The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics offered another clear reminder of the NCAA's role on the world's biggest stage.
Through the final week of the 2026 Winter Olympics, 86 medalists from 32 NCAA schools reached the podium. That represents 35% of all NCAA-connected athletes competing in Milan Cortina (245 total) and 37% of the 87 NCAA schools represented at the Games.
If "Team NCAA" were its own country, it would rank among the world's best. NCAA-affiliated athletes helped win 12 medals for four countries — four gold, four silver and four bronze — a tally that would sit 13th in the medal standings among the 29 countries with at least one medal and the 93 countries represented at the Games. Three of the NCAA-connected gold medals came for Team USA, which set a U.S. Winter Olympic record of 12 gold medals at Milan Cortina.
From women's ice hockey dominance to long-awaited breakthroughs in skiing and bobsled, the NCAA experience once again proved to be a launchpad for Olympic excellence.
Here are some of the NCAA's defining moments from Milan Cortina.
Team USA men's hockey wins gold on 'Miracle on Ice' anniversary
For the first time since the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" team, Team USA is back on top of Olympic men's hockey, defeating Canada in the gold-medal game at Milan Cortina.
Even with NHL players returning to the Olympics for the first time since 2014, the college game still sat at the center of the U.S. run: 20 of the 25 players on Team USA's roster had NCAA experience, underscoring how often the path to Olympic moments still runs through college hockey.
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Team USA women's hockey wins gold; Hilary Knight makes history
Team USA's women's ice hockey team skated off the ice in Milan Cortina with the one result it wanted most: Olympic gold.
In a familiar finish to the sport's biggest rivalry, the U.S. outlasted Canada 2-1 in overtime in the gold-medal game.
The roster itself was a snapshot of the NCAA pipeline. All 23 players on Team USA's gold-medal team had NCAA experience, representing eight programs across the country. Canada's roster was also entirely NCAA-built.
Team USA veteran forward Hilary Knight delivered the defining swing, scoring late in the final period to force overtime and writing another line into U.S. Olympic history as she moved to the top of the country's all-time Olympic women's ice hockey lists for goals and points.
Tournament MVP Caroline "KK" Harvey, a current Wisconsin standout and 2025 NCAA champion, was another example of college hockey's present-tense impact, starring on the world stage before returning to campus for the stretch run.
And beyond the gold-medal celebration, the NCAA's imprint was everywhere across the tournament. Current and former NCAA players didn't just fill jerseys, they filled the scoresheet, producing 73% of the women's ice hockey tournament's goals (92 of 126). Harvey is one of 40 Olympic women's ice hockey players returning to NCAA teams with the chance to carry that momentum into March.
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Elana Meyers Taylor ties U.S. Winter Olympic medal mark
Former George Washington softball student-athlete Elana Meyers Taylor added another chapter to her historic Olympic career at the Milan Cortina Games.
With a gold medal in the women's monobob, Meyers Taylor claimed her sixth Olympic medal, tying speedskater Bonnie Blair for the second-most Winter Olympic medals by a U.S. athlete and the most by an American woman.
Jasmine Jones, whom Meyers Taylor helped recruit into the sport, earned a bronze medal in the two-woman bobsled event — another example of the legacy-building ripple effect Meyers Taylor has created for Team USA.
Meyers Taylor's journey — from the softball diamond to the Olympic podium — highlights the breadth of NCAA pathways to global success. She was one of 30 current or former NCAA student-athletes to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics in a different sport than their college sport.
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Ben Ogden ends 50-year U.S. cross-country skiing medal drought
Former NCAA champion Ben Ogden delivered one of the most significant breakthroughs of the Olympics.
A three-time NCAA champion, Ogden captured silver in the men's sprint classic to end a 50-year Olympic medal drought for U.S. men's cross-country skiing. His podium finish marked the first U.S. men's Olympic medal in the sport since Bill Koch won silver in 1976.
"I hope it gives the future of the sport in the U.S. a big boost. I know Bill winning his medal gave a big boost to all the young skiers and all the people who dreamed the U.S. could be a champion cross-country ski nation. I hope this propels us into the next 50 years," Ogden said.
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NCAA skiing champions break through on the world stage
The NCAA's imprint on Alpine skiing showed up in the Milan Cortina Games, too.
Tanguy Nef, a two-time NCAA champion, followed a path that is somewhat rare in the Ski World Cup pipeline: He came to the U.S. to study at Dartmouth, balancing computer science and economics coursework with NCAA racing. The plan started as a one-semester idea but ultimately stretched into a full bachelor's degree, a decision he told Bluewin was sometimes dismissed in the World Cup world. After his Olympic breakthrough, winning a gold medal for Switzerland in the men's Alpine team combined, Nef said the win "legitimized my decisions." Nef heard it in real time, too, receiving hundreds of messages from former coaches, friends and connections in the U.S.
"The Olympic Games have even more significance there than here," Nef said.
Former NCAA skiing champion Paula Moltzan completed a remarkable comeback journey to reach the Olympic podium, building on the competitive base she sharpened in college. Moltzan turned in the fourth-quickest time in her portion of the team event with Jacqueline Wiles to earn a bronze medal.
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The bigger picture: 245 NCAA connections, global impact
In total, 245 athletes with NCAA ties competed in the Games, representing 87 schools across Divisions I, II and III. Their presence spanned hockey, skiing, bobsled, biathlon and more, reinforcing a familiar Olympic theme:
College sports are not a detour from international success. They are a driver of it.
The NCAA model — balancing elite athletics competition with academic opportunity — continues to prepare student-athletes for the world's biggest stage. Whether it is a future Hall of Famer like Knight, a history-maker like Meyers Taylor or a drought-breaker like Ogden, their Olympic journeys share a common thread: time spent competing, developing and growing on NCAA campuses.
