The long awaited 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics are finally here, and Team USA’s athletes are competing at a high level so far. As of the current standing, the US holds the third most medals with 14, but with how early it is in the games, that number is sure to go up.
The first gold medal of the games for Team USA came from the womens downhill skiing, when Breezy Johnson beat Germany’s Emma Aicher by just .04 seconds to secure first of 34 competitors. In that same event, Jacqueline Wiles of the US picked up fourth place in another strong showing.
One of the biggest storylines going into this event was the return of Lindsey Vonn, who had retired from the sport after the 2018 Alpine Ski World Cup. Unfortunately, Vonn crashed during her race which was caused by her hooking her arm around one of the gates, and resulted in a complex tibia fracture in her left leg. It was originally speculated that Vonn’s crash was due to the injury that she had from a crash in January.
“My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever,” said Vonn, according to USA Today.
Another of the US’s gold medals came in the team figure skating event, where they squeaked out a win over Japan’s team by one team point. That final team point came from the “Quad God” Ilia Malinin, who scored an unbelievable 200.03 points in the final run of the event. Malinin’s performance was enhanced by hitting a backflip for the first time since it was legalized last year.
Figure skating expert Chris Schleicher said in an article on Slate, “I feel it is my responsibility to tell you that Malinin is unbeatable,” and “Sure, a meteorite from Ilia’s home planet could strike him down and knock him out of the competition. But if he skates like he’s been skating all season, he has room to make mistakes and still win gold.”
One of the lesser known events of the Winter Olympics is speed skating. Jordan Stolz of the US is one of the world’s fastest men on ice, winning the gold medal in the 1000 meter event. Stolz was definitely the favorite to win that event because he set the world record for 1000 meters in 2024. During his run this year, he set a new Olympic record of 1:06.28.
“[Stolz’s] engine is to be able to go for a longer time and pretty consistent lap times,” said five-time gold medalist speed skater Bonnie Blairk, according to USA Today. “Then there’s the power that can come with it that you need for the sprint aspect.”
The most recent gold from Team USA came from the womens freestyle skiing moguls, where athletes are scored based on how fast they can get through the incredibly tight turns of the course and the tricks they do at different jumping points.
Team USA’s Elizabeth Lemley was able to take home the gold with a final score of 82.3 points, beating another American, Jaelin Kauf, who won silver with 80.77 points. Both American athletes blew out the third place finisher from France, who got 76.21 points.
Overall, the US is looking good in this year’s Olympics, and with big events like hockey and snowboarding yet to conclude, the US can definitely come back and win the medal table for the first time since the 2010 games in Vancouver.
