Liu, 20, earned the first individual Olympic medal for an American woman since Sasha Cohen’s silver in 2006 — the first gold medal winner since Sarah Hughes in 2002. And she did so with a smile, marking a triumph and return to glory for American women’s skating.

Pairs figure skating competition began on Feb. 9, 2002, dominated the early headlines.

With the 2026 Winter Olympics underway in Italy, Utah is looking back on its own Olympic legacy and the games that brought the state together in 2002.That story

2002 Olympic gold medalist Casey Fitzrandolph, also a Badger in Wisconsin, visited WMTV on Wednesday to break down the latest on the Winter Olympics.

On Feb. 8, 2002, the opening ceremonies at Rice-Eccles Stadium was just the beginning of 16 days of competition, drama, entertainment.

Park City officials studied the Lillehammer, Norway, experience as they prepared for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

US Olympic figure skater Ilia Malinin’s parents, Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, are former athletes of the sport, having both competed at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics and 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Ashley Farquharson, the second American woman to medal in luge, benefitted from programs established after the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.