AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
After a riveting 62 minutes of play including overtime, the U.S. took the gold medal today in men's ice hockey, the first time since 1980. It was a fitting end to an Olympics that saw the U.S. beat its previous record of 10 gold medals in a Winter Games, but also suffered some big disappoointments. NPR's Becky Sullivan in Milan and Rachel Treisman in Verona have been covering the Games from start to finish, and they join us now. Hello to you both.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Hey.
RACHEL TREISMAN, BYLINE: Hello.
RASCOE: Becky, let's start with the women's alpine racing events. Those really reflected, like, both the high highs for Team USA and also the big disappointments that we kind of saw all through these games for the U.S.
SULLIVAN: Yeah. I think both of those things that you - the sort of, like, opposite ends of the spectrum came true, even just for me on the very first day of the alpine racing that I saw first. You had Breezy Johnson go down the hill. She was incredible. She ended up winning the gold medal. It was the first gold medal for Team USA.
And then just a few minutes later, we had Lindsey Vonn, you know, all season long had been making this incredible epic comeback from retirement, and then just over a week before the game, she tore her ACL, decided to race anyway. It was looking like she was going to be able to, and then she ended up crashing really badly 12 seconds into her run, had to be airlifted off the course.
And actually, what was so inspiring about it was just how positive and determined she was through the whole thing, how grateful she was feeling for even having been able to reach the starting gate at all. So she's home in the U.S. now getting treatment and on the road to making a recovery.
RASCOE: The other big alpine star was Mikaela Shiffrin, and she had her moment of redemption.
SULLIVAN: I mean, Mikaela Shiffrin - she's the winningest skier ever, but she had a really rough Olympic Games back in 2022. That was when she had entered all of the individual alpine events and was expected to come away with multiple medals, but she ended up just, like, messing up in her key events. Later, it turned out she said that she thinks that was grief over the sudden passing of her dad. Fast forward to now, she won the slalom gold, back on top, a redemptive moment for her - and afterwards, said one of the most extraordinary things of the Games, I thought. Let's take a listen.
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MIKAELA SHIFFRIN: Everything in life that you do after you lose someone you love is like a new experience. It's like being born again. And instead of thinking, I would be going in this moment without him, to take the moment to be silent with him.
RASCOE: Rachel, you watched a lot of figure skating, and that was so much drama for Team USA there.
TREISMAN: We'll start off with the triumphs. Team USA started off really strong by defending its gold medal in the team event and finished strong when Alysa Liu became the first U.S. woman to win an individual gold in two decades. But there was a lot of turbulence in the middle, right? Ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates just narrowly missed a gold medal, and, of course, Ilia Malinin had a pretty messy free skate and missed the podium altogether.
RASCOE: The American women's hockey team, though - there were no big emotional swings there, right, Becky? More like just complete dominance all the way through to win the gold medal.
SULLIVAN: Yeah. And, well, they completely dominated every game right up until the gold-medal match, and then actually it was Canada who struck first. It was the first time that the Americans had trailed all tournament long. I think it was kind of a scary moment. And then the heroes came through for them. That was the team captain, Hilary Knight. It was the 22-year-old star Laila Edwards. So they scored the equalizer right near the end of regulation, and then it went to this overtime super epic goal by Megan Keller. It was just such a fun ride.
RASCOE: And let's quickly talk about one more sport on ice, speedskating. Rachel, how did the Americans do?
TREISMAN: Lots of ups and downs here too. So in long track, Jordan Stolz was aiming to become the first U.S. man in decades to win four gold medals at one Olympics. He came close. He's leaving with two golds and a silver. He missed the podium in his final event. But in short track, Corinne Stoddard won bronze, and she's the first U.S. woman to medal in that since 2010. A couple more big names from Team USA, Erin Jackson was unable to defend her gold medal in the 500 meters. She finished fifth. And Brittany Bowe finished fourth in three different races, which she has called heartbreaking. But there's a silver lining. Bowe is leaving these Olympics with a fiance after U.S. women's hockey captain, Hilary Knight, who Becky just talked about, proposed. And that was one of at least four athlete engagements that we saw at these Olympics.
RASCOE: Oh, wow. Love is in the air. The USA men's cross-country team also had a historic Games. How long has it been since they've been as successful as they were this year?
SULLIVAN: Well, easy answer for you, Ayesha - never. This is the best the U.S. men's cross-country team has ever performed at an Olympics. Their last medal just of any kind in any event was a silver, and that was 50 years ago - five, zero. So the fact that Vermonter Ben Ogden got to match that with a silver medal in the individual sprint event - and then a few days later in the team sprint, Ogden partnered up with Gus Schumacher of Alaska. They won another silver. And so the team is over the moon with that kind of success.
And then on the women's side, you had the star Jessie Diggins. She's the most successful American cross-country skier of all time. She came in with big hopes, ended up getting injured. So that kind of dented what she was able to do, but she was still able to medal in her third and final Olympic Games. She took bronze in the 10K, says she's going to retire in the spring after a long career with lots of World Cup wins and now, in total, four Olympic medals.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Becky Sullivan in Milan and Rachel Treisman in Verona. Thank you to you both.
TREISMAN: Thank you.
SULLIVAN: Of course. You're welcome.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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