The moments that defined the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics

The most geographically spread-out Olympics in history have concluded in Italy, leaving behind triumphs and controversies in Milan and Cortina.

MILAN — These Winter Olympics were the most spread-out in history, with four venues hosting speedskating, hockey and figure skating in the city’s outskirts while the rest of the Games’ 12 sports were scattered across difficult-to-reach mountain towns hours away.

But those who made the effort to get to the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics witnessed a Games remembered for a “King,” crashes, cheating scandals, drones, historic medal hauls and triumphs by the host nation.

Those dozen golds marked the most ever won by the U.S. at a single Winter Olympics. First-time gold medalists included bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, the 41-year-old who won the monobob by four-hundredths of a second; Jordan Stolz, who won gold medals in long-track speedskating’s 500 and 1000 meters, and Alex Ferreira, the 31-year-old winner of freeski halfpipe.

With a sweep of the hockey gold medals, the U.S. men won an Olympic tournament for the first time since 1980, and the women for the first time since 2018.

Trailing archrival Canada, 1-0, with two minutes left in regulation, captain Hilary Knight, playing her fifth and final Olympics, sent the gold-medal game to overtime. Veteran Megan Keller then scored the golden goal in a stirring comeback to earn the U.S. women their third-ever Olympic gold and first since 2018. The win capped a roller-coaster two days for Knight, who had proposed to speedskater Brittany Bowe one day earlier.