Amanda Ross

Editor-in-Chief

The Olympic games have to come to a close, giving way to a games full of stunning upsets, surprising losses, and well-deserved wins. 

Ice Hockey remained one of the United States’ strongest sports. The Men’s team took home a gold medal against their longtime rival Canada, with an impressive overtime buzzer beater scored by Jack Hughes. This win came on the 46-year anniversary of the US’ win over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Olympics. The Women’s team similarly took home the gold against Canada, also beating their women’s team in overtime. Tessa Janecke, a senior at University Park, was part of that winning team. Three other students, Nicole Hall, Jessica Adolfsson, and Matilde Fantin, also competed for other countries in women’s ice hockey. 

In Speed Skating, Jordan Stolz took home two gold medals in both the 500m and 1000m events. He was on track to win gold in the 1500m, but Chinese athlete Ning Zhogyan pulled ahead with a lead of around three-quarters of a second, leaving Stolz with a silver. 

The real excitement of the games however was Figure Skating. In women’s competition, Alysa Liu won two gold medals, with a near perfect second skate in women’s singles rocketing her to the top of the leaderboard. Her performance in the team event also helped to bring home the gold for the United States. For Ilia Malinin however, the games proved more challenging. Falling twice during his program, the gold medal contender ended up finishing eighth in the men’s singles. Despite this disappointment Malinin still managed to stay positive, giving an inspired Gala performance in which he skated in jeans and did a backflip. 

In the end, the United States came out of the games with 12 gold medals and 33 total medals. This put them second in terms of both measures. Such a showing sets the team on solid ground for the Los Angeles 2028 Summer games.