The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics and Paralympics 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 represented 35% of all NCAA-connected athletes competing in Milan Cortina and 37% of the 87 NCAA schools represented at the Games. If Team NCAA were its own country, it would have ranked among the world's best, with NCAA-affiliated athletes helping win 12 medals for four countries — four gold, four silver and four bronze.
The Paralympics told a similarly strong story. Five medalists, including two guides, from five schools combined to win eight unique medals for Team USA. That included seven gold medals, accounting for more than half of Team USA's 13 total golds. If the NCAA were its own country at the Paralympics, those medals would have ranked sixth in the standings.
But the numbers tell part of the story.
What made the Milan Cortina Olympics and Paralympics especially meaningful was whom these athletes represented on the world stage. Their performances reflected the growing reach of the NCAA across sports, countries and communities, while also highlighting the importance of visibility in moments of breakthrough, history and belonging.
From hockey sweeps to skiing breakthroughs and history-making performances in bobsled and para cross-country skiing events, the NCAA experience once again proved to be a launchpad for Olympic and Paralympic excellence.
Here are some of the NCAA's defining moments from Milan Cortina:
Team USA hockey sweeps gold across men's, women's and para competitions
The NCAA's influence was impossible to miss on the ice in Italy.
For the first time since the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" team, Team USA won Olympic men's hockey gold, with 20 of the 25 players on the roster bringing NCAA experience. The Team USA women added a gold-medal run of their own, continuing the NCAA's longstanding role as the backbone of international women's hockey. Of note, the women's Olympic ice hockey field included 122 NCAA-connected athletes of 230 total players.
Then came the Paralympics, where former Saint Mary's (Minnesota) ice hockey student-athlete Josh Misiewicz helped Team USA para hockey capture its fifth straight gold medal.
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NCAA skiing powers major breakthroughs on the Olympic stage
Some of the most significant NCAA moments of the Olympics came on snow.
Former NCAA champion Ben Ogden delivered one of the Olympics' biggest breakthroughs, winning silver in the men's sprint classic to end a 50-year Olympic medal drought for U.S. men's cross-country skiing.
In Alpine skiing, two-time NCAA champion Tanguy Nef won gold for Switzerland, while Paula Moltzan added to the NCAA's podium count with a medal of her own.
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Paralympic skiing showcases NCAA depth, too
The NCAA's skiing impact carried just as strongly into the Paralympics.
Sydney Peterson won three gold medals and a silver for Team USA. Jake Adicoff was even more dominant, going 4-for-4 in gold-medal events. All of Adicoff's victories came with NCAA-connected guides Peter Wolter and Reid Goble, showing how college skiing experience continued to shape Team USA success well beyond the Olympic competition.
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Elana Meyers Taylor and Jake Adicoff add to Winter Games history
These stories mattered for more than the medals. They highlighted how representation continues to grow across the Winter Games, with NCAA athletes at the center of some of the most meaningful milestones in the Milan Cortina Olympics and Paralympics.
Former George Washington softball student-athlete Elana Meyers Taylor won her sixth Olympic medal, tying speedskater Bonnie Blair for the most Winter Olympic medals by a U.S. woman. Her latest podium finish also extended her record medal count by a Black American in the Winter Games.
Adicoff made history, too. Along with his four gold medals, he emerged as a groundbreaking figure in U.S. Paralympic history while representing the LGBTQ+ community on one of the biggest stages in sport. Adicoff became the first out gay American male to win a gold Paralympic medal.
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The bigger picture: A women-led, global NCAA impact
The full scope of the NCAA's Winter Games presence stretched far beyond a few headline moments.
Across the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, 252 NCAA-connected athletes competed across 21 countries from 92 schools and 36 primary conferences. That group included 33 athletes with Division III experience and 42 with Division II experience. Of the 91 unique NCAA-connected medalists across both Games, 60 were women (66%).
The numbers reinforce what the Milan Cortina Games made clear from start to finish: College sports are not a detour from international success. They are driver of it.
