Team USA men’s hockey broke a 46-year drought when they won gold over Canada to help close out the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina on Sunday. Their overtime triumph came just three days after the women’s hockey team downed Canada to win gold, also in overtime.
Their respective successes put the finishing touches on an Olympic run in which the Americans won 12 gold medals, with Alysa Liu (figure skating) and Elaina Meyers Taylor (women’s monobob) winning three of them.
Collectively, this puts Team USA in second place behind Norway, which won gold 18 times.
Dramatic overtime victories
Team USA women’s hockey faced an early deficit when Canada scored a second-period goal during the tournament final. There was no response for nearly the entire subsequent period, until Hilary Knight tied the contest with 2:05 remaining in regulation.
Her heroic goal meant this game would be won in overtime, where Megan Keller took the puck down to the net for the golden goal. The women wore gold around their necks for the first time since 2018, after taking home silver in 2022.
The men’s team replicated their success in a similar fashion against arch-rival Canada. Matt Boldy put them on the board early in the affair, only for Cale Makar to respond during the second period.
Neither team was able to put a goal across the board in the time remaining. Another gold medal game was decided in overtime when Jack Hughes found an opening to score the game-winner.
With gold in Milan, Team USA hockey finally has new chapter to add to 1980 storybook
Liu spins to gold
Team USA’s figure skaters needed a clutch performance to overcome Kaori Sakamoto’s (Japan) score of 74.46. In came Liu, who put her talent on full display in an energetic routine.
The 20-year-old prodigy closed out a gold medal-winning performance by earning a score of 79.61 in the women’s singles free skate. She amassed a final score of 226.79 to close out her time on the world’s stage.
Taylor finds the edge
Laura Nolte of Germany was the favorite to win the women’s monobob race. She sat in first place with a final race time of 3:57,97.
As her victory was all but assured, Taylor got the upper hand. Even though she trailed in the first three runs, a final time of 3:57,93 put her ahead of Nolte on the podium. This made Taylor the oldest woman to win a Winter Olympic medal at 41.
