Europeans Dominate at the Winter Olympics

A 2-1 overtime win for Team USA in the men’s hockey gold-medal game on Sunday marked the end of more than two weeks of intense competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano and Cortina. It was the first U.S. gold medal in men’s hockey since the “Miracle on Ice” in Lake Placid 1980, when the U.S. had beaten a Soviet team that was considered all but unbeatable at the time. The U.S. win in the last medal event just hours before the closing ceremony brought the country’s gold medal tally to 12, enough to claim second place in the official medal table.

The top spot was once again reserved for Norway, which claimed 18 gold medals in Italy, beating its own record of 16 gold medals set at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. A record six of Norway’s 18 gold medals went to cross-country skier Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, who completed a historic sweep of all cross-country events, taking his personal gold medal tally to 11. That makes Klæbo the most decorated athlete in the history of the Winter Olympics, trailing only U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps in that respect. Phelps won an otherworldly 23 gold medals between 2004 and 2016, including 8 at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing – yet another record.

Aside from the U.S. in second place, the 2026 Games were dominated by Europeans, with the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France, Sweden and Switzerland all making the top 8. Japan was the second most successful non-European nation in 10th place, followed by Canada, China, South Korea and Australia ranked 11th to 14th. Another thing that’s striking is the apparent home advantage of host nations. South Korea, China and Italy each made the top 8 when hosting the Games, but failed to replicate the same level of success abroad.