Since Feb. 6, over 3,000 athletes from 92 nations arrived in Italy to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics. The 25th edition of the games will feature 116 events in eight sports, and over 200 American athletes have flown to compete in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
On the slopes, the United States has high hopes. Freestyle skiers Jaelin Kauf and Elizabeth Lemley earned silver and gold medals in the women’s moguls event. Kauf and Lemley are also favorites to win gold in the new dual moguls event. Lindsey Vonn’s return to skiing for the United States was highly anticipated, but quickly dashed when Vonn endured a catastrophic crash in the women’s downhill event. Vonn had ruptured her ACL in a race only a week before the Olympics but raced anyway. The blow was softened when fellow American Breezy Johnson won gold in the event.
English Education Professor Chris Parsons was following Vonn’s story closely, as he said he enjoys the drama of the story.
“The idea of skiing or doing any high-level athletics with a torn ACL […] it just feels like whenever any athlete tears their ACL, they’re gone for nine months,” said Parsons.
In cross-country skiing, New Hampshire-born skier Ben Ogden earned a silver medal in the sprint discipline. Ogden was the first American to win a medal in male cross-country skiing since 1976.
In the rink, Team USA earned a gold and silver in figure skating off the backs of a gold team event performance and a silver ice dance performance by Madison Chock and Evan Bates. Skater Ilia Malinin, the favorite to win gold in the men’s singles, earned international recognition for performing the first legal backflip in Olympic history.
One discipline with a substantial shakeup in its play is ice hockey. For the first time since the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, National Hockey League (NHL) players have been allowed to compete in the Olympics following an agreement between the NHL and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), giving the Olympics the chance to show off true best-on-best hockey. Team USA has completed the round-robin stage and is set to begin the bracket stage of the Winter Olympics.
The USA Women’s Ice Hockey team is set to play in their gold medal game against Canada on Thursday, Feb 19 at 3:10 pm. They have won six games so far, all by margins of four goals or more.
The Olympics will conclude on Sunday, Feb. 22, with a closing ceremony in Verona Arena, where the Olympic Games will be ceremonially handed over to the French Alps, the host of the 2030 Olympics.
Frank LeBlanc can be contacted at
fleblanc@kscequinox.com
