Twenty years is a long time in sport! Generations change. Champions rise and fall. Records are broken. But in Milan… history circled back for Team USA! Alysa Liu, Jordan Stolz, Elana Meyers Taylor, Mikaela Shiffrin, and many others were at the center of something much larger than personal gold medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Their wins push the U.S. into pretty uncommon territory… a feat the country had failed to attain in 20 years!

So far, Team USA has won 12 gold medals. That is the highest number of gold medals in American Winter Olympic history, surpassing the previous record of 10 set in 2002 in Salt Lake City. The U.S. finished with 33 total medals.

Norway is the only country that is ahead because it has 18 gold medals and 41 total. Much of their dominance has come in skiing and biathlon, with record performances from Johannes Hosflot Klaebo. Still, what the United States has done in Milan carries real historical weight.

This is the first time since the 1952 Winter Olympics that the U.S. has finished solo second in both gold medals and total medals at a Winter Games. In 2006 in Turin, the Americans tied for second in golds and were in second for total medals. This time, it’s both.

The success has, however, not been achieved by a single discipline. Speed skating, freestyle skiing, figure skating, hockey, and bobsled have all received their medals. The team’s strength grew steadily throughout the competition schedule.

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“Our team is so strong,” Shiffrin said after winning slalom gold in Milan. “We have so many incredible athletes and teammates and friends, and everybody just showed up with so much courage and heart here. And I’m so proud to be part of this American team.”

But what made Milan different for Team USA was not just the medal count… It was the emotion behind the medals!

The emotional stories behind Mikaela Shiffrin and Team USA’s historic Milan run

Jordan Stolz did not just win in Milan. He carried expectations into every race. He took gold in both the 500 m and 1000 m speed skating events, becoming one of Team USA’s rare double gold medalists at these Games. But the outside noise was loud. He entered as a favorite. The pressure was real. And he admitted it.

“It was a kind of depressing, actually, when it got to the point where it’s like everybody’s settling for third place,” he said.

But in Milan, he was quick to respond to all questions.

Even Alysa Liu brought Team USA one more double story of gold, but hers was personal. She won gold in the team event. Then she won the women’s singles gold. But it was not only the medals that made it beautiful. She took a break from figure skating a few years ago due to burnout after her early rise and the 2022 Winter Olympics. A lot of people wondered if that chapter had closed for good.

She came back in 2024 because she loved skating again. Even after her winning free skate in Milan, she described what was going through her mind: “The feelings I felt out there were calm, happy, and confident.”

Elana Meyers Taylor also delivered one of the most emotional scenes of the Games. At 41 years old…in her fifth Olympic appearance, she finally won her first gold medal in the women’s monobob. When her time flashed, and she realized she had won, she threw her fists into the air. She waved the American flag. Then she fell to her knees and cried.

Also, Mikaela Shiffrin added another outstanding chapter to her story. She won gold in the women’s slalom by finishing about 1.50 seconds ahead of the field. It was her first Olympic medal since 2018 after leaving Beijing without one. This achievement was particularly meaningful, as even in late 2024, she battled a serious injury and later spoke about the mental toll it took.

Before the slalom race, she said about what she carried with her into Milan: “I think it’d be impossible not to take my experiences from previous Olympics, including Beijing, and sort of have those be somehow relevant in this Games. But I feel like sitting here right now, I feel so much gratitude to be here. It’s like excitement, there’s adrenaline, I’m certainly nervous at times, but really a lot of a sense of gratitude…”

And for Team USA, each of these stories turned medals into something much deeper than numbers on a table.