Thousands of Olympic Athletes filled the historic Verona Arena on Sunday, February 22, for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony. The celebration marked the end of the bi-annual experience of global unity created as viewers and athletes alike connected over some of humanity’s most compelling stories.
This year’s Winter Olympics provided what felt like a much needed break from the increasingly bleak news cycle. For two weeks, fans tuned in to the nightly news not for updates of tragedy, but those of triumph and joy.
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Celebrating Triumph
No one embodied this joy quite like figure skater Alysa Liu. Donning her signature striped hair and big smile, Liu took home the gold medal for Team USA in women’s figure skating. The performance was electric, and Liu knew it, cheering and celebrating with her coaches before her score was even announced. But for Liu, winning was never the goal.
“I get to share my art on the world’s biggest stage. What’s not to be happy about?” Liu told reporters from Olympics.com.
Liu returned to figure skating in 2024 after retiring at age 16 following the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. She told NBC that retiring was “the best thing she could have done for herself.” Time away from the sport allowed her to let go of the pressure and finally enjoy the process.
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This year’s Olympics were a chance for Liu to finally skate for herself. “I was peak happiness when I was out there on the ice. Nothing could bring me higher than that,” Liu told Olympics.com. Viewers felt Lui’s joy through their television screens.
“Joy is an act of resistance.” The phrase, first coined by Black poet Toi Derricotte in her 2011 poem, “The Telly Cycle,” has come to be somewhat of a slogan for modern social justice movements. For the average citizen, it’s a lived reality. Experiencing joy in the face of hardship is often the way through it.
Recovering From Heartbreak
Ilia Malinin would know. Known for his fearless back flips on the ice and as the only figure skater to ever land a quadruple axel in competition, “Quad God” Malinin was set to win Olympic gold. After an incredible performance in the team skating event, the media decided he was all but guaranteed the first-place medal. All he needed to do was complete his routine, and he’d outscore his competitors. But Olympic pressure is no normal atmosphere, and 21-year-old Malinin’s performance in the men’s free skate shocked the world. Two falls and multiple un-attempted quad jumps resulted in an eighth-place finish. Watching his routine crumble was one of the most heartbreaking moments of the Olympic Games.
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In the wake of his defeat, Malinin proved that cultivating joy isn’t just resistance; it’s resilience. Malinin’s mistakes made way for Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov to take the gold. Malinin was the first to congratulate his friend.
“Medals don’t define who you are,” Malinin told Olympics.com. His love for skating was on display in his routine for the figure skating Exhibition Gala days later. His emotional performance to “Fear” by NF depicted the setbacks he faced and the journey still ahead of him. He left the ice with a smile on his face.
In today’s connected world, where 24-hour updates on the best and worst of society are just a tap or scroll away, it can feel difficult to know how to respond. The Olympics remind us that sometimes, simply celebrating what we have to celebrate is enough.
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