Milano-Cortina Sport - Review by Sport

The 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics delivered exciting and edge-of-your-seat competitions. From the snow to the ice, here is a review of everything that went down

(Image Credits to @olympics on Instagram)

Alpine Skiing

Starting with the snow disciplines, we have Alpine Skiing. Within this, the events were: Downhill, Super-G, Giant Slalom, Slalom, and the Team Combined. The superstar of this event was Swiss athlete Franjo von Allmen. He secured 3 gold medals, making him the first skier to do this since 1968. 

Moving on to the women’s events, we saw Italy’s Federica Brignone claim 2 gold medals in front of her home crowd. One of the most notable performances was Mikaela Shiffrin, who returned to the Olympic podium after 8 years by winning the women’s Slalom with a time of 01:39.10.

Cross Country Skiing

Shifting to Cross Country Skiing, there were 12 events, 6 for men and 6 for women. One of the main highlights from this sport was Johannes Høsflot Klæbo winning 6 gold medals for Norway. USA’s Ben Ogden made history as the first American to medal in this sport in 50 years. Like the men’s side, the women’s side contained dominance; however, it was from Sweden with gold medals in the women’s 50km, the sprint classical, and the team sprint freestyle. Going back to Høsflot Klæbo, he set a Winter Olympic record of winning 6 golds in a single games. 

Freestyle Skiing

Freestyle Skiing showcased a range of talent, with tricks and flips being seen that have never been done before. There are 8 events that the freeskiers competed in: Aerials, Big Air, Halfpipe, Slopestyle, Moguls, Dual Moguls, Ski Cross, and Team Aerials. Some of the highlights from this discipline were that American Alex Ferreira won the men’s Halfpipe gold, completing his Olympic medal collection. One of the big stories from the 2 weeks was that Chinese skier, Eileen Gu, became the most decorated freeskier in history with 3 golds and 3 silvers from Beijing 2022 and Milano-Cortina 2026. These events also introduced Dual Moguls.

Nordic Combined

Shifting to the Nordic Combined, we saw only the Norwegian, Austrian, and Finnish nationalities step on the podium. Nordic Combined is a mix of Cross-Country Skiing and Ski Jumping. However, Norway continued their winning streak by winning all 3 golds from Jens Luraas Oftebro. This left Austria to claim 2 silvers and 1 bronze, and Finland with 1 silver and 2 bronze.

Ski Jumping

The Ski Jumping program included 3 men’s events, 2 women’s events, and 1 mixed team event. There was the Normal Hill Individual, Large Hill Individual, Men’s Large Hill Individual, and the Mixed Team Normal Hill. We saw countries like Germany, Slovenia, Austria, and Norway take gold medals home, with Slovenian siblings Domen and Nika Prevc becoming the first brother-sister pair to win Olympic medals at the same games.

Snowboarding

There were 5 Snowboarding disciplines within the Winter Olympic Games: Halfpipe, Slopestyle, Big Air, Snowboard Cross, and the Parallel Giant Slalom. Across these events, there were 11 medal events as well as a mixed team event in snowboard cross. Some of the notable medal winners were America’s Chloe Kim, winning gold in the women’s Halfpipe, continuing her dominance in the event, Scott James winning the men’s Halfpipe gold for Australia, and Kira Kimura for Japan, taking the Big Air gold, showing Japan’s growing presence in snowboarding.

Figure Skating

Moving to the Ice Sports within the Winter Olympics, we are starting off with Figure Skating. There were 5 events within skating: Men’s and Women’s singles, Pairs, Ice Dance, and the Team Event. Japan had won 1 gold, 3 silvers and 2 bronze medals, causing them to lead the overall medal table for figure skating. They were then followed by the USA, which had won 3 medals from Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu, and the team. A memorable moment from Figure Skating was when Mikhail Shaidorov gave Kazakhstan their first Olympic gold in the event since Sarah Hughes in 2002.

Ice Hockey

Ice Hockey saw 12 countries participate on the Men’s side and 10 in the Women’s side. France had made their Olympic return in 2002 since it had replaced Russia. NHL players were also allowed to compete, which allowed top professional athletes to compete since 2014. The U.S men’s team took home the gold medal in the end, defeating Canada 2-1 in overtime. This was their first Olympic gold in 46 years, giving them 3 overall medals in Ice Hockey.

Speed Skating

Speed Skating featured 14 competitions with men’s and women's 500m, 1000m, 1500m, 3000m, 5000m, Mass Start, and the Team Pursuit. In total, the Netherlands gained 13 medals (5 gold, 6 silver, 2 bronze). Many Olympic records were set as Femke Kok (NED) took the 500m gold in 36.49 seconds, Jutta Leerdam (NED) took the 1000m gold in 1:12.31, and Francesca Lollobrigida (ITA) took the 3000m gold in 3:54.28. In the men’s skating, the records were: Jordan Stolz (USA) took 500m gold in 33.77 seconds and 1000m gold in 1:06.28, Ning Zhongyan (CHN) took 1500m gold in 1:41.98, and finally Sander Eitram (NOR) took 5000m gold in 6:03.95. The Netherlands had the most dominant skaters, making it one of the most memorable competitions in recent Olympic history.

Short Track Speed Skating

The 2026 Winter Olympics Short Track Speed Skating featured 9 events, which saw the Netherlands leading the medal table, closely followed by South Korea and then Canada. These events included 500m, 1000m, 1500m, 5000m relay (Men), 3000m relay (Women), and a 2000m relay (Mixed). Dutch skater, Jens van ’t Wout, dominated the men’s events, winning 3 gold medals.

Curling

Curling showed Canada taking gold in the men’s tournament, followed by Great Britain and then Switzerland. In the men’s final, we saw Canada take victory over the UK 9-6, whilst Switzerland beat Norway 9-1 for third place. The women’s tournament saw Norway take the gold, then Switzerland, and then Canada claiming their bronze medal. The mixed doubles allowed us to watch Sweden defeat the USA 6-5, with Italy finishing in third by beating Great Britain 5-3.

Bobsleigh

Finally, we reach the sliding sports of the Winter Olympics. Starting this off, they had the bobsleigh events which were: the Men’s Two-Man, Men’s Four-Man, Women’s Two-Woman, Women’s Four-Women and the Women’s Monobob. Germany had shown complete dominance, winning the Men’s Four-Man and Two-Man Bobsleigh and the Two-Woman Bobsleigh. In the Women’s Monobob, USA’s Kaillie Humphries achieved her sixth Olympic gold medal. 

Luge

Yet again, in the Luge events, Germany dominated 4 out of the 5 events, only missing gold in the Women’s Doubles. Key highlights from this event were Max Langenhan setting track records to win the men’s singles and Italy winning the Women’s Doubles on its Olympic debut in its home territory.

Skeleton

Finally, we have the Skeleton. Skeleton is just like the Luge; however, instead of going down the slopes feet first, they go head first. For this discipline, there were 3 medal events: Men’s, Women’s, and Mixed teams. The Men’s results saw Great Britain’s Matt Weston take gold with a 3:43.33, followed by Axel Jungk from Germany. The Women’s results saw Austria’s Janine Flock take home the gold with a 3:49.02, followed by Susanna Kreher (GER) for silver. And then we had Tabitha Stoecker and Matt Weston take home gold for Great Britain again in the Mixed Team.

Article written by Sophie W