From snowboarding to figure skating, the United States 2026 Olympic team sent many athletes to compete across a wide range of Winter sports. At this year’s Winter Olympics, the U.S. athletes delivered historic performances and broke numerous long-standing records. Finishing second to Norway in overall medal standings, they were able to secure 33 total medals: 12 gold, 12 silver, and nine bronze. The team also sent the largest ever delegation ever, with a high count of 232 athletes representing the U.S. 

Women dominated the medal count this year, holding 63.6% of all the total medals. The previous gold medal record at the winter olympics was 10 medals, but the team surpassed it this year with a total of 12 gold medals. This year, USA was able to win medals in freestyle skiing, speed skating, alpine skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, bobsleigh, cross country skiing, snowboarding, curling, luge, and short track. Within each sport, the U.S. secured three gold medals in freestyle skiing, two in speed skating, two in alpine skiing, two in figure skating, two in ice hockey, and one in bobsledding.

Figure skater Alysa Liu won the United States’ first women’s individual gold in 24 years, with a total score of 226.79. This is her first win after she shocked the world by announcing her early retirement at age 16 in 2022, reflecting on how she wanted to focus on being a normal teenager. At this year’s competition, she was able to pull off a high-scoring triple Lutz-triple loop combination in the short program. She went viral with her performance of “Stateside” by Zara Larsson and her gold medal winning program, with videos on YouTube surpassing 13 million views. Her successful comeback after retiring, combined with her attitude towards her wins, serve as an incredibly inspirational story for other young skaters to look up to.

Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin, 30, also made history this year by winning a gold medal, making her the oldest American alpine skier to ever achieve this goal. This is her fourth overall Olympic medal, and her third career Olympic gold medal. Another highly discussed athlete was Eileen Gu, a Chinese-American woman raised in San Francisco. She decided to compete for China for this year’s Olympics. She reportedly got paid around $6.6 million by the country to represent them, according to Wall Street Journal. With Gu being the most decorated freestyle skier in history, her decision to compete with China was met with a variety of mixed reactions from people in the U.S. She went on to win a gold medal in Halfpipe, winning two silver medals; one in Big Air and one in Slopestyle.

For snowboarder Chloe Kim, no one expected her to even compete, let alone win. At this year’s Olympics, after sustaining a shoulder injury earlier in the year, Kim went on to win a silver medal, defying public expectations. The U.S. hockey team also beat Canada 2-1 this year, earning a gold medal, and bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor won her first gold, beating Germany by 0.04 seconds.

Overall, the U.S. had a great year in the 2026 Winter Olympics. With everyone looking forward to the next Olympic games, America is excited to see what is in store. Although concluded, this Olympic games ultimately signifies success, with many records broken, this is definitely one for the books.