{"id":468422,"date":"2026-02-23T18:08:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T18:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/468422\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T18:08:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T18:08:21","slug":"olympics-updates-your-favorite-moments-plus-hockeys-day-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/468422\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympics updates: Your favorite moments. Plus: Hockey\u2019s day after"},"content":{"rendered":"

Games Briefing \ud83c\udfc5 | This is The Athletic\u2019s daily newsletter for the Milan Cortina Olympics. Sign up here<\/a> to receive the Games Briefing directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

MILAN \u2014 Well, we\u2019re finished up at the Olympics. The cauldrons are out, the airport lines are long and folks are still reflecting on what we witnessed, especially hockey fans in the United States and Canada after that banger of a game on Sunday.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s our last edition of Games Briefing. Thank you so much for rocking with us the past few weeks! For one final time of these Winter Games, let\u2019s dive into the news, and hear your favorite moments from Milan:<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfd2 Unpacking that final hockey gold<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfeb Future\u00a0for NCAA pipelines<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcf7\u00a020 cool images<\/a>\u00a0and 10\u00a0wild moments<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc4b Your Olympic reflections<\/p>\n

Additionally, we have a special look at every gold medalist from the 2026 Games<\/a>, with photos of each winner and a brief weave through what we saw.<\/p>\n

Day After: What it all means\"\"<\/p>\n

One of the things we love about the U.S.-Canada men\u2019s hockey final, like all great\u00a0where-were-you-when sports moments<\/a>, is that it offers so many open windows:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcf7 There are the visuals \u2014\u00a0the \u201cJack-o-lantern\u201d face of Jack Hughes<\/a>\u00a0with shattered teeth celebrating his winning goal, the celebratory\u00a0tribute to Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau<\/a>\u00a0with their family and a jersey on the ice.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udde0 There are the prompts for reflection \u2014\u00a0on Canada weathering this loss<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0learning from it<\/a>, on\u00a0Sidney Crosby\u2019s final Olympics<\/a>, on the U.S.\u00a0stamping a new era in international play<\/a>\u00a0after the long tail of the \u201cMiracle on Ice\u201d team from 1980.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcf0 There\u2019s the return to the United States, including some logistical questions about\u00a0a potential visit<\/a>\u00a0by the players to the State of the Union address and the White House by President Donald Trump, delivered with the help of Kash Patel, the FBI director, in the locker room after the game.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude2e\u200d\ud83d\udca8 And there\u2019s just the WOWZERS of it all. \u201cI was watching the ridiculous pace, and I was oooh-ing and ahh-ing on every opportunity, every pass, every puck going toward the net,\u201d\u00a0said Chris Pronger<\/a>, the two-time Olympic gold medalist who was watching from home. The U.S.-Canada rivalry needed this, he said.<\/p>\n

And of course, we heard a lot from you, too.\u00a0\u201cIt was two teams giving everything they had,\u201d\u00a0said JJ from Delaware. \u201cNo look at me antics, no hot dogging, no look how macho I am bull\u2014, just two teams trying their best to win for the country they love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sean K. called Olympic hockey the best hockey on the planet: \u201cSeeing the USA finally break through on the men\u2019s side to complete the sweep of Canada is something I will remember as much as watching the Miracle team of 1980.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around the Games<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd47 Steve Buckley was at the men\u2019s hockey gold medal game and\u00a0talked with American and Canadian fans<\/a>\u00a0about how they were getting on with one another.\u00a0He called it \u201cabsolutely, positively the\u00a0coolest\u00a0crowd ever to attend a hockey game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf92 These Games went reasonably well for the U.S. But given\u00a0the state of Olympic sports within the NCAA<\/a>,\u00a0are future results in a bit of a shaky spot?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\ud83d\uddbc\ufe0f We looked at so many photos to bring you\u00a020 cool images<\/a>\u00a0from around the Games.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd2a We also considered\u00a010 of the\u00a0<\/a>wildest<\/a>\u00a0moments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u26f0\ufe0f And\u00a0the best things our staff experienced<\/a>\u00a0in Italy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Gabriela Bhaskar \/ The New York Times<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf5d And for one last pasta pic, The New York Times looks at the dish of pizzoccheri, and how one chef hopes its prominence during the Games\u00a0can spotlight the valley it comes from<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reminder: All of The\u00a0Athletic\u2019s\u00a0Olympics coverage is\u00a0free to read\u00a0in our app<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Your Favorite Moments: Emotions FTW<\/p>\n

Thanks to those of you who submitted your big moments of these Olympics and why. If I had to pick one thing that stood out as a big theme, it seems like you were quite drawn to the resilience of these athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw the best in the world fail and walk away with their heads high,\u201d Laura Singer said. \u201cIt sends a message to people, especially young athletes, that it\u2019s OK to mess up, that one performance doesn\u2019t define you, even the best in the world mess up sometimes, but that doesn\u2019t take away from the joy of the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

So much insight from so many of you:<\/p>\n

Christy Brant from Denver talked about Elana Meyers Taylor, the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Games history, and her teammate, Kaillie Armbruster Humphries:\u00a0\u201cThe two U.S. women bobsledders competing in their late 30s, early 40s with small children! They embody the Olympic spirit with their dedication and grit.\u201d\u00a0Brittany Ghiroli agrees<\/a>.
\nRafael B., a high school junior from Seattle, talked about getting a friend to turn around her opinion of curling after she teased him about watching it at first. \u201cShe slowly gained interest throughout the week, especially after (the U.S. mixed team of Corey Thiesse and Korey Dropkin<\/a>) secured silver! Then, on Friday morning, I awoke to 20 texts from her, sent between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., all reactions to that morning\u2019s men\u2019s and women\u2019s round robin games. She even encouraged me to wake up and watch it too!\u00a0This moment, converting my friend from curling-ignorant to super fan, would not have been possible without the Olympics.\u201d
\nAnd of course, there was Alysa Liu\u2019s free skate, one of the most moving moments of the Games. Many of you wrote us about that. \u201cAs a woman in my 20s,\u00a0it was empowering to see the joy and confidence she brought to the rink,\u201d Emma S. from North Carolina said.
\n\u201cIt was cinematic and poetic, and another great chapter in the rivalry,\u201d Taylor D. from Illinois said of the U.S.-Canada women\u2019s hockey final.
\n\u201cMy 7-year-old daughter and I really enjoyed locating each country on our globe as each delegation entered during the opening ceremony,\u201d said Cody from Arkansas.
\n\u201cI brought my laptop to work and watched Peacock all day on mute and loved every minute,\u201d said Mary Ann Riordan from Weston, Mass., who said she enjoyed the big moments and also the smaller sports. \u201cIt\u2019s like asking who\u2019s the favorite child! The biggest moment was Lindsey Vonn\u2019s fall after her huge comeback. She worked so hard for so long and it ended in 13 seconds.\u00a0That\u2019s sports: skill and fate.\u201d
\nJulia from New York called out the sportsmanship: \u201cIt was uplifting to see them work through disappointment and elation and not forget that there were so many others trying to achieve what they did (or didn\u2019t) and that\u00a0in the end it was the guts to try that mattered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks for sharing some of your memories with us. We\u2019ve been collecting ours, too, throughout our time in Italy.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcf8 On the Scene\"\"<\/p>\n

\n John Walton \/ PA Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

At London Gatwick Airport, Team GB athletes got a great homecoming from their loved ones. That includes\u00a0Zoe Atkin, the freestyle skier<\/a>\u00a0who won bronze in the freeski halfpipe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Olympics can be a lot, big emotions, a lot of things going on, so to step back and focus on my skiing and make sure I\u2019m locked in before I came here was a good centering,\u201d she said during that competition.<\/p>\n

Now, she and the rest of the athletes can focus on decompressing and taking in the love sent to them from home.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a wrap! Again,\u00a0thank you so much for following our coverage the past month,\u00a0and for your emails of encouragement, questions and suggestions.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re deeply proud of our team of more than 20 journalists in Italy, most of whom cover lots of other sports year-round, and the dozens more around the newsroom who brought our coverage to life every day. Ultimately, what makes us happiest is striving to deliver journalism that you want to read and watch and hear, that makes you feel smarter and more connected to the sports you love. We hope our report measured up for you on that front.<\/p>\n

As always, you can reach us at\u00a0ogarcia@theathletic.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0zpierce@theathletic.com<\/a>, and\u00a0we hope you\u2019ll follow\u00a0our other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In all sincerity,\u00a0grazie e arrivederci!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Games Briefing \ud83c\udfc5 | This is The Athletic\u2019s daily newsletter for the Milan Cortina Olympics. Sign up here…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[5,2602],"class_list":{"0":"post-468422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-olympics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116121285804996924","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}