Blame AI or the White House social media employee who put controversial, profane words in the mouth of U.S. Olympic men’s hockey star Brady Tkachuk.
Either way, Tkachuk doesn’t appreciate the doctored video published Sunday on the official White House TikTok account that made it appear he was disparaging Canadians in the aftermath of the stirring U.S. gold medal victory at the Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Tkachuk’s day job, you see, is star player and team captain of the NHL Ottawa Senators.
The video features footage from a year-old news conference, except that Tkachuk’s words are freshened through AI. With U.S. Olympics goal song “Free Bird” playing in the background, Tkachuk was made to say, “They booed our national anthem, so I had to come out and teach those maple syrup eating f—s a lesson.”
The clip included a disclaimer that it used AI-generated media. After it had been viewed by more than 12 million people, Tkachuk indicated the stunt annoyed him.
“Well, it’s clearly fake, because it’s not my voice, not my lips moving,” he said Thursday in Ottawa. “It’s not my voice. It’s not what I was saying. I would never say that.
“That’s not who I am, so I guess I don’t like that video because that would never come out of my mouth, and I never had that thought.”
In its efforts to celebrate the U.S. victory, the White House has come off as tone deaf to many of the players. Sportsmanship and maturity seem less important than disparaging Canadians.
The U.S. players have made it abundantly clear that they respect their Canadian brethren. Several U.S. players — including Tkachuk— play for NHL teams north of the border.
And the men’s players admire the U.S. Olympics women’s hockey team that also won gold despite their spontaneous laughter at President Trump’s attempt at humor during his congratulatory call.
Trump invited the men’s team to the State of the Union address, saying: “I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” adding with a laugh that if he didn’t also invite the women, “I do believe I probably would be impeached.”
It was as if the president was talking to third graders afraid they might get cooties from the girls. Tkachuk explained the wonderful relationship between the men’s and women’s Olympics players while expressing regret at the laughter.
“[We’re] just coming off the ice, and I think it was 15 minutes later, you have the President of the United States calling you,” Tkachuk told reporters Thursday. “You just can’t really believe, you’re still riding the high of being a world champion, and for the President to take the time and call.
“When it comes to the women’s team, one of my favorite memories from the Olympics is after we won and after the women’s team came back from the closing ceremonies, both our teams are just in the dining hall hanging out having fun, just kind of being on top of the world.
“You have two gold medalist teams just hanging out before we’re going back to our respective cities. And it was just great to hear their experience.”
“I thought it was sort of a distasteful joke, and unfortunately, that is overshadowing a lot of the success of just women at the Olympics carrying for Team USA and having amazing gold medal feats,” Knight said Wednesday during an appearance on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”
On Feb. 19, the U.S. defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime for a third gold medal in women’s hockey; the team won gold in 1998 and 2018. Three days later, the U.S. men’s hockey team also won gold by defeating Canada 2-1 in overtime.
After the men’s game, Trump addressed the U.S. players by phone in the locker room, extending an invitation for them to attend his State of the Union address two days later and adding a seemingly dismissive comment about the women’s team.
“I must tell you, we’re gonna have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” Trump said during the call. By not inviting the other American gold medal hockey team, the president said, “I do believe I’d probably be impeached.”
Trump’s comment was met with loud laughter in the locker room. But Knight said she and her teammates aren’t spending much time thinking about the remark.
“We’re just trying to focus on celebrating the women in our room, the extraordinary efforts and continue to celebrate three gold medals in program history, as well as the double gold for both men’s and women’s at the same time and really not detract from that with a distasteful joke,” Knight, who has won two gold medals and three silvers in five Olympics with the U.S. team, said.
“It was unfortunate, but yeah, I think really focusing on celebrating all great things that have come out of the Olympics and feeling the love and the support and getting back in our respective communities and sharing this journey with them, that’s what it’s all about and that’s what makes this moment super special.”
The majority of the men’s team met with Trump at the White House on Tuesday before being honored at the State of the Union address, where they received a bipartisan standing ovation lasting about two minutes. During his address, Trump announced that goalie Connor Hellebuyck will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
The women’s team confirmed in a statement Monday that it declined an invitation to attend the State of the Union address “due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games.” Trump said during the address that the women’s team would be visiting the White House “very soon.”
Amid the controversy over Trump’s locker room comment, hip-hop legend Flavor Flav invited the women’s hockey team to a special event celebrating their achievement in Las Vegas. He later extended the invitation to “ALL Female US Olympians and Paralympian medalists” for the “She’s Got Game Weekend” from July 16-19.
“It was definitely super special, after everything that’s been going around online, to have someone step up like that and really go to bat for us,” forward Alex Carpenter said of Flav’s invitation during a Seattle Torrent news conference on Wednesday. “I think we’re fully gonna take advantage of that and go have some fun and celebrate like we deserve to.”
U.S.men’s team member Jeremy Swayman told reporters at Boston Bruins practice Wednesday that the laughter heard in the locker room following Trump’s comment does not reflect how the players feel about the women’s team and its accomplishments.
“Yeah, we should have reacted differently,” Swayman said. “We are so excited for the women’s team, we have so much respect for the women’s team, and to share that gold medal with them is something that we’re forever grateful for. And now that we’re home we get to share that together forever and see the incredible support we have from the USA and share in this incredible gold medal.”
Jack Hughes, who scored the winning goal for the U.S. men against Canada, said the men’s players were caught “in the moment” during the president’s call that came during the middle of their victory celebration.
“Obviously it is what it is now, but we have so much respect for the women’s team and they have so much respect for us,” Hughes told reporters after his New Jersey Devils’ 2-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night. “We’re all just proud Americans and we’re happy that we both swept the Olympics.”
Knight said she thinks there is “a genuine level of support and respect” between the U.S. men’s and women’s players and called the moment a “sort of a quick lapse” by the men’s players.
“I think the guys were in a tough spot,” Knight said. “So it’s a shame that this storyline and narrative is kind of blown up and overshadowing that connection and genuine interest in one another and cheering one another on.
“I think this is just a really good learning point to really focus on, you know, how we talk about women, not only in sport, but in industry.”
Discussion about the call wasn’t the only criticism of the White House from the world of Team USA hockey.
On Thursday, men’s player Brady Tkachuk said he was unhappy that the White House shared a video on TikTok that made it appear he disparaged Canadians while using profanity. The video, which also features hockey footage and part of an interview with Hughes, carries a note saying it “contains AI-generated media.”
“It’s clearly fake because it’s not my voice and not my lips moving. … I know that those words would never come out of my mouth,” Tkachuk told reporters.
He added: “I would never say that. That’s not who I am.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press.
Tkachuk also denied being the voice heard shouting “close the northern border” during the team’s call with Trump.
U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu made quite an impression at the Milan-Cortina Olympics with her unique style, her compelling backstory and, of course, her gold medals in the women’s singles competition — the first for an American woman since 2002 — and in the team event.
Her feats captured the attention of local artist Gustavo Zermeño Jr. He wanted to be sure to capture all of it in his new mural paying tribute to the 20-year-old athlete in Gardena.
“Obviously her winning gold was the main factor” in his choosing to paint Liu, Zermeño said.
But once the Mexican-American artist learned more about the Chinese-American skater, he found inspiration in other aspects of her life as well. That includes the Oakland native’s two-year retirement from the sport starting at age 16, her enrollment at UCLA and her decision to express herself in her own way.
“She’s first-generation American, just like myself,” Zermeño said. “So I feel like that tie, her going to UCLA, her stopping skating for awhile and then jumping back in and more being herself — you know, growing up in Venice, I feel like that’s what kind of made me an artist. Venice allowed me to be myself, be wacky on the boardwalk, artists, performers, stuff like that.
U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu poses with the gold medal she won in the women’s singles Feb. 19 at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics.
(Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
“So I feel like there were a lot of connections beyond her just winning the gold medal. But ultimately, I think she just deserves her flowers, man. She accomplished something, and I feel like her personality is what’s really garnering all this support from people.”
Zermeño was driving to get dinner near his home earlier this week and noticed a wall he thought would be perfect for his Liu-inspired project outside the Coe’s Glass & Mirror building at 15532 Crenshaw Blvd. It turned out that Zermeño casually knew the business owner, although Alex Lopez said he never realized his former next-door neighbor was a mural artist.
Still, Lopez approved the project immediately upon seeing samples of Zermeño’s work and a digitally created version of his idea for the Liu painting.
“I mean, I probably should have gone up the chain of command and asked the landlord’s permission, but I knew it was going to come out amazing,” Lopez said. “I just said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ The landlord came by this morning and loved the piece. He was really glad that we did it.”
Artist Gustavo Zermeno Jr. said he was inspired to paint a mural dedicated to U.S. skater Alysa Liu for reasons ‘beyond her just winning the gold medal.’
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
Zermeño started painting Tuesday and hopes to be finished early next week. The mural will feature three images of Liu, including two of her skating, but the centerpiece is a larger-than-life headshot of her from the women’s singles medal ceremony.
In it, the halo-haired athlete smiles broadly as she pretends to take a bite out of her gold medal, putting on full display her now-famous “smiley” piercing in the tissue connecting her upper lip to her gums.
‘I think it really represents her personality and where she’s from, the Bay Area,’ artist Gustavo Zermeño Jr. said of his mural dedicated to U.S. skater and Oakland native Alysa Liu.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
“I like that it’s a little rough around the edges, but beautiful at the same time,” Zermeño said of the portrait. “I think it really represents her personality and where she’s from, the Bay Area. And so I feel like it just looks, you know, a little hood but at the same time, her being a figure skater, has that softness to it. And that’s kind of what I wanted.”
Lopez added: “I love it. Just her in general, as a person, I think she’s great. What she was able to accomplish in the Olympics is amazing for the United States and just for California. I’m honored to have her mural here. I feel like it represents the community and our business really well.”
The final medals of the Milan-Cortina Games were handed out Sunday and these Olympics truly saved the best for last, with the U.S. men’s hockey game grabbing the last gold with a 2-1 overtime win over Canada.
Of course it went to overtime. How else should a U.S.-Canada final end?
Jack Hughes, left alone on the left wing, provided the winning goal 1:41 into overtime, beating Canadian goalie Jordan Binnington cleanly and setting off a wild celebration that left the ice littered with U.S. gloves, sticks and helmets. The Canadian players watched from the bench, many with their heads in their gloves hands.
The other goals came from Matt Boldy, who gave the U.S. a lead early in the first period, and Cale Makar, who evened things for Canada late in the second.
The medal was the 33rd of these Games for the U.S. and the 12th gold, most by an American team in the Winter Olympics. They finished second to Norway, which won a record 41 medals, 18 of them gold.
The title was the Americans’ first in men’s hockey since 1980 and it came on the 46th anniversary of the “Miracle On Ice” win over the mighty Soviets, in what was essentially a semifinal in the Lake Placid Games.
The Canadian team the U.S. beat Sunday was no less mighty. It scored 27 times on its unbeaten run to the final, with Connor McDavid getting 13 points, a record for an Olympic tournament featuring NHL players. And with the NHL players returning to the Winter Games for the first time in 12 years, Canada may have had more elite-level marquee players than any team in Olympic history.
U.S. players celebrate immediately after beating Canada in overtime for the gold medal at the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games on Sunday.
(David J. Phillip / Associated Press)
But it was the U.S. that drew first blood, scoring in the sixth minute on a brilliant individual effort from Boldy. The play started with Toronto Maples Leafs captain Auston Matthews digging the puck out along the boards in the U.S. end. He then fed Boldy, a Minnesota Wild forward, who flipped the puck ahead of him as he entered the Canadian zone.
Boldy had Makar and Devon Toews to beat, which he did by skating between them before backhanding the puck by Binnington for his second goal of the tournament.
Back in the Catman Cafe in Mansfield, Mass., where Boldy’s mom Jen works as a bartender, the crowd came to its feet and cheered. It was the third time in as many elimination games that Canada trailed entering the second period.
The turning point in regulation came in a three-minute span in the middle of the second period. First, U.S. goalie Connor Hellebuyck stopped McDavid at the end of a breakaway it. Then less than a minute later, the U.S. took two penalties 28 seconds apart, giving Canada a five-on-three power play.
U.S. goaltender Connor Hellebuyck blocks a shot by Canada’s Macklin Celebrini during the third period Sunday.
(Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)
With the crowd chanting “USA! USA!,” Hellebuyck, who stopped 41 shots in a phenomenal effort, came up big again and the Americans killed both penalties. The U.S. was 18 for 18 on the penalty kill in the tournament.
Makar, however, wouldn’t be denied later in the period, sending a blistering wrister from the center of the right circle just over Hellebuyck’s arm 84 seconds before the intermission. The score stayed that way until Hughes’ goal.
The game was arguably the most-anticipated event of the Milan-Cortina Games — in North America, if not in Italy. Hundreds of bars and restaurants in the U.S. and Canada were packed for early morning viewing parties. In Toronto, Scotiabank Arena, home to the Maple Leafs, opened its doors at 7 a.m. and sold $15 tickets to people to watch the game on TV. In Lake Placid, N.Y., the Olympic Center cafe opened to fans at 8 a.m. while in Milan, the 14,000 people packed into the Santa Giulia Arena were a sea of red Canadian jerseys and white American ones.
Six times the U.S. has finished second to Canada in an Olympic hockey tournament, the last in 2010 when Sidney Crosby’s goal in overtime gave Canada a record ninth gold medal. Crosby, Canada’s captain, did not dress for Sunday’s game after sustaining a lower-body injury earlier in the tournament.
United States players celebrate after defeating Canada for the gold medal at the Milan-Cortina Games on Sunday.
(Hassan Ammar / Associated Press)
That wasn’t the only sign this game would be different for the Americans. As the team was wrapping up its final practice in Milan on Saturday, a spider dropped from the ceiling. Don’t kill it, a local volunteer warned the players. In Italy, the appearance of a spider is considered a sign of coming good fortune.
With the U.S. beating Canada in overtime in the women’s gold-medal last Thursday, the Milan-Cortina Games marked the first time the Americans have beaten Canada in both hockey finals. Canada has swept the men’s and women’s gold three times, in 2002, 2010 and 2014.
Time to turn my 20-month-old Lena into the next big thing on snow.
La Rosiere doesn’t mess about. Its ESF ski school’s Galopins Club had Lena on a snowboard-sled hybrid that looked utterly adorable.
Between snow play sessions they kept the kids busy with crafts and stories. Half-day or full-day options with lunch meant I could hit the slopes guilt-free.
Founded by shepherds in the 1960s, the resort has somehow kept its cosy village vibe while going all-in on the family market.
The revamped beginner zone at Les Eucherts features a toddler-friendly four-seater chair lift and a covered mountain picnic area – genius for when your hangry three-year-old has a meltdown in ski boots.
For families, here’s where La Rosiere gets clever. Its X-periences pass costs £59 extra on top of a six-day ski pass but throws in ice skating, cinema, laser tag, paintball, and something called X’treme Luge that sounds like it should come with a waiver.
Evolution 2, the resort’s adventure school gets kids playing at being ski patrol, opening slopes, and doing outdoor escape games.
While Lena was learning not to face-plant, I got to explore the Espace San Bernardo area – 96 miles linking La Rosiere with Italy’s La Thuile.
The new Mont Valaisan lift opens up serious back country at 2,800 metres, and I lucked out with blue-sky powder days.
The south-facing slopes make for sun-soaked days with stunning views of the Haute Tarentaise valley.
And with 80 per cent of the slopes above 1,850m, snow conditions were fantastic throughout our stay. Time of her life
My base at Lodge Hemera (booked through Peak Retreats) was ski-in, ski-out luxury with a kitchen that saved my family a fortune.
On the nights we didn’t feel like cooking, we went to Le Comptoir, a family-friendly bar with great pizza.
Did Lena become the next Shaun White? Not exactly. She spent more time eating snow than shredding it.
But La Rosiere delivered: World-class childcare that let me remember why I love snowboarding, while my toddler had the time of her life playing in the snow.
So no, I won’t be posting videos of my prodigy daughter doing backflips.
But at least I can say we tried – and I got a decent ski holiday out of it. In the Instagram parenting Olympics, I see that as a win
GO: La Rosiere
GETTING THERE: British Airways flies from London City to Chambery, from £80 return. See ba.com.
STAYING THERE: Seven nights’ self-catering with Peak Retreats at Le Lodge Hemera in a two-bedroom apartment is from £468pp based on five sharing.
Price includes return Eurotunnel crossing, with a free FlexiPlus upgrade (except on some school holiday dates), peakretreats.co.uk.
MILAN — He’s as smooth as a bobsled track and sharp as a skate blade.
Snoop Dogg, the rap rapscallion who puts the OG in Olympic Games, plopped down on a couch in the NBC green room and muted the TV. It’s exhausting being everywhere at all times at the most spread-out Winter Games in history.
Whether he was carrying the Olympic torch, skiing with Picabo Street, sliding a curling stone or driving a Zamboni, Snoop was everywhere. He finished each day with a highlight show from the Milan studios.
So ubiquitous was the so-called Ambassador of Happiness, you’d swear NBC duped a Snoop — or maybe two.
Snoop Dogg, right, and five-time Olympic gold medalist former speedskater Eric Heiden watch speedskating at the Milan-Cortina Olympics on Feb. 11.
(Ben Curtis / Associated Press)
“The Winter Olympics are underrated,” he said in an interview Friday at the network’s Olympic complex. “It’s not highly touted like it should be. This is an event that is just as good as the Super Bowl, as the Summer Olympics. There’s so much action and there’s so much happening, and it’s not just one day. It’s not just four quarters. It’s weeks of great competition — on ice, for the most part.”
It’s almost as if the angular, 6-foot-4 Snoop is on ice as he glides through the back halls of NBC’s temporary headquarters, wearing a white turtleneck under a red, white and blue leather jacket with “COACH SNOOP” across the front. He’s wearing a gold-rope chain with the Universal logo as a pendant, and gold-rimmed sunglasses that are square and lightly tinted.
He greets everyone he sees and a friendly assistant follows him, handing out Olympic pins of a tiny, cartoonish Snoop with his arms raised at his side, standing in front of an American flag.
Is it any wonder this guy creates a buzz in every venue he enters? He is the No. 1 celebrity sighting at the Games.
“Snoop has a joy about him, a childlike curiosity, and he’s also a people person,” said Molly Solomon, executive producer and president of programming for NBC’s Olympics coverage. “He wants to lift people up in all aspects of his persona.”
NBC began using the rapper as part of its Olympic coverage during the Tokyo Games in 2021 with the streaming Peacock show “Olympic Highlights with Kevin Hart & Snoop Dogg.” Many of their playful clips and humorous commentaries went viral and were especially appealing to younger viewers. Snoop genuinely enjoyed the competition, even though a lot of it was new to him.
Three years later, as the network was preparing for the Paris Olympics, executives were looking for ways to enhance the prime-time coverage, much of which would air on tape because of time-zone differences. They decided to expand Snoop’s role to give the perspective of a “superfan.” With these Olympics, his role further evolved into an experiential one, and to serve as an informal mentor and ambassador to the athletes.
“This is the biggest stage in the world,” he said. “Nobody gets to perform in front of the world like they do, with the whole world paying attention. To have all of that pressure of [something] you’ve been working for four years … Some of these girls and guys get that one shot, their event is only one time.”
As a roving correspondent, he did … well, some serious roving.
That included making the drive from Milan to Cortina for curling, sliding and women’s ski racing. That’s a four-hour van ride each way, some of it winding into the Dolomites.
“Trying to sleep with my head up against the window, with turning curves and every mountaintop,” he said. “Sliding by trains and traffic, and oh my God, I couldn’t drive out here. One-way streets. Little-bitty trains coming this way, that way. Bicycles, mopeds. It’s a lot.”
He also made a 3½-hour trip to Livigno to watch snowboarding — and said that if he had to pick a sport to compete in, that would be his choice.
“I could get good in snowboard, because I just like the creativity of when you’re in the air you have full control but you in the air,” he said. “I just feel like that’s something I could really be good at.”
So he must have skateboarded as a kid growing up in Long Beach, right?
“Never,” he said. “That’s what I’m saying. None of these sports are near and dear to me. That’s why it’s gonna be a first-time trial. But I know who I am. I don’t like to fail. I don’t like to lose. So I’m just such a perfectionist that I will get good enough to be good enough.”
He’s 54 and concedes his body can’t always accomplish what his mind thinks it can. He tried running the 200 meters at the Olympic trials in Oregon before the Paris Games and did so in 33 seconds, but he limped away with an injury. So he has a goal for when the Summer Games come to Los Angeles in two years.
“When we get to L.A., my mission is for me to run the 200 in under 30 seconds,” he said. “In 2028, I should be 56 years old. So if I can run it in under 30 seconds at 56, that’s a gold medal for me.”
Solomon said NBC is still brainstorming about how Snoop’s role will evolve for the 2028 Games.
Honorary Team USA coach Snoop Dogg throws a curling stone as Americans Daniel Casper and Tabitha Peterson Lovick watch on Feb. 6 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
(Richard Heathcote / Getty Images)
“Of course, L.A. is Snoop’s hometown,” she said. “So he will be a hometown hero.”
Snoop said his love for the Olympics dates to the 1984 Los Angeles Games. He didn’t attend any events at the time, though, noting that for a 13-year-old kid growing up in Long Beach, the city felt “like a whole state away.”
“We were watching on television,” he said. “We never thought we could physically be there. … It just felt good to be an American, to watch us compete against the whole world and to see how great we were.”
He’s particularly interested in flag football — which will make its debut in the Los Angeles Olympics — and created a youth football league that counts among its alumni NFL standouts C.J. Stroud and JuJu Smith-Schuster.
“Flag football is a sport the whole world can grab ahold of,” Snoop said. “There are so many athletes that are in the NFL that are from different parts of the world that they’ve grown the sport from them just making it to the NFL and being an inspiration for the next generation.”
Team GB face an uphill task to win an Olympic medal in the four-man bobsleigh as they sit seventh at the halfway point.
Pilot Brad Hall had showcased why the British team are medal contenders in Cortina with a brilliant first run of 54.39 seconds, which left them in third place.
But they dropped off the pace in the second, clocking 55.04secs – the 12th-quickest time in heat two – to lose four places in the standings before Sunday’s medal-deciding heats.
The three German teams remain the ones to beat and they occupy the top three spots with Johannes Lochner, who won two-man gold earlier this week, leading the charge with an overall time of 1:48:61.
There was a long delay to competition at the Cortina sliding track after Austria suffered a crash during heat two, with one of the athletes treated for a lengthy period on the ice before being stretchered off.
Action resumed after about a 20-minute delay but, with the track now slower because of the rising temperature, the British team were unable to find the speed of their first run and currently sit on 1:49:43.
Since 2019, Hodgkinson has trained with coaches Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows in Manchester.
Meadows, a former international runner, was in France to watch her protege take almost a second off the 800m indoor record, set by Slovenia’s Jolanda Ceplak almost 24 years ago.
“She actually said to me the day before: ‘obviously I know I’m going to get it’,” said Meadows.
“There had been so many benchmarks we measure in training, we had no doubt that she would do it.
“Her biggest fear was to set a world record, but be disappointed with the time. She said ‘what if I can’t smile? What if I’ve got the world record, and everyone’s so excited, and I think, oh that was rubbish. I could have gone faster’?”
The date – 19 February 2026 – had long been set in the diary by Meadows and Hodgkinson given the track in Lievin is notoriously fast.
“Lievin has had a lot of world records over the years, and we kind of thought ‘you know what, let’s go with the statistics’,” Meadows said.
“We’re only probably going to get one opportunity during this indoor season to go for it. So that’s the event that we picked, and that’s the date we’ve really had etched in our minds the last three months.”
“I’ve got to say, the time she did was the bare minimum of what she was happy with,” Meadows added.
“She definitely would have liked to run faster, and there was definitely half a second, maybe even up to one second in those legs.”
MILAN — She flipped her hair. She shrugged. She dusted her hands off.
Alysa Liu makes winning an Olympic gold medal look easy.
The 20-year-old became the first U.S. woman to win the Olympic singles title since 2002, electrifying the crowd at Milano Ice Skating Arena with her “MacArthur Park” program Thursday and overtaking Japanese rivals Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai, who won second and third, respectively.
Liu scored a monster 150.20 points in her free skate, the highest mark for a women’s free skate all season in international competition to win by a total of 1.89 points. Her choreographer Massimo Scali’s jaw dropped when he heard the score read in Italian. A beat later when the screen caught up to the public address announcement in the stadium, Liu nodded confidently and cracked a subtle smirk.
American gold medalist Alysa Liu hugs Japanese bronze medalist Ami Nakai after their final scores were revealed at the Winter Olympics on Thursday in Milan.
(Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
She doesn’t care about the scores.
Liu, who grew up in Oakland, has floated through her second Olympics as if she had not a single care in the world. A two-year retirement during which she climbed Mt. Everest, got her driver’s license and started college at UCLA made skating feel inconsequential. Now so unbothered, Liu spent part of her six-minute warmup cheering on teammate Amber Glenn in the leader’s chair. Minutes before taking the ice, Liu snapped a selfie with her coaches. She gives her coaches a high-five right before taking her starting position.
“She’s not like us,” her coach Phillip Diguglielmo said. “The rest of us here would be like, ‘Oh my God, I’m nervous. Oh, I can’t do this. I have a million voices in my head.’ She has one voice in her head, and it says, ‘I got this.’”
The only emotions Liu felt during her program were “calm, happy and confident.” When she sees the faces in the crowd smile, Liu said she can’t help but smile, too. And there was a lot of smiling. Her Donna Summer disco program had fans clapping within the first minute. Diguglielmo and Scali held their hands overhead to join the roar. Liu’s pre-program message to the crowd on the video board was “Y’all better turn up!”
Liu, who won the 2025 world championship with the same crowd-pleasing program, returned to the sport in 2024 with the sole objective of sharing her art. She wanted to make as many programs as possible. Winning never seemed to matter. With the gold medal hanging around her neck, Liu stopped short of saying she even wanted it. She surely didn’t need it, she said.
“What I needed was the stage,” Liu said. “And I got that.”
Once Liu processed the final scores, she rose to her feet and turned toward Nakai, clapping for the 17-year-old. Nakai, skating in her first Olympics, was shocked. She held up three fingers to Liu, asking if she had finished on the podium. Overjoyed, they hugged. Liu picked Nakai, who had entered the free skate in first place, up off the ground.
Sakamoto was less than a point ahead of Liu entering Thursday’s free skate, but small mistakes from the three-time world champion, in addition to Liu’s strong technique and infectious energy made Liu the first U.S. woman to win the Olympic gold medal since Sarah Hughes in 2002. The United States’ 20-year drought without a medal — since Sasha Cohen took silver in 2006 — was the country’s longest.
Liu held her palms up in disbelief after finishing the program of her life that put her in the lead with two competitors remaining. She leaned into the camera and pointed to the piercing on the inside of her upper lip. She did it herself.
With blond horizontal stripes dyed in her dark brown hair, bold black eyeliner and the smiley lip piercing, Liu has cut an alternative path to the top of a sport that long valued a specific kind of femininity. But the slick back bun, classical music and balletic dress was not Liu’s brand.
Her brand is joy.
And now as just the second figure skater in history to win two Olympic gold medals at the same Olympic Games — joining U.S. star Nathan Chen — Liu has the stage, and the attention, to display her joy for the next generation of athletes.
“People will be able to see how she approaches the sport now versus before and see how much more successful it is now in a healthy way,” Glenn said. “And I’m hoping people can really learn from that.”
Glenn got redemption after the short program, putting up a season’s best 147.52 during her free skate that vaulted her from 13th to fifth with a 214.91 total score. The only blemish was when Glenn put one hand down on her final jump — the same triple loop that cost her in her short program. But as she held one leg behind her during a spiral in her last sequence, Glenn smiled as she looked into the crowd. After the program, she whipped her fist through the air triumphantly.
The performance put a positive punctuation mark on Glenn’s winding Olympic journey. She has faced intense scrutiny at the Games. The same pressure that consumed Glenn and teammate Ilia Malinin could not even touch Liu’s glowing aura.
When asked Thursday if she felt any “Olympic pressure,” Liu smiled.
“You would have to explain what Olympic pressure is,” she said.
Then she bounced away, the gold medal around her neck blending perfectly with her gold dress.
MILAN — A gold medal that seemed firmly in the grasp of the U.S. women’s hockey team nearly slipped through its fingers in the final of the Milan-Cortina Games on Thursday, but the Americans rallied to win 2-1 on Megan Keller’s goal just over four minutes into overtime.
Kristin O’Neill’s shorthanded goal less than a minute into the second period gave Canada its goal while Hilary Knight matched that for the U.S. with 2:04 to play, deflecting a Laila Edwards’ slap shot from the high slot through her legs and past Canadian goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens to send the game to the extra period.
The goal, Knight’s 15th in Olympic competition, broke the American record and came seconds after U.S. coach John Wroblewski had pulled his goalie for an extra attacker.
Keller then won it, taking a long Taylor Heise pass on the left wing, racing into the Canadian zone, stickhandling around defender Claire Thompson before beating goalie Desbiens cleanly.
The gold was the second in the last three Olympics for the Americans, who are ranked No. 1 in the world. Both have come against Canada while the victory was the eighth straight for the U.S. over their northern neighbor dating to last April’s world championship.
The overtime rules are unique for gold-medal games, with the teams playing three-on-three for 20-minute periods, with the first goal deciding the winner. Games cannot end in a shootout.
In the preliminary round, overtimes were limited to five minutes, followed by a five-round shootout. In the knockout stage, the overtime period was extended to 10 minutes, followed by a shootout.
None of that figured in Thursday’s result.
The young Americans, who had 12 women playing in their first Olympics, looked uncharacteristically rattled in a scoreless first period in which they took two penalties — one for too many players on the ice — and were outshot 8-6. It was just the third time in the tournament the U.S. went an entire period without a goal.
Things got worse 54 seconds into the second period when O’Neill outskated Edwards up the center of the ice on a breakaway, took a short centering pass from Laura Stacey, then deked U.S. goalie Aerin Frankel to the ice before beating her to her gloved side for the first goal of the game.
That snapped a 352-minute scoreless streak for the U.S. and marked the first time the Americans trailed in Milan.
For much of the game Canada was faster, smarter and more poised. And Desbiens was spectacular in goal. In Canada’s group-play loss to the U.S., she was pulled in the third period after giving up five goals. This time she came within two minutes of shutting out a team that had scored 31 times in its previous six games.
MILAN — The U.S. men haven’t stood on the podium at the end of an Olympic hockey tournament in 16 years and haven’t played for a medal in 12.
In fact, it’s been so long since an American hockey team took home a prize from the Winter Games none of the players on this year’s team, the second youngest in the Milan-Cortina competition, had finished high school the last time it happened.
No one on the team was even alive the last time the U.S. won gold in 1980.
This team has a chance to end that drought after beating Sweden 2-1 in overtime Wednesday to advance to Friday’s semifinals, where they will play Slovakia. The win was the Americans’ first over Sweden in an Olympic tournament in nine games dating to 1960.
The winning goal came from Quinn Hughes 3:27 into the extra period. Canada also advanced to the semifinals, overcoming one-goal deficits twice to beat Czechia 4-3 in overtime. Canada will play Finland, another overtime winner, in its semifinals.
The first U.S. goal came from Dylan Larkin of the Detroit Red Wings but Sweden forced the overtime when it pulled its goalie, allowing Mika Zibanejad to score on a slap shot from the left circle with 91 seconds left in regulation.
Hughes, a Minnesota Wild defenseman, then ended things, circling around the ice to create space, then skating into the high slot and blasting a shot between two defenders and past Swedish goalie Jacob Markstrom.
“Quinn, he’s a special player,” said defenseman Noah Hanifin of the Vegas Golden Knights. “So much swagger and confidence on the ice. And he’s always looking to take over. He did that for us in overtime.”
The game began like a heavyweight title fight, with both teams cautiously probing the other for weaknesses. The U.S. finally found one midway through the second period with Larkin deflecting in a one-timer from Jack Hughes at the blue line. Hughes’ shot was headed directly into the pads of Markstrom, who was perfectly positioned for an easy save, before Larkin, perched on the doorstep, reached out to deflect the puck by Markstrom on his gloved side.
The Americans haven’t trailed since the middle of the second period of their second game. But losing a lead with just 1 ½ minutes to play tested the team’s “character, just the will to win,” forward Brady Tkachuk said.
“That’s something that can deflate you and end your tournament, if you don’t just put your mind back in a good spot,” he added. “It shows the character being able to bounce back get that one.”
“That’s a big momentum shift. But there wasn’t any panic,” Charlie McAvoy added. “I got back to the bench [and] it’s just you’ve got to flush it. That was kind of what I was saying to myself. It’s a tie game now.”
Dylan Larkin (21) is congratulated by U.S. teammates on the bench as he skates off the ice after scoring a goal against Sweden during the second period Wednesday.
(Hassan Ammar / Associated Press)
It didn’t stay that way for long before Hughes broke Sweden’s heart, beating Markstrom cleanly. Markstrom was otherwise spectacular, making 38 saves — two with his helmeted head and probably deserved a better fate.
In the last two Olympic tournaments the Americans, playing without NHL players, were bounced in the quarterfinals while Canada got no further than the bronze-medal game. The top pros didn’t participate in the 2018 Games because of a dispute between the NHL and the International Olympic Committee regarding insurance, travel costs and marketing rights. They were held out four years ago over scheduling complications caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Not surprisingly, getting some of the best players in the world back has made a difference, with the unbeaten Canadians rolling to a tournament-best plus-18 goal differential while the averaged 4 1/2 goals a game in their four wins.
“It’s been unreal,” Hanifin said of the tournament. “It’s so fun to be a part of. Anytime you get into these one-game eliminations, anything can happen so you’ve got to be to be prepared.
“But that’s part of what makes the Olympics so special and hard to win.”
Canada’s comeback spoiled good performances by a pair of Anaheim Ducks. Defenseman Radko Gudas got an assist on the Czechs’ first score while NHL teammate Lukas Dostal turned away 37 shots in goal. But Montreal Canadiens’ captain Nick Suzuki got a fortunate bounce on a deflection to tie the score with 3:27 left in regulation before Vegas’ Mitch Marner scored the game-winner 82 seconds in overtime for Canada, which led for less than six minutes.
On his way to the dressing room, Gudas picked some snow off the ice and kissed it. At 35, this was his second and likely last Olympic tournament.
“It’s a mix of emotions, because you feel sad but proud in the same time,” said Dostal, who was playing in his first Olympics. “It hurts. It’s probably gonna hurt for a long time.”
The victory might have come at a high cost for Canada, which saw captain Sidney Crosby limp to the dressing room in the second period following a collision with Gudas along the boards. Crosby, who has two goals and four assists in the tournament, will undergo an MRI exam on Thursday; his status for Friday’s semifinal is unknown.
For the U.S. and Canada, two more wins brings a gold medal while a loss Friday means that dream is over.
“It’s a one-game tournament,” Canada’s Tom Wilson said. “It’s not seven games. It’s a one-game tournament. And everybody thinks they can win.”
American star Mikaela Shiffrin cemented her status as the greatest alpine skier of all time as she won Olympic slalom gold in emphatic fashion.
Twelve years on from winning the title in Sochi aged 18, Shiffrin stormed to victory with an overall time of 1:39:10, a significant 1.50 seconds ahead of second place to become a three-time Olympic champion.
The 30-year-old put herself in pole position with a time of 47.13 seconds in the first run, a gap of 0.82 seconds to second-place Lena Duerr.
The German was the only skier to finish within one second of Shiffrin but she straddled the first gate on her second run to put herself out of medal contention.
That left Shiffrin with what was ultimately an exhibition run to take gold and she completed the run in 51.97 seconds.
Switzerland’s Camille Rast won silver while Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson took bronze.
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — It’s all downhill after 40.
Downhill at screaming speeds, that is, fast enough to capture Olympic gold, which is precisely what 41-year-old Elana Meyers Taylor did Monday night in the women’s monobob.
America’s most successful female bobsledder finally got her gold medal. She was four one-hundredths of a second faster than Germany’s Laura Nolte — compiled over four heats — netting her sixth Olympic medal.
Those prizes — a gold, three silvers and two bronzes — tied Meyers Taylor with speedskater Bonnie Blair as the most decorated U.S. woman in Winter Olympic history.
“I still can’t even put into words what this means having the gold medal,” Meyers Taylor said. “It’s still surreal.”
She became the oldest American woman to win a gold medal at the Winter Games, having covered the winding course four times in two days in a total of 3 minutes, 57.93 seconds.
American gold medalist Elana Meyers Taylor and bronze medalist Kaillie Humphries pose for a photo during the medal ceremony for monbob bobsled in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, on Monday.
(Julian Finney / Getty Images)
Monobob is a women’s event that made its debut at the Beijing Olympics four years ago. Only one person competes, pushing the sled at the start and piloting down the course at speeds of 70 to 80 mph. There were 20 competitors in the inaugural event, and American Kaillie Humphries — who claimed the bronze Monday — won the first gold medal in the event.
The triumph came after Meyers Taylor went a whole World Cup season without standing on a podium, finishing 10th in the standings.
“The season was miserable,” she said, noting she has suffered back problems for months.
Her husband and two young children were waiting for her at the finish line, and Meyers Taylor is about as down-to-earth as an elite athlete can get. Both of their children have special needs and are deaf.
American Elana Meyers Taylor celebrates after winning the monobob bobsled competition in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, on Monday.
(Al Bello / Getty Images)
She taught them some new words in sign language in the days leading up to the race.
“We went over what ‘champion’ is,” she said, adding she also taught them to sign “bobsled race” and “gold.”
Asked about her pre-race assessment that a gold medal would mean everything and nothing to her, she smiled and said: “It still is everything, and it still is nothing. Because at the end of the day, in six days I’ve got school pickups and dropoffs in the middle of Texas.”
Humphries — who has three golds and two bronzes in her career — was tied with Meyers Taylor heading into the fourth and final heat. They are both mothers who split time between intense training and all the challenges of parenthood.
“I hope it inspires other people to go out and chase it, whatever it may be,” said Humphries, 40.
“I grew up in a sport where if you have kids once you get to 40, it’s all downhill and alumni … I get to be proof that that’s not true.”
American gold medalist Elana Meyers Taylor and bronze medalist Kaillie Humphries celebrate with Humphries’ son after the monobob competition at the Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, on Monday.
(Julian Finney / Getty Images)
Meyers Taylor, who was born Oct. 10, 1984, is eight days older than American ski racing legend Lindsey Vonn, who is recovering from a violent crash in the women’s downhill and has undergone multiple operations in the last week.
“I was at the Alpine race when she went down, and that was heartbreaking,” Meyers Taylor said.
“To do that at 41, she’s incredible.”
Humphries said staying atop the sport will be quite a challenge for the monobob medalists.
“These girls are young,” she said. “They’re putting up a good fight. I won’t lie, the starts are challenging, so we’ve got some work to do.”
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — World-class athletes, thrilling events, stirring medal ceremonies, I will remember all of those from the Winter Olympics. But what I experienced Sunday on my 45-minute bus ride from my hotel to Cortina will stay with me longer.
There was a young woman sitting across the aisle. She looked to be in her mid-20s, about the age of my daughter, and was wearing a knit cap with a Switzerland logo. Her dark hair was in long, thin braids and framed her friendly face.
“How’s it going?” I asked, setting down my backpack.
“Nervous,” she said with a faint smile.
That started the conversation, one that would have me repeatedly wiping my eyes with my sleeve.
Her name was Michelle Gloor. She’s 25 and from a small town outside of Zurich. Her boyfriend, Cedric Follador, is pilot of the Swiss bobsled team and has races throughout the week. She was heading to watch him practice.
Michelle knows all about the sport. In fact, she had been the brake woman on the Swiss national team and had hoped to be competing in these Olympics herself. She grew up as a track-and-field athlete, a sprinter, and only took up bobsled in 2022.
Women’s bobsled — or bobsleigh, as Europeans call it — is a two-person operation with a pilot in front and brake woman in back.
“The first responsibility is pushing the sled as fast as I can, together with my pilot,” she said in a German accent and near-flawless English. “I have to sit still and count the curves until we reach the finish line, when I have to pull the brakes. I’m responsible that the sled won’t crash into something.”
Her best friend had made the transition from track to bobsled, was looking for a brake woman, and convinced Michelle to give it a try.
“My first bobsleigh ride was in St. Moritz and I was so nervous,” said Gloor, a third-year law student at the University of Zurich. “I think I was crying in the back of the sled because I’d never felt anything like that, all the G-forces and you don’t have any cushion in the sled. It all hurts.
“But after the second run, I felt the adrenaline and it was great. It caught me from then. It took me two runs.”
She was 22 and the future was bright. They entered the Swiss championships and won. Michelle got serious about her new sport, training every day, eating right, building muscle.
Immersed in that world, she met Cedric but for the first 1½ years they were just casual friends. Their conversations were all bobsled-related.
“Then in spring 2024 he texted me and asked, ‘How are you?’” she said. “More personal stuff.”
They had been dating for about six months when a discovery would dramatically change their lives.
In November 2024, during a routine check-up, a gynecologist found evidence of cancer in Michelle’s ovaries. If there were signs she was ill, Michelle hadn’t noticed them. She had been tired the prior summer, yes, but she attributed that to her training.
“It was pretty advanced,” she said of the cancer. “I went to the women’s doctor every year and they couldn’t explain why they couldn’t see it earlier. I don’t know. I’m not questioning that anymore. It’s just … yeah.”
There was no time to wait. By December, she was in surgery. Doctors opened her abdomen from her breast bone down, looking for more growths. They deemed the operation a success, and six months of chemotherapy began in February.
“I lost my hair,” she said. “I had long, black hair. Losing that wasn’t bad. But I lost the hair on my face — my eyebrows, my eyelashes — that was hard. But I always knew it just had to be.”
Her doctor told her her cancer was Stage 3.
“That means it’s on the other organs too,” she said. “But the difference between Stage 3 and Stage 4 is it’s not in my lungs. It’s in my tummy area but not more upwards.”
“Women or even men my age, you live in your world, you are following your dreams. And you don’t think about something happening in your life.”
— Michelle Gloor, on being diagnosed with cancer at a young age
Cedric was by her side.
“I asked him after the diagnosis if he wants to join me in this journey or not,” she said. “I can understand if he won’t because we were together not even half a year, and I can understand if he said, ‘Hey, it’s too much for me. I can’t do that.’
“Then he took time for himself, and he came back and said he wants to stay with me. He wants to support me in every imaginable way.
“He drove me to therapy when he was in town because he had a bobsleigh season going on from November until March, in my toughest time. Every time he was home, he was there for me. When he wasn’t there, we were phoning every day. He was there all the time, even when he wasn’t there physically.”
Her parents and younger brother were there for her too, of course, but she wanted to give them some time to themselves. Cedric was her rock.
There are elements in his job as a driver that both help him in his sport, and her in her disease.
“As a driver, you really need to focus on what’s going on straight ahead of you,” she explained. “You can’t really switch away your thoughts. You have one minute of full concentration. I think you can compare it to Formula One because you only see the next curve in front of you.
“He’s very calm and I think that helps him in a sporting way to not overreact emotionally and stuff like that. But also for me as a partner, I’m very emotional. When I’m too excited or too sad or too angry, he can calm me down to a normal level. On a stress-less level, and to be stress-free is very important for someone who has cancer.”
Switzerland’s Cedric Follador, right, and Luca Rolli compete in two-man bobsled at the Milan-Cortina Olympics on Monday.
(Richard Heathcote / Getty Images)
Michelle, petite and pale, has lost about 40 pounds over the past year. Mostly muscle.
“I was avoiding sugar in the beginning of the illness,” she said. “You read so much stuff. But after losing so much weight, doctors told me just eat what you want to eat. Because having energy is more important than eating too much sugar.”
In August, doctors discovered more cancer in her. Another surgery to open her abdomen.
“They said it’s still there,” she said. “Those microcells which they couldn’t remove because they couldn’t see them, they grew. But once all those microcells have grown up and been removed, or have been killed by therapy and medication, there won’t be any new cells because the ovaries have been removed, so they don’t produce any more.”
She tries not to Google her illness anymore. It doesn’t help her frame of mind. She’s changed in other ways, too.
“I was a very direct person before my illness,” she said. “Now I’m even more direct and straight-forward. I say no, and I don’t explain myself. If I don’t want to do something, I don’t have to. I just say no.
“Before that, I had a bad feeling about myself and explained myself just because I say no. I don’t do that anymore.”
In December, she began radiation. She has another scan after the Olympics.
There are times she just can’t believe this is happening.
“Women or even men my age, you live in your world, you are following your dreams,” she said. “And you don’t think about something happening in your life. I only know young people in Switzerland, so I can only speak for them. But they don’t talk about that.
“They are not sensible about what can happen, and that’s why it’s important for me to speak out about it. For example, with a women’s doctor, you have to go. It can happen to anyone.
“I’m a young woman. I do sports since I’m 10 years old. I don’t drink alcohol. I don’t smoke. But it still can happen.”
Her illness has shined a spotlight on her friendships. Lots of her old friends showed concern at first, then went on with their lives. A handful checked in on her frequently. Some are new.
“I got in touch with a woman during chemotherapy, she was there too,” Michelle said. “She has breast cancer. She saw my cross necklace, and we were talking about faith and how it helped in those hard times.
“We are still in contact now. We are writing letters to each other. We’re not texting or phoning, just writing letters and sending postcards. She’s as old as my mom, but it’s very cool to have someone with almost the same story.”
How will that story end? Michelle has her hopes, this fearless young woman who took to bobsledding on her second time down the track.
“My goal is to be in the Olympics in four years,” she said. “I’ll be 29 by then. The age is still good — even better than now for a bobsleigh athlete. And I have a great team. My bobsleigh pilot is very supportive and she said she always has a place for me in the sled.”
This week, Michelle is supporting Cedric — just a sliver, she said, of the way he has supported her. They got engaged in December. It happened at sunset in his little hometown in the Swiss Alps.
“He was talking about himself and us, and then he proposed to me,” she said. “I said yes. Of course.”
Matt Weston and Tabby Stoecker make history as they claim gold in the mixed team skeleton at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Weston becomes the first Team GB athlete to win two gold medals in a single Winter Olympics.
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Mikaela Shiffrin’s Olympic woes continued Sunday, with the American skier finishing 11th in the women’s giant slalom at the Milan-Cortina Games.
Italy’s Federica Brignone won the race for her second gold of these Olympics, posting a combined time of 2 minutes and 13.50 seconds. Sweden’s Sara Hector and Norway’s Thea Louise St. Jernesund tied for silver (+0.62). Hector and St. Jernesund, stunningly, posted identical times in both of their runs — 1:03.97 in Run 1 and 1:10.15 in Run 2.
Shiffrin’s second run started strong but she lost time in the middle part of the course to finish in 1:10.17 combined time of 2:14.42 (+0.92).
Shiffrin, the all-time leader in World Cup wins, has failed to reach the podium in her last eight Olympic events. Although Shiffrin won gold in the giant slalom in the 2018 Olympics, her subsequent performances in Beijing in 2022, and last Tuesday in Cortina, have people wondering if the Games present a brick-wall mental block for her.
After all, she came into these Olympics having won seven of eight World Cup slalom races, and finishing second in the one she didn’t win.
Yet Tuesday, in the women’s combined, she was 15th out of 18 finishers. That was a disappointing debut for a legendary racer looking to bounce back from her last Olympic showing.
Four years ago, she was a favorite in Beijing but went 0 for 6 on podiums and failed to cross the finish line three times. Her best individual result was ninth in the super-G.
Sunday was all about Giant Slalom, a discipline in which Shiffrin holds the women’s record for most World Cup wins with 22.
But she has endured a long dry spell in the discipline in recent years. She didn’t have a top-three result in giant slalom between January 2024 — when she was runner-up at the race in Slovakia — until her third-place finish in Czechia last month. She failed to reach the podium in her 11 races in between.
That said, since the end of 2025, she has been steadily improving, going from sixth to fifth to fourth to third in World Cup finishes leading into the Olympics.
That upward trajectory was not evident in her first GS run Sunday morning. On a cool but sunny start to the day, she skied the course at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in 1:04.25 — best of the four Americans but 1.02 seconds off Brignone. That put Shiffrin in seventh place heading into the afternoon session.
Olympic gold medals aren’t solid gold, but they’re still worth thousands based on metal content alone.
Most U.S. Olympians no longer owe federal taxes on medal-related prize money, easing a long-standing financial burden.
The real value of a medal often comes after the podium, through exposure, endorsements, and career opportunities.
With the Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 in full swing, attention extends beyond the competition itself to a practical question: what is an Olympic medal actually worth?
The answer depends on how you define “worth.” There’s the literal value of the metal, the tax implications that could follow, and then the much bigger value that comes from status, visibility, and opportunity.
Are Olympic Gold Medals Actually Solid Gold?
Despite the name, Olympic gold medals are not solid gold. Even though the tradition of a solid gold medal was established in 1904, forging the medals 100% out of gold didn’t last long, as it became too costly after World War I. As a result, the top medal hasn’t been made of solid gold since the 1912 Olympic games.
Today, gold medals are primarily made of silver, with a relatively thin coating of pure gold on the surface. The exact specifications vary slightly, but the general formula has remained consistent. A modern Olympic gold medal typically contains 523 grams of sterling silver, with approximately six grams of gold plated on top. This allows it to look like gold and feel substantial, while also carrying enormous symbolic weight.
Silver medals are indeed solid, made of 525 grams of sterling silver. Bronze medals meanwhile contain no precious metals at all, typically containing 90 percent copper and other alloys, such as tin and zinc.
As a result, the true value of each medal comes more from the prestige of being a medalist and the opportunities it may offer than from the raw materials that comprise each medal.
What Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medals Are Worth at Today’s Metal Prices
Metal prices fluctuate constantly, so any estimate is a snapshot in time. Using current pricing, gold is trading around $5,000 per troy ounce, and silver around $80 per troy ounce. Six grams of gold works out to be worth about $965 at current prices, while the silver portion of a gold medal, about 523 grams, is worth about $1,345. Added together, the raw metal value of a gold medal currently lands around $2,310.
Silver medals, made of 525 grams of sterling silver, would be worth around $1,350, while bronze medals are worth far less from a materials standpoint. With copper currently priced at about $0.37 per ounce and a bronze medal comprising 495 grams of copper, the third-place medal would be worth less than $7 at today’s prices.
Do Olympic Athletes Have To Pay Taxes on Their Medals?
Fortunately for U.S. athletes, the tax picture has changed over time. In the past, medals and associated prize money were treated as taxable income, meaning athletes could owe federal taxes on both the cash bonuses and the fair market value of the medal itself.
That shifted in 2016, when Congress passed the United States Appreciation for Olympians and Paralympians Act of 2016. The legislation allows most U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes to exclude medal-related prize money from federal income taxes if their overall income falls below a certain threshold. The intent was to prevent athletes, many of whom train for years with limited financial support, from being hit with tax bills simply for winning.
Important
The exemption applies only to certain medal-related income and doesn’t extend to endorsement deals, appearance fees, or other earnings that often follow Olympic success.
Why Medals Are Worth Far More Than the Raw Materials
If medals were only worth their metal content, they’d be impressive keepsakes, but not life-changing ones. The real value comes from what the medal represents and what it unlocks.
An Olympic medal can raise an athlete’s profile overnight, leading to endorsements, sponsorships, and paid appearances that weren’t on the table before. The impact often lasts well beyond competition, opening doors to coaching, leadership roles, and media opportunities long after the Games are over.
Those opportunities don’t look the same for every medalist—or arrive all at once. For some athletes, especially gold medalists, the exposure of winning on the sport’s biggest stage can translate quickly into major endorsement deals. For others, the payoff is more gradual, showing up as smaller sponsorships, speaking fees, or a clearer path into post-competition careers built on recognition and trust.
Winning multiple medals can also amplify the effect, creating a sustained spotlight that brands and audiences tend to value more than a single podium finish.
While the metal in an Olympic medal may only be worth a modest sum, the visibility it brings can reshape an athlete’s earning potential in ways that far outlast the Games themselves—making its true value less about what it’s made of, and more about what it makes possible.
Good News for Olympians Starting in 2026
For the first time in history, every U.S. Olympic athlete is getting something they’ve never had before: guaranteed financial support just for making a team. Thanks to a $100 million gift from financier Ross Stevens, every U.S. Olympian and Paralympian competing in the Milan-Cortina Games will be eligible for $200,000 in future benefits, whether they medal or not, providing a long-term boost for careers that often pay little during competition.
There are two varieties of fencing: A-net and B-net.
A-net is more rigid, often permanent, and used to prevent racers from flying off the course and into dangerous areas, off cliffs, into rocks and the like.
B-net is temporary and closer to webbing that’s aimed at absorbing the kinetic energy of a falling skier. Frequently, there are multiple layers of B-net with space in between that combined to act as a catcher’s mitt.
“They put nets where you have really big fall zones and high-speed sections, places where you need that extra level of protection,” Morse said.
It isn’t like tumbling into a pit of foam blocks, though.
“The A-net is much more like hitting a trampoline,” Morse said. “The B-net is designed to come out of the ground and wrap you like a blanket. … When you go into the nets, your boot buckles, your bindings, your skis, they all get tangled in the webbing.”
So what does it feel like when you’re going 70-80 mph?
“Terrible,” he said. “It’s like you’re in a washing machine getting hit with sticks.”
MILAN — Before the final competitors hit the last turn, Jordan Stolz’s coach was already unfolding a U.S. flag.
The 21-year-old speedskating star won his second Olympic medal of the Milan-Cortina Games, setting an Olympic record in the 500 meters on Saturday at 33.77 seconds. He edged out the Nedtherlands’ Jenning de Boo, who was paired with Stolz and finished 0.11 seconds behind the U.S. star. Canada’s Laurent Debreuril took bronze at 34.26 seconds, which also stood as the Olympic record for three pairs before Stolz blazed through Milano Speed Skating Stadium.
Stolz is attempting an ambitious four-event program at the Milan-Cortina Games and already won the 1,000-meter gold medal this week. He will also compete in the 1,500 meters and the team pursuit.
Stolz is the first U.S. man to win the 500 meter at the Olympics since Joey Cheek in 2006. He is the first U.S. man to win gold in the 500 and 1,000 at the same Olympics since Eric Heiden in 1980.
He took a victory lap around the arena as red, white and blue-clad fans chanted “U-S-A!” Even the Dutch fans, forming a wall of bright orange all around the racing oval, clapped in admiration as Stolz held the U.S. flag above his head.
Gold medalist Jordan Stolz of the United States, center, celebrates on the podium with silver medalist Jenning de Boo of the Netherlands, left, and bronze medalist Laurent Dubreuil of Canada after the men’s 500 meters in speedskating at Winter Games on Saturday.
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Axel Brown, the pilot of Trinidad and Tobago’s bobsled team, came to the Milan-Cortina Winter Games with a simple goal.
“Just don’t come last,” he said. “We know that there is a 0% chance of us contending for medals. It doesn’t matter if we have the absolute best day we’ve ever had.
“That’s just the reality of it. It’s not defeatist, it’s not negative. It’s just being realistic.”
But it’s also realistic to believe that Trinidad, just by being in the competition, is furthering something of a revolution in the Winter Olympics in general, and in bobsledding in particular.
When Jamaica debuted in the event in 1988, it was so novel it inspired the 1993 Disney movie “Cool Runnings.” Now, it’s no longer unusual to see a team from a tropical climate competing in the Winter Games; there are 11 Caribbean and South American countries, plus Puerto Rico, competing in the Milan-Cortina Olympics.
When the bobsled competition in Cortina begins Sunday, Trinidad will have teams in the two- and four-man events for the first time, while Jamaica will compete in both those events as well as the monobob. Brazil will also be there.
And Brown says it’s only a matter of time — and money — before others join and start contending for medals.
“There’s a very deep talent pool in Caribbean bobsled, one that could make a world-class bobsled program without a doubt,” he said.
That’s because bobsled races are often won or lost at the start, where speed, explosive power and acceleration are vital in getting the 400-pound sled moving. Sprinters have all those traits.
“Even more specific, it’s usually big sprinters,” said Curtis Tomasevicz, a former football player at Nebraska who won Olympic gold and silver medals in the bobsled before becoming a coach with the U.S. team. “They’ve got just an athleticism that is very applicable to pushing sleds.”
Jamaica takes part in a training run at the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games on Friday.
(Al Bello / Getty Images)
And the best sprinters in the world come from the Caribbean — so many, in fact, that trying to make a national team for the Summer Olympics can seem like trying to win the lottery. The Winter Games offer another path.
“In Trinidad and Tobago, there’s a wealth of sprinting talent. So an athlete that in another nation may be the best in the country doesn’t necessarily get a look in Trinidad,” Brown said. “What we’ve been able to do is kind of give those athletes that were maybe on the fringe an option at achieving all of their sporting goals, just doing it in a different way.
“They’ve been training for bobsled their entire lives. They just didn’t know it.”
The transition can be difficult just the same. The first time Trinidad’s Micah Moore, a former sprinter, rode a sled, he said he thought he was going to die.
“I was scared out of my mind,” he said. “I was legitimately feeling, ‘I just want this to be over.’
“After that feeling came off, I was like, ‘Let’s go again.’ It’s an adrenaline rush. There’s no amount of words I could put to say how it felt in that moment.”
If Caribbean bobsledders are deep in talent, what they lack are world-class facilities and funding. In the former they’re hardly alone, said Tomasevicz.
“There are a lot of other nations that obviously don’t have a home track to practice on,” he said. “Even Great Britain, they don’t have a track in their country. So they have to spend time in other nations actually training for the sport.”
Trying to find the money is an even bigger problem — especially for Trinidad, which Brown said was the only team in Cortina that didn’t receive government funding.
“Bobsled is an expensive sport,” Trinidad’s Xaverri Williams said. “We’ve been trying to negotiate with our [national Olympic committee], our Ministry of Sport, reaching out to individuals who are willing to help us.”
Trinidad doesn’t even have a decent sled; it will be racing Sunday with an old secondhand one the team owes money on. Getting a new one that would be competitive with the best in the world could easily cost $250,000 or more.
“You need the funds to further develop the broader program, the recruitment, the [research and development] of the equipment. Everything that there is involved in bobsled,” said Brown, was born in England to a Trinidadian mother, which allows him to compete for the island in the Olympics. “And you need to be able to sustain that.”
You also need the belief that it’s possible to succeed in an icy winter sport even though you’re from a sun-washed country where the average annual temperature is 80 degrees. Jamaica provided that.
“We do in fact look up to them,” Williams said. “When those guys initially slided, it was an eye-opener for the rest of the world, that a Caribbean nation could actually compete. They inspired us.”
“I’m very proud of that,” said Chris Stokes, a four-time Olympian and member of the “Cool Runnings” team who is now president of the country’s bobsled federation.
The next step is to outgrow the novelty and become medal contenders, something Stokes says Jamaica can do by the 2034 Games in Salt Lake City. A top-12 finish in Cortina would keep them on pace to do that, he said.
As for Trinidad and Tobago, Brown said they faced so many challenges just getting to Italy that they considered it a victory when they checked into the Olympic village.
History is once again unfolding at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games as Team USA members break records and score dominant triumphs.
But as the Games move into their second week, a different and more provocative history is starting to repeat itself, casting a politically charged shadow over the event.
Champion skier Mikaela Shiffrin, snowboarder Chloe Kim, and freestyle skiers Hunter Hess and Chris Lillas are among the top athletes who have been vocal about their uneasiness in representing their home country during a period of deep political crisis revolving several volatile issues, including the violent federal crackdown in Minnesota by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and the Trump administration’s attacks nationwide on immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community.
“It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now,” Hess said at a press conference last week. “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”
Trump blasted Hess’ comments in a Truth Social post, calling him “a real Loser,” adding, “He says he doesn’t represent his Country … If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team, and it’s too bad he’s on it. Very hard to root for someone like this.”
Commenting on the athletes in an interview with CNN, Vice President JD Vance, who was attending the Games, said the athletes who are critical should expect “some pushback.”
Vance, who was booed when he was shown on a large screen during the opening ceremonies, added, “You’re there to play a sport, you’re there to represent the country and hopefully win a medal. Most Olympic athletes, whatever their politics, are doing a great job, certainly enjoy the support of the entire country, and I think recognize that the way to bring the country together is not to show up in a foreign country and attack the president of the United States, but it’s to play your sport and to represent the country well.”
Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Milan on Feb. 6. Vance said athletes should expect pushback if they criticize the country.
(Natacha Pisarenko/AP)
The outspokenness of the Winter Olympic athletes echoes a dramatic protest by Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos which electrified the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City. The sprinters, who placed first and third respectively in the 200 meter race, spoke not with words but with black-gloved raised fists on the victory stand, producing one of the most iconic images in Olympic history.
As the national anthem played following their victories, Smith and Carlos expressed their anger about racial injustice in America by bowing their heads and raising their fists. The gesture provoked a seismic reaction internationally while infuriating Olympic officials who claimed Smith and Carlos used the world stage to humiliate their home country.
Smith and Carlos’ salute to Black Power is explored in HBO Max’s documentary “Fists of Freedom: The Story of the ’68 Summer Games.” The 1999 Peabody Award-winning film chronicles the fiery moment and its aftermath for Smith and Carlos, who earned both heroic praise and pointed condemnation.
George Roy, who produced and directed “Fists of Freedom,” said “there are similarities between what happened in 1968 and what’s going on now. The similarities are it’s the Olympics and the United States, and in both cases there are athletes saying they wish they could be a little prouder given the current state of things.”
U.S. athletes Tommie Smith, center, and John Carlos, right, hold their fists up in protest after winning medals at the 1968 Summer Olympic games.
(AP)
However, Roy, who has won multiple Emmys and is the founder of Jersey Line Films, added that there are marked differences.
“What Smith and Carlos did was so consequential because it affected them directly,” he said. “They were protesting along with millions in their community. Their point was that they were good enough to represent their country. But when they got back to the real world, they would have trouble getting into restaurants or finding an apartment.”
He added, “It was just more personal than what is happening now.”
In an interview included in the documentary, Smith said the gesture by him and Carlos was often misinterpreted.
“As soon as the national anthem was playing, my glove is going toward God,” said Smith. “The Black fist in the air was only in recognition of those who had gone. It was a prayer of solidarity. It was a cry for help by my fellow brothers and sisters in the country who had been shot, who had been bitten by dogs … It was a cry for freedom.”
He added, “I don’t like the idea of people looking at it as negative. It was nothing but a raised fist in the air and a bowed head to the American flag. Not symbolizing a hatred for it.”
Though he heard cheers, he also heard boos and jeers.
“Fists of Freedom” contains several interviews from sports and media figures who were present or covered the proceedings and had strong opinions about the gesture.
Bob Paul, who was the press secretary for the United States Olympic Committee in 1968, said, “[Smith and Carlos] were wrong. You are supposed to observe due order and decorum to the nth degree at every victory ceremony.”
Veteran TV sportscaster Brent Musburger, who at the time was a columnist with the Chicago American newspaper, wrote: “Airing one’s dirty laundry before the entire world during a fun and games tournament was no more than a juvenile gesture. Smith and Carlos looked like a couple of Black-skinned storm troopers.”
Incensed, Olympic committee head Avery Brundage ordered the sprinters to be expelled from the Games.
Despite the uproar, experts said the salute by Smith and Carlos was a defining moment for Black people, galvanizing the Civil Rights Movement. However, the two men encountered personal and professional difficulties when they returned home.
Both Smith and Carlos have participated in speaking engagements in recent years. They could not be reached for comment.
“We’re not Antichrists,” said Smith in “Fists of Freedom.” “We’re just human beings who saw a need to be recognized.”
