{"id":13368,"date":"2026-02-22T17:09:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T00:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/usa-hockey-gold-medal-and-eileen-gus-halfpipe-victory-highlight-final-day-of-winter-olympics\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:36:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:36:26","slug":"usa-hockey-gold-medal-and-eileen-gus-halfpipe-victory-highlight-final-day-of-winter-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/usa-hockey-gold-medal-and-eileen-gus-halfpipe-victory-highlight-final-day-of-winter-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"USA hockey gold medal and Eileen Gu\u2019s halfpipe victory highlight final day of Winter Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"United
United States' Jack Hughes (86) poses with teammates after a men's ice hockey gold medal game between Canada and the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo\/Petr David Josek)<\/span>Petr David Josek<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

MILAN \u2013 Jack Hughes\u2019 overtime goal against Canada gave the United States its first Olympic gold medal in men\u2019s hockey since 1980 \u2013 and on the 46th anniversary of the \u201cMiracle on Ice\u201d no less.<\/p>\n

Hughes, who had lost a tooth or two from a high stick during the game, scored off a pass from Zach Werenski early in 3\u2011on\u20113 overtime to clinch a 2\u20111 victory Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter about the goal. Just an unbelievable team, unbelievable team win,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cWe\u2019re just so proud to win for our country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best experiences I have are playing for my country, playing to break the golden drought with this group of guys and for us to win gold here at the Olympics, just an unbelievable moment,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

There was a hint of sadness amid the joy as Werenski and Matthew Tkachuk carried a Johnny Gaudreau No. 13 jersey around the ice in tribute to the beloved player who died in August 2024 along with his brother when they were struck by an SUV while riding bicycles.<\/p>\n

The Americans\u2019 victory Sunday was their 12th gold of the Milan Cortina Games. The U.S. women\u2019s hockey team also won gold \u2013 also in a 2\u20111 overtime victory over Canada.<\/p>\n

Norway topped the final medal count with 18 golds and 41 medals overall \u2013 best in both categories.<\/p>\n

\"Gold
Gold medalist China's Eileen Gu poses with her medals after winning the women's freestyle skiing halfpipe final at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo\/Abbie Parr)<\/span>Abbie Parr<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Eileen Gu defends Olympic halfpipe title<\/div>\n

Eileen Gu is now six\u2011for\u2011six in Olympic medal events after another halfpipe victory.<\/p>\n

The 22\u2011year\u2011old Gu, American\u2011born but competing for her mother\u2019s homeland of China, is already the most decorated freeskier in the short history of the sport at the Olympics. She also captured two silver medals at the Milan Cortina Games to pair with two golds and a silver from the Beijing Games.<\/p>\n

Gu won her last event on the strength of her second run, a clean, technically sound pass. She got even better in her final run \u2013 pumping her ski poles after landing the final trick \u2013 and finished with a score of 94.75. Her teammate, Li Fanghui, took silver, and Zoe Atkin of Britain was third.<\/p>\n

The event was rescheduled to Sunday following a heavy snowstorm the night before.<\/p>\n

Sweden\u2019s big day<\/div>\n

First, Ebba Andersson pulled away from the pack to win the 50\u2011kilometer mass\u2011start cross\u2011country race and earn redemption for her crash that cost Sweden a gold medal in the team relay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve dreamed about this day for a long time now and it\u2019s almost unbelievable that everything went as planned,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Then Sweden\u2019s curling moms beat Switzerland to give the Scandinavian nation another gold.<\/p>\n

Diggins concludes glittering Olympic career<\/div>\n

Jessie Diggins finished fifth in the 50\u2011kilometer mass\u2011start cross\u2011country race, just a few seconds shy of one more medal.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s OK with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can confidently say I could not possibly have tried harder or gotten more out of my body,\u201d the 34\u2011year\u2011old Diggins said.<\/p>\n

It marked the final Olympic event for an athlete who transformed American cross\u2011country skiing and became a symbol of endurance.<\/p>\n

Lochner\u2019s bobsled sweep<\/div>\n

In bobsled, Germany\u2019s Johannes Lochner added the four\u2011man gold to his two\u2011man title.<\/p>\n

Lochner \u2013 who announced his retirement months ago \u2013 capped his career with his second gold medal of these Olympics, winning the four\u2011man event over two\u2011time defending Olympic champion Francesco Friedrich by 0.57 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just such a dream. \u2026 It\u2019s indescribable,\u201d Lochner said. \u201cA moment for eternity. A perfect finish, the most perfect finish ever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the USA\u2019s first hockey gold since 1980<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29,346,1211],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-sports","tag-winter-olympics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13368"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18942,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13368\/revisions\/18942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13368"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}