Olympics - Milano Cortina 2026 - Day 2/February 5

 

Day 2 is in the books, with round robin sessions in Mixed Doubles Curling and Women's Ice Hockey, which both contained the American debuts!

In curling, Great Britain had the most dominating win in the opener, defeating Estonia 10-5, but then came back later in the day to win a nailbiter over Czechia 8-7.

The United States team with Korey Dropkin (pictured below) and Cory Thiesse (pictured above) throwing the stones, defeated Norway after falling behind 6-4 after sixth end.  In the seventh end, holding the hammer, Cory Thiesse threw a remarkable counter-clockwise take-out, to knock out the shot rock of Norway and to score 2 points to tie the match, and then she came back to throw a beautiful draw with the 9th stone, to protect Dropkin's shot rock to end the match, 8-6.  Team USA cruised to victory over Switzerland 7-4, after taking a 5-2 lead after the 4th end to go 2-0 and in the round robin tournament.

In women's ice hockey, The United States came out strong to defeat Czechia 5-1, in the largest victory of the day.  The United States was paced by a brace from Hayley Scamurra (pictured below), with other goals scored by Alex Carpenter, Joy Dunne, and Ms. America, Hilary Knight!

In other matchups, Sweden defeated Germany 4-1 and host Italy defeated France 4-1.

Athlete of the Day - Jennifer Dodds, Great Britain, Curling

Threw shot rock in the decisive 7th - and last - end, in which Great Britain picked up 4 points in the match against Estonia, and then came back against Czechia in the 7th and penultimate end to score the winning point - without holding shot rock!

U.S. Athlete of the Day - Hayley Scamurra, Hockey

Scored 2 goals in the United State's opener.

Team of the Day - Italy, Women's Ice Hockey

The host team winning its debut 4-1 against France is a great start for Italy.

U.S. Team of the Day - Mixed Doubles, Curling

It could have been the women's hockey team, but the Mixed Doubles Curling team secured 2 victories!

Olympic Term of the Day:  End - A division of a game in curling, similar to an inning in baseball, where both teams have the opportunity to throw eight stones each (five in mixed doubles), alternating with the opponent.

Olympic Events Watched:  Curling, Ice Hockey

USA Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer Possibilities (listed alphabetically):  Korey Dobkin, Hilary Knight, Hayley Scamurra, Cory Thiesse

Olympics - Milano Cortina 2026 - Day 1/February 4

 

The first day of competition kicked-off with Mixed Doubles Curling, the only action (besides training sessions, to take place on the first day of competition.  Given that the quantity of the contests was so small, I will update the entirety of the day.

Sweden 10-3 over Korea

Great Britain 8-6 over Norway

Canada 10-5 over Czechia

Switzerland 9-7 over Estonia

In the opener, Seden did not have the hammer, but behind the shot of Isabella Wranaa, managed to secure 4 points in the 4th end, to turn a 5-3 close match into a 9-3 route.

In the next match, Great Britain took a7-6 lead but with the hammer into the 8th end.  Bruce Mouat managed to secure 1 point in the 8th to secure the win.

Canada, holding onto a 7-4 lead entering the 6th end, managed to open the game wide open on a stunning clockwise raise by Joceyln Peterman to take 3 points from the end and to expand their lead to 10-4.

The last match was absolutely remarkable, as the Swiss held a 5-1 lead after 5 ends.  The Estonian team of Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill managed to close the gap to 5-3 in the 6th end, but the Swiss stormed back in the 7th to score 2 more of their own.  But, the Estonian duo score four in the 8th end to send the match into an extra end, where the Swiss team of Yannick Schwaller and Briar Schwaller-Huerlimann edged the Estonians by 2.

Athlete of the Day - Yannick Schwaller, Switzerland, Curling

He threw stones 4, 6, and 8 in the extra end to secure victory.

U.S. Athlete of the Day - N/A

Team of the Day - Sweden Mixed, SWE, Curling

The most dominating of the four matches played yesterday.

U.S. Team of the Day - N/A

Olympic Term of the Day:  Bonspiel - A tournament in which curlers compete.

Olympic Events Watched:  Curling

USA Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer Possibilities (listed alphabetically): N/A to date

Olympics - Beijing 2022 - Day 3

Day 3 - February 6, 2022

Day 3, and the medals start coming.  The Russian Olympic Committee leads with 6 total medals, followed by Netherlands, Norway, Japan, Canada, Italy, and Austria - each with 4.  The United States has 3, along with Sweden, Germany and France.

In hockey, the US Women just annihilated Switzerland, winning 8-0 and scoring in all three periods.  Hilary Knight, Jesse Compher and Kelly Panneck each scored twice, with Knight, Compher, and Alex Carpenter leading the team in total goals (3).  Today's matchup with Canada is for the number 1 seed in the quarterfinals and is a potential gold medal preview - or at least it should be.  Anything else would be disappointing for us fans.

In the men's luge, Johannes Ludwig of Germany claims gold, with Austria's Wolfgang Kindl and Italy's Dominik Fischnaller winning silver and bronze respectively.  Ludwig had the fastest time in each run and set the course record after his first two attempts.

In ski jumping, Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi takes the gold medal in the men's normal hill, winning Japan's first ski jumping gold since Sappora 1972.  Keyser Soze of Hungary approves.  Manuel Fettner of Austria earned the silver, and Poland's David Kubacki wins bronze.

In the women's normal hill competition, Ursa Bogataj of Slovenia wins gold, Katharina Althaus of Austria finishes with silver, while Bogataj's compatriot Nika Kriznar wins bronze.

Alpine Skiing finally got started after some delays due to unsafe wind conditions.  The women's giant slalom started things off, but for American medal contender Mikaela Shiffrin, the day ended early, falling and missing a gate in the upper portion of the course.  Sara Hector of Sweden wins gold, followed by Frederica Brignone of Italy and Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami.

In freestyle skiing, the Big Air competition was held, with qualifying rounds held at the venue, which is making headlines not for the venue, but for the background!

Julia Marino wins the silver medal for the United States in Snowboard Slopestyle, finishing second behind Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand.  Sadowski-Synnott earned New Zealand its first ever Winter Olympics gold medal.  The United States won silver again as Jaelin Kauf finished behind Australian Jakara Anthony in the freestyle skiing moguls.

The United States won its third silver medal of these games in Team Figure Skating, as the team of Nathan Chen (1st in mens), Alexa Knierim/Brandon Frazier (2nd in pairs), Madison Chock/Evan Bates (1st in Ice Dancing), and Karen Chen (6th in ladies), had a strong finish in the free dance portion.  However, they, and the rest of the competition, was overshadowed by Kamila Valieva, as the 15 year old became the first ever woman to land a quad at the Olympics, and she landed 2.

Women's curling was also interesting, as Norway challenged Italy, before Italy's Stefania Constantini scored 5 points in two different ends, to stay undefeated.  Subsequently both the Italian's and Norwegians have rolled into the finals, which they will play tomorrow.

Irene Wust of the Netherlands won the gold medal in the 1500 meters, winning a gold medal in her 5th Olympics, the first ever athlete to do so.

Co-Athlete of the Day - Irene Wust, Netherlands, Speed Skating

SHE WON A GOLD MEDAL IN HER FIFTH STRAIGHT OLYMPICS!

Co-Athlete of the Day - Kamila Valieva, Russian Olympic Committe, Figure Skating

FIRST WOMAN TO EVER LAND A QUAD IN OLYMPIC COMPETITION!

Teamwork Moment of the Day - Chinese Team Figure Skating Team, China

Women's skater Zhu Yi, who was born in the United States, and she took a lot of flak when she was selected to skate by the Chinese coaches to skate in the Team Competition.  She took even more, including death threats, after she fell during the short program portion of the team competition.  She fell on her first jump in the free skate, but afterward picked herself up and skated a beautiful performance.  During the announcement of her scores, the other members of the team were all hugging her and rubbing her arms, and otherwise trying to comfort her as she was obviously crying.  Some of these team members did not get to skate in the team competition because Zhu was selected ahead of them.

Olympic Term of the Day: Power Play (in Curling) - Once per match, each team may elect a power play, in which they place the guard stone at a location half in the 8m circle and half in the 12m circle, with the back of the stone placed on the center line.  This blocking stone keeps the entire house open, and makes for a potential big scoring end by the team holding shot rock.

Olympic Events Watched:  Curling, Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Hockey, Luge, Ski Jumping, Snowboarding, Speed Skating

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer:  Nathan Chen, Hilary Knight