Highlight moments and standout performances from the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics 2026
Image credit: The Guardian
The latest installment of the Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina reinforced the rise in popularity of winter sports on the world stage. Often overshadowed by its summer counterpart, the Winter Olympics brings global attention to world-class athletes who excel on ice and snow in place of on track, field or in the pool! This year’s edition in Northern Italy (6 to 22 February), which took place against the dramatic backdrop of the Dolomites, delivered a Games that transcended any before it. Over sixteen sports with various disciplines made up two weeks of high-speed runs, incredible aerial displays on snow, stunning performances on the ice and unbelievable precision on the curling rink.
The Games got underway on 6 February on the curling rink, where Team GB’s Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds began their quest for a medal in the mixed doubles. Despite a great run through the round robin games, they fell short on the podium, finishing fourth. From the curling rink to the Cortina d’Ampezzo ski runs, where alpine skiing began. Switzerland’s Franjo von Allmen was the star of the men’s event,s winning gold in the downhill and Super G before claiming a third gold in the combined team event.
Swiss compatriot Loic Meillard took home gold in the men’s slalom before, in one of the standout upsets of the Games, Brazilian skier Lucas Pinheiro Braathen overcame fierce competition from the Swiss pair Marco Odermatt and Loic Meillard to claim not only the gold, but Brazil’s first ever medal in the Winter Games! On the women’s side, alpine skiing was dominated by Italy and the USA. Italian star Federica Brignone took gold in both the super G and giant slalom while US athletes Breezy Johnson (downhill) and Mikaela Shiffrin (slalom) skied their way to the top of the podium. Austrian pairing Ariane Rädler and Katharina Huber came out on top in the team combined event.
Keeping the spotlight on skiing but shifting discipline, cross country skiing provided one of the all-time performances in the history of the games. Norwegian skier Johannes Høsflot Klæbo dominated with four individual golds; sprint, 10km freestyle, 50km classic style and 20km skiathlon as well as helping Norway to two team gold medals in the 4 x 7.5km relay and the team sprint freestyle. Medals for biathlon were shared among French and Norwegian athletes while Germany’s bobsleigh teams reinforced their superiority, claiming gold across all disciplines apart from the women’s monobob, where USA’s Elana Meyers Taylor slid her way to the gold medal.
From high speed ice runs to beautiful displays at the Milano Ice Skating Arena where Kazakhstani skater Mikhail Shaidorov won an emotional gold medal with an incredible performance after heavy favourite Ilia Malinin of the USA made several mistakes in the free skate. In the women’s singles, popular American star Alysa Liu claimed a well deserved gold while Japanese pair Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara took gold for their amazing routine. In a fiercely contested team event, the USA emerged victorious winning gold ahead of Japan (silver) and Italy (bronze).
Returning to the slopes, freestyle skiing brought a medal for Team GB as Zoe Atkin won bronze in the halfpipe. Chinese superstar Eileen Gu continued her glittering Olympic career, with silver medals in the slopestyle and big air events before winning gold in the halfpipe. Swiss skier Mathilde Gremaud claimed gold for her slopestyle performance and Canada’s Megan Oldham won the women’s big air Olympic title. On the men’s side, the big air final went down as one of the greatest of all time. Norwegian skier Tormod Frostad claimed the Olympic title with a fantastic overall score of 195.50, beating American rival Mac Forehand who took silver with 193.25. Norway found further success in slopestyle as Birk Ruud delivered a golden performance while American skier Alex Ferreira won the halfpipe gold. Canadian favourite Mikael Kingsbury delivered with a silver medal in the men’s moguls before bettering that result with a gold in the dual moguls.
In snowboarding, Japanese star Kira Kimura claimed the big air title while Chinese boarder Su Yiming took home the gold in the slopestyle. The women’s events brought further success for Japan as Kokomo Murase (big air) and Mari Fukada (slopestyle) won gold with Australia’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott claiming silver in both. Unfortunately for Team GB’s Mia Brookes, a crash in qualifying brought her hopes of a medal to an end. From heartbreak to success for Great Britain as earlier in the day, British pairing Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale won a historic gold medal in the mixed snowboard cross.
Image credit: Sky News
Moving back onto the ice, Team GB added another medal as the men’s curling team, skippered by Bruce Mouat, claimed a second consecutive silver medal, losing narrowly to Canada in the final, while the women’s team unfortunately missed out on a place in the semi-finals. Ice Hockey saw the heated rivalry renewed between Canada and the USA, with the USA triumphant in both the men’s and women’s events, winning gold.
One of the defining moments for Team GB came at the Cortina Sliding Centre on Super Sunday, where skeleton star Matt Weston built on a successful run up to the Games with a gold medal in the men’s event. There was further success in the mixed competition, where Weston and Olympic debutant Tabby Stoecker claimed a brilliant gold medal. With a time of 1:59.36, they narrowly beat their German rivals Axel Jungk and Susanne Kreher, while GB compatriots Freya Tarbit and Marcus Wyatt finished in fourth place.
Team GB not only matched their record medal total with five but also demonstrated the growth of winter sports in the UK and globally. The next edition is scheduled for 2030 in the French Alps. In case you missed it this time around, mark your calendars.
