In the Summer Olympics, the United States is golden. In Winter, they are lucky to be silver or bronze.
Team USA has led the gold medal count at every Summer Olympics since 1996 Atlanta (eight times), except one (China took first at Beijing 2008). At the Winter Olympics, however, they do not dominate.
Norway finished atop the medal table at three straight Winter Games (2014 Sochi, 2018 Pyeongchang and 2022 Beijing) and is the only country to lead the winter table 10 times. The only time the United States finished first in the Winter medal count was in 1932 Lake Placid…94 years ago.
2026 Milan Cortina was expected to be different.
In blustery Italy, iconic American athletes Mikaela Shiffrin (alpine skiing), Chloe Kim (snowboarding) and Jordan Stolz (speed skating) returned. The National Hockey League allowed players to participate in the Olympics for the first time since 2014, giving the U.S. their best chance to win men’s hockey in over a decade.
The United States was also in a prime position to bring home gold in multiple figure skating events. With Russia banned due to the Russia-Ukraine war, ‘Blade Angels’ Amber Glenn and Alysa Liu and the “quad god,” Ilia Malinin, were considered heavily favored to win.
Sophia Heffron, a dancer and youth dance instructor at Hinsdale Dance Academy, believed this figure skating year was paramount for the United States.
“There are some countries where their main representatives come from figure skating, so it's just so much stress and so much pressure,” Heffron said. “And not having to compete against Russia or live in Russia's shadow was so important (for America) going into this Olympic season.”
Unfortunately, things started to go downhill, and not in the alpine skiing sense.
Malinin fell twice during his free skate. Former gold-medalist skier Lindsey Vonn crashed, breaking her fibula. Shiffrin's worst race since 2012 dropped the women’s slalom team from the podium. After week one, America flirted with fifth place in the medal table.
Christian Eberle, a senior biology and health science major, hosts the podcast Flagrant Foul Fridays and covered every single medal during the games. He highlighted that mistakes and injuries in the Olympics should not be the sole focus, but the clutch performances of athletes from all countries.
“Everyone’s under the same conditions, I think it’s if you can tame the harsh conditions,” Eberle said. “Snowboarding is very easy to just make one tiny mistake and get second.”
Despite a rocky start, America clawed its way back into the top medal picture.
Stolz set the 1000m Olympic record and earned two gold medals in speed skating. Shiffrin locked up the women’s individual slalom gold. Liu claimed a come-from-behind gold in women’s singles figure skating. Team USA women’s hockey claimed gold over the Canadians and the men’s team followed suit, winning gold for the first time since the 1980 Lake Placid Games, home of the “Miracle on Ice.”
Eberle and Heffron praised all the athletes, especially Liu.
“Alysa Liu breaking (Team USA’s) over 20-year-long curse of not having a single women's individual gold medal in figure skating (Sarah Hughes, 2002)…and her being this amazing representation of a healthy and balanced athlete, I think it's absolutely huge, it’s absolutely important,” Heffron said.
As the snow settled on the closing ceremony, the United States earned 33 medals, closely trailing Norway’s total of 41 (18 golds). Thus, America will have to seek the top placement at another Olympics, but it is the country’s overall determination that stood out most.
Milan Cortina was not the ultimate triumph the United States hoped for, but not all that glitters must be gold.
