Hosted in Milan, Italy, along with many regions of the Italian Dolomites, the 2026 Winter Olympics were nothing short of a spectacle. Broken records, thrilling feats of athleticism and medals won for the U.S. for the first time in decades made it worth the four years of waiting.
But athletics were not the only reason why the games have been so popular. Stories like Alysa Liu’s reclaiming of her sport and gold medal, Olympians going viral for their love of tiramisu and a controversial conversation from the U.S. men’s hockey team has created a lot of discussion on social media. Here are four CHS students’ perspectives and opinions on this year’s games:
Dom Nazario:
Senior Dom Nazario loved the 2026 Olympic Games. He found the beautiful location, perfect weather conditions and amazing stories enthralling. He described some of the events as if they were taken from a German fairytale, thanks to the mountainscape.
“Oh, my God, it was amazing,” Nazario said. “Double gold hockey from the United States—that was great. They might have ruined it with the locker room celebration on the men’s team, but at least the women just completely swept the entire tournament.”
One of his favorite events was women’s figure skating, specifically Alysa Liu’s powerful story. He found that, despite the toxicity, doping scandals and the presence of very young competitors typically found in this sport, 20-year-old Liu delivered a refreshing and beautiful performance.
“She comes back and is like, ‘I’m doing this on my own terms,’” Nazario said. “Then she wins gold, and that’s amazing. She was just having fun out there.”
Not only did Italy’s beautiful scenery stun Nazario, but he also found it refreshing that these games were spread over multiple cities. Since the games can be so economically devastating and pressuring on one city, Nizario thought it was a good change of pace.
All of the new sports introduced to the 2026 Winter Olympics Games, such as ski mountaineering, dual moguls and others, were refreshing for Nazario. He likes the fact that the games evolve so much and that they give opportunities for new sports, with new names and faces, to shine.
“Sports are always gonna evolve,” Nazario said. “There’s gonna be new sports. There’s gonna be sports that fade out.”
James Dickson:
Freshman James Dickson sees the Olympics as a light in the dreariness of winter. He found it brought people together in times of uncertainty.
“Our country that has been so divided all year, all decade,” Dickson said. “Now everyone is working together and rooting for the same people.”
Dickson particularly loved the United States’ Ilia Malinin’s free program in men’s figure skating. Malinin is one of the best figure skaters in the world, being the first and only skater to ever land a quadruple axel—an extremely technical turn with four and a half revolutions—at only 17 years old. Dickson admitted he doesn’t usually enjoy figure skating, but Malinin’s performance was so captivating that he found himself tuning in.
Dickson also enjoyed seeing the Olympians compete because he believes they deserve all of the glory.
“They are the elite physical specimens of humankind,” Dickson said. “If you’re at the Olympics, no one is above you. You’re outcompeting eight billion other people, so I think you deserve to be put on that pedestal.”
He also found himself appreciating the changes made to the Olympics this year, such as its widespread placement in Italy, the new sports and the large clothing sponsors.
But maybe the most exciting part of the games for him was the opening and closing ceremonies. Dickson sees it as a place where every country represented gets a time just for them to be celebrated.
“It’s [the ceremonies] the most celebrated you can get as an athlete,” Dickson said. “But also, I think it’s an important event that we don’t have a lot of. It’s like an international celebration where countries are shown, and even if it’s just for a moment, that’s a worldwide connection.”
Maggie Williams:
Senior Maggie Williams sees the Olympics as something that brings people together—whether their favorite part is the competition, fashion, or even the scandals. This year, she watched ski jumping, downhill training runs and figure skating with her family.
“My family members watched the routines more than I did, but the costumes stuck out to me,” Williams said.
She was excited to see the U.S. women’s hockey team defeat Canada. Williams’ younger sister started playing hockey this year as a freshman at Skyline, and the Olympics introduced new role models to look up to. Many of those players are only a few years older than Williams herself.
For Williams, it feels surreal to watch teens and young adults close to her age competing at a professional level. At the same time, she finds it motivating to see people from her generation succeed. Watching them sometimes makes Williams reflect on her own path.
“If I had worked hard at something, I could be famous,” Williams said. “It’s interesting to see someone who has shares an identity with me in this cool, crazy position.”
Alexandria Herwick:
Senior Alexandria Herwick is morally and politically opposed to watching the Olympics.
She believes the games don’t live up to their stated goal of unity. In Herwick’s view, attaching countries and flags to athletes reinforces nationalism and worsens political conflicts. Instead, she argues that competitors should be seen as athletes, not representatives of nations.
“It’s supposed to be we’re cutting away all these national boundaries, we’re cutting away all these personal beliefs, and it’s just to see who is the best in the world at this,” Herwick said. “It really does not fulfill its purpose right now.”
Though critical of the modern Olympics, Herwick is still drawn to sports from a social and historical perspective. She’s more interested in learning the cultural impact of athletics than the technical parts of the games, and she enjoys learning about the Olympics’ origin in Ancient Greece.
Even so, Herwick says she won’t be watching until significant changes are made.
“It would be kind of amazing to see an actually unifying international thing that actually fulfills its purpose,” Herwick said. “I would absolutely watch a truly unifying Olympics.”
