in the competition, which was a huge upset for fans of Team USA as Malnin was almost a guaranteed win.
In better news, figure skater Alysa Liu, a Bay Area native from Oakland, returned to the sport after quitting it years ago due to stress and the yearning for self-exploration. She participated in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, winning the bronze medal at the time, but shortly after she was not satisfied with how her personal life was, and she retired from the sport. In 2024 she came back to the sport to practice and train again once more. This Olympics she returned with a very optimistic attitude, and Liu was very buoyant compared to the other serious skaters. She ended up winning the gold medal for the USA, and also for herself.