Winter Olympics 2026 Day 15 recap: U.S. takes gold in mixed aerials; Norway's Johannes Høsflot Klæbo caps historic run

On the penultimate day of the Milan Cortina Olympics, plenty of medals were up for grabs. 

Saturday was another historic day for Team USA, which will leave Italy with its most Winter Olympics gold medals ever. Meanwhile, Norway's Johannes Høsflot Klæbo became the GOAT of the Winter Games, a veteran U.S. Olympian finally became a first-time medalist and the Olympics Gala bid farewell to the Games with a spectacular showing of what the Olympics are all about.

Here are five of the top stories from Day 15 of the Milan Cortina Olympics:

U.S. wins freestyle mixed aerials gold for second straight Winter Games

The U.S. team of Kaila Kuhn, Connor Curran and Christopher Lillis won gold in freestyle mixed aerials on Saturday, finishing atop the podium for the second consecutive Winter Olympics. The gold medal was also Team USA's 11th of the Milan Cortina Games, more than the U.S. has ever won at a single Winter Games.

Lillis clinched gold for the U.S. by landing a back double-full-full-full, following strong jumps by Kuhn and Curran that gave Team USA a big lead. He needed 89 points on his final jump after China’s Li Tianma landed short, but earned 117.19 for a decisive team victory. Lillis was also on the mixed aerials team that won gold in 2022 at Beijing.

Switzerland took silver and China earned bronze in the competition.

Team USA loses women's curling bronze medal match to Canada

Team Peterson came oh-so-close to winning Team USA's first medal in women's curling, but fell short versus Canada in the bronze medal match. The U.S. had a 3-2 lead after five ends, but Canada won three points in the sixth when Tara Peterson missed the house with her shot and Tabitha Peterson couldn't move a Canadian stone out of the paint. 

The U.S. rallied to tie with a 2-0 score in the seventh, but Canada answered again with a 3-0 win in the eighth end. Team Peterson won the ninth 2-0 by knocking Canada's stone out of the four-foot ring. However, the U.S. could not follow up with the steal it needed in the 10th and Canada earned a 10-7 win.

Despite not medaling, the U.S. women advanced to the semifinals in curling for the first time since 2002.

Mia Manganello takes bronze in women's speed skating mass start

Racing in her final Winter Games, speedskater Mia Manganello won her first individual Olympic medal, earning bronze in Saturday’s women's mass start event.

Competing in her third Winter Games, Manganello finished third with a time of 8:35.39. Marijke Groenewoud of the Netherlands won gold at 8:34.70, while Canada’s Ivanie Blondin finished at 8:35.09.

Manganello, 36, also won bronze in the team pursuit event at the 2018 PyeongChang Games. Like Erin Jackson, she began competing in inline skating before moving to the ice. Manganello also competed in cycling between the 2010 and 2018 Winter Games. 

Klæbo wins sixth gold of Milan Cortina Games

Norway's Johannes Høsflot Klæbo rules cross-country skiing like no other, earning his sixth gold medal of the 2026 Games in the men's 50km mass start. Fellow Norwegians Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget and Emil Iversen took silver and bronze, respectively.

Those six gold medals are the most that any individual athlete has won during a single Winter Olympics. He also earned gold in the 10km freestyle, 20 km skiathlon, men's individual sprint, 4 × 7.5 km relay and team sprint events.

Klæbo, 29, also added to his career total with his 11th gold medal, more than anyone in Winter Olympics history.

Figure skating exhibition gala ends Olympics on a high note

It's a tradition unlike any other, a chance for the Olympians to come together one final time on the ice before the Games conclude. Saturday's exhibition gala was part performance, part celebration, wrote Yahoo Sports' Jay Busbee: "It’s like figure skating’s version of the home run derby or the slam-dunk contest, a glorious exhibition of the world’s best at the peak of their powers."

Amber Glenn and Ilia Malinin skated for some redemption, while Alysa Liu went for an encore following her gold medal on Thursday. Men's gold medalist Mikhail Shaidorov, meanwhile, put together a performance that just has to be seen to be believed.

Highlight of the day

You could say Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong's husband was pretty excited about her win in the speed skating women's 1500m.

One more thing

Team USA’s Kaillie Armbruster-Humphries and Jasmine Jones earned bronze in the two-woman bobsled event, maintaining their third-place standing through the fourth and final run of the competition.

For Armbruster-Humphries, this is her sixth Olympic medal, including two in Milan Cortina. The U.S. had two more pairs finish in the top 10, with Kaysha Love and Azaria Hill placing fifth, followed by Elana Meyers Taylor and Jadin O’Brien in seventh. Meyers Taylor won gold in monobob on Monday.