From the slopes to the ice: This year’s Winter Olympics
2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, one of the largest multi-national
sport events, is taking place this year in Italy from Feb. 6 to Feb. 22.
This year’s Olympics will showcase a mix of returning and newly
added winter events, bringing together a variety of new and old
elite athletes from around the world.
The Winter events are primarily being hosted in Milano and Cor-
tina d’Ampezzo, with other venues in use across the Italian Alps.
The Olympics is hosting roughly 3,500 athletes from 92 different
countries. There are 116 events, split into eight main categories of
sports and 16 disciplines.
Ski Mountaineering (Skimo) is making its debut at the Olympics
this year. Combining both uphill and downhill skiing, Skimo is the
first new sport addition since the beginning of the Winter Olympic
games.
Driven by their dominance in skiing, Norway enters the Olym-
pics as a heavy favorite. In 2022, Norway won 37 total medals,
and set a new record for the most gold medals at a single Olympic
game. Johannes Hofslot Klaebo of Norway was among the high-
ly favored to medal in cross-country skiing following a successful
2025 season. Klaebo finished this year’s Olympics with his 11th
gold medal after receiving gold in all six of the men’s cross country
races, becoming the first Olympic athlete to win six medals at a
single Olympics. Just behind Norway, the United States (U.S.) and
Italy followed for highest medal projections, featuring strong con-
tenders in ice hockey and figure skating.
The U.S. has consistently medaled in figure skating since the early
20th century, including past performances from Peggy Flemming,
Dorothy Hamil, Kristen Yamaguchi and Nathan Chen all earning
gold. The U.S. has since then seen their performance dwindle, as
the last time an American woman won an Olympic medal in figure
skating was in 2006, when Sasha Cohen earned a silver medal.
This year, the U.S. entered the Olympics with the potential to
end this streak with the help of the ‘Blade Angels’, the American
female figure skating trio composed of Alysia Liu, Amber Glenn
and Isabeau Levito. All three of these women were predicted to
have promising outcomes after their medaling in the U.S. Figure
Skating Championships in St. Louis in Jan. Liu, Glenn and Levito
are also all in the top five of the International Skating Union’s world
ranking.
Anya Popovski (’28) commented on Glenn’s performance after
watching her at this year’s games.
“I didn’t know about her [Amber Glenn] before, it was my first
time hearing about her. And I think she did really well, especially
on her jumps when she was performing.” Popovski said.
Liu started strong at this year’s Olympics, securing gold in the
team figure skating event on Feb. 8. On Feb. 19, Liu secured gold
in the women’s singles event after earning a combined score of
226.79. This is the first gold medal the US has secured in the wom-
en’s singles event since 2002, when Sarah Hughes secured gold in
Salt Lake City.
Juna Prizzi (’28) explains how one of her favorite moments was
watching Liu win gold in the women’s singles event after returning
from her period of retirement.
“There’s so much more life that she’s skating with, and she just
looks so much happier,” Prizzi said.
Along with figure skating, women’s ice hockey secured gold after
defeating Canada 2-1 in overtime. The women’s team had a dom-
inant run these Olympic games, with an overall scoring of 31-1.
The U.S. paved its path to the finals after five consecutive shut-outs,
the last being against Sweden in the semi-finals. The women’s ice
hockey team met Canada for the seventh time in eight Olympic
finals. The odds for the U.S. looked to be in their favor, after defeat-
ing Canada 5-0 in a preliminary match on Feb. 10.
Art by Florence Fraiser-Macduff