What an unbelievable two weeks. 

The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics were full of emotional, dramatic and jaw-dropping moments. From historic performances to breakout athletes, we have been privileged to witness the best of the best at this year's Games.

Here are some of the top plays and most impactful performances from Italy. 

If you did not already know his name, you definitely know it now. Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo cemented himself as the greatest Winter Olympian of all time at the 2026 Winter Olympics, winning SIX golds and dominating every cross-country skiing event he competed in. 

Klaebo won gold in 3 of 4 events at the 2018 Games — when he was just 21 — and four medals four years ago in Beijing. This year, he went six-for-six, winning the 10km individual, skiathlon, 50km mass start, sprint, 4x7.5km relay and team sprint. His ability to turn on the jets in the uphill sections of each race was unparalleled.

With 13 Olympic medals and 11 golds, Klaebo is already the G.O.A.T of the Winter Olympics, and he is only 29. Expect Klaebo's reign to continue in 2030. 

All hail King Klaebo!

How can one best describe mixed doubles curling? Pure cinema.

Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin's run to the gold medal game captured the country's heart. From Dropkin's triple takeout in a playoff-clinching win to Thiesse's shot that sent them to the gold medal match, we were constantly entertained. Thiesse, who then went on another Cinderella run to the semifinals of the women's tournament, became the first American woman to earn a medal in curling. She also broke the record for most ends played by a single curler in Olympic history.

The roar of the crowd as Thiesse and Dropkin took down Italians Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner, the 2022 Beijing gold medalists, was the equivalent of 100 eagles screaming in harmony.

If you watched speed skating this year, there is a good chance you saw Jordan Stolz take home a medal. The speed skating phenom won gold in the 500m and 1000m, but was unable to claim the top time in the race he has dominated since bursting onto the scene: the men's 1500m.

Ning Zhongyan of China smashed the 1500m Olympic record en route to gold, shaving nearly one and a half seconds off the time set by the Netherlands' Kjeld Nuis in 2022. Making his second Olympic appearance, Ning also picked up bronze medals in the 1000m and team pursuit events.

"It really came down to belief. Before the race, I kept reminding myself that I had to trust myself, especially on a stage like this," Ning said. "If you do not believe, you have already lost."

Ning's race was one of the single-best athletic performances of this year's Games.

One of the most decorated Alpine skiers of all time, Mikaela Shiffrin is back where she belongs — atop an Olympic podium. 

Her blazing pair of runs in the women's slalom earned Shiffrin her third career gold medal, and her first in eight years. She won her first medal at the 2014 Games when she was just 18, before winning gold and silver medals in 2018.

However, after being shut out in 2022 and missing the podium in her first two events in Cortina, there was doubt that Shiffrin would return to the mountaintop. But in her last chance, she not only reclaimed gold, she also rewrote the history books.

Here are a few stunning stats from Shiffrin's win:

1. Shiffrin won the slalom by 1.50 seconds, the largest margin of victory in any Olympic Alpine skiing event since 1998.
2. If you add the margins of the winners at the 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022 women's slalom, you get 1.51 seconds.
3. Shiffrin is now the first U.S. skier to win three Olympic gold medals.
4. When she won in 2014, Shiffrin became the youngest U.S. woman to win the slalom gold at 18 years old. Now, she is also the oldest U.S. woman to win slalom gold.
5. The 12-year span between Shiffrin's two gold medals is the largest gap in Winter Olympic history between individual gold medals in the same event. Four other Olympians have won gold in the same event 12 years apart, but they all came in team events.

Some countries just have a secret sauce. Norway owns cross-country skiing and biathlon, clinching 25 total medals across all events in 2026, and the Netherlands picked up all 20 of its medals in speed skating and short track. 

But it was Japan that left us all captivated as the country reached a new level of dominance in Olympic snowboarding. Japan made all six podiums and collected nine of the 18 total medals in snowboard park and pipe events (halfpipe, slopestyle, big air) at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games — by far its best-ever performance in the sport. The country also won four of the six golds in those events.

Perhaps the highlight of this success: Yuto Totsuka. The 24-year-old has had an unusual career trajectory. At just 16, Totsuka made his Olympic debut but fell during the final, hitting the edge of the halfpipe. He injured his hip and had to be evacuated by medics. He earned silver at the 2019 World Championships and X Games before scoring gold at both events in 2021. He was unable to carry this momentum into the 2022 Beijing Olympics, where he finished 10th.

None of this mattered. After Totsuka earned a 95.00 on his second run of the men's halfpipe final, he was undeniable. The gold medalist had even Shaun White in disbelief: "What are you feeding this guy?"

Big air winners Kira Kimura and Kokomo Murase — both 21 — as well as 19-year-old slopestyle champ Mari Fukada, also brought home glory to Japan, putting the world on notice for the French Alps in 2030.

Going into the free skate, Alysa Liu sat 3rd behind Japanese skaters Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai. There was much hype around the U.S. trio of Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau LeVito, but it looked like America's women's figure skating gold medal drought would continue.

Then, Liu took the ice. The former prodigy, who captured her first U.S. title at just 13, retired after the 2022 Beijing Olympics, but it is clear she was meant to skate on Olympic ice. Liu has been labeled figure skating's "unbothered queen," and her joy on the ice has taken the world by storm. Watch her beautiful gold medal performance.

Livigno snow crashing down like a snow globe as Tormod Frostad and Mac Forehand fly through the air? It does not get much better than that.

The Norwegian and American freeskiers went blow-for-blow in the big air final, nailing one wicked trick after another. Frostad edged out Forehand by 2.25 points, but both of them put up scores over 95 on all three of their runs.

So many performances from both the men's and women's tournaments deserve mention. From Hilary Knight's record-breaking goal and Megan Keller's medal-winning score, to the Hughes brothers' golden goals in the quarterfinals and gold medal match, there are too many performances worth mentioning. 

However, the men's win against Canada does not happen without unbelievable heroics from goalie Connor Hellebuyck. He helped the U.S. get out of a 5-on-3 penalty kill in the second period, before having two impossible saves in the third period. Jack Hughes said in an interview following his game-winning goal that Hellebuyck was their best player, and he wasn't exaggerating.

In the speed skating mass start final, Jorrit Bergsma took an early lead and never looked back. The Dutchman raced ahead of the pack in the first three laps, and despite the length of the race, no one was able to catch up to him. At 40, Bergsma is now the oldest Olympic speed skating gold medalist.