Team USA captures record-breaking 12th gold medal at Winter Games

The U.S. Olympic team extended its record-breaking gold medal count at the Milano Cortina Winter Games on Sunday, after a thrilling men's hockey final over Canada. Team USA broke its record a day earlier, when Kaila Kuhn, Connor Curran and Chris Lillis won the mixed team aerials title for an 11th gold medal.

The 11th gold broke the record set at the last Olympics on U.S. soil — in Salt Lake City in 2002, which has long stood as a turning point for a Winter sports program that had struggled over previous decades. Team USA took home 10 gold medals at those Games.

"Our focus and our strategy has always been about breadth," said Sarah Hirshland, the CEO of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. "We want to win in everything. We want to make every sport better. Some could argue there are countries that go a mile deep in certain sports and really dominate. Our goal has been to improve Winter sport across the board."

The latest win lifted the U.S. to 33 medals overall for the Olympics. That's second to Norway, which won 41 medals, including 18 gold medals, setting a Winter Games record.

The biggest gold-medal hauls for the U.S. came in freeskiing and speedskating — two each (18%), with speedster Jordan Stolz capturing both on the ice.

There are 38 more medal events on the program this year than there were in 2002.

"We stated we wanted to be a podium nation," Fin Kirwan, the USOPC's chief of Olympic sport, said of the U.S. goal of being top-three on the medals table. "We said it will likely take 30 medals and we got after it. The athletes delivered on their potential and, by turn, we hit the record on gold-medal performance, which shows that our very best were able to execute."

Here are some looks and links to the U.S. gold-medal winners:

Alex Ferreira, freeskiing

American freeskier Alex Ferreira rounds out his Olympic collection with his first gold in Milan. He took silver in PyeongChang in 2018, and bronze four years ago in Beijing. 

Breezy Johnson, alpine

Her long journey to a gold medal included a knee injury four years ago on the same mountain where she won.

Elizabeth Lemley, moguls

Nicknamed "Lizard," she joins a lexicon of great U.S. moguls skiers, including 2010 champion Hannah Kearney and her teammate, Jaelin Kauf, who now has three silver medals.

Alysa Liu, figure skating

The 20-year-old stepped away after the Beijing Games, rediscovered her love for figure skating and happily claimed the gold medal -- the first for U.S. women since 2002.

Elana Meyers Taylor, bobsled

At her sixth Olympics, she finally broke through, becoming the oldest Winter Olympian to win gold at age 41.

Mikaela Shiffrin, alpine

The most winning skier of all time cashes in at the Olympics with slalom gold after a tear-stained shutout four years ago.

Jordan Stolz, speedskating (2)

Joined Eric Heiden at Lake Placid in 1980 as only the second man to capture the 500 and 1,000. Goes for a third title Saturday night.

U.S. figure skating team

Liu, Amber Glenn and Ilia Malinin are among the members of a team that brings home a second straight gold; the last one took two years to capture after the Russian doping saga.

U.S. men's hockey team

Jack Hughes scored in overtime and the U.S. defeated Canada 2-1 in the gold medal final to earn the nation's third men's title at the Games and its first since the "Miracle on Ice" in 1980 — 46 years to the day of the upset over the Soviet Union, too.

U.S. women's hockey team

A tense thriller, highlighted by Hilary Knight's equalizer with 2:04 left, then Megan Keller's winner in overtime.