Rastall Ramblings:Stolz, Women’s Hockey Lead Wisconsin Headliners from Winter Olympics

The 2026 Winter Olympics were a welcome return to form for the Games, continuing the trend set by the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris that helped breath excitement back into the Olympics after the COVID-impacted Games in 2021 and 2022 had lacked some of the usual flair and excitement.

The U.S. men’s hockey team’s gold medal triumph over Canada on the final day, Lindsey Vonn’s failed attempt to compete despite a torn ACL, Norway cross-country skier Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo’s record-setting six gold medals, failure and redemption among different American figure skaters, Mikaela Shiffrin’s cathartic slalom gold medal — the headlines were seemingly endless.

At the forefront of some of the greatest accomplishments for the United States in Italy were thanks to Wisconsin connections. There’s no better example of that than Jordan Stolz and star-making performance in speed skating.

Stolz, a 21-year-old Kewaskum native, was one of the biggest American breakout stars of these Olympic Games, living up to the hype surrounding him by winning gold medals and setting new Olympic records in the 500 and 1,000 meters. He settled for silver at 1,500 meters and finished just off the podium in the men’s mass start.

Stolz’s success even helped bring Madison native Eric Heiden, who won five golds at the 1980 Games in Lake Placid, to the attention of a new generation since there were plenty of comparisons made between the two Wisconsinites.

From a team perspective, there was Wisconsin representation aplenty on the gold medal-winning U.S. women’s hockey team. A pair of former Wisconsin Badgers (captain Hilary Knight and Britta Curl-Salemme) along with four current Badger players (Laila Edwards, Caroline Harvey, Kirsten Simms and Ava McNaughton) were on the American roster.

Though coaches don’t get Olympic medals, U.S. head coach John Wroblewski is a Neenah native.

No moment better defined the Badger impact on the U.S. team than the gold medal game against fierce rival Canada, where Knight scored the game-tying goal with the goalie pulled and just over two minutes left in regulation, redirecting a shot from the point by Edwards.

Knight’s redirect squashed the shutout by Canada goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens, herself one of five former Badgers on the Canadian roster.

Knight enjoyed as much of a storybook ending as one could ever dream of in what was her fifth and likely final Olympics. Her game-tying goal against Canada gave her the most goals and points in American Olympic hockey history, she got engaged to her girlfriend (U.S. speed skater Brittany Bowe) while in Italy and was chosen as one of the American flagbearers for the closing ceremony.

A high standard was set for Cheeseheads in Milan/Cortina. We’ll see who can take up the mantle in the French Alps in 2030.