The Olympic Creed says that “the most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part.”

But guess what? We still love our winners! We love those athletes that taste ultimate victory, become Olympic champions, chisel their names into history on the biggest stage, and head home with a suitcase full of medals.

And there were some BIG winners at the Milan Cortina Games. Like, historically big. Some of the heaviest favorites delivered on massive expectations, while others came out of relative obscurity to make themselves into household names. Both the United States and host nation Italy witnesses record success, while Norway did Norway things. 

Here are 10 athletes that became legends at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics...

All hail King Klaebo! The Norwegian skiing machine laid claim to the title of greatest Winter Olympian of all-time at these Games, winning six gold medals, an unheard-of figure for the Winter Games. Only two swimmers, Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz, have brought home more gold from a single Olympics, summer or winter.

Klaebo’s dominance was only limited by the number of events available for him to compete in. He won every men’s cross-country skiing individual event — at distances ranging from 10km to 50km — and joined his Norwegian teammates atop the podium in two relays.

The success wasn’t just impressive on paper. It was also exhilarating to watch. Klaebo’s patented uphill sprint technique was one of the lasting images of the Milan Cortina Olympics.

We may never again see an athlete dominate a Winter Games the way Klaebo did. Add his six gold medals in Italy to the five he earned between the 2018 and 2022 Games, and there’s no doubt who reigns as the king of the Winter Olympics.

If Klaebo was physicality personified, Alysa Liu was joy personified in Milan. One third of the "Blade Angels," Liu radiated pure electricity as she skated to two gold medals, beaming with enjoyment throughout every program.

Liu not only became the first American since Sarah Hughes in 2002 to win women’s singles gold, but she also played a key role in Team USA cinching up team gold with her superb short program.

That a Swiss would star on the slopes of Bormio to the tune of three Alpine skiing golds was not entirely unexpected. That it was not Marco Odermatt, but rather teammate Franjo von Allmen, certainly was.

The 24-year-old won the first gold medal of the Milan Cortina Games in men’s downhill, then followed it up with gold alongside partner Tanguy Nef in team combined, then capped off a perfect three-for-three Olympics with super-G gold.

“I feel like I am dreaming. I hope I don’t wake up,” Von Allmen said after completing the golden hat trick. “It’s completely surreal.”

It’s difficult enough to win gold at the Olympics. To do so as the heavy favorite, in multiple events, without any prior experience of making the podium is about as tough as it gets.

But for speed skating phenom Jordan Stolz, it was nothing the 21-year-old Wisconsin native couldn’t handle.

Stolz aced his first race of the Games, the 1000m, winning gold in Olympic record time. He then replicated the feat in the 500m, and narrowly missed becoming the first American with three gold medals in a single Winter Games since 1980, claiming silver in the 1500m.

The speed skating distance events don’t just test the body’s physical limits, but also the mind’s ability to maintain focus and block out pain. Those things become quite a bit easier, one imagines, with a stadium full of host-nation fans cheering you on.

So maybe it isn’t entirely surprising that 35-year-old Francesca Lollobrigida would deliver a pair of career-defining skates in the 3000m and 5000m and leave her home Olympics as a double-gold medalist.

In the 3000m, she shattered Irene Schouten’s Olympic record by more than 2.5 seconds.

Known worldwide for their long track legends, the Dutch found themselves a short track hero in Italy. Jens van ‘t Wout took home a four-medal haul from Milan, including three gold medals in the 1000m, 1500m and 5000m relay, to go along with 500m bronze.

To say van ‘t Wout came out of nowhere these Games would be an overstatement for the five-time world medalist, but nobody saw a run like this coming … least of all Jens himself.

"I need to quit, because there's no way I'm getting a better Olympics than this. It's insane,” the Dutchman said.

The queen of freestyle skiing added to her legacy in Italy, adding halfpipe gold and silver in big air and slopestyle to her already stellar résumé.

With six career Olympic medals, the California native representing China became the most decorated freestyle skier in history.

After the Beijing 2022 Olympics, during which Great Britain failed to win a medal in skeleton for the first time following five straight Games, Matt Weston considered quitting the sport. Luckily, he thought better of it, paving the way for a career-defining double-gold performance in Cortina. 

Weston was flawless en route to men’s skeleton gold, setting track records with all four of his runs. He then teamed up with Tabitha Stoecker to win the first-ever skeleton mixed team event, producing the best run of the competition.

Nobody could have predicted the performance that Milan-native Federica Brignone would deliver in her home Olympics. At age 35, less than a year after a horrific crash which resulted in multiple leg fractures and an ACL tear, she produced some inspired skiing to claim gold in both giant slalom and super-G.

In doing so, she became the oldest female Alpine skiing Olympic medalist, the first woman ever to win gold in both events at the same Winter Games, and the most decorated female Italian skier of all-time.

Norway’s Jens Luraas Oftebro has a very particular set of skills. He can ski jump. He can cross-country ski. And he can do both of those things together better than anyone on the planet.

The Oslo native authored a perfect trio of gold medal performances in Nordic combined, winning the individual normal hill, individual large hill, and the team large hill with partner Andreas Skoglund.