A gold medal final between the nations that have won every Olympic women’s hockey championship and all 24 women’s world championships didn’t disappoint.
The United States’ Hilary Knight, in her fifth Olympics, scored a tying goal with barely two minutes left in regulation, and the U.S. got the winning goal from Megan Keller in overtime to defeat Canada 2-1 in the latest installment of one of the greatest active rivalries in sports.
The U.S. hockey victory came around the time Alysa Liu put on a sparkling free skate and won the women’s singles figure skating gold, the first gold in that event for the U.S. since before Liu was born in 2005.
Highlights from Thursday, the fourth-to-the-last day of competition, are below. Check out the full medal count, which has the United States tied with Italy for the second-most gold medals behind Norway’s 16.
Megan Keller beat Canada goalkeeper Ann-Renée Desbiens for the winning goal. (Amber Searls / Imagn Images)
U.S. women’s hockey completes perfect run in Milan
Canada took the lead less than a minute into the second period. With time dwindling in the third period, the U.S. pulled goalkeeper Aerin Frankel for an extra attacker.
Nineteen seconds later, Knight scored on a tip-in from in front of the net. The goal made Knight the all-time U.S. Olympic leader in goals (15) and points (33).
In overtime, Keller, who had an assist on the United States’ tying goal, took a pass from Taylor Heise, slid around a Canadian defender and put the puck past Ann-Renée Desbiens for the winning goal.
Laila Edwards, who (along with Keller) had an assist on the tying goal, became the first Black woman on Team USA to win a hockey gold medal.
The United States has won two of the last three Olympic gold medals after Canada won four of the first five. Canada has never finished worse than a silver in Olympic women’s hockey; the U.S. has four silvers and a bronze.
Switzerland defeated Sweden 2-1 in overtime for the bronze medal. Alina Müller, who plays for the Boston Fleet of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, had the winning goal.
Alysa Liu climbed from third place after the short program to the top of the medal podium. (Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images)
Alysa Liu wins gold two years after retirement
Liu, now 20, retired at 16 after competing in the 2022 Olympics and taking third in the world championships. She returned to competition two years ago and remade her mark in the sport by winning the 2025 world championship.
Liu was in third place entering Thursday’s free skate, 2.12 points shy of the leader, Japan’s Ami Nakai. Liu posted her best score of the season in the free skate and won the competition with a score of 226.79.
Kaori Sakamoto of Japan was second in the short program and free skate and finished 1.89 points behind Liu, earning the silver. Nakai took bronze.
Liu became the first U.S. woman to medal in individual figure skating since Sasha Cohen (silver) in 2006 and the first U.S. gold medalist since Sarah Hughes in 2002. In Hughes’ era, U.S. women reigned over the sport, winning three gold medals in the four Olympics between 1992 and 2002 — a stretch that ended 3 1/2 years before Liu was born.
She will leave Milan with two gold medals after helping the U.S. win in the team event.
Amber Glenn of the U.S., in 13th place after the short program, posted the third-best score in the free skate (a personal season-best of 147.52) and finished in fifth place.
Silver for Jordan Stolz in 1,500 meters
U.S. speedskater Jordan Stolz set Olympic records en route to winning the 500- and 1,000-meter gold medals earlier in the Milan Olympics. On Thursday, it took an Olympic record by a competitor to keep him from a 3-for-3 gold medal showing.
Stolz skated in the last of 15 two-skater heats but couldn’t match the time of China’s Ning Zhongyan, who had turned in a personal-best time of 1 minute, 41.98 seconds in the 13th pairing.
Stolz’s silver medal time of 1:42.75 was 0.77 seconds slower than Ning’s. “I was attacking as hard as I could,” said Stolz, who fell more than a second off Ning’s pace by 700 meters. “He was just better.”
Eileen Gu qualifies for halfpipe final after fall
Defending champion Eileen Gu of China recovered from a fall and qualified for the women’s freestyle skiing halfpipe final, her third and final event at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The 22-year-old fell on her first run Thursday by clipping the lip of the halfpipe on her third trick.
Gu is the only female competing in all three freeski events — big air, slopestyle and halfpipe — at the 2026 Games.
“At this point, I’m exhausted,” Gu said.
She took silver in slopestyle and big air, making her the most decorated women’s freestyle skier in Olympic history. The halfpipe final is Saturday.
