Every four years, the Winter Olympics causes millions of people to spend a couple of weeks paying attention to speed skating, luge, ski jumping, the giant slalom, and other sports they normally wouldn't care about. The 2026 Winter Games, held in various venues across northern Italy, has come and gone, and I have some thoughts:
All Hail Norway: More people live in the Houston metropolitan region than live in the entire nation of Norway, but that didn't stop the Folks from the Fjords from dominating these Olympics. They won the most golds (18) and the most medals overall (41) in the Milano Cortina Games. This is the third Winter Olympics in a row where Norway has ended up at the top of the medal chart.
Norway's medal haul also makes them the most efficient country in terms of medals per capita, with the Norwegians winning a medal for every 140,000 people. (The United States, by comparison, won one medal per every 10 million people.)
How good is Norway? The IOC is thinking about eliminating some events because Norwegian domination of them has rendered them uncompetitive.
The United States Did Alright: Team USA came in second to Norway, both in gold medals (12) and number of medals overall (33). The 12 gold medals surpassed the United States' previous record of 10 set at the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, and the 33 overall medals they snagged was the most since their 37-medal haul in Vancouver in 2010.
Highlights include team USA's Mens Hockey team, which snagged its first gold since the 1980 Miracle on Ice. The Womens Hockey team won gold as well. Alisa Liu brought home the first gold in womens figure skating since Sarah Hughes did it back in Salt Lake City in 2002. American speedskater Jordan Stolz set two Olympic records and claimed two gold medals in his performance at these games. I could go on, but suffice to say the United States represented well.
Host nation Italy, Germany and Japan round out the top five overall medal winners. For those who might be interested, Germany had the most "Aluminum Medals," i.e. fourth-place finishes. Norway was second in this category, suggesting that they were very close to dominating even more than they actually did.
Quad God Chokejob: One American athlete who did not do well was figure skater Ilia Malinin. I am a Houston sports fan, so I know what a good chokejob looks like. And I gotta say, because I watched it live: the "Quad God's" epic meltdown was indeed spectacular.
Much has since been written about the psychological aspects of Malinin's choke. And yes, the pressure got to him. But here's the thing: Malinin embraced the "Quad God" nickname (referring to his ability to perform quadruple-turn jumps on the ice). He even has an apparel line with that nickname.
If you're going to talk the talk, you need to walk the walk (or, in this case, skate the skate). Especially on the world's biggest stage. Malinin couldn't do it when it counted the most.
I hope the "Quad God" returns in 2030, because he truly is an amazing talent on the ice. But I also hope he brings a dose of humility with him next time.
South America's First: Before these Games, no South American nation had ever won a medal in the Winter Olympics. I've always found that fact curious, because countries like Argentina and Chile experience real winters and have legitimate winter sports facilities where those country's athletes can train.
South America's Winter Olympic drought was finally broken in these games, not by anybody from Chile or Argentina but by Lucas Pinheiro Braathen of Brazil, who took gold in the giant slalom.
As his last name might suggest, his father is Norwegian. Which likely explains his win.
In addition to Brazil, Georgia (the nation, not the state) also won their first-ever Winter Olympic medal.
NBC Olympic Coverage Update. Anybody who's read this blog for awhile (or who even read my Daily Cougar article from three decades ago) knows how I like to complain about NBC's Olympics coverage. In that regard, I really have nothing new to say. The live daytime programming was actually okay, if you were able to watch it. The prime-time coverage was its usual dreck, with heavy editing (they didn't even show the first performance of eventual mens figure skating gold medalist Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan) and the goofy human-interest stories (they seriously focus-grouped these things and got good feedback?) that interrupted the events they were trying to show. The attention the broadcast paid to Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart was just... weird.
All that said, I think we've reached a point of equilibrium when it comes to NBC's Olympics coverage: as long has you keep your expectations low and know how to navigate their offerings (via NBC, broadcast partners like USA Network, or streaming platforms like Peacock), you can probably make the overall coverage work for you. They'll still show their heavily-edited slop during prime time because old habits die hard, but the audience for that particular product continues to shrink and in the era of social media they know they can no longer present it as "live."
And I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again: replacing Bob fucking Costas with Mike Tirico was the best thing NBC ever did in regards to their Olympics coverage.
