As the 2026 Winter Olympic Games come to a close, champions have been crowned and national pride among the competing countries has surged. From the US Men’s Hockey Team gold medal game to Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov’s winning performance in figure skating, this winter Olympics was full of success.
Around 2,900 athletes representing 93 different countries competed in the Games. There were eight new events introduced, including skeleton mixed team and ski mountaineering mixed relay among others.
Taking home 18 gold medals, 12 silver medals, and 11 bronze medals, Norway had the highest gold medal and total medal count. Norway had a lead of six over the Americans in gold medal count, and close behind the US the Netherlands and Italy tied for a total of ten gold medals. Norway’s 41 medals set a new Winter Olympic record being the first country to break the 40 medal barrier.
With a 96% increase in viewership from the 2022 Beijing Games, an average of 23.5 million American viewers tuned in daily to watch the world’s greatest compete in Milan. 1.3 million in-person tickets were sold, and total digital streaming reached over 11 billion minutes in America alone.
