Friday’s live TV and streaming broadcasts for the Milan-Cortina Olympics unless noted (subject to change). All events stream live on Peacock or NBCOlympics.com with a streaming or cable login. All times Pacific. 🏅 — medal event for live broadcasts.
MULTIPLE SPORTS 8 p.m. — “Primetime in Milan” (delay): Bobsled, speedskating, curling, hockey and more. | NBC
BIATHLON 5:15 a.m. — 🏅Men’s 15-kilometer mass start | USA 9:15 a.m. — 🏅Men’s 15-kilometer mass start (re-air) | NBC
BOBSLED 9 a.m. — Two-woman bobsled, Run 1 | NBC, Peacock 10:50 a.m. — Two-woman bobsled, Run 2 | Peacock 1:15 p.m. — Two-woman bobsled, runs 1-2 | USA
CURLING Women semifinals 5:05 a.m. — Teams TBD | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Teams TBD | Peacock 6 a.m. — Teams TBD (in progress) | USA 🏅Men’s bronze medal match 10:05 a.m. — Teams TBD | Peacock
FREESTYLE SKIING 1 a.m. — Women’s skicross, qualifying | USA 3 a.m. — 🏅Women’s skicross, finals | USA 10 a.m. — Women’s skicross, finals (re-air) | USA 10:30 a.m. — 🏅Men’s freeski halfpipe, finals | NBC
HOCKEY Men’s semifinals 7:40 a.m. — Canada vs. Finland | Peacock 8:50 a.m. — Canada vs. Finland (in progress) | USA 12:10 p.m. — U.S. vs. Slovakia | NBC
SHORT TRACK SPEEDSKATING 11:15 a.m. — 🏅Women’s 1,500 meters; men’s 5,000-meter relay finals | USA
SPEEDSKATING 7:30 a.m. — 🏅Women’s 1,500 meters | USA
South Korea win the women’s 3000m speed skating relay gold medal as Italy finish in second, meaning Arianna Fontana wins her 14th Olympic medal to become her country’s most decorated Olympian.
Great Britain’s women’s team are in a similarly precarious position.
The inexperienced rink – with only Jen Dodds surviving from the 2022 gold-medal winning team – finished sixth in last year’s World Championships and were some way short of their best against the US, with opportunities missed and mistakes made.
It looked for all the world like their chances were gone, trailing 7-6 going into the final end, and without the hammer.
However, Rebecca Morrison executed a sensational double takeout with her final throw and the Americans faltered under pressure, botching their effort to hand the British rink an implausible 8-7 triumph.
The Scottish quartet still need to win their final two games and hope for favours elsewhere if they are to salvage a place in the medal matches.
The next hurdle is a meeting with bottom-of-the-table Japan later on Wednesday (18:05 GMT) before they face second-bottom Italy on Thursday (13:05).
“There was a lot at stake but we just need to keep believing,” Morrison told BBC Sport. “We were up against it but we’re here to fight and that’s what we did.”
American star Mikaela Shiffrin cemented her status as the greatest alpine skier of all time as she won Olympic slalom gold in emphatic fashion.
Twelve years on from winning the title in Sochi aged 18, Shiffrin stormed to victory with an overall time of 1:39:10, a significant 1.50 seconds ahead of second place to become a three-time Olympic champion.
The 30-year-old put herself in pole position with a time of 47.13 seconds in the first run, a gap of 0.82 seconds to second-place Lena Duerr.
The German was the only skier to finish within one second of Shiffrin but she straddled the first gate on her second run to put herself out of medal contention.
That left Shiffrin with what was ultimately an exhibition run to take gold and she completed the run in 51.97 seconds.
Switzerland’s Camille Rast won silver while Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson took bronze.
Navigating the high slopes of Portugal’s Serra da Estrela in midwinter requires serious negotiation with the elements, but my guide, João Pedro Sousa, makes it look simple. Angling his lean frame into the wind, he digs his plastic snow-shoes into a steep drift and pauses, scanning the white ridgeline. He’s looking for mariolas– small cairns of rocks, fused by ice, that will indicate our onward trail. “The landscape changes every day so you have to learn how to read it afresh,” he says, setting off again. “At this time of year, nature is a true artist.”
I plod inelegantly in his wake, still clumsy in the frames clipped to my boots to keep me from sinking into the powder. At a quartzite outcrop rippled with rose and amber, we pause and drink in the view. Below us, cupped in the glacial scar of the Zêzere valley, is the terracotta-roofed town of Manteigas – founded in the 12th century and today the modest hub for tourism in the region. Ahead, on the horizon, João Pedro points out mainland Portugal’s highest peak, the 1,993-metre Torre, home to a small ski resort suited to beginners. “This region is full of surprises,” he grins.
As head of activities for Casa das Penhas Douradas, a design-led hotel created in 2006 and inspired by Alpine lodges, João Pedro leads treks through the massif in all seasons. More than 100 miles of trails extend from the property, following old shepherd paths into pine forests, around lagoons and across barren passes stacked with huge granite boulders – the remnants of the last ice age, scattered like a giant’s abandoned toys. This is wild country – recognised in 2020 by Unesco as a global geopark for its remarkable biodiversity and geology – but the human story is equally rich.
Guide João Pedro Sousa on one of the trails that follow old shepherd paths. Photograph: Amelia Duggan
The hotel is a renovated 100-year-old sanatorium, its 17 birch-panelled rooms and suites gazing eastwards to the rising sun. All have vast sliding windows and doors to let in the curative mountain air during the milder months. Down the main corridor, leading from one log fire-warmed sitting room to another, a gallery of sepia photographs remembers the pioneering 1881 expedition by the Lisbon Geographic Society to this high plateau, looking for a place to treat the scourge of tuberculosis.
“The refined air, pure water and protein-rich diet here worked wonders for patients. For a period at the start of the 20th century, this was Portugal’s answer to the Swiss health resorts of St Moritz or Davos,” João Pedro tells me when we are back at the lodge, warming up with apple cake and carqueja mountain tea. The chalets peppering the surrounding slopes certainly look as if they have been plucked from northern Europe, with steep roofs, sunrooms and occasional fairytale flourishes, like finials or turrets. “Built from stone, not timber, though,” João Pedro clarifies. “The style is mixed with our Lusitanian mountain architecture.”
For the rest of my stay, the Serra is a violently shaken snow globe, the whiteout preventing safe hiking and forcing a thorough exploration of the hotel instead. I shuffle between the indoor sauna and bath-temperature swimming pool; seek out the resident masseuse for a thoroughly undeserved sports massage; and indulge in a series of three-course meals where I sample the region’s famous Iberian pork – always tender and expertly sauced. Afternoons are seen out with a glass of port and a well-thumbed tome on mountaineering from the library, a lived-in space charmingly decorated with antique skiing paraphernalia. The pièce de résistance of the property? The Nordic-style wooden hot tub, which I book for a late-night soak after the storm subsides, the stars winking down at me through spindrift and steam.
A lounge with a view in Casa das Penhas Douradas. Photograph: Luis Pinheiro
As well as injecting some panache into the local tourism scene, I discover the founders of the hotel have been pivotal in saving a dying mountain craft: burel fabric, a thick, water-resistant weave made from bordaleira sheep’s wool and used for shepherds’ capes since the middle ages. “I fell in love with the local material when creating the upholstery for the hotel – it’s amazingly tough and versatile,” owner Isabel Costa tells me, as we tour her warehouse of whirring antique looms on the outskirts of Manteigas. “Nine textile mills had already gone out of business when this one closed – I knew we had to buy it.”
In 2010, the mill reopened as the Burel Factory, with a fresh directive: vibrant colours, modern designs and new applications as tactile wall art and furniture coverings, as well as fashion. Isabel was able to rehire experienced artisans, who in turn trained a new generation of craftspeople. I meet some of them in the Room of Light, where workers stand before great windows reeling bolts of cloth to check for skipped stitches. “Generations of Manteigas women have worked in this business,” seamstress Marta Neves tells me. “It’s delicate work, and with the quantity of bespoke commissions now coming in, every day is different.”
The hotel is decorated with antique skiing paraphernalia. Photograph: José Vicente
Owing to the success of her initial projects, Isabel was able to expand further, opening the town’s first five-star hotel in 2018, Casa de São Lourenço, with a third property currently in the works. The fabric of local life has been rewoven in the process: with expanding job opportunities, young people are choosing to stay and build lives. The local school has even reopened. Today, burel shops sit on Lisbon and Porto’s most upmarket thoroughfares, popularising a native art form – and a destination – long overlooked. “It was my husband who first fell in love with Manteigas. The nature, the people – it’s like nowhere else in Portugal,” Isabel says.
I stay on in the small town itself, checking into Casa das Obras, a time-warp mansion that has been in the noble Ribeiro de Portugal family since its construction between 1770 and 1825, serving as a guesthouse for the past two decades. Here, history is palpable. Stern-looking ancestors of the current owner, Maria Amélia, look down from oil paintings lining the monumental stone staircase. Lower chambers include a tapestried billiards room and bar, while the upstairs breakfast room – a living museum of antiques, trinkets and heavy drapes – boasts original ceiling art. The bedrooms are underwhelming in comparison, but there’s a pretty garden blooming with camellias, and the location is unbeatably central.
Manteigas. Photograph: Tolo Balaguer/Alamy
Not that there’s too much of Manteigas to explore. One twisting lane of commerce offers up a souvenir shop stacked with knitted socks and wool slippers; a bakery famous for creating the town’s signature sweet treat, the syrupypastel de feijoca; and a couple of delis selling wheels of creamy Serra de Estrela sheep’s cheese. The great treasure of the town is its looks, its cobbled streets and snow-dusted churches framed in all directions by dramatic valleys and forested peaks, all seemingly ripped from a storybook.
Come summer, the community will be humming with hikers and adrenaline junkies – biking, paragliding, climbing and ATV buggy rides can all be organised here, with information at the little tourist office. But for now, during its coldest months, Manteigas insists on visitors slowing down – filling their lungs with crisp air, lining their stomachs with hearty cuisine and exploring scenic mountain trails when Mother Nature allows.
The trip was supported by Casa das Penhas Douradas, where rooms start at €189 B&B, including guided hikes and a tour of the Burel Factory. Rooms at Casa das Obras start at €55 B&B. Manteigas can be reached via taxi (30min) or twice-daily bus from the town of Belmonte, which is connected to Lisbon by direct train (3h 50min).
Mouat’s rink have an excellent record against Brad Jacobs’ team, and beat them in the last four of the worlds last spring.
But the Canadians knew they could improve their own chances – and inflict a little revenge – and they started strongly, opening a 3-1 lead after three ends.
The British team are considered the world’s best, though, and righted themselves. Capitalising on a slight drop off by their opponents, they took two themselves in the fourth and another two in the six to lead with four to play.
However, the clank of granite went against them in the seventh, an unfortunate bounce leaving Canada the chance of three, which they gladly took.
Mouat and his team needed to respond. They couldn’t. Instead, they gave up a steal to leave themselves with a three-point deficit with two ends to play.
It was a deficit that they could not overcome. And now, their aspirations of upgrading their silver medal from Beijing are no longer in their own hands.
GB’s women are also in a perilous position, and also must beat the United States on Wednesday (08:05), as well as Japan later in the day (18:05) and Italy on Thursday (13:05) if they are to scrape into the last four.
Eight years later, the latest UK Sport funding allocation of just under £2m has been presented as a total for short track, figure and long track speed skating.
So short track is caught in the situation which befalls many Olympic sports in Britain – they need to perform at the Games to get more funding, but without the funding they struggle to achieve success.
Asked what work is being done to fix short track, British Olympic Association (BOA) chair Dame Katherine Grainger told BBC Sport: “As much potential as we have in that team, there is more untapped.
“It is not a sport we have a legacy in, so that opens the door – we need to learn from other countries where we can.”
Add in the fact that there are few sports in the world more chaotic and unpredictable than short track.
Christie was Britain’s most recognisable speed skater a decade ago when she won three gold medals at the 2017 World Championships, but a series of crashes and disqualifications ruined her Olympic dreams in 2014 and 2018.
And this year, Treacy’s luck was also out. Take his 1,000m final – usually this event would have six racers, but in Milan had nine because three athletes were advanced to the medal race after being illegally hindered in their semi-finals.
Would Treacy, who was running in third when he tangled with Liu, have won a medal if there were fewer men on the track? Ultimately, hypotheticals do not put cash in the bank.
Treacy could not hide his funding frustrations when speaking to the BBC following that final.
“If we only had a bit more support going through the Olympic cycle,” he said. “In the UK we don’t even have an ice centre which is safe enough for competitions.
“In the UK we have to look at ourselves and see we need a facility where we can train at the top level, instead of having to go to other countries.”
Treacy is correct that there is no venue in Britain that could host an international short track event, because there are no rinks with the soft boards needed around the border to protect racers when there are crashes.
Jamaica’s Mica Moore, from Newport in south Wales, finished four places ahead of Nicoll in 14th and was delighted with the outcome following her switch in 2022 from representing GB after claiming she had witnessed “damaging and offensive behaviour”.
Moore told BBC Sport: “I’m so happy. It has been a real tough journey to get here, it hasn’t been easy at all. I guess to me it is just a story of not giving up.
“I had a really difficult time with Great Britain and that is not secret at all and I’m just so proud I didn’t give up on myself and I’m so grateful for my family and friends for digging myself out of the trenches when it was really tough and just keep going. Moments like this make it really worth it.”
Moore began her sporting career as an athlete – representing Wales at the 2014 Commonwealth Games – before switching to bobsleigh.
Her grandfather, Venson Byfield, came to the UK in the Windrush generation and settled in Wales.
“It is a really proud moment,” she added.
“I’ve spoken a lot about my grandfather and how we came over with the Windrush generation and I never got the pleasure of meeting him, but my mum has told me so many stories about him and I just had that in my heart the whole time. I just wanted to make my family proud.
“They’ve supported me for so long. I’m 33 now so I’m quite old and they’ve never wavered in their support.
“I’ve just had the most lovely career because of them.”
The final had been delayed by more than an hour after a heavy blizzard set in at Livigno Snow Park, while Mathilde Gremaud, a heavy favourite for a medal, was one of two Swiss skiers to withdraw last-minute through injury.
That looked to have opened up the field for Muir, who had qualified in fourth for the final.
But in an astonishing first round, four skiers posted scores of 90.00 points or more, with Muir languishing in seventh and knowing she needed to go big.
She did just that, posting 93.00 with a 1620 trick, featuring four and a half rotations, the highest score of the second run and one that catapulted her up the standings into silver medal position.
At that point Gu, already a silver medallist in the slopestyle at these Games, was way off the pace having struggled with her second attempt, but she made amends on her final jump to bump Muir down into third.
The Chinese skier celebrated like her medal was confirmed at that point, despite plenty of skiers waiting in the wings to nudge her off the podium.
As it proved, they couldn’t do that, though Tabanelli’s final jump of 94.25 points – the biggest score of the night – came just 0.75 points shy of silver medal position.
That piled the pressure on Muir’s third and final jump.
She took her time at the top of the big air structure, talking through her options with her coach and decided to go for another 1620 trick with a different grab, but ultimately could not land her effort, leaving her lost in her thoughts of what might have been as she sat on the snow.
“When the scores came in for the other girls, I knew I had to give it something really, really good to try and get on that podium, so I’m stoked that I did try that,” she said.
The Winter Olympics medal hopes of Team GB’s men’s curlers have been cast into doubt after a shock 8-6 defeat by Norway left them scrambling to make the semi-finals in Cortina.
Bruce Mouat’s world champions had lost two of their opening six matches, and were expected to beat the Norwegians for their fifth victory of the competition.
Leading 4-2 after six ends, they appeared to be in good shape. But a few untimely errors, combined with a disciplined display by their unheralded opponents, left them 6-4 down with two ends left.
Mouat’s attempted triple takeout in the penultimate end was a fraction out, but still yielded two to level the scores going into the last. However, Norway held their nerve with the hammer to close out an unexpected victory.
But the British rink will need to beat both Canada on Tuesday and the United States the following day (both 18:05 GMT).
“We need to win our next two to make sure we’re definitely in the semis,” lead Hammy McMillan told BBC Sport. “We’re doing a lot of the right things, we just need to find that extra inch.”
The women’s rink are not well-placed, either, but they did deliver their best in the biggest moment to beat Denmark 7-2 and keep their hopes alive.
Having lost three of their opening four, Rebecca Morrison’s rink need victories in at least four of their final five matches to have any chance of salvaging a place in Friday’s last four – and they began that quest well.
An aggressive start was rewarded with an early 2-0 advantage and the British rink led 3-2 at the break.
Another fine two-point haul in the sixth, followed by a steal in the seventh, opened up a four-point gap with three ends to play and the Scottish quartet closed out the win.
They are back on the ice against Switzerland at 18:05 GMT in another must-win contest, live on the BBC.
Tuesday’s live TV and streaming broadcasts for the Milan-Cortina Olympics unless noted (subject to change). All events stream live on Peacock or NBCOlympics.com with a streaming or cable login. All times Pacific. 🏅 — medal event for live broadcasts.
MULTIPLE SPORTS 8 p.m. — “Primetime in Milan” (delay): Figure skating, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, short track speedskating and more. | NBC
CURLING Men (round robin) 12:05 a.m. — U.S. vs. China | Peacock 12:05 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Sweden | Peacock 12:05 a.m. — Czechia vs. Germany | Peacock 3 a.m. — U.S. vs. China (delay) | USA Women (round robin) 5:05 a.m. — Denmark vs. U.S. | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Italy vs. Japan | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — South Korea vs. Switzerland | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Sweden vs. Canada | Peacock Men (round robin) 10:05 a.m. — U.S. vs. Italy | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — Canada vs. Britain | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — Germany vs. Switzerland | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — Sweden vs. Norway | Peacock Men (round robin) 6:30 p.m. — U.S. vs. Italy (delay) | USA
BIATHLON 5:30 a.m. — 🏅Men’s 4×7.5-kilometer relay | Peacock 6:05 a.m. — 🏅Men’s 4×7.5-kilometer relay (in progress) | USA
BOBSLED 10 a.m. — Two-man bobsled, Run 3 | Peacock 12:05 p.m. — 🏅Two-man bobsled, final run | Peacock 2:30 p.m. — Two-man bobsled, runs 3-4 (delay) | USA
FIGURE SKATING 7:20 a.m. — Women’s short program, warm-up | Peacock 9:30 a.m. — Women’s short program, Part 1 | USA 11:40 a.m. — Women’s short program, Part 2 | NBC
FREESTYLE SKIING 1:45 a.m. — Women’s aerials, qualifying | USA 4:30 a.m. — Men’s aerials, qualifying | Peacock 8 a.m. — Men’s aerials, qualifying (delay) | USA 9 a.m. — Men’s and women’s aerials (re-air) | NBC 10:30 a.m. — 🏅Men’s big air, final | NBC
HOCKEY Men (qualification playoff) 3:10 a.m. — Germany vs. France| Peacock 3:10 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Italy | Peacock 7:40 a.m. — Czechia vs. Denmark | Peacock 12:10 p.m. — Sweden vs. Latvia | USA
NORDIC COMBINED 12:10 a.m. — Men’s ski jump, large hill | Peacock 1 a.m. — Men’s ski jump, large hill (delay) | USA 4:45 a.m. — 🏅Cross-country, 10 kilometers | Peacock 6:50 a.m. — Cross-country, 10 kilometers (delay) | USA
SHORT TRACK SPEEDSKATING 5:30 a.m. — Men’s and women’s team pursuit, semifinals | USA 7:20 a.m. — 🏅Men’s and women’s team pursuit, finals | USA
SNOWBOARDING 4 a.m. — 🏅Women’s slopestyle, final | USA 9:45 a.m. — Women’s slopestyle, final (re-air) | NBC
Welcome to your daily review and preview of this year’s Milan-Cortina Olympics. My name is John Cherwa and I’m your tour director for the Games as the U.S. finds a new star in speed skater Jason Stoltz. The U.S. got the trifecta on Saturday with a gold, silver and bronze.
Going into the Games, the U.S. had its usual cadre of star power that was supposed to propel the country to the top of the medal standings. But then reality set in. Ilia Malinin had a good lead heading into the free skate in men’s figure skating. Then, he had a ghastly performance, falling twice, and slipping to eighth. Chloe Kim, two-time Olympic champion in the women’s halfpipe, struggled for repeated clean runs and finished second. Then, dreamers believed Lindsey Vonn, skating with a torn ACL, could navigate the women’s downhill to the medal podium. She crashed high in the course.
Enter the latest star for the United States. Speed skater Jordan Stolz, who picked up his second gold of the Games by winning the men’s 500 meters to go with his gold in the 1,000 meters. Both were set in Olympic record time. The 21-year-old from Wisconsin still has at least two events to go, hoping to up his personal and the U.S. medal count. He’s set to compete in the men’s 1,500 (Thursday), and the men’s mass start (Saturday).
The only other medals the U.S. won on Saturday were in the freestyle skiing women’s dual moguls. An Aussie was the winner, but Jaelin Kauf got the silver and Liz Lemley (not to be confused with 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon) won the B final for the bronze. This was the first appearance of dual moguls in the Olympics.
Catching up on the men’s hockey stage, the Kings suffered a severe blow when forward Kevin Fiala sustained a season-ending injury playing for Switzerland on Friday. Fiala had a tough collision with Canada’s Tom Wilson with only a couple of minutes to play in the game. He was stretchered off with a lower leg injury. He had surgery in Italy on Saturday morning and was said to be done for both Olympic and NHL competition the rest of this season.
The Kings are on the cusp of making the playoffs and this, no doubt, will make their road to the postseason that much more difficult. Fiala had 18 goals and 40 points so far this season in 56 games.
NBC should ask Today show personalities Craig Melvin, Al Roker and Dylan Dryer to turn in their journalistic credentials after an embarrassing, saccharine interview with IOC President Kirsty Coventry on the Third Hour of “Today” on Friday. There should have been a warning that watching the interview could cause an immediate increase in blood sugar. The trio, doing the interview from New York, covered such difficult topics of how much fun everyone is having in Italy, how the Olympic spirit is pervasive and, of course, how cuddly the mascots are.
But in no way did they address what would have been the first question any legit journalist would ask, Coventry’s barring of Ukranian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych for wanting to honor his fallen Ukranian athletes with stickers on his racing helmet was never mentioned. We’ll give you that Roker and Dryer are meteorologists, but there is no excuse for Melvin’s lack of journalistic chops.
Elsewhere on Saturday
— Good day for U.S. curlers as the women (2-1 record) beat Japan 7-4, while the men (2-2) beat Germany 8-6. (Valentine’s Day moment at restaurant. My wife: “Are you the only one here straining to see the curling score on TV?” Answer: “Yes.”)
— The U.S. men’s team (2-0) rallied from a 2-1 deficit to beat Denmark 6-3. Germany is next.
— Brazil topped three Swiss skiers, who finished second through fourth, to win the men’s giant slalom. River Radamus of the U.S. was 17th.
— Norway, on its way to its 10th gold medal, won the women’s 4×7.5 km cross country relay, upsetting Sweden. The U.S. managed a fifth-place finish.
— Austria upset Germany, which finished second and third, in the women’s skeleton. Kelly Curtis of the U.S. was 12th.
—- Slovenia picked up its first gold of the Games in the men’s ski jumping, large hill. Tate Frantz of the U.S. was 19th.
— Norway — who else? — won the women’s 7.5 km sprint in the biathlon. France got silver and bronze. Deedra Irwin was the top U.S. competitor in 47th.
Best Thing to Watch on TV today
We went off the board yesterday and picked the men’s 500 in speed skating as our best bet. Turned out a wise choice. Today, let’s make another swerve and look to the mixed team snowboard cross, in which the U.S. is the defending gold champion. You’ve got returnee Nick Baumgartner, 44, with new partner Faye Thelen. He won gold in Beijing with Lindsey Jacobellis, who is taking a break this year. The qualification starts at 4:45 a.m. PST, with the finals at 5:35 a.m. PST. After a day off, the figure skating gets back on the ice with the pairs short program. The U.S. team of Ellie Kim and Danny O’Shea is going 14th of 19th pairs with a 10:15 a.m. PST start for competition. The U.S. men’s hockey team (2-0) plays Germany at 12:10 p.m. PST.
Favorite photo of the day
The Netherlands’ speedskater Jenning de Boo clutches his head after losing to American Jordan Stolz in the 500 final in Milan on Saturday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Times photographer Robert Gauthier is at the Winter Olympics. Each day Times newsletter editor Houston Mitchell will select a favorite photo from the many he has taken.
Sunday’s Olympic TV and streaming schedule
Sunday’s live TV and streaming broadcasts for the Milan-Cortina Olympics unless noted (subject to change). All events stream live on Peacock or NBCOlympics.com with a streaming or cable login. All times Pacific. 🏅 — medal event for live broadcasts.
MULTIPLE SPORTS 8 p.m. — “Primetime in Milan” (delay): Skiing, figure skating, bobsled, speedskating and more. | NBC
ALPINE SKIING 1 a.m. — Women’s giant slalom, Run 1 | USA 4:30 a.m. — 🏅Women’s giant slalom, Run 2 | NBC
CURLING Men (round robin) 12:05 a.m. — U.S. vs. Sweden | Peacock 12:05 a.m. — Germany vs. Britain | Peacock 12:05 a.m. — Norway vs. Italy | Peacock Women (round robin) 5:05 a.m. — U.S. vs. China | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Denmark vs. Italy | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Britain vs. Sweden | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Japan vs. South Korea | Peacock 5:30 a.m. — U.S. vs. China (in progress) | CNBC Men (round robin) 8 a.m. — U.S. vs. Sweden (delay) | CNBC 10:05 a.m. — U.S. vs. Norway | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — China vs. Canada | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — Britain vs. Switzerland | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — Italy vs. Czechia | Peacock
FIGURE SKATING 8:20 a.m. — Pairs, short program, warmup | Peacock 10:30 a.m. — Pairs, short program | USA Noon — Pairs, short program | NBC
FREESTYLE SKIING 1:40 a.m. — 🏅Men’s dual moguls, final | USA 9:30 a.m. — Men’s dual moguls, final (re-air) | NBC 10:40 a.m. — Men’s big air, qualifying | NBC
HOCKEY Men (group play) 3 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Czechia | CNBC 7:40 a.m. — Canada vs. France | USA 10 a.m. — Denmark vs. Latvia | CNBC 12:10 p.m. — U.S. vs. Germany | USA
SKELETON 9 a.m. — 🏅Mixed team event | Peacock 10:15 a.m. — Mixed team event (delay) | NBC
SKI JUMPING 8:30 a.m. — 🏅Women’s large hill, finals | Peacock
SNOWBOARDING 4:45 a.m. — 🏅Mixed team snowboard cross, finals | USA 5:30 a.m. — Mixed team snowboard cross, finals | NBC
SPEEDSKATING 7 a.m. — Men’s team pursuit, qualifying | NBC 8 a.m. — 🏅Women’s 500 meters | NBC
In case you missed it …
Check out the following Milan-Cortina Olympics dispatches from the L.A. Times team on the ground in Italy:
That concludes today’s Sports Report Olympic Edition newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email newsletter editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here and select the Sports Report.
Monday’s live TV and streaming broadcasts for the Milan-Cortina Olympics unless noted (subject to change). All events stream live on Peacock or NBCOlympics.com with a streaming or cable login. All times Pacific. 🏅 — medal event for live broadcasts.
MULTIPLE SPORTS
8 p.m. — “Primetime in Milan” (delay): Figure skating, skiing, bobsled, short track speedskating and more. | NBC
ALPINE SKIING 1 a.m. — Men’s slalom, Run 1 | USA 4:20 a.m. — 🏅Men’s slalom, Run 2 | Peacock 4:30 a.m. — 🏅Men’s slalom, Run 2 (in progress) | USA 11:45 a.m. — Men’s slalom (re-air) | NBC
BOBSLED 1 a.m. — Two-man bobsled, Run 1 | Peacock 2:55 a.m. — Two-man bobsled, Run 2 | Peacock 4 a.m. — Two-man bobsled, runs 1 and 2 (delay) | USA 10 a.m. — Women’s monobob, Run 3 | NBC 12:05 p.m. — 🏅Women’s monobob, final run | Peacock 12:30 p.m. — 🏅Women’s monobob, final run (in progress) | NBC
CURLING Women (round robin) 12:05 a.m. — China vs. Canada | Peacock 12:05 a.m. — Denmark vs. Britain | Peacock 12:05 a.m. — Sweden vs. Switzerland | Peacock Men (round robin) 5:05 a.m. — Czechia vs. Canada | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Britain vs. Norway | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Italy vs. China | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Sweden vs. Germany | Peacock Women (round robin) 7:15 a.m. — China vs. Canada (delay) | USA Men (round robin) 8:30 a.m. — Britain vs. Norway (delay) | USA Women round robin 10:05 a.m. — U.S. vs. Italy | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — Japan vs. Canada | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — South Korea vs. China | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Britain | Peacock
FREESTYLE SKIING 10:30 a.m. — 🏅Women’s big air, final | NBC
HOCKEY Women’s semifinals 7:40 a.m. — U.S. vs. Sweden | NBC 12:10 p.m. — Canada vs. Switzerland | Peacock 1:15 p.m. — Canada vs. Switzerland (in progress) | USA
SHORT TRACK SPEEDSKATING 2 a.m. — 🏅Women’s 1,000 meters final and more | Peacock 3:55 a.m. — Women’s 1,000 meters, final (delay) | USA 9:45 a.m. — Women’s 1,000 meters final and more (delay) | USA
SKI JUMPING 9 a.m. — 🏅Men’s super team, large hill | Peacock
SNOWBOARDING 1:30 a.m. — Women’s slopestyle, qualifying | Peacock 1:50 a.m. — Women’s slopestyle, qualifying (in progress) | USA 5 a.m. — Men’s slopestyle, qualifying | Peacock 5:30 a.m. — Men’s slopestyle, qualifying (in progress) | USA 7 a.m. — Women’s slopestyle, qualifying (delay) | NBC
Matt Weston produced a stunning run to make more history in Cortina as he became the first Briton to win two gold medals at a Winter Olympics with a thrilling victory in the mixed team skeleton event alongside Tabitha Stoecker.
Stoecker had given Weston a tough task with her run of 1:00.77, 0.30 seconds off the pace of the Germans with the British pair, ranked top seeds, the last to run.
But Weston, who stormed to gold on Friday – Team GB’s first medal at the Games – showed why he is the best skeleton racer in the world with a sublime 58.59secs run to clinch his second triumph of the Games.
It is the first time Great Britain have won three gold medals at a single Winter Olympics after Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale won snowboard cross mixed team gold earlier on Sunday.
A second British team, Marcus Wyatt and Freya Tarbit, missed out on a medal by an agonising 0.01secs as the two German teams of Christopher Grotheer and Jacqueline Pfeifer and Axel Jungk and Susanne Kreher took silver and bronze, respectively.
Great Britain’s Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale react to winning their history making gold medal in the mixed team snowboard cross at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale won snowboard cross mixed team gold – Team GB’s first ever Winter Olympic title on snow.
After heartbreak in their individual events, the British pair made amends with an astonishing performance to add Olympic gold to the World Championship title they won in 2023.
In an event that sees the men race first, Nightingale crossed the line in second place to set up Bankes perfectly – and she used her remarkable speed on the board to take the lead and pip Italy’s Michela Moioli to the line.
It marked a second successive silver in this event for Moioli and Lorenzo Sommariva, while France’s Loan Bozzolo and Lea Casta took bronze.
Bankes, a former individual world champion and two-time overall World Cup winner, was left crestfallen on Friday when she exited the women’s event in the quarter-finals, just as she did four years ago in Beijing, despite being widely tipped for a medal.
Similarly, Nightingale was left wanting much more from himself after exiting the men’s competition in the round of 16, but found another level to produce arguably his best racing alongside Bankes.
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, Norway’s king of cross-country skiing, became the Winter Olympics’ outright most successful athlete with a record ninth gold medal.
Klaebo led his nation to the top of the podium in the men’s 4×7.5km relay – alongside team-mates Emil Iversen, Martin Loewstroem Nyenget and Einar Hedegart – for his fourth title of the Milan-Cortina Games.
At 29 years old, it adds to the three golds he won in Pyeongchang in 2018 and two in Beijing four years later, while he is also a 15-time world champion.
His medal haul could yet grow further, with two further opportunities for gold in the men’s team sprint on Wednesday and 50km classic race on Saturday.
In Sunday’s relay, the Norwegian quartet won by a 22.2 second margin, with France and hosts Italy winning silver and bronze respectively.
Team GB’s men’s curlers took a step closer to securing a Winter Olympics semi-final place as they compiled an accomplished victory over Germany.
Bruce Mouat’s world champions have now won four of their opening five matches in northern Italy, with six victories almost certain to guarantee a place in the last four and a shot at the medals.
The Scottish quartet beat their German counterparts in both the European and the World Championships last year and were rarely in danger here.
Level at 2-2 after three ends, the British rink moved smoothly into a 5-2 advantage at the interval, then accelerated clear with a further steal of two in the seventh end.
Germany were floundering at that stage and, although they cut the deficit, Mouat closed out another couple in the ninth end to secure the win.
The men are back on the ice later on Sunday, against the unbeaten Switzerland (18:05 GMT).
Before then, the GB women will play their fourth match, with the fancied Sweden their opponents (13:05) as they try to revive their own semi-final hopes.
Brazil became the first South American country to win gold at the Winter Olympics with Lucas Pinheiro Braathen securing victory in the giant slalom event in Italy. At the press conference afterwards, Braathen said hearing Brazil’s national anthem was a proud moment after growing up watching its football team triumph.
MILAN — Before the final competitors hit the last turn, Jordan Stolz’s coach was already unfolding a U.S. flag.
The 21-year-old speedskating star won his second Olympic medal of the Milan-Cortina Games, setting an Olympic record in the 500 meters on Saturday at 33.77 seconds. He edged out the Nedtherlands’ Jenning de Boo, who was paired with Stolz and finished 0.11 seconds behind the U.S. star. Canada’s Laurent Debreuril took bronze at 34.26 seconds, which also stood as the Olympic record for three pairs before Stolz blazed through Milano Speed Skating Stadium.
Stolz is attempting an ambitious four-event program at the Milan-Cortina Games and already won the 1,000-meter gold medal this week. He will also compete in the 1,500 meters and the team pursuit.
Stolz is the first U.S. man to win the 500 meter at the Olympics since Joey Cheek in 2006. He is the first U.S. man to win gold in the 500 and 1,000 at the same Olympics since Eric Heiden in 1980.
He took a victory lap around the arena as red, white and blue-clad fans chanted “U-S-A!” Even the Dutch fans, forming a wall of bright orange all around the racing oval, clapped in admiration as Stolz held the U.S. flag above his head.
Gold medalist Jordan Stolz of the United States, center, celebrates on the podium with silver medalist Jenning de Boo of the Netherlands, left, and bronze medalist Laurent Dubreuil of Canada after the men’s 500 meters in speedskating at Winter Games on Saturday.
Welcome to the Olympic Edition of the Sports Report, an L.A. Times newsletter published every morning during the Winter Olympics. To sign up to receive it via email (it’s free), go here and select The Sports Report. If you’ve already signed up for the Sports Report, you will receive the Olympics edition as well.
Welcome to your daily review and preview of this year’s Milan-Cortina Olympics. My name is John Cherwa and I’m your tour director for the Games as we learn how thin the line is between greatness and failure.
In the most shocking moment of the Games so far, U.S. figure skater Ilia Malinin had the gold at his doorstep but instead had a dreadful performance, falling twice and giving the gold to Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan. The feeling in the arena was that there with no way Malinin could lose with his big lead after the short program. Then his main competitor, Yuma Yagiyama of Japan, had a subpar skate just before Malinin took the ice as the last skater of the night.
But Malinin missed his first combo and could never regain his composure in what was likely his worst performance in a major competition in quite some time. He finished eighth but at age 21, we could see him in a future Olympics. It was Malinin’s first loss since Nov. 2023.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we thought we should look at some of the athlete couples at the Games. We compiled the list from People, so we take no responsibility for last-minute fights or splits (other than time splits, of course).
Madison Chock and Evan Bates: U.S. ice dancers. Won the silver with a gold-medal performance.
Brittany Bowe and Hilary Knight: U.S. speedskater Bowe finished fourth in the women’s 1,000 meters and has the 1,500 and team pursuit to go. Knight plays for the U.S. women’s hockey team, which is in the semifinals.
Nicole Silveira and Kim Meylemans: Both are in the women’s skeleton with Silveira competing for Brazil and Meylemans for Belgium. After two of four heats, Meylemans is eighth and Silveira is 12th.
Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey: Both are members of the Canadian women’s hockey team, who, despite losing to the U.S. in pool play, is expected to contend for a medal.
Magnus Nedregotten and Kristin Skaslien: This pair’s love is on the rocks … or stones if your prefer. They are curlers for Norway. They finished sixth in the mixed competition.
Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant: It’s another curling pair swept to each other’s brooms. The Canadians finished fifth in the mixed competition.
Ronja Savolainen and Anna Kjellbin: These hockey players play for two different countries, Savolainen for Finland and Kjellbin for Sweden. Both countries made the quarterfinals with Sweden already advancing to the semifinals.
Hunter Powell and Kaysha Love: This U.S. bobsledding couple will see competition soon, Powell in the four-man and Love in both singles and doubles.
Emily and Dominik Fischnaller. This luge couple will bring back some hardware. Dominik, who sleds for Italy, took bronze in singles and team relay. Emily, who competes for the U.S., was 12th in singles.
There are certainly others, and some in the making as we speak, but this is a sampling.
Elsewhere on Friday
Italy is on fire at these Games but were not hot enough to beat the U.S. in women’s hockey. The U.S. won 6-0 and will move to the semifinals.
France, followed by two from Norway, won the biathlon men’s 10-kilometer sprint. The best U.S. finisher was Campbell Wright in 12th.
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, the GOAT of cross-country skiing, won his eighth lifetime gold for Norway by winning the men’s 10-kilometer interval start free. He is tied for most lifetime gold medals in the Winter Games and has three more events. John Steel Hagenbuch of the U.S. was 14th.
The U.S. and Canada played each other in both men’s and women’s curling. The women won, 9-8, (now 2-1) and the men lost, 6-3, (1-2).
The U.S. was shut out on snowboard with Australia winning gold in women’s snowboard cross and Japan getting gold and bronze in men’s halfpipe.
Matt Weston, the world champion from Britain, won men’s skeleton. Germans won silver and bronze. Austin Florian of the U.S. was 12th.
A 19-year-old from Czechia won the men’s 10,000 meters in speedskating. The U.S. did not compete.
Best Thing to Watch on TV today
Today is the day to take a breath from figure skating. It also seems to be a good time for your tour guide to admit something: I have absolutely no idea if the skaters are doing three, three and a half, four or four and a half rotations when they are in air in real time. OK, I said it. Are you nodding your head in affirmation right now? Thought so. OK, let’s go to something different for today.
The best bet will be the men’s 500 meters in speed skating. Jordan Stolz, the winner of the 1,000 for the U.S., will be in the 12th pair in the event which starts at 8 a.m PST. This isn’t his best event but he should have confidence and momentum going his way. If you need your hockey fix, the U.S. men play Denmark around 12:10 p.m.
Favorite photo of the day
France’s Adam Siao Him Fa performs a backflip while competing in the figure skating men’s free skate Friday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Times photographer Robert Gauthier is at the Winter Olympics. Each day Times newsletter editor Houston Mitchell will select a favorite photo from the many he has taken.
Saturday’s Olympic TV and streaming schedule
Saturday’s live TV and streaming broadcasts for the Milan-Cortina Olympics unless noted (subject to change). All events stream live on Peacock or NBCOlympics.com with a streaming or cable login. All times Pacific. 🏅 — medal event for live broadcasts.
MULTIPLE SPORTS
8 p.m. — “Primetime in Milan” (delay): Alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, speedskating and more. | NBC
ALPINE SKIING 1 a.m. — Men’s giant slalom, Run 1 | USA 4:30 a.m. 🏅Men’s giant slalom, Run 2 | NBC
CURLING Women (round robin) 12:05 a.m. — Britain vs. Canada | Peacock 12:05 a.m. — Italy vs. China | Peacock 12:05 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Japan | Peacock 4:30 a.m. — Britain vs. Canada (delay) | USA Men (round robin) 5:05 a.m. — Germany vs. U.S. | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Czechia vs. Britain | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Sweden vs. China | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Canada | Peacock Women (round robin) 5:30 a.m. — Italy vs. China (delay) | CNBC Men (round robin) 10 a.m. — Germany vs. U.S. (delay) | CNBC Women (round robin) 10:05 a.m. — Japan vs. U.S. | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — Canada vs. Switzerland | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — Italy vs. Sweden | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — South Korea vs. Denmark | Peacock 2:30 p.m. — Japan vs. U.S. (delay) | CNBC
HOCKEY Men (group play) 3 a.m. — Germany vs. Latvia | CNBC 3:10 a.m. — Sweden vs. Slovakia | Peacock 7:40 a.m. — Finland vs. Italy | USA Women (quarterfinals) 7:40 a.m. — Canada vs. Germany | CNBC 12:10 p.m. — Finland vs. Switzerland | CNBC Men (group play) 12:10 p.m. — U.S. vs. Denmark | USA
SKELETON 9 a.m. — Women, Run 3 | NBC 10:35 a.m. — Women, final run | Peacock 2:30 p.m. — Women, runs 3-4 (delay) | USA
SHORT TRACK SPEEDSKATING 11:15 a.m. — 🏅Men’s 1,500 meters final and more | Peacock 3:15 p.m. — 🏅Men’s 1,500 meters final and more | USA
SKI JUMPING 8:30 a.m. — Men’s large hill, trial round| Peacock 10 a.m. — 🏅Men’s large hill, final round | USA
SPEEDSKATING 7 a.m. — Women’s team pursuit, qualifying | USA 8 a.m. — 🏅Men’s 500 meters | NBC
In case you missed it …
Check out the following Milan-Cortina Olympics dispatches from the L.A. Times team on the ground in Italy:
That concludes today’s Sports Report Olympic Edition newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email newsletter editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here and select the Sports Report.
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Axel Brown, the pilot of Trinidad and Tobago’s bobsled team, came to the Milan-Cortina Winter Games with a simple goal.
“Just don’t come last,” he said. “We know that there is a 0% chance of us contending for medals. It doesn’t matter if we have the absolute best day we’ve ever had.
“That’s just the reality of it. It’s not defeatist, it’s not negative. It’s just being realistic.”
But it’s also realistic to believe that Trinidad, just by being in the competition, is furthering something of a revolution in the Winter Olympics in general, and in bobsledding in particular.
When Jamaica debuted in the event in 1988, it was so novel it inspired the 1993 Disney movie “Cool Runnings.” Now, it’s no longer unusual to see a team from a tropical climate competing in the Winter Games; there are 11 Caribbean and South American countries, plus Puerto Rico, competing in the Milan-Cortina Olympics.
When the bobsled competition in Cortina begins Sunday, Trinidad will have teams in the two- and four-man events for the first time, while Jamaica will compete in both those events as well as the monobob. Brazil will also be there.
And Brown says it’s only a matter of time — and money — before others join and start contending for medals.
“There’s a very deep talent pool in Caribbean bobsled, one that could make a world-class bobsled program without a doubt,” he said.
That’s because bobsled races are often won or lost at the start, where speed, explosive power and acceleration are vital in getting the 400-pound sled moving. Sprinters have all those traits.
“Even more specific, it’s usually big sprinters,” said Curtis Tomasevicz, a former football player at Nebraska who won Olympic gold and silver medals in the bobsled before becoming a coach with the U.S. team. “They’ve got just an athleticism that is very applicable to pushing sleds.”
Jamaica takes part in a training run at the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games on Friday.
(Al Bello / Getty Images)
And the best sprinters in the world come from the Caribbean — so many, in fact, that trying to make a national team for the Summer Olympics can seem like trying to win the lottery. The Winter Games offer another path.
“In Trinidad and Tobago, there’s a wealth of sprinting talent. So an athlete that in another nation may be the best in the country doesn’t necessarily get a look in Trinidad,” Brown said. “What we’ve been able to do is kind of give those athletes that were maybe on the fringe an option at achieving all of their sporting goals, just doing it in a different way.
“They’ve been training for bobsled their entire lives. They just didn’t know it.”
The transition can be difficult just the same. The first time Trinidad’s Micah Moore, a former sprinter, rode a sled, he said he thought he was going to die.
“I was scared out of my mind,” he said. “I was legitimately feeling, ‘I just want this to be over.’
“After that feeling came off, I was like, ‘Let’s go again.’ It’s an adrenaline rush. There’s no amount of words I could put to say how it felt in that moment.”
If Caribbean bobsledders are deep in talent, what they lack are world-class facilities and funding. In the former they’re hardly alone, said Tomasevicz.
“There are a lot of other nations that obviously don’t have a home track to practice on,” he said. “Even Great Britain, they don’t have a track in their country. So they have to spend time in other nations actually training for the sport.”
Trying to find the money is an even bigger problem — especially for Trinidad, which Brown said was the only team in Cortina that didn’t receive government funding.
“Bobsled is an expensive sport,” Trinidad’s Xaverri Williams said. “We’ve been trying to negotiate with our [national Olympic committee], our Ministry of Sport, reaching out to individuals who are willing to help us.”
Trinidad doesn’t even have a decent sled; it will be racing Sunday with an old secondhand one the team owes money on. Getting a new one that would be competitive with the best in the world could easily cost $250,000 or more.
“You need the funds to further develop the broader program, the recruitment, the [research and development] of the equipment. Everything that there is involved in bobsled,” said Brown, was born in England to a Trinidadian mother, which allows him to compete for the island in the Olympics. “And you need to be able to sustain that.”
You also need the belief that it’s possible to succeed in an icy winter sport even though you’re from a sun-washed country where the average annual temperature is 80 degrees. Jamaica provided that.
“We do in fact look up to them,” Williams said. “When those guys initially slided, it was an eye-opener for the rest of the world, that a Caribbean nation could actually compete. They inspired us.”
“I’m very proud of that,” said Chris Stokes, a four-time Olympian and member of the “Cool Runnings” team who is now president of the country’s bobsled federation.
The next step is to outgrow the novelty and become medal contenders, something Stokes says Jamaica can do by the 2034 Games in Salt Lake City. A top-12 finish in Cortina would keep them on pace to do that, he said.
As for Trinidad and Tobago, Brown said they faced so many challenges just getting to Italy that they considered it a victory when they checked into the Olympic village.
