The evening event included athletes who competed for Team USA in figure skating, curling, luge, speed skating, bobsledding, snowboarding, and alpine skiing, among other sports at the games held in Milan and Cortina.
“To be the best in the world, I guess you get up early in the morning … It’s really something, and they were early mornings,” Mr. Trump said of the athletes who joined him in the East Room.
“They did it for the highest privilege in all the sports, wearing the red, white and blue while representing those three proud letters on their uniform. It’s called U-S-A.”
Mr. Trump singled out several athletes in attendance, including speedskater Jordan Stolz, who hung his gold medal around Mr. Trump’s neck at a June Trump rally in Wisconsin.
Additionally, Abbey Murphy and Joy Dunne, members of the gold-winning U.S. women’s hockey team, were mentioned by Mr. Trump and shook hands with the president.
In February, the women’s hockey team turned down Mr. Trump’s offer to attend his State of the Union address collectively, citing prior scheduling obligations.
The invitation came after Mr. Trump phoned the men’s team after their gold-medal game victory over Canada and joked that he “probably would be impeached” if he did not also invite the women’s team.
Members of the men’s team, however, attended the speech and met with the president in the Oval Office in February, but were not at the event Thursday night.
He also singled out Team USA’s Paralympic men’s sled-hockey team, who brought home their fifth straight gold medal.
“Nobody’s ever done anything like it … You are really an inspiration, and thank you very much. It’s an amazing, amazing achievement that we’ll never forget,” he said.
About 40% of America’s 2026 winter-games athletes joined Mr. Trump to receive accolades from him.
The president ticked off the record number of medals Team USA won this past Winter Olympics, which included 232 athletes, the biggest U.S. squad ever.
Team USA won 33 medals, including 12 golds, the most U.S. golds in one Winter Olympics.
Additionally, 72 Team USA Paralympians earned 24 medals, including 13 golds, matching the team’s highest number in the last 20 years at a single games.
“One of the highest pleasures of the presidency is to be able to support our nation’s best athletes, and that’s what they are,” Mr. Trump said.
“And to celebrate the champions of Team USA under the Trump administration, we’re doing everything we can to protect the cherished sporting traditions that have long been part of our nation from the beginning, right from the beginning,” he added.
