Since 1920, hockey has been a marquee event at the Olympics. Check out key Olympic hockey stats and records throughout history now.

One married couple will spend Valentine's Day going head-to-head in an Olympic medal event. Belgium's Kim Meylemans and Brazil's Nicole Rocha Silveira are competing in the women's skeleton event at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games -- just over a year after they tied the knot.

Winning an Olympic medal brings pride to any athlete. Many countries also add cash rewards for those podium finishes. Using data shared by USA Today for the 2026 Winter Olympics (25 countries responded to the site’s query),

But, a handful of countries are surprising analysts and ranking higher than expected. One of those countries is Japan, which sits at No. 10 in the medal count as of the end of the Games on Thursday. Another one is Australia, which only has one lone gold medal, but that still puts them at No. 14 on the ranking.

It’s been 106 years since “ice hockey,” so called to differentiate it from the game that’s played on grass, made its Olympic debut, the Winnipeg Falcons winning the historic first gold medal at Antwerp, Belgium in 1920, representing Canada.

Of the 25 countries that responded to USA Today's inquiry, Team USA ranks in the middle of the pack. The United States pays $37,500 to athletes who win a gold medal, $22,500 for silver medalists and $15,000 for bronze-medal winners. Those figures rank 15th out of the 25 country sample.