CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — The U.S. women’s hockey team had just won Olympic gold, and veteran forward Kendall Coyne Schofield summed the moment up perfectly.
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“We did it!” she exclaimed.
Plenty of American women — more than ever at a Winter Olympics — had the same sentiment at these Milan Cortina Games.
When it came to winning medals, they indeed did it. And in record numbers, too.
American women — not even counting mixed events — were up to six golds and 16 medals overall through some of the competition on Saturday, the next-to-last day of these Games. The previous U.S. winter women’s-only marks: five golds (done in 1992, 2002 and 2018) and 13 medals (done in 2014 and 2022).
“Our team is so strong,” Milan Cortina women’s slalom gold medalist and Alpine legend Mikaela Shiffrin said. “We have so many incredible athletes and teammates and friends, and everybody just showed up with so much courage and heart here. And I’m so proud to be part of this American team.”
The count goes to 20 medals for U.S. women from Milan Cortina when adding in mixed competition. More than 40 American women will leave the Games with at least one medal — another winter record for the U.S. And those numbers could keep rising, with some medal chances still left before the cauldrons get extinguished and the Games come to a close.
“Team USA is crushing it and it’s friggin’ sweet,” said U.S. women’s bobsledder Kaillie Humphries Armbruster — a bronze medalist in monobob and a contender for another medal in the two-woman event on Saturday night. “Women’s hockey got gold, hell yeah. It’s all definitely motivating.”
There was shiny motivation everywhere U.S. women could look.
Shiffrin and downhill winner Breezy Johnson won golds in Alpine skiing, Elana Meyers Taylor won in monobob, Alysa Liu won the figure skating women’s singles gold (plus another gold in the team event for both men and women), Elizabeth Lemley took the Olympic title in freestyle moguls and the women’s hockey team rallied late to force overtime and then beat Canada for that title. Kaila Kuhn was part of a gold-medal win in mixed team aerials as well — the 11th for Team USA at these Olympics, the most by the Americans in Winter Games history.
The U.S. men have been no slouches in Italy.
But the U.S. women have been record-setting.
“It’s iconic. It’s legendary,” U.S. bobsledder Kaysha Love said. “At the end of the day, I think that’s why we do this.”
In fairness, the games have grown over time, which means more women have gotten the chance to become Olympians. There were 41 events for women (excluding mixed events) at Milan Cortina, compared with 37 at Turin in 2006 and a mere 12 at Lake Placid in 1980.
Still, records are records. And this U.S. Olympic women’s team, as a total group, set a new standard.
The 16 medals for Americans in women’s competition at Milan Cortina, and 20 when adding in mixed events, would top the total medals won by all U.S. athletes — men, women and mixed — in every Winter Games from 1924 through 1998.
Freestyle skiing has delivered four of the 16 women’s medals for Americans in these Games; Jaelin Kauf got two of those, both silvers in moguls.
“There’s an incredibly strong women’s team and moguls program in the US, (which is) exactly why it’s so good,” Kauf said. “We have become extremely dominant in the last handful of years, continuing to be the best women’s team in the world for four or five years now.”
Clearly, success breeds success. Just ask Cory Thiesse.
She became the first American woman to medal in Olympic curling. Thiesse won silver in mixed doubles with Korey Dropkin and got there, in part, because she was inspired by past success of others — whether they were in curling or not.
“I know how important it was for me to have girls to look up to when I was growing up, not only in my own sport but other sports out there winning medals and seeing that on TV and dreaming big because of it,” Thiesse told the AP on Friday, one day before she and the U.S. women lost the bronze-medal match to Canada. “So, I just think it’s great for future generations.”
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U.S. men’s hockey coach Mike Sullivan said the American women who delivered this year are also planting seeds for 2030, 2034 and beyond.
“What a terrific hockey team and they’ll be an inspiration for the next generation of girls growing up in the United States,” Sullivan said after the U.S. women topped Canada for hockey gold. “It’s crazy how far women’s hockey has come in the United States, and a lot of it is due to the teams like this and the girls that play on these teams. They inspire the next generation.”
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AP National Writer Eddie Pells, AP Hockey Writers Stephen Whyno and John Wawrow, AP Sports Writer Pat Graham and AP reporter Jennifer McDermott contributed to this report.
