KSL at the Games: Utah's Manganello part of historic run for Team USA

AT THE GAMES — As competition began to wind down Saturday in Milan, the United States was putting the finishing touches on a historic Winter Olympics.

As per usual, Utah athletes were at the center of it.

Let's start with a history-making first on the track

Utahns at the Games

Here are the 83 athletes with ties to Utah at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Here's the complete list of athletes with Utah ties, courtesy of the Utah Sports Commission.

Manganello wins first-ever U.S. medal in mass start

Mia Manganello has dedicated her entire life to speed skating, and that life took her to Utah at an early age.

In her final Olympic competition, Manganello became the first United States speed skater, man or woman, to win a medal in the 16-lap mass start. Manganello's 20 sprint points finished behind Netherlands star Marijke Groenewoud (60) and Canada's Ivanie Blondin (40) to put Team USA on the podium for the first time ever.

"My emotions can't handle it at the moment. I feel like I'm on cloud nine," Manganello told the media after, per NBC. "I had a lot of emotions in my victory lap out there, so I think right now I'm just floating."

Manganello, who plans to retire after the Winter Games finished third, grew up in Crestview, Florida, as an inline skater at 8 years old. But when she fell in love with speed skating five years later — after the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City — she attended a camp in Utah and decided to go all-in on the ice.

Her parents Dominic and Karen packed an RV and moved to Utah to continue her training, according to her Team USA bio. She retired after the 2010 Olympics to become a pro cyclist, but returned five years later for the best stretch of her career that included a bronze medal with team pursuit in Pyeongchang in 2018 and another team-pursuit bronze at the World Single Distances Championships in Heerenveen, Netherlands in 2023.

"When we made the move to Utah, my parents told me, 'Just make sure you're happy and when you're not, we'll move back home,"' a 17-year-old Manganello told the Deseret News in 2007. "I've always been happy on the ice, though. Winning never gets boring."

University of Utah alums lead USA to back-to-back mixed aerials gold

Utah alums made up two-thirds of the United States' mixed team aerials that clinched gold Saturday in Livigno for the second-straight Winter Games.

Kaila Kuhn, Connor Curran and Chris Lillis each finished an exceptional run to lift Team USA to 325.35, winning gold by more than 28 points over runner-up Switzerland. China, the pre-Olympics favorite by many, earned bronze with a score of 279.68.

"All of us came in so motivated after that individual event because it didn't really go any of our ways," said Kuhn, a 22-year-old from Boyne City, Michigan, who joined Lillis in earning a degree from the U. in 2022.. "We came in today motivated and strong as ever. We did some of the best jumps we've ever done and put it down when it counted."

Lillis — with then-teammates Ashley Caldwell and Justin Schoenefeld — helped the United States to gold in Beijing in 2022. This time, he was the veteran on a team featuring two youngsters. But Kuhn and Curran excelled on the biggest stage with three clean, well-composed jumps to clinch consecutive Olympic gold.

"I think the thing that makes the U.S. so special is the we live and jump for each other," he said in a team news release. "That's something in an individual sport, a lot of teams struggle with, but we do not. Connor's like a little brother to me and Kaila is family so we all jump for each other."

Team USA sets Olympic record for gold medals

The medal was the 11th gold of the Games for Team USA in Italy, the most by the federation since Salt Lake City in 2002, and came less than 24 hours after Alex Ferreira won gold in the men's freeski halfpipe on Friday evening.

Ferreira, who lived in Park City and went to Westminster from 2013-18, scored 93.75 on his third and final run to hold off Estonia's Henry Sildaru and Canada's Brendan Mackay.

Manganello's bronze was the 31st medal overall, with one more guaranteed when the United States faces Canada early Sunday morning in the men's hockey final.

The 16 medals and six gold-medal performances in women's events is also a U.S. record.

The United States is second in the medal count behind Norway, whose 40 medals includes a record 18 gold through Saturday evening. More than two-thirds of the gold medals came in the endurance sports of cross country, biathlon and nordic combined.

The United States' biggest haul came from freeskiing and speedskating, where Jordan Stolz captured a pair of gold medals.

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