The highlights and lowlights of the 2026 Winter Olympics

At every Olympic Games, there are winners, and there are many more losers. Dozens of gold, silver, bronze…and a whole bunch of people who walk away with nothing. Officially, Norway won the most in Milan and Cortina, with 41 total medals, 18 of which were gold. The US (with 33 overall and 12 gold), and Italy (with 30 total and 10 gold) came in second and third place, respectively. 

But the medals only tell one part of the story. There are tales of heroism, resilience, and sometimes the occasional credit card fraud that medals cannot fully capture. Yes, credit card fraud! And those are the bits that tend to become iconic moments in Olympic history over time.

Here are the winners and losers from this year’s Olympics that we’ll remember forever.

Winner: Alysa Liu

After the 2022 Olympics, the International Skating Union implemented a rule raising the age of competitors from 15 to 17. The change came on the heels of then-15-year-old Kamila Valieva’s positive doping test and bigger questions about abuse in the Russian system. The new age requirement was the ISU’s way of trying to make the sport safer for young girls. 

Alysa Liu’s gold medal win seems like a step in the right direction. Liu, skating to Donna Summer’s iconic rendition of “MacArthur Park,” delivered a performance that was equal parts skill and joy. Liu’s spins and dance sequences were just as impressive, if not more, than the jumps she nailed. She was also a fantastic sport, cheering on and comforting fellow medal winners Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai.

Liu herself is a testament to how brutal figure skating can be. In 2022, after going to the Beijing Games and placing sixth, Liu retired at the age of 16. At the time, she said she wanted to go to college, hang out with her siblings, get a driver’s license, and chill out with her cats — things she couldn’t do because she was an elite skater and one of the sport’s brightest American stars.

Two years ago, in 2024, Liu returned to figure skating with a renewed love for the sport. Since her return, she’s been vocal about the importance of mental health and the importance of not letting a competition define her. Instead of focusing on medals and accomplishments at the 2026 Games, Liu was clear that she was there to share her art and her joy with the world.

“I was peak happiness when I was out there on the ice. Nothing could bring me higher than that,” Liu told NBC in an interview after her win.

And everyone watching could tell.

Winner: Chaos agents

The Olympics always involve some sort of nonsense, shenanigans, and levity. But this year’s Winter Games were special in that the athletes, on top of performing at a high level, were also agents of chaos, dabbling in confessions of adultery, credit card fraud, penis-injections (allegedly), and AI music. The scandals off the ice and slopes were just as thrilling as whatever was happening in the biathlon.

Loser: Canada’s “nice” reputation

This week, the world was shocked upon learning the news that Canadians — long known for being nice and apologetic people — are capable of cheating. And, more astonishingly, that they would do so in curling. 

The charge is that Canada’s Marc Kennedy touched the rock after it passed the “hog line,” a no-no in curling. The Swedish team, which Canada was facing in the round robin portion of the competition, brought Kennedy’s alleged double-touchery to light, which Kennedy responded to with a series of expletives (actual, for real bad words): 

Despite the back-and-forth and after receiving a misconduct warning from World Curling, the sport’s governing body, Team Canada ended up winning the gold medal. But, alas, now we know that Canadians, no matter how nice they are, are not a monolith — especially not ones who curl.

Loser: The US Men’s Hockey Team

Even though they won a momentous and hard-fought gold medal game against chief rival Canada, the US men’s hockey team and its fans barely got a chance to savor it. The conversation surrounding the win quickly shifted into how the team celebrated and who it celebrated with.

Thanks to an Instagram Live and subsequent leaked video, we know the players partied with FBI Director Kash Patel and took a congratulatory phone call from President Donald Trump, inviting them to the State of the Union address on February 24. During the call, Trump also made a joke about reluctantly having to invite the US women’s team, too. 

“I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team,” he said. “You do know that. I do believe I’d probably be impeached.”

The US women’s hockey team dominated the Olympics and has been the gold standard for women’s hockey for the past two years.

Meanwhile, Patel’s post-game rowdiness raised questions about whether this was the best use of FBI resources and American taxpayer money, and why he was there in the first place, especially since there are things Patel could be tending to stateside (an intruder was shot at Mar-A-Lago on the same day).

Patel tweeted that he was invited by his friends, the US men’s hockey team:

Loser: Ice dancing 

Despite a storybook ending for bronze medalists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada, the Games’ ice dancing competition was not one that fans felt good about. For starters, the gold medal winners — France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron— were brought together by two unfortunate circumstances. Fournier Beaudry’s boyfriend and former partner was banned from the sport for six years after a rape investigation and Cizeron’s former partner, Gabriella Papadakis, retired and later alleged that Cizeron had been emotionally abusive to her. 

This isn’t the kind of material that’s usually featured on Olympic broadcast segments, and it’s not one that figure skating media has been eager to examine. Critics have called the win “awful” for the kind of message it sends about the kind of abuse the sport tolerates behind the scenes. 

But there’s also the fact that many fans believe US silver medalists Madison Chock and Evan Bates skated better and were victims of nefarious favoritism. French judge Jezabel Dabouis scored the American pair more than 5 points below the judging panel’s average and gave her home country’s duo roughly 3 points more than the average, ESPN reported. At one point, it seemed like Bates and Chock might challenge the result, but nothing materialized.

Fans of ice dancing will be left to argue about the sport’s transparency and accountability for the next four years. 

Winner: Eileen Gu

Eileen Gu won three medals — one gold and two silver — in Milan and now has six total medals over the span of two quadrennials. She also made herself one of the most profitable and recognizable athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics. As she reminded reporters this past week, Gu is the most decorated free skier in history. 

But it’s Gu’s decision to represent China that’s made her a polarizing figure over the last two Olympic cycles.

For the uninitiated, Gu was born in the US, goes to Stanford, is extremely marketable, and is, at the same time, extremely good at her sport. She’s the kind of star that American media and American brands would fawn over. But despite her being as American as athletes like the aforementioned Alysa Liu, or Simone Biles, or Michael Phelps, she’s chosen to represent a different country (Gu chose to represent China at 15).

That’s made her especially incendiary during the second Trump administration with its anti-China rhetoric. At one point in the competition, US Vice President JD Vance weighed in on Gu, saying she should be representing the US.

“I certainly think that somebody who grew up in the United States of America, who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that make this country a great place, I would hope that they want to compete with the United States of America,” Vance told Fox News. “So, I’m going to root for American athletes, and I think part of that is people who identify themselves as Americans.”

Gu isn’t the first American-born athlete to represent a different country, but she might be the most successful. And that seems to be why she’s drawn so much attention for the last two Winter Olympics.

“[I]f I wasn’t doing well, I think that they probably wouldn’t care as much, and that’s okay for me. People are entitled to their opinions,” Gu told reporters in Milan this past week, acknowledging that her success is central to the narratives and controversy surrounding her nationality.

Gu symbolizes the reality that athletes don’t need the US’s backing or support to be commercially successful. That makes some Americans like Vance uneasy. She also embodies the very American idea of relentlessly pursuing success and maximizing it, no matter what it takes. Gu represents the American dream and the startling concept that America isn’t necessary for it. 

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