Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics Preview

 

So for everybody that knows me, they know that I absolutely LOVE the Olympics!!!  Always have, ever since I was a kid.  I used to read books and watch video series just on the Olympics.  The book Rome 1960 by David Maraniss is one the best sports books ever written.  (And he has written some GREAT ones!).  So, be prepared for daily recaps from all the competitions as we start the quadrennial soiree this week.

But, for starters, I am going to kick-off the Milano-Cortina games.  This is Mialno's first time hosting the games; Cortina d'Ampezzo hosted the Games in 1956.  This kick-off is going to highlight the best bets to win medals in the games.  Since some events - like hockey - have so much talent, any given country isn't likely to actually medal compared to some of the individual events, so this list is heavily focused on individuals (or small teams).  Let's kick it off ...

10.  Chloe Kim - Snowboarding - USA 

Kim is the two-time defending gold medalist in the half-pipe, having secured the gold in Pyeongchang in 2018 and repeated in Beijing in 2022.  Her main competitors are her teammate Maddie Mastro, New Zealand's Zoe Sadowski-Synott, and Murase Kokomo from Japan.

9.  Marielle Thompson/BandonMackay - Freestyle Skiing - CAN

Two of Canada's most likely individual medalist as Thompson returns to the Olympics having won gold in 2014 in Sochi, and silver in Beijing in 2022 in Ski-Cross.  MacKay enters his second Olympics looking for his first medal, but his is the reigning world champ in the half-pipe. 

8.  Hwang Dae-heon- Short Track Speedskating - KOR

Arguably the best of a very talented South Korean short track speedskating team, he gets the nod here even though youngster Rim Jong-un won the national team trials.  This team might be unbeatable in the relays, except the variables in this sport (one slip, bump or another falling skater) are higher than any other!

7.  Ilia Malinin - Figure Skating - USA

The "Quad God" is the overwhelming favorite for men's gold (as he should be) having just recently won the World Championships by landing seven - YES 7!!! - quads.

6.  Eileen Gu - Freestyle Skiiing - CHN

The extremely talented American-born 22-year old has already made her mark in the sport, having won 2 golds (Big Air/Halfpipe) and 1 silver (Slopestyle) in Beijing in 2022 and several World Championships, Winter X Games, and World Cup podiums!

5.  Stefan Kraft - AUT/Ryoyu Kobayashi - JAP - Ski Jumping

Kraft is one of the most successful ski jumpers of all time, having won 45 times and placed on the podium 127 in individual starts, and 17 wins with 46 podiums in 65 team starts.  The only thing missing is major Olympic success with just 1 team gold in 7 total events across the last two Olympics.  Kobayashi has 37 wins and 77 podiums in 245 starts, with 1 team win, and 10 podium in 53 team starts.  He is the reigning gold medalist in the normal hill and reigning silver medalist in the large hill.

4.  Scotty James - AUS/Ayumu Hirano - JAP - Snowboarding

You should expect nothing but medals from these two, as James has previously won silver (2022) and bronze (2018) in the Olympic halfpipe, but 8 golds, 2 silvers and 2 bronzes in the Winter X Games, and 4 golds and 1 silver in the World Championships.  Hirano is the reigning gold medalist in the halfpipe, having won 2 previous silvers in the same event in 2014 and 2018.  He has also won 2 golds and 2 silvers in teh Winter X Games.

3.  Mikaela Shiffrin - Alpine Skiing - USA

Lindsay Vonn receives all of the hype, but even before her recent ACL tear Shiffrin was the surer bet.  The greatest female alpine skier is the hands-down favorite to win the slalom, and among the favorites in the giant slalom and combined.

2.  Johanes Hosflot-Klaebo - Cross-Country Skiing/Jarl Magnus Riiber - Nordic Combined/Johanes Thingnes Bo - Biathlon - NOR

These three giants are among the reason that the overwhelming favorite to win the most medals and most golds is Norway.

1.    Francesco Friedrich/Johannes Lochner - Bobsled - GER

These two bobnsledding legends are likely to finish 1-2 in both the 2-man and 4-man bobsledding events.  The only question is who will best whom?  Friedrich won gold driver both the 2-man and 4-man sleds in Pyeongchang (2018) and Beijing (2022) and Lochner won silver in both events in Beijing.  This year Lochner has 6 firsts and 1 second in 7 2-man events, and 3 firsts and 4 seconds in 7 4-man events.  Friedrich has 1 first, 4 seconds and 2 thirds in the 7 2-man events and 2 first, 2 seconds and 2 thirds in the 4-man.  One site even ranks Friedrich as the 30th greatest German athlete of all time, and no doubt, both of these men will rise on that list with expected performances in Milano-Cortina.  Here is the link to that list of the Best German Athletes

Olympics - Beijing 2022 - Day 7

Day 7 - February 10, 2022

7

To be honest, I didn't have the opportunity to watch much of the Olympics for this day, but that doesn't mean that I couldn't keep up with the happenings!

The United States Hockey team started off slow in its opener against China but rode a Sean Farrell hat trick - along with 2 assists - to win 8-0.  Farrell, most recently of Harvard, is one of the collegiate/non-NHL professionals suiting up for the Americans given that the NHL is not participating in these Olympics.  The US should have beaten China, but to do so in this style could be significant moving forward.

As the men are just getting started, the women are in the medal round, and defeated the Czech Republic 4-1 in a tough matchup.  After a scoreless first period, the Czechs tool the led 5 minutes into the second period, but that lead lasted all of 48 seconds.  Hilary Knight gathered a rebound from between from a Coyne Schofield shot between two Czech defenders to equalize.  The US then killed a five-minute major penalty to end the second, and scored 2 even strength goals and an empty-netter in the third for the final margin of victory.  The US advance to the semi-finals against an as yet determined team, with the game on Monday.

In the Women's Super-G, Mikaela Shiffrin finished 9th, which is a good showing given that her best events are the more technical slalom and giant slalom.  Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland continues her standout Olympics with the gold.

In the men's skeleton, Germany's Christopher Grotheer and Axel Jungk finished 1-2 to take the gold and silver medals, with Yan Wengang of China earning bronze.  And in a super-surprise (is there any other kind?) Australia's Jaclyn Narracott is the leader halfway through the women's skeleton, with two runs remaining.  Behind her are a plethora of Olympic and World Championship medalists, including Germans Hannah Niese and Tina Hermann, who currently sit second and third.

The men's snowboard cross was exciting, with the gold medal determined by a photo finish, with Austria's Alessandro Haemmerle (left below) narrowly winning gold over Canada's Eliot Grondin (right below) by .02 seconds.  

Kamila Valieva of the Russian Olympic Committee still has yet to be disqualified from the team competition despite two positive doping tests.  Those tests were administered on December 25, meaning she should have been ineligible for the Olympics.  However, she wasn't because the lab just reported the results on Tuesday - February 8!  She tested positive for trimetazidine, which "improves myocardial glucose utilization through inhibition of fatty acid metabolism."  I may not know what that means, but science!  The Russian Anti-Doping Agency has provisionally suspended, and then reinstated Valieva.  The legal complexities of this case are amazing, as the IOC has appealed the RUADA's reinstatement, but nothing else is technically appealable at this time, including the original positive test, and Valieva - who is 15 - is a minor so additional legal protections have kicked in.  None of the teams involved - the Russian Olympic Committee, the United States, Japan, and Canada, have received any medals for the team event yet.

The mixed freestyle aerials made its Olympic debut, and the Americans made it memorable.  The team of Ashley Caldwell, Christopher Lillis, and Justin Schoenefeld win gold over the host Chinese team, who came home in second with Canada winning bronze.  Lillis, whose jump was scored the highest of all competitors, shares the gold with his teammates Caldwell and Schoenefeld, who have been dating for 3 years.

Shaun White wrapped up his remarkable career in snowboard's half-pipe just off the podium finishing fourth behind Japan's Ayumu Hirano, who won gold after two consecutive silver medals in the event.  Scotty James of Australia claimed silver and Jan Scherrer of Switzerland earned bronze.  Hirano fell on his first run, but it was clear that he was going all out, losing on a 1440-1260 combination.  (See below for a report on his second run.)  Hirano then just went out a set a world record on his third round.  But, all eyes were on Shaun White, whose interview was absolutely emotional - but in a good way.  If you haven't seen the interview, you really need to CHECK IT OUT!

Athlete of the Day - Ayumu Hirano, Japan, Snowboard (Half-Pipe)

Although the moment was White's, the event was Hirano's, his world-record setting performance the most incredible collection of tricks ever attempted in the half-pipe, according to NBC's Todd Richards - a former snowboarder himself.  Richards even called out the judge's after Hirano was in second place after his second run, in which he landed a 1440!  Richards tweeted, "WTF you judges just grenade'd all credibility.  Now I will certainly be using grenade'd as a verb!

And here is the figurative "Passing of the Torch".

Teamwork/Sportsmanship Moment of the Day - Molly Soloman, NBC, Executive Producer of Olympics Coverage

Huh?  That is what you are asking.  What is this?  Well, after Mikaela Shiffrin skied-out of an early gate on the slalom, after skiing-out of an early gate in the giant slalom, Shiffrin sat on the course (near the netting not between gates) for about 20 minutes.  Of course she was upset - and she wasn't hurt - but her sitting on the course held up the remainder of the competition by about that 20 minutes.  NBC kept showing her on camera, and then when she did arise, aired her interview in which Shiffrin was incredibly forlorn and upset - understandably.  NBC took a huge social media hit for portraying Shiffrin in her emotional state, including many references to her deceased father, whose death played(s) a huge role in Shiffrin's current state.  NBC's Ted Ligety, himself a four-time Olympic medalists (2 gold) critiqued Shiffrin's run, calling it "almost a rookie mistake."  Well, Soloman was approached to answer for NBC's treatment of Shiffrin, and responded by supporting her journalists.  Soloman said, "We have an obligation in that moment, as the broadcaster of the Olympic games, to cover the moment. ... There is no script when there's a wipeout on the slopes or a fall in figure skating.  We're watching real people with real emotions in real time and we did everything we were supposed to do. ... Shiffrin's performance was huge news - the biggest story of the Games so far. ... I've thought a lot about this, and if Joe Burrow or Matthew Stafford sit on the sidelines 22 minutes after the Super Bowl on Sunda, and you can bet the cameras are going to stay on them.  ... Here we are in 2022 and we have a double standard in coverage of women's sports.  Women's sports should be analyzed through the same lens as the men.  The most famous skier in the world did not finish her two best events.  So are we going tos how her sitting on the hill and analyze what went wrong?  You bet we are!"  Kudos to you Molly Soloman, and to support you standing behind your team, I will post that picture of her sitting on the hill.

Olympic Term of the Day: Skeleton - A sliding sport in which a person rides a small sled, known as a skeleton bobsled, down a frozen track while lying face down and head-first.  The skeleton sled is thinner and heavier than the luge sled, giving the athlete more control.  It is also the slowest of the 3 sliding sports bobsled, luge being the others), as the face down, head-first position is less aerodynamic that the feet first, face up luging position.

Olympic Events Watched:  Alpine SkiingCurling, Hockey, Skeleton, Snowboard 

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer:  Nathan Chen, Chloe Kim, Hilary Knight, Lindsay Jacobellis