The medal table is settled. The cauldrons are out. Most athletes have already posted their first "back home" photos. But these Games produced a set of moments that are going to come up again: in previews for the 2028 Summer Paralympics, in coverage of whatever athletes do next, in conversations about what the Winter Games have become. Here are the ten that'll be referenced the longest.

1. Laurie Stephens Carried the Flag Into Her Sixth Games

In 2006, Laurie Stephens made her Paralympic debut in Torino, Italy. She won two golds. Twenty years later, her teammates voted her to carry the U.S. flag into the Verona Arena for her sixth and final Games, also in Italy. She raced her last giant slalom on Day 6. The result doesn't change what that arc looked like.

2. Twenty-Eight Nations Stood Still at Verona

The opening ceremony at a UNESCO World Heritage Site was supposed to be one of the defining images of these Games. It was, but not only for the reasons the IPC planned. When the parade of nations reached the floor, 28 of 55 national teams didn't walk out. The IPC's decision to allow Russia and Belarus to compete under their national flags triggered the largest mass boycott in Paralympic ceremony history. The empty gaps in the parade were visible on every broadcast.

3. Ukraine Boycotted the March, Then Led the Medal Table

Ukraine was among the nations that refused to march in Verona. Their athletes competed for nine straight days. Through Day 3, they led the medal table outright, including a fully Ukrainian podium in men's para biathlon sprint for visually impaired athletes. They finished seventh overall with 17 total medals. Competing at full intensity while their federation held its ground politically. Those two things ran in parallel for the whole of the competition.

4. Kendall Gretsch Opened the Games With Gold

On Day 1, in the first biathlon medal event of the competition, Kendall Gretsch won the women's sitting category. She's the defending Paralympic champion. The result set an early tone for what became one of her strongest individual campaigns: she added a Day 7 biathlon sprint pursuit gold and two bronze medals across biathlon and cross-country before the final day. She medaled in four separate events across nine days.

5. Patrick Halgren Left "SvendIt" Stickers Across Cortina

Before his Day 3 super-G run at Tofane, Patrick Halgren placed stickers around the Cortina venue with the word "SvendIt", a tribute to his twin brother Lucan Sven, killed in a motorcycle accident in 2016. Then he won silver. His parents flew to Italy for only the third time in their lives to watch it happen. When the sun came out over Tofane after his run, he said he knew. His first Paralympic podium, earned with his brother's name on every wall.

6. Noah Elliott and Kate Delson Won Gold on the Same Day

Day 7 at Livigno produced one of the cleaner narrative results of the Games. Noah Elliott won the SB-LL1 banked slalom gold, with Kate Delson winning the SB-LL2 within hours. Elliott had called Milan his "redemption games" before the competition began: he raced Beijing with a femur fragment protruding through his skin and finished fourth. He got what he came for. Delson is 20 years old, made her Paralympic debut at these Games, and won it. Both Americans, same sport, same day, both on top.

7. Oksana Masters Added Her 22nd Paralympic Medal

Oksana Masters came into Milano Cortina after missing most of last season to a serious leg infection. She'd already been to five Winter Games before this one. On Day 4 at Tesero, she crossed the line in the middle-distance cross-country to claim her 22nd career Paralympic medal. She finished with five medals across nine days: two golds, two bronzes at Tesero and in biathlon, and a silver. She's been doing this since Vancouver 2010, and she isn't done.

8. Jake Adicoff Went Four for Four at Tesero

Jake Adicoff entered every individual cross-country skiing event on the schedule and won them all: sprint, middle distance, pursuit, 20km. Four golds in four different formats, each demanding a different physiological approach. The 20km and the sprint don't reward the same athlete. He won both. No other para cross-country skier at these Games went four for four. That's a difficult thing to explain away as favorable conditions.

9. Four Countries Reached the Podium for the First Time

Kazakhstan's Yerbol Khamitov won gold in para biathlon, the first Winter Paralympic gold in Kazakh history. Brazil's Cristian Ribera won silver in para cross-country sitting, Brazil's first medal at a Winter Paralympics. Latvia won bronze in wheelchair curling mixed doubles, which was itself making its Paralympic debut. Belarus, competing under the Neutral Paralympic Athletes designation, won a first-ever Winter Paralympic gold through Raman Svirydzenka in cross-country sprint standing. Four countries, one Games, all at the Winter podium for the first time.

10. Declan Farmer Set Every Record. Josh Pauls Made History.

Para ice hockey won its fifth consecutive gold medal with a 6-2 win over Canada in the championship game. Two individual performances inside that run deserve to stand separately. Declan Farmer entered the tournament needing 34 career points to become the all-time scoring leader in Paralympic hockey history. He left it with 58, having scored 14 goals and 24 points at these Games alone, both the single-Games records he set and then kept extending. He had consecutive hat tricks in four straight preliminary games. Josh Pauls became the only player in history with five consecutive Paralympic gold medals in hockey. Neither of those marks is going to be easy to reach.

The 2030 Winter Paralympics go to the French Alps, March 1-10. The qualifying cycle opens in 2027.