The Olympics have now come to an end, and honestly this has probably been one of the most interesting games in recent years. From some of the best Hockey games we’ve seen at the Olympics in a while, to some athletes who took the internet by storm, let’s take a look back at this year’s games

First, you’re probably guessing who won the games, as I didn’t even know what country came out on top until writing this article. Its pretty hard to declare a true winner for the Olympics as often times people look at what Nation has the most Gold medals, while others look at total medal count, however this year worked out pretty nice as the winner ended with the most Gold medals as well as the most total medals. It gets a little confusing when you go further down the standings as Japan who is listed here at 5th in total medal count only took home 5 Gold medals. So let’s take a look at the final medal counts per country.

1. Norway: 41 Total (18 Gold, 12 Silver, 11 Bronze)
2. United States: 33 Total (12 Gold, 12 Silver, 9 Bronze)
3. Italy: 30 Total (10 Gold, 6 Silver, 14 Bronze)
4. Germany: 26 Total (8 Gold, 10 Silver, 8 Bronze)
5. Japan: 24 Total (5 Gold, 7 Silver, 12 Bronze)
6. France: 23 Total (8 Gold, 9 Silver, 6 Bronze)
7. Switzerland: 23 Total (6 Gold, 9 Silver, 8 Bronze)
8. Canada: 21 Total (5 Gold, 7 Silver, 9 Bronze)
9. Netherlands: 20 Total (10 Gold, 7 Silver, 3 Bronze)
10. Sweden: 18 Total (8 Gold, 6 Silver, 4 Bronze)
11. Austria: 18 Total (5 Gold, 8 Silver, 5 Bronze)
12. China: 15 Total (5 Gold, 4 Silver, 6 Bronze)
13. South Korea: 10 Total (3 Gold, 4 Silver, 3 Bronze)
14. Australia: 6 Total (3 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze)
15. Finland: 6 Total (0 Gold, 1 Silver, 5 Bronze)
16. Great Britain: 5 Total (3 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze)
17. Czech Republic: 5 Total (2 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze)
18. Slovenia: 4 Total (2 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze)
19. Poland: 4 Total (0 Gold, 3 Silver, 1 Bronze)
20. Spain: 3 Total (1 Gold, 0 Silver, 2 Bronze)
21. New Zealand: 3 Total (0 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze)
22. Latvia: 2 Total (0 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze)
23. Bulgaria: 2 Total (0 Gold, 0 Silver, 2 Bronze)
24. Brazil: 1 Total (1 Gold, 0 Silver, 0 Bronze)
25. Kazakhstan: 1 Total (1 Gold, 0 Silver, 0 Bronze)
26. Denmark: 1 Total (0 Gold, 1 Silver, 0 Bronze)
27. Estonia: 1 Total (0 Gold, 1 Silver, 0 Bronze)
28. Georgia: 1 Total (0 Gold, 1 Silver, 0 Bronze)
29. Belgium: 1 Total (0 Gold, 0 Silver, 1 Bronze)

In total 29 countries out of the 93 that competed took home a medal. Norway clearly dominated all of the competition taking home not only the most medals in total, but also the most Gold and tied for the most Silvers(with the USA). The USA performed incredibly well at this year’s games finishing second in total medal count as well as taking home the second highest number of gold medals and being tied with Norway for the most Silvers. Some nations that surprised me was Australia taking home 3 Gold medals as I wasn’t aware of the snow situation in Aussie Land until I did some further research and saw a picture of a kangaroo on a ski slope, so yeah they have snow. Also I was surprised at the absence of Canada in the top 5, as when a lot of people think of Canada the first couple things they think about are Cold and Snow, and while an 8th place finish in total medal count isn’t bad, I expected a bit more from the Canadians.

One of the biggest storylines at this year’s Olympic games, especially here in the US and Canada was the outcomes of what was once called Canada’s sport, Hockey. This year at the Olympics NHL players were back and so therefore the competition in the Hockey games was increased to an incredible level, while the US Women’s Hockey team has been dominating for a while, the US men’s team recently hasn’t really been able to get over the hump and beat Canada in a game that actually matters for something. Coming into the game there was some interesting comments that had been made by both sides of the puck, including Canadian ex-prime minister Justin Trudeau who last year posted

so clearly this game had some attention on it if Trudeau had said this previously. Also the US had aired a commercial for the Olympics in which the USA stated that they wanted to collect “Canadian Tears” which they definitely did with some of the whining that occurred after the game. With all this hype surrounding the Gold Medal Game it was sure to be one of the most memorable Hockey games in recent memory, and it sure didn’t live down to the hype as a game that had Canada expected almost 6 goals and the US expected about 2 saw the game go to OT tied up 1-1 showing an incredible game from US Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. OT in the Olympics is similar to that of OT in the NHL regular season where it is 3v3 Golden Goal(so first team to score wins) and 3v3 has definitely had some backlash including from myself, however this benefited the US as Jack Hughes made an incredible play to get the puck out of the US zone and start a 3 on 1 which Hughes himself later finished off by putting the puck in the back of the net and giving the US their first Gold Medal in Hockey in 46 years. Also the US Women’s Hockey team also beat Canada in OT so it was so close yet so far for team Canada this year when it came to Hockey

While the US VS Canada game got a lot of attention, a lot of other American teams and athletes won Gold this year, and a lot of them didn’t get a ton of attention, so here’s a list of some of the US athletes who took home medals.

Alysa Liu – Gold Medal in figure skating
US Men’s Hockey – Gold Medal in Hockey
US Women’s Hockey – Gold Medal in Hockey
Jordan Stolz – Gold in 1,000 and 500 Meter
Mikaela Shiffrin – Gold Medal in Slalom
Breezy Johnson – Gold Medal in Downhill
Elana Meyers Taylor – Gold Medal in Monobob
Kaila Kuhn, Connor Curran, and Chris Lillis – Gold in Mixed Team Freeski Aerials
Alex Ferreira – Gold Medal in Freeski Halfpipe
Elizabeth Lemley – Gold Medal in Moguls

Overall 2026 was a great year for the Olympics, some of the storylines and matchups were incredible and this set the bar for the 2028 Summer Olympics in LA.