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The United States fielded its biggest Winter Olympics team ever for the 2026 Milano Cortina Games, with 232 athletes going for the gold — and broke a record for Team USA’s most gold medals at a single Winter Games. 

But Norway remained on top in both the total medal count and the gold medal tally, and also holds the all-time record for winter medals.

Here is a look at the medal count for the 2026 Winter Olympics, which were co-hosted by the cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in northern Italy and wrapped up on Sunday, Feb. 22.

Overall medal count for the 2026 Winter Olympics

Norway ended the Games with a record 41 medals, including 18 gold — the most gold medals won in any single Winter Olympics. 

Team USA came next with 33 medals, 12 of them gold. The U.S. topped its previous best showing of 10 gold from the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. The final one came on the last day of competition when the U.S. men’s hockey team beat Canada in a thrilling overtime victory.

The chart below is updated with the total medal count of the 2026 Winter Olympics. (There were 87 teams taking part this year; only teams that won medals are listed.)

Spotlight on Team USA’s medal count for the 2026 Olympics

In the first two days after the opening ceremony, Team USA scooped up two medals, both of them gold.

Skier Breezy Johnson claimed America’s first gold medal of the Games in women’s downhill and U.S. figure skaters won gold in the team competition, helped by a dominant performance from Ilia Malinin, who is known as the “Quad God” for executing the most difficult jumps. 

On Feb. 10, Ben Ogden became the first American man to win an Olympic medal in cross-country skiing since 1976, earning a silver in the sprint. Alex Hall took silver in the freestyle ski, while Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan won bronze in the team downhill event. Team USA had a shot at gold in mixed doubles curling, but fell short against Sweden and will go home with silver.

Feb. 11, skier Elizabeth Lemley took gold in moguls and speedskating star Jordan Stolz won gold in the 1,000 meters, setting an Olympic record in the process. Ice dancing duo Madison Chock and Evan Bates won silver after being barely edged out of the top spot. 

Feb. 12 brought a silver for snowboarder Chloe Kim in the halfpipe and a bronze for cross-country skier Jessie Diggins.

On Feb. 14, Jalein Kauf and Elizabeth Lemley added to Team USA’s tally with silver and bronze, respectively, in women’s dual moguls. In speedskating, Stolz won his second gold medal and set his second Olympic record of these Games when he won at the 500 meters. He’s the first American since 1980 to win multiple speedskating gold medals.

The start of Week 2 brought gold for American bobsledder Elana Myers Taylor, a 41-year-old five-time Olympian who already had three silvers and two bronze medals to her name.

On Feb. 17, the U.S. earned two more silver medals, with Mac Forehand just missing out on gold in freeski big air and Team USA falling to Italy in an upset in speedskating team pursuit. 

Skiier Mikaela Shiffrin won gold in women’s slalom on Feb. 18, breaking her streak of eight events without medaling. 

The following day, the U.S. women’s hockey team staged a comeback to beat rival Canada for gold in overtime; Alysa Liu won gold in women’s individual figure skating, the first for the U.S. since 2002; and speedskater Jordan Stolz nabbed his third medal, a silver.

On Feb. 21, Kaila Kuhn, Connor Curran and Chris Lillis took the title in freestyle skiing mixed aerials, in th process breaking the U.S. record for the nation’s most golds in a single Winter Games.

On the final day of competition, the U.S. men’s hockey team took home the gold in a thrilling 2-1 overtime win over Canada. It was the team’s first gold medal since the “Miracle on Ice” over the Soviet Union at the Lake Placid Games in 1980.

Historic medal for South America

Brazilian ski racer Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, with a powerful final run in the Olympic giant slalom, won gold and earned South America’s first-ever medal at a Winter Games.

Pinheiro Braathen, who comes from a family where his mother is Brazilian and his father is Norwegian, represented Norway until 2023 when he abruptly retired. He returned to the sport in 2024, representing Brazil and since then has accomplished plenty of “firsts” with his new country: first Brazilian Alpine racer to finish on a World Cup podium last year and first-ever World Cup win for the country this season.

Winter Olympics gold medal records set

Team Norway broke its own gold medal record at a single Winter Olympics when Johannes Dale-Skjevdal hit all 20 of his targets in the 15-kilometer mass start race and skied his way to gold on Feb. 20. It was Norway’s 17th gold medal of the Milano Cortina Winter Games.

Meanwhile, Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo became the second-most decorated gold medalist in Olympic history after American Michael Phelps. The 29‑year‑old came into the games with five gold medals and he added six more to his tally.

With six gold medals, Klaebo shattered the nearly 50-year record set by American speed skater Eric Heiden, who won five golds at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. However, all of Heiden’s wins were in individual races and two of Klaebo’s have come in team events, so Heiden’s record for individual wins still stands.

Klaebo is also the Winter Olympian with the most gold medals in history. Fellow Norwegians Marit Bjoergen and Bjorn Daehlie in cross-country skiing and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen in the biathlon held the previous record with eight Winter Olympics gold medals. They have all retired.

Meanwhile, Team USA broke its own record with its 11th gold medal on Feb. 21, then added a 12th on the last day of competition.

What was the medal count for the 2022 Winter Olympics?

At the 2022 Winter Games, Norway took home the most medals, winning 37 in all, including 16 gold. 

Next came the ROC, the Russian Olympic Committee team, with a total of 32, followed by Germany with 27 and Canada with 26.

Team USA ranked fifth with 25 medals — nine gold, nine silver and seven bronze. 

Who has the most Olympic medals of all time?

While the International Olympic Committee does not compile rankings, the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage does keep a medal tally. It counts one medal for placing first, second or third in an event regardless of how many athletes were on a team.

In the overall medal count from all previous Summer and Winter Games, the U.S. comes out on top with 3,103 medals.

The U.S. is followed in the medal count by the former Soviet Union, which earned 1,204 medals before its breakup in 1991. Germany comes third with 1,091 medals.

The U.S. has also won the most gold medals, with 1,220 in previous Games, according to the Olympic Foundation. 

But when it comes to the history of the Winter Olympics alone, the U.S. dips to second place in the medal count behind Norway, a perennial winter sports powerhouse.

Athletes from Norway have taken home a total of 404 medals from past Winter Games. The U.S. has previously won 330, while Germany places third with 286.

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Around 2,900 athletes from around the world competed in 116 events at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games, but the prized gold, silver and bronze medals went home with only a small portion of the competitors. 

Once again, Norway dominated the Winter Olympics medal count, finishing the 2026 Games with 41 medals, including a record 18 gold. It was followed in the standings this year by the United States, which won 33 medals. Twelve of those U.S. medals were gold: a new national best for the Winter Games. 

The U.S. came out on top at the most recent Summer Games in Paris in 2024, taking home 126 medals, including 40 gold. It was followed by China, Britain and France. 

But which countries have taken home the most medals overall, and which athletes have won most often in Olympic history? 

Which countries have the most Olympic medals?

While the International Olympic Committee does not compile rankings, the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage does keep a medal tally. It puts the U.S. at the top, with 3,103 total medals. The count has not yet been updated to include medal totals from 2026.

The Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage, which is described by the Olympics as the “leading international exponent in promoting and disseminating Olympism in the fields of culture, heritage and values-based education,” counts one medal per event, regardless of how many athletes may compete in a winning team. The organization does not count medals won in the arts competitions or medals won during demonstration events. 

The U.S. is followed in the overall medal count by the Soviet Union, which was disbanded in 1991, with its former republics now competing as independent countries. The Soviet Union earned 1,204 medals. Germany comes in third with 1,091 medals.

Germany’s exact medal count is a point of contention because Germany has not always competed in each Olympics as a unified country, which can lead to confusing medal counts. At one point, the Federal Republic of Germany team represented West Germany while the German Democratic Republic team represented East Germany.

While the U.S. leads in the overall medal count, it does not hold the top spot when it comes to Winter Olympics medals. Norway dominates there, with 404 medals earned during the Winter Games.

The U.S., with 330, and Germany, with 286, are next in the Winter Olympics rankings. 

Which countries have the most Olympic gold medals?

Heading into the Milano Cortina Games, the U.S. had the most gold medals overall: a total of 1,220, according to the Olympic Foundation. In second place, the Soviet Union racked up 473 gold medals. Germany was third, with 355 gold medals. 

Great Britain, France, Italy, China, Sweden and Norway have all won more than 200 gold medals apiece, prior to 2026, according to the Olympic Foundation.

The Winter Olympics specific rankings had Norway on top, with 148 gold medals, followed by the U.S. and Germany, with 114 and 113 gold medals, respectively.

At the 2026 Games, Norway set a new record for the most gold medals at a single Winter Olympics, topping the 16 it won four years earlier. 

Which athletes have the most Olympic medals overall?

American swimmer Michael Phelps is handily the Olympic athlete with the most medals. Phelps, who first appeared in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, has 23 gold medals, three silver and two bronze, won across five games.

Former Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina is the most successful female Olympian, with 18 Olympic medals: nine gold, five silver and four bronze.

Norwegian skier Marit Bjørgen became the most decorated winter Olympian in 2018, with 15 medals, including eight gold.

Ole Einar Bjørndalen, also a Norwegian skier, holds the most medals for a male winter Olympian, with 14.

Speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, who has earned eight medals across three Winter Olympics, holds the top spot for U.S. winter Olympians.

Which athletes have the most Olympic gold medals?

Phelps is not only the most decorated Olympian; he’s also the athlete with the most Olympic golds, earning 23 gold medals across five games. And Latynina, in addition to being the winningest female Olympian overall, also holds the record for most golds by a female athlete at the Olympics. She competed in three games, starting in 1956 in Melbourne.

Norwegian skier Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo holds the record for the most Winter Olympic gold medals after winning the 11th gold of his career at the Milano Cortina Games. He’s won 13 medals overall.

Skiers Bjørgen and Bjørndalen, with eight gold medals apiece, are tied with Bjørn Dæhlie, another Norwegian skier, for second place in the gold medal count.

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The Milan Cortina Olympics ended Sunday with a closing ceremony inside Verona Arena, an ancient Roman amphitheater that sits roughly mid-distance between the far-flung mountain, valley and city venues that made these the most spread-out Winter Games in Olympic history.

The 2½-hour ceremony celebrated Italian music and dance, both classic and contemporary, headlining internationally acclaimed ballet dancer Roberto Bolle along with popular Italian singer Achille Lauro and DJ Gabry Ponte.

Some 1,500 Olympians, a bit over half those who competed in the Games, paraded into the monument built in the first century for gladiator fights and exotic animal hunts.

They entered en masse behind a pair of flag bearers from each of the 92 participating nations, including biathlete Lisa Vittozzi and speedskater Davide Ghiotto for host Italy, and hockey player Hilary Knight and ice dancer Evan Bates for the United States – all gold medal winners.

The United States fielded its biggest Winter Olympics team ever for the 2026 Milano Cortina Games, with 232 athletes competing, and broke the record for Team USA’s most gold medals at a single Winter Games. The U.S. was one of only two nations to compete in all 16 sport disciplines, along with host Italy, according to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee.

“These Games showcased the very best of Team USA: resilience, unity and a relentless pursuit of excellence,” said USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland said in a statement. “Our athletes delivered a truly historic performance, earning a Team USA-record 12 gold medals and creating moments that will inspire the next generation … That momentum now carries us forward as we look ahead to Los Angeles in 2028, where we’re excited to build on this legacy and welcome the world to our home soil.” 

Some 12,000 spectators joined the athletes and officials for the closing ceremony. It was much more intimate than the opening ceremony, which starred Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli inside Milan’s San Siro soccer stadium, attended by more than 60,000 people.

The ceremony celebrated Italian lyric opera, which has been recognized by the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO as a global treasure, but also pay tribute to contemporary Italian classics. Both opera and dance are at home in the stone amphitheater, which each summer hosts a popular opera festival with lavish productions and the gala dance performance titled Roberto Bolle and Friends.

Part of the ceremony included a somber remembrance of athletes who have died, although the commemoration, filled with butterfly imagery, did not identify specific athletes. 

Earlier in the 2026 Winter Games, the International Olympic Committee kept Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych out of competition after he refused a last-minute plea from the IOC for him not to use a helmet that honors athletes killed in Russia’s war on his country. The helmet goes against a rule about making political statements on the Olympic field of play, according to the IOC. 

“No one, especially me, is disagreeing with the messaging, it’s a powerful message, it’s a message of remembrance, of memory,” IOC President Kirsty Coventry told reporters at the time, according to the Reuters news agency. The challenge was to find a solution for the field of play.”

This was the first Games for Coventry, a two-time Olympic champion in swimming, who oversaw the ceremony alongside Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

One of the key moments of the ceremony is when the Olympic flag is handed over to the next Winter Games host nation, France, and its flag is raised next to Italy’s and Greece’s.

The Milan Cortina Games spanned an area of 8,500 square mile, from ice sports in Milan to biathlon in Anterselva on the Austrian border, snowboarding and men’s downhill in Valtellina on the Swiss border, cross-country skiing in the Val di Fiemme north of Verona and women’s downhill, curling and sliding sports in co-host Cortina d’Ampezzo.

It’s a model that will remain for future Games, to avoid the expense of building new facilities. The 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps will stage events in the Alps and Nice, on the Mediterranean Sea, while speedskating will be held abroad in a venue to be decided.

The closing ceremony concluded with the Olympic flames being extinguished at the unprecedented two cauldrons in Milan and Cortina, to be viewed via video link. A light show will substitute fireworks, which are not allowed in Verona, to protect animals from being disturbed.

A total of 116 medal events have been held in eight Olympic sports across 16 disciplines, including the debut of ski mountaineering this year, over the course of 17 days of competition.

The Milan Cortina Paralympics’ opening ceremony will also take place in the Verona Arena, on March 6, and the Games will run until March 15.

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