Every four years the Winter Olympics roll around, and every four years I find myself obsessed with sports and athletes that I previously had no idea existed. Every day before classes I’ve had my laptop open to watch live updates and recordings of a plethora of winter sports and my entire social media feed has been filled with athletes in the Olympic village documenting their own experiences, making me feel like I’m there right alongside them.
My two week obsession with the Olympics, specifically Olympic figure skating, has put me on the front lines of all the entertaining moments to come out of Milano Cortina 2026, so here are some of my favorites.
Alysa Liu wins gold
I might be biased because she’s a current UCLA student, but for me the obvious highlight of the Winter Olympics was watching Alysa Liu skate across the ice with the biggest smile on her face. The 20 year old figure skater from the Bay Area became the first American woman to win individual gold in figure skating since 2002, ending a 24 year drought. Her inspiring story of retiring at 16 and deciding to come back two years later on her own terms while being unapologetically herself with her unique dyed hair and piercings has captured the hearts of everyone world wide. She’s being credited as helping change the culture of figure skating and I have to agree.
Liu stated several times that her mindset going into the Olympics was simply to put on a good performance and have fun, and her laid back, chill attitude certainly paid off.
One of my favorite moments to come out of the Woman’s Figure Skating final was upon hearing that she had won gold, Alysa ran over to the 17 year old bronze medalist Ami Nakari from Japan and immediately started celebrating with her, showing the true Olympic spirit in a touching display of girlhood.
Shocking Cheating admission
Upon winning an Olympic Gold Medal an admission of cheating (romantically, not in sports) probably wouldn’t be among the first few things I would admit to the world, but that’s what Norwegian biathlon medalist Sturla Holm Laegreid did upon winning bronze. On live television he tearfully announced that he had cheated on his girlfriend and told her a week ago making it the “worst week of his life” and that he hoped that by announcing to the world what he did, she would see what he truly meant to her.
The former girlfriend in question reached out to Norwegian media stating that cheating was hard to forgive and in a post-race interview, Laegreid stated that he had heard no reaction from her and was still hoping for a happy ending.
I’m not entirely sure if this is a romantic gesture or simply a sad way to ruin your life on national television, but it was certainly entertaining for all the viewers back at home. I would kill to be in the ex-girlfriend’s groupchats right now.
Sweden vs canada cheating drama
There was another Olympic cheating scandal this winter, but this one was more so focused on the sport and not an actual relationship.
Canadian curler Marc Kennedy was accused of double touching the stone, a curling violation, midway through their match by Swedish curler Oskar Eriksson. Canada fired back by accusing the Swedish team of illegally setting up cameras to film them, which they denied.
A heated exchange was caught in which Kennedy said “I haven’t done it once. You can f*ck off,” to which a Swedish player responded with “I’ll show you a video after.”
Kennedy got a verbal warning, but wasn’t charged with cheating.
From the videos I’ve seen, I fully believe that Canada did in fact cheat, especially due to the Women’s curling team getting similar accusations but the outpouring of memes and videos about Kennedy touching the stone was absolutely hilarious and certainly entertaining.
Unexpected Olympian
An unlikely participant crossed the finish line at the women’s cross country ski qualifier. The two year old Czech wolfdog named Nazgul wandered away from his nearby home and onto the course, finishing alongside Olympians and winning the hearts of audiences all over the world. Unfortunately he was not awarded a medal, but was shown plenty of love before being returned to his home and owner.
Insane Dual MOguls Finish
I love seeing jokes about how Winter Olympic sports are practically death defying compared to the Summer Olympics and this dual moguls run is a perfect example. For anyone who doesn’t know what dual moguls is, the free style skiing event consists of two athletes side by side going down a bumpy course with two jumps where they are scored on turns, air, and speed. Japan’s Ikuma Horishima’s insane run in the men’s quarterfinals with a shocking recovery from a fall after a flip and a backwards finish went viral online and honestly, just watching it makes my knees and back hurt. It’s incredible to watch what these athletes can accomplish and this is a perfect example of the skill and talent of Olympic athletes.
U.S Women’s Hockey makes history
I’m not a huge hockey fan, but nothing makes me more patriotic than the U.S Women’s Hockey team. On February 19th, they won the United States their third medal in Women’s Hockey in the Olympics and defeated Canada in a nail-biting match that was won by a goal from Megan Keller in overtime. The match contained several records for players such as Hilary Knight holding the record for most Olympic goals and points by a U.S player and Laila Edwards becoming the first Black woman to win an Olympic gold medal in ice hockey. Additionally throughout the winter games, goalie Aerin Frankel only allowed two goals in out of ninety-nine shots which is absolutely insane. If the video of the team celebrating after winning doesn’t make you smile I don’t know what will.