These are Utah Olympians’ most unforgettable moments of the Milan-Cortina Winter Games

They spun. They flipped. They skidded and slid. Mostly though, Utah’s Olympic athletes impressed.

More than a third of Team USA’s 232 athletes in the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Games come from, live in or have close ties to Utah. And when they return from Italy after Sunday’s Closing Ceremony, they’ll be greatly increasing the state’s mineral resources. Together, they collected four bronze, six silver and four gold medals at these Games.

With so many athletes spread across such a wide array of sports and venues, it would take an Olympic effort to keep track of them all. So, we’ve compiled a list of Utah athletes’ top achievements and most memorable moments over the past two weeks — both on and off the snow and ice.

The replays just might be enough to get you through until March 6, when the Paralympics begin and another slew of Utah athletes go for gold.

It’s all downhill from here

A lot of eyes were on the women’s downhill, the first women’s alpine event of the Olympic Games. Not a lot of them were on Breezy Johnson, though.

The Park City resident, a graduate of Rowland Hall’s Rowmark Academy, showed why they should have been. One of the first skiers on course, she flew over it — actually gaining time with her jumps — before ultimately claiming the gold by four-hundredths of a second. Teammate Jackie Wiles, a Utah Valley University student, took fourth but made up for it with a bronze in the team combined.

Most of the pre-race attention had been focused on their teammate Lindsey Vonn, a Park City resident, who was racing a little over a week after tearing a ligament in her left knee. It wasn’t the knee that gave Vonn troubles, but an early gate that she hooked with her arm. Flung by her momentum across the slope, she broke her leg and had to be lifted by helicopter off the course.

As for Johnson and Wiles, they broke something, too — their medals. Italy Games organizers acknowledged some of the medals had defects and offered to repair or replace those that broke.

Going home with gold

Brittany Bowe had what could be considered a soul-crushing final Olympics. The long-track speed skater — who has two bronze medals over the course of four Olympics and holds the world record in the 1,000 meters — finished fourth in all three of her races.

“Finishing fourth place three times this Olympics,” Bowe, who is retiring, told reporters after her final race, “is heartbreaking.”

Yet Bowe didn’t leave Italy without some gold of her own.

Her girlfriend, Team USA women’s hockey captain Hilary Knight, proposed to Bowe on Wednesday (she said yes). It was the night before Knight’s gold medal game against Canada and two days before Bowe’s final Olympic skate. The two met when they started taking walks together four years ago at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.

“Call me crazy,” Knight said after Team USA won gold, “but doing it before a gold medal game, it just seemed fitting for us.”

Their proposal wasn’t the only love connection at these Olympics for Utah athletes.

Johnson’s longtime boyfriend proposed to her after her super G run. Printed on the ring box were lyrics from Taylor Swift’s song “Alchemy.” In addition, Herriman bobsledder Kaysha Love was responsible for talking her fiance, Hunter Powell, into trying her sport before they both ended up competing at the Olympics. Utah freeskiing couple Rell Harwood and Konnor Ralph also reached Italy’s Winter Games together, as did two other speed skaters: Cooper McLeod and Greta Myers.

Sliding into history

Ashley Farquharson knows about cutting it close. She grew up in her parents’ Park City sandwich shop, the Clockwork Cafe, where onions and tomatoes are sliced thin.

On the luge track in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Farquharson — who discovered luge while in an after-school program at Ecker Hill Middle School — gave that another meaning. She was sitting in fifth place entering the final two runs. Then, she turned in the third and fourth fastest times in her final two runs and held on. Mistakes plagued her competition and she finished with a bronze medal around her neck.

In doing so, Farquharson became just the second American woman to win an Olympic medal in luge. Erin Hamlin also took bronze in 2014.

“For a couple seconds when I was coming up the outrun,” Farquharson said, “I was like, ‘that’s not real.’”

Making a statement

So much for being a “loser.”

When several Team USA athletes were asked about the tumult in their home country during pre-event news conferences, it had been less than three weeks since Alex Pretti and Renée Good were killed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in Minnesota. Was the media in the right for asking these young adults about the political situation? Could the athletes be forgiven then for answering, as Hunter Hess did, that they had “mixed emotions” about representing the United States in these Games?

Apparently not, according to Gov. Spencer Cox and President Donald Trump. Cox called out the media for asking such a question to U.S. residents old enough to have voted in two presidential elections. Trump , meanwhile, dubbed Hess — a Salt Lake Community College student — a “real loser” and “hard to root for” in a post on Truth Social.

Both Hess and Chris Lillis, a Utah-based aerials skier who was called out by Utah’s U.S. Sen. Mike Lee for his response, had to simmer in that stew for almost 10 days before they competed.

“It was probably the hardest two weeks of my life,” Hess said.

Both 27-year-olds proved their mettle, though.

Hess embraced the moniker bestowed on him by Trump. He changed his Instagram bio to say “A real loser.” Then, made an “L” on his forehead after qualifying fifth into the halfpipe ski finals — despite a hard crash in practice in which The New York Times reported he suffered a hematoma on his hip and may have broken his hand. Hess placed seventh overall.

Lillis, meanwhile, seemed impervious to the outside pressure — just as he was standing alone at the top of the aerials hill with the USA’s hopes of repeating as gold medalists in the team competition depending solely on his jump. He nailed his jump for his second straight team gold. He also nailed his response to the criticism on Instagram:

“Love, dignity and respect to everyone even those who disagree with us❤️,” he posted. “I love my country and am proud to represent the US.”

Run it back, DJ

One of the best things about the Olympics is how they make the impossible possible. Not just seem possible, but actually turn it into reality. Here are some of the moments involving Utah athletes that you’ll want to replay again and again, just to believe what’s on your screen.

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