US wins its record 11th gold medal at the Winter Olympics

LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — The U.S. Olympic team won its record-breaking 11th gold medal of the Winter Games on Saturday, with at least one more good possibility when its men's hockey team wraps up the action on closing day with the title game against Canada.

The trio of Kaila Kuhn, Connor Curran and Chris Lillis gave the U.S. the record by capturing the American team's second straight title in mixed aerials.

The 11th gold breaks the country's mark set at the last Olympics on U.S. soil — in Salt Lake City in 2002, which has long stood out as a turning point for a winter sports program that had struggled over previous decades.

This could end up being another turning point, not so much for the sheer number of medals but the variety of places from which they came: Twelve of the 17 sports disciplines represented in the Winter Games produced medals for the U.S.

“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 aerials medal, then a bronze in speedskating from Mia Manganello later in the day, lifted the U.S. to 31 overall for the Olympics with one day left.

That's second to Norway, which had a record 18 gold medals and 40 overall through Saturday evening. Seventy-two percent of the golds came in the endurance sports of cross country, biathlon and Nordic combined. The biggest gold-medal hauls for the U.S. came in four disciplines — two each (18%) in Alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, figure skating and speedskating.

There are 38 more medal events on the program this year than there were in 2002. A lot of the new events have come at the snowpark — halfpipe, slopestyle and big air — which used to be America's domain but has now been taken over by Japan, which, for instance, won nine medals in snowboarding, compared to two for the U.S.

“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 rest of the 11 U.S. gold medal winners:

Halfpipe skier rounds out his Olympic collection — gold, silver, bronze. Back home, he’ll keep going with streamer “Hotdog Hans” where he dressed up like an 80-something ski sensation.

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

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

The 20-year-old stepped away after the 2022 Beijing Games, rediscovered her love for figure skating and happily claimed the title.

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

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

Joined Eric Heiden at Lake Placid in 1980 as only the second man to capture the 500 and 1,000.

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

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

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

United States' Elana Meyers Taylor, front, smiles at the finish during a two women bobsled run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Amber Glenn of the United States competes during the women's figure skating free program at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

United States' Kendall Coyne, left, and United States' Hilary Knight celebrate after victory ceremony for women's ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Bronze medalist United States' Elizabeth Lemley wears her gold medal alongside her bronze medal after the women's freestyle skiing dual moguls finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. Lemley won the gold medal in women's moguls earlier this week. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

United States' Breezy Johnson at the finish area, during an alpine ski, women's super-G race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

United States' Alex Ferreira reacts during the men's freestyle skiing halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Jordan Stolz of the U.S. competes to win a silver medal in the men's 1500 meters speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates winning the gold medal in an alpine ski, women's slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Gold medalist Alysa Liu of the United States displays her medal after competing in the women's free skate program in figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

From left, gold medalists United States' Christopher Lillis, Connor Curran and Kaila Kuhn celebrates after the freestyle skiing mixed team aerials final at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The annual dinner with governors at the White House is typically a chance for leaders from both parties to come together, socialize and spend a low-key evening with the president. But like many traditions during President Donald Trump's second term, Saturday's dinner has proven unusually controversial.

Ahead of this week's gathering of the National Governors Association, Trump ridiculed the bipartisan group's leadership, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma and Democratic Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland. He refused to invite Moore, along with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, to a working event at the White House on Friday — only to relent at the last minute.

Even then, the event was cut short when Trump learned of the Supreme Court's decision to strike down his sweeping tariff policy, leaving even some Republicans frustrated by the week's turbulence.

“It was unfortunate that the Supreme Court came out with a bad ruling at that time,” said Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican and top Trump ally.

Dozens of Democrats had threatened to boycott the dinner if members of their party were blocked from the working meeting. But even after Moore's attendance, some said they still wouldn't show up on Saturday.

“President Trump has made this whole thing a farce,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement explaining her decision to skip the dinner.

Some Democrats plan to attend an alternative event in downtown Washington, according to someone with direct knowledge of the plans who requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly.

Those who have attended previous dinners said they offered a rare and helpful opportunity for governors to connect with the president and members of his Cabinet away from the pressure of daily governing. Some also said the dinner was a chance to connect with fellow governors from other parties whom they might not see very often.

Asa Hutchinson, the former Republican governor of Arkansas who briefly challenged Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, recalled being assigned to a table one year with then-Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo and getting to know her family.

“It’s a glowing evening in the White House,” Hutchinson, who once chaired the NGA, said in an interview.

The final day of the conference on Saturday focused on issues including affordability and political civility. During a conversation about immigration, Moore and Stitt said that both parties have failed over decades to address the issue.

Stitt said that states should be empowered to issue workforce permits and warned that both parties are making false political assumptions.

“People think ‘OK, all the Democrats want open borders,’” he said, “and ‘all Republicans hate immigrants.’”

But Stitt noted that “rural Oklahoma Trump voters” have privately approached him, saying they couldn't operate their businesses without people who were trying to obtain work authorization.

For all the turmoil surrounding this week's meeting, Moore said the conference was a success.

“There were a lot of forces over the process of these past weeks that were intended and hellbent on breaking us up,” he said. “Despite everything that we have seen and heard and all the booby traps that were laid out that had an intention of blowing this up, … we're standing here at the end of this conference stronger than ever.”

Politico Correspondent Adam Wren, Gov. Wes Moore, D-Md., and Gov. Kevin Stitt, R-Okla., participate at an event at the National Governors Association Winter Meeting, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)

President Donald Trump arrives to speak during a breakfast with the National Governors Association in the State Dining Room of the White House, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Gov. Wes Moore, D-Md., right, attends a breakfast with the National Governors Association in the State Dining Room of the White House, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)