And that is me done for the night. Thanks for joining today and see you tomorrow for another packed day of Winter Olympics action! Leaving you on a bit of a cliff hanger with Team GB’s Mia Brookes yet to complete her final run in the women’s big air qualifiers. Fingers crossed!
Winter Olys roundup
Lindsey Vonn was airlifted to hospital but is stable after crashing in the early stages of her women’s downhill run. The 41-year-old damaged her ACL when falling in a World Cup contest at Crans-Montana just over a week ago, but was determined to compete today. Starting as the 13th skier, Vonn clipped a gate and somersaulted off the course just seconds into her run. She was on the ground for about 15 minutes before being airlifted off the course, with spectators cheering her as the helicopter flew over.
The crash dampened celebrations for her US teammate Breezy Johnson, who was in tears sitting in the gold medal chair at the bottom of the run watching her teammate being attended to. Germany’s Emma Aicher won silver and Italy’s Sofia Goggia took bronze.
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo cruised to a sixth Olympic gold medal in the men’s skiathlon. The 29-year-old was in the lead pack throughout, hammering competitors in the sprint to end, ahead of Mathis Desloges of France and Norwegian pacemaker Martin Loewstroem Nyenget, who were 2.0 seconds and 2.1 seconds behind.
The veteran Austrian snowboarder Benjamin Karl defended his Olympic men’s parallel giant slalom crown in thrilling style, powering back to beat South Korea’s Kim Sang-kyum. Karl, competing in what are expected to be his final Games, was trailing for much of the final in Livigno but crossed the line 0.19sec in front of his rival.
The Czech snowboarder Zuzana Maderova won gold in the women’s parallel giant slalom after the shock exit of the defending champion, Ester Ledecka.
The 22-year-old Maderova enjoyed a comfortable victory over Ledecka’s conqueror Sabine Payer, cruising to victory by 0.83sec. Italy’s Lucia Dalmasso took bronze.
France won the mixed 4x6km relay biathlon, with Italy taking silver and Germany in bronze.
Team GB are top seed in the mixed doubles curling and will face Sweden in the semi-finals tomorrow.
Germany’s Max Langenhan is the latest Olympic luge champion, winning gold in the men’s singles. He held off Austria’s Jonas Müller and Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller to claim victory.
In men’s 5000m speed skating Sander Eitrem lived up to his billing as favourite, as the Norwegian stormed to gold with an Oympic record 6min 3.95sec time well ahead of Czech Republic’s Metodej Jilek and Italy’s Riccardo Lorello.
You can keep across the happenings of each day with our schedule, results and medal table.
Snowboarding: And of course getting caught up in curling drama I miss Mia Brookes laying down a perfect run with a whopping 89pt effort for Team GB. Radical! She is set very well now to make the final with a solid effort with her final go.
Team GB secure top seed in mixed doubles curling
That 9-6 win for Britain over Italy confirms top spot in the round robin stage with eight wins and one loss. They will play the fourth seed in the semi-finals. Elsewhere Korea beat Canada 9-5, USA beat Sweden 8-7 and Norway lead Switzerland in the final end. The United States also sail through to the knockouts with that win in second while Italy are third and Sweden fourth as it stands.
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Curling: GB throw their penultimate pebble down and leave one yellow in the middle ring. Italy curl a lovely one behind two stones blocking to hold a one-point advantage with one stone each left. Jennifer Dodds is screaming for a good one and gets it! Completely cleans out the red ball. A miracle shot needed from Italy to get two points and scrape an extra end. No bueno. GB win 9-6!!!
Curling: Ah I missed a huge seventh end for Team GB, while I was locked in on the snowboarding, in the mixed dubs. The responded with three points of their own to take an 8-6 lead into the final end.
Snowboarding: Ouch. Team GB’s Maisie Hill eats snow again and will miss the final of the women’s big air. Just not quite at it as she takes another spill but the 24-year-old will be back.
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Snowboarding: Sadowski-Synnott and Murase land clean tricks and will be in tomorrow’s final after their massive scores in round one of the women’s big air. Who is going to join them?
Curling: Italy take a timeout as they look to capitalise on some Team GB mistakes in end six. They have the hammer with two rocks remaining to Britain’s one. Two reds sit centrally with one yellow behind and another just off to the right in the next ring. Amos Mosamer lets loose and drops an absolute stonker to knock GB’s off centre stone out and sit Italy’s down next to their most central one. They have three points as it stands. Dodds smokes one for a big clear out but it was never on after their errors and Italy take three points for a 6-5 lead.
Snowboarding: Round one of women’s big air qualifying is in the books. The top three as follows:
1. Z Sadowski-Synnott (NZ) 90pts
2. K Murase (Jpn) 86.25
3. A Hickman (Aus) 85.25
Curling: End five time. Team GB have two stones in the centre and have laid down a brilliant blocker. Italy have two shots left to GB’s one. Off we go. Scrub, scrub, scrub. Italy’s stone is not good enough it bounces off the two yellows and runs away. Amos Mosaner is unhappy and kicks out at the hoarding. Dodds throws her final effort and it is a good one. GB hold three in the centre now. Italy’s hammer is down … and it is a big one, speeding down but Stefania Constantini’s effort can’t clean them all away and Team GB steal the stones (is that a thing?) and grab a point. Team GB 5-3 Italy with three ends remaining.
OK mea culpa time. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott is a New Zealander not from Australia. My bad. She leads the women’s big air still.
Snowboarding: The format for the women’s big air qualifying is simple. The top 12 qualify for the finals. We are just about over halfway through the first runs. Still all to play for with the athletes’ two best scores combining to see where they stand when the snow settles.
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Curling: Two stones left for Italy and Team GB in end four with GB’s yellow stone sat guaranteeing at least a point from Dodds and Mouat. “I like that,” says Dodds as they scheme up their penultimate throw. Mouat says “a little heavy” and might have squeaked a second point. Italy’s final throw is a good one and GB’s can’t add any magic. They take a 4-3 lead into the second half of the match.
Snowboarding: Team GB’s Maisie Hill fluffs her lines as well in the women’s big air and sits last with 20pts. Big improvements needed with some big scores already in round one.
Snowboarding: OK! Mia Brookes. Let’s go! Oh no. She spins and spins and keeps spinning and spins again but over rotates a touch and falls down. Only 29.75pts, she has her work cut out now in runs two and three to make the final. No mercy.
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Snowboarding: The women’s big air qualifying is under way. Mia Brookes up shortly for Team GB. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand has the best tally so far with 90pts from jump one.
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Curling: Italy looking good to retake the lead after an absolute beauty knocks GB out of the centre and plops them right on top. Two stones left each in end three. Bruce is sweeping like his life depends on it and just nudges the Italians but they still are closest. They have the hammer too. With their penultimate stone Italy gas it to little effect. One British yellow stone is stopping a big Italian swing. Oooh Jennifer Dodds drops a beauty and Italy throw their last stone away and accept they could only tie it up 3-3.
Curling: Team GB prove you can’t keep a good curler down. They take three points with the hammer in end two and are up 3-2. Mixed doubles magic!
If figure skating is your thing we have a separate, brilliant blog for all you triple salchow lovers …
Curling: In the mixed doubles Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat are 2-0 behind after the first end. Plenty of time for Team GB to roar back to get back on track, somewhat, after a first defeat earlier in the day to Switzerland.
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Max Langenhan dominates men's luge to take the 🥇
The German sets a new track record for the fourth time in four runs. Sorry, what?! His final run time is 52.660sec with a total time of 3min 31.191sec. Amazing.
1 M Langenhan (Ger)
2 J Müller (Aut) +0.596sec
3 D Fischnaller (It) +0.934
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Luge: Max Langhenhan, whaddya got?! He is three tenths up to start, keeps it smooth through the middle and builds his advantage. He is flying through and crushes the Austrian to take the gold!
Luge: And then there were two. Jonas Müller sets off. He’s three tenths up through the middle and keeps it up. Oooooh a bit of drift but he manages to stay off the wall, and does so again and then again he is all over the shop but still is over three tenths ahead and has the silver at worst!
Luge: Dominik Fischnaller pumps up the home crowd with almost a half a second lead before he even starts and he keeps it up with a +0.487sec lead over the Latvian to finish. The Italian guarantees a bronze with a perfect run. It could get better still.
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Luge: Kristers Aparjods of Latvia tops the charts now with his fastest run of the week and the fastest yet in this final round. Can he sneak a medal? Let’s find out.
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Luge: Leon Felderer of Italy can’t match Loch either and the legendary German luger jumps up again into sixth now. Nico Gleirscher is up now and is hanging on, hanging on, hanging … ON! Just! He is ahead by 0.078sec, close call for the Austrian.
Hockey: In Group B of the women’s ice hockey Sweden have beaten France 4-0. They coasted to the finish and now top the standings with three wins from three while France sit bottom with three defeats in three.
Luge: Wolfgang Kindl smashes into the wall off the start as well. The Austrian is done before he even begins and finishes behind Loch.
Luge: A favourite for gold Felix Loch starts from eighth spot. The German crushes his compatriot by 0.441sec but will be disappointed to be out of the medals. Loch has two golds in this event in 2014 and 2010. The tears flow after the run is over.
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Luge: Timo Grancagnolo of Germany comes down like a rocket and beats out Gustafson by almost a second! Latvia’s Gintz Berzins next slides away with only a small advantage through the first bend. Berzins loses time through the middle and then slips back by 0.003sec and finishes over half a second back. Grancagnolo moves up after his thunderous effort.
Luge: Jonathan Gustafson paddles down the track and straight into the wall, what a shocker but he takes the first bend beautifully to maintain his advantage on the total time. The American finishes 0.34sec up on the Ukranian with 10 lugers still to go in the final. Top 10 time!
Luge: Andriy Mandziy of Ukraine now beats Kohala by 0.113sec. No one other than Dukach so far has jumped up a place. Until now as Valentin Cretu smashes into a wall and almost comes off the luge, he hangs on but he drops to fourth overall. Mandziy still on top.
Luge: Neutral athlete Roman Repilov stays ahead of Dukach with an excellent run to sit in the hot seat by 0.241sec. Next Svante Kohala of Sweden beats out Repilov by 0.075 with the third best time so far of the six runs in the fourth round.
Luge: The home hope Antonie Gufler now, he is faster by 0.1 early in his run and maintains that margin through the middle sectors then slips by just 0.003sec! Dukach has picked up a place as the lugers are racing in reverse order.
Luge: Anton Dukach of Ukraine speeds into pole position by a whopping +0.34sec with his fastest run of the day, Ferlazzo second and Ninis third as it stands.
Luge: Alex Ferlazzo beats the Slovak into second by 0.05sec with his run next up his Matt Greiner of the USA who slides well but hits a wall! He is well down on the first two men.
Luge: We are under way in the final run of the men’s race. First up Slovakia’s Jozef Ninis finishes with a total time of 3min 35.600sec.
Lindsey Vonn in stable condition after crash
U.S. ski great Lindsey Vonn was flown to hospital after her audacious bid to win Olympic downhill gold with a ruptured ACL ended in a horrific crash after 13 seconds on Sunday.
A helicopter was taking the 41-year-old to hospital in Treviso, a source told Reuters, after she was strapped into a medical stretcher and winched off the sunlit Olimpia delle Tofane piste in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
“Lindsey sustained an injury, but is in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians,” the U.S. Ski + Snowboard Team said in a statement.
Vonn, whose battle to reach the start line despite her knee injury dominated the opening days of the Milano Cortina Olympics, saw her unlikely quest halted in screaming agony on the snow.
Luge: Germany absolutely love the luge. From a possible 52 gold medals since luge featured on the Winter Olympic programme, Germany have topped the podium 38 times. Vorsprung durch technik, baby!
Quick someone get me a bucket the BBC are airing a sycophantic montage about British snowboarder Mia Brookes. That said she is a strong medal hope in the women’s big air. She goes in qualification in about 90min. Apparently she likes Metallica. Gnarly.
Who is excited for some luge?! The men’s singles final is on the way in an hour or so. Your favourites in no particular order are: Austria’s Jonas Müller, Felix Loch of Germany and Max Langenhan also coming straight outta Deutschland. Alles klar!
Sander Eitrem wins men's 5,000m speed skating with Olympic record🥇
What a penultimate race that was with the Eitrem and the Czech skater stealing in for the big medals. The final podium in the men’s 5,000m:
1. Sander Eitrem (Nor) 6min 03.95sec
2. Mitodej Jilek (Cz) +2.53sec
3. Ricardo Lorello (It) +5.27
Unbelievable from the Norweigan to win by such a massive margin! Norway extend their lead at the top of the medal table with three golds now.
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Speed skating: NOW then, Sander Eitrem sets an Olympic record in the men’s 5000m! The Norwegian blazes a trail into the ice in 6min 3.95sec and now sits in gold position. Meanwhile Mitodej Jilek of Czechia crashes the Italian party with a time of 6:06.48 to sit second. Riccardo Lorello shunted down into bronze. Drama!
Hockey: Lisa Johansson puts Sweden 4-0 up against France in Group B of the women’s ice hockey. That’s four goals from four different scorers. That took just 56 seconds of the second period. Rapid.
Speed skating: Davide Ghiotto comes just short of his countryman Riccardo Lorello in the men’s 5000m with a run of 6min 9.57 sec just 0.35sec behind in silver medal position as it stands. The American Casey Dawson finishes fifth. Ghiotto was still ahead by one tenth with one lap remaining but just fell away at the last. Great for the home crowd though with an Italian 1-2 on the cards!
Speed skating: Past halfway and Ghiotto roars into gold by 0.33 sec! Can he hold on?!
Speed skating: Another Italian now as Davide Ghiotto takes on the USA’s Casey Dawson. The American has a shot at a medal and so does the home hope! Here we go! Ghiotto only 0.35sec down on gold in the first 1000m.
Speed skating: Oof not great from either as Malfatti finishes 7th and Maly 10th. The former looks dejected at finishing so far off the pace at his home Olympics. Never mind, Michele.
Luge: They are underway in the men’s singles with the final to come around 5.30pm.
Speed skating: Race seven pits Felix Maly of Germany against Italy’s Michele Malfatti. The stylish Italian (tautologous?) races off with one black boot and one white. Molto bene!
Speed skating: Crisis alert!!! No Dutchman on the podium potentially in the men’s 5000m. Chris Huizinga of the Netherlands finishes in 6min 11sec and is third as it stands but I am reliably informed he is unlikely to finish there with the heavyweights still to race.
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Speed skating: The men’s 5000m is back underway! Does anyone else get the feeling skating for over six minutes with your arms behind your back the entire time would feel slightly uncomfortable? Their shoulders must seriously burn. Our commentator informs us speed skaters do a lot of cycling. Cool!
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Hockey: Sweden are skating away with it taking a 3-0 lead over France. Hanna Thuvik this time with the goal. We’re still only in the first period. Calm down!
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Hockey: Sara Hjalmarsson puts Sweden 2-0 up against France in the powerplay. Margot Huot-Marchand watches on from the penalty box after a naughty bit of tripping.
Hockey: Sweden take the lead through Thea Johansson against France. 1-0 Sverige! Before faceoff the Swedes were top of Group B with two wins from two while France sit bottom with two defeats in two matches.
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Speed skating: At the halfway stage in the men’s 5000m the standings are as follows …
Riccardo Lorello, Italy - 6min 09.22sec
Peder Konshaug, Norway - 6:11.31
Stijn van de Bunt, Netherlands - 6:12.94
Gabriel Gross, Germany - 6:14.40
Marcel Bosker, Netherlands - 6:17.47
Sigurd Henriksen, Norway - 6:18.24
The 23-year-old Italian untouchable in the opening runs but we will see what the big guns have got after the break.
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Hockey: We are underway in the women’s preliminary round with France taking on Sweden. Scoreless so far in the first period.
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The curling mixed doubles table reads as follows: 1 (Q) Team GB 7-1; 2 Italy 5-2; 2 USA 5-2; 4 Sweden 5-3; 5 Switzerland 4-3; 6 Canada 3-4; 7 Korea 2-5; 7 Norway 2-5; 9 Estonia 2-6; 9 Czechia 2-6
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Speed skating: In the third race Riccardo Lorello hits the top of the charts with a time of 6min 09.22sec in the men’s 5000m. The Italian with a blistering run, he is in the hot seat for the gold! And on his Olympic debut.
Curling mixed doubles session 11 final scores
Team GB 6-7 Switzerland
USA 5-3 Estonia
Italy 8-2 Czechia
Canada 6-7 Sweden
Britain still the only team to have qualified for the semis!
Curling: So unlucky for Team GB. Jennifer Dodds has a chance to clinch the match with her final shot but is just off the mark. The Swiss seize the chance and earn a dramatic final end comeback victory. The final score: Switzerland 7-6 Team GB. Not so bad for Dodds and Bruce Mouat considering they are already through to the semi-finals, they have seven wins and one defeat and will play their final round robin match against Italy in a bit. The Italians thrashed Czechia 8-2 just now so could be a cracker.
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Speed skating: Stijv van de Bunt of the Netherlands takes the second race with a time of 6min 12.94sec and knocks Gabriel Gross off his perch in the men’s 5000m.
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Speed skating: Gabriel Gross has beaten Marcel Bosker in the first race in the men’s 5,000m event and tops the leaderboard with a time of 6min 14.40sec. Admittedly it is the first race of the day but still top of the pops with an upset as the favoured Dutchman is beaten. Only six seconds out from the world record!
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Thank you, Yara! And just like that Team GB have taken a 6-5 lead in the 7th end of their mixed doubles curling clash! 5-4 down against the Swiss, Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat are ahead as they look to earn an incredible eighth win from eight matches in the round. One end to play, let’s goooooo!
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That is me done for the day. I leave you with Graham Searles to take you through some more action.
Summary of the day so far
If you are just joining us, here has how today has shaped up so far.
Lindsey Vonn’s was airlifted to hospital after crashing in the early stages of her women’s downhill run. The 41-year-old damaged her ACL when falling in a World Cup contest at Crans-Montana just over a week ago, but was determined to compete today.
Starting as the 13th skier, Vonn clipped a gate and somersaulted off the course just seconds into her run. She was on the ground for about 15 minutes before being airlifted off the course, with spectators cheering her as the helicopter flew over.
The crash dampened celebrations for her US teammate Breezy Johnson, who was in tears sitting in the gold medal chair at the bottom of the run watching her teammate being attended to. Germany’s Emma Aicher won silver and Italy’s Sofia Goggia took bronze.
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo cruised to a sixth Olympic gold medal in the men’s skiathlon. The 29-year-old was in the lead pack throughout, hammering competitors in the sprint to end, ahead of Mathis Desloges of France and Norwegian pacemaker Martin Loewstroem Nyenget, who were 2.0 seconds and 2.1 seconds behind.
The French escaped instant disqualification after skiing through the cones to cut a corner, with judges expected to review the race.
The veteran Austrian snowboarder Benjamin Karl defended his Olympic men’s parallel giant slalom crown in thrilling style, powering back to beat South Korea’s Kim Sang-kyum. Karl, competing in what are expected to be his final Games, was trailing for much of the final in Livigno but crossed the line 0.19sec in front of his rival.
The Czech snowboarder Zuzana Maderova won gold in the women’s parallel giant slalom after the shock exit of the defending champion, Ester Ledecka.
The 22-year-old Maderova enjoyed a comfortable victory over Ledecka’s conqueror Sabine Payer, cruising to victory by 0.83sec. Italy’s Lucia Dalmasso took bronze.
France won the mixed 4x6km relay biathlon, with Italy taking silver and Germany in bronze.
You can keep across the happenings of each day with our schedule, results and medal table.
Biathlon: France’s Julia Simon, who just helped secure gold in the mixed relay was found guilty of theft and credit card fraud in October. She was accused of repeatedly using the bank card of her France teammate, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, and that of a French team staff member to make online purchases totalling more than €2,000 (£1,371).
After the court case, Simon received a six-month ban from the French ski federation, but five months were suspended so she was able to compete at these Olympics.
Curling: Team GB’s Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat are the only team to have sealed their spot in the semi-finals after winning all seven of the games they have played in the tournament.
But they have not had the best of starts in this session against Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller and Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann. They trail 4-2.
France sweep to biathlon mixed relay gold🥇
Julia Simon hit all 10 of her shots as she stormed through the final leg to secure gold for France in a thrilling biathlon mixed relay. Simon hit her final five targets and left the range alone, taking her team of Eric Perrot, Quentin Fillon Maillet and Lou Jeanmonnot to a solid win at a time of 1:04:15. This is a sixth Olympic medal for Fillon Maillet.
Lisa Vittozzi anchored the host nation Italy to the silver medal, with the three-time world champions Germany picking up the bronze.
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Biathlon: Julia Simon remains out front for France, but Lisa Vittozzi of Italy, Maren Kirkeeide of Norway and Franziska Preuss of Germany all come into the range together.
A quick and clean shoot from Simon while Vittozzi fires off a rapid series of shots. She comes out of the range in second about 20.5sec behind.
Kirkeeide and Preuss both struggle, missing a few … final standing incoming.
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Skiing: The head speed coach Paul Kristofic of the United States team said Lindsey Vonn is still under medical evaluation in Cortina, with the team yet to hear any update on Vonn’s condition.
“We don’t know anything really yet,” Kristofic said. “She’s with a medical team in the hospital. She’s getting evaluated right now in Cortina. And then, obviously, depending on the severeness of the injury, they’re going to make decisions where to put her.”
Biathlon: France has surged into the lead in the mixed relay 4x6km event as Lou Jeanmonnot flies around the trails at the Antholz-Anterselva Biathlon Arena, after some great shooting. She now hands it off to Julia Simon. Norway in second and Germany in third.
Karl defends Olympic title in men's parallel giant slalom🥇
Benjamin Karl defends his title and is clearly overjoyed, taking his top off before topping face down on the snow. Clearly the adrenaline his sky high if he can withstand the cold. What a win for the 40-year-old who is planning to retire at the end of the season. Korea’s Kim Sang-kyum takes the silver medal after finishing 0.19sec behind Karl.
In the bronze medal race, it needed a photo-finish to determine that Tervel Zamfirov of Bulgaria was the winner. Heartbreaking for Tim Mastnak of Slovenia, who won silver in this event at Beijing 2022.
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Maderova wins gold in women's parallel giant slalom🥇
What a day for Zuzana Maderova of Czech Republic. Sabine Payer came off her line early and Maderova did not waste a moment, finishing 0.83sec ahead of the now silver medallist.
This is Maderova’s first Olympic medal and the third consecutive PGS medal for Czech Republic after Ester Ledecká’s back-to-back victories
Lucia Dalmasso beats her Italian teammate Elisa Caffont to bronze. It is Italy’s first in this event since 2002 in Salt Lake City, which was won by Lidia Trettel.
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Snowboard: And in the men’s final, it will be the Olympic champion Benjamin Karl, who really pushed through in the lower section, against Kim Sangkyum of South Korea.
Slovenia’s Tim Mastnak and Bulgaria’s Tervel Zamfirov will fight for bronze.
Snowboard: Austria’s Sabine Payer has guaranteed herself a medal, continuing her incredible Olympic debut by advancing to the final. She will face Zuzana Maderova of the Czech Republic.
The battle for bronze will feature an all-Italian matchup, with Elisa Caffont against Lucia Dalmasso.
Snowboard: The action does not stop for the parallel giant slalom, with the semi-finals of the women’s and men’s underway.
Thanks Geoff and hello all. Been a big day of Olympics action. Earlier today, Ester Ledecka was aiming for a three-peat in the snowboard parallel giant slalom but was knocked out in the quarter-finals. A stumble on a turn meant Austria’s Sabine Payer pipped her to the finish line.
Chris gets in touch via email to say:
Well Payer beating Ester Ledecka definitely wasn’t in the script – it’s been torn up, ceremonially cremated and the ashes scattered on the course.
That is it for me, for today. There’s been plenty already, and a lot more to come. Starting with the PGS semi-finals for women and then men. Taking you through what’s next will be Yara El-Shaboury. Say hi.
Snowboard: Now for the men’s parallel giant slalom quarters. Zamfirov falls, but only after he’s crossed the line to beat Arnaud.
Fischnaller doesn’t finish, he blows wide of one of the gates so that’s a cruisy win for Kim.
Felicetti gets a fast start and is well ahead of Mastnak, but goes too wide on a turn and loses the lead, then loses control trying to catch up. Misses the last gate but he was already going to fall short. It’s technically a DNF.
And in the all-Austrian bout, Benny Karl catches up Promegger and pips him at the line.
Snowboard: Hofmeister falls in her race against Maderova, and Miki loses by two hundredths of a second against Caffont, another photo finish to see whose glove crossed the line first.
So Caffont will give Italy a chance against Maderova in the semis, and Payer against Dalmasso.
Ester Ledecká is knocked out of the PGS
Snowboard: Gold medallist at the last two Olympics, blitzed through the qualifying stages until now, but she’s gone! A little bobble early in the run, hit a rough patch that made the board bobble, and it cost her time. She’s beaten by Sabine Payer, the Austrian who in comparison is a much more modest competitor. Ledecká almost makes up the disadvantage – she’s almost a full turn behind Payer at the top of the run, and makes it very close by the end, but Payer holds on. That opens the field for everybody. Ledecká was the closest thing to a sure thing in this discipline. What a boilover.
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Snowboard: Into the women’s quarters of the parallel giant slalom, and Krol-Walas has a big advantage early, but Lucia Dalmasso chases her down by the close and sneaks through. Another Italian progressing, to local jubilation. She thought she was done there, but clawed it back.
Snowboard: And the men’s quarters will be:
Arnaud Guadet (Canada)
Tervel Zamfirov (Bulgaria)
Sangkyum Kimg (Korea)
Roland Fischnaller (Italy)
Tim Mastnak (Slovenia)
Mirko Felicetti (Italy)
Andreas Prommegger (Austria)
Benjamin Karl (Austria)
That last one was a cracker, the reigning gold medallist knocking out the reigning world champ in a photo finish. Top seed and third seed, somehow ending up against each other this early in the comp, and they raced a borderline perfect race, neck and neck the whole way down. Maurizio Bormolini, the Italian who is knocked out, just beams a big smile and hugs his opponent, as if to say, we gave it everything, what else could I do?
Snowboard: The round of 16 finals are done for the women, the quarter-final qualified boarders will match up like:
Lucia Dalmasso (Italy)
Aleksandra Krol-Walas (Poland)
Sabine Payer (Austria)
Ester Ledecka (Czechia)
Zuzana Maderova (Czechia)
Ramona Hofmeister (Germany)
Elisa Caffon (Italy)
Tsbuaki Miki (Japan)
In the qualifiers earlier, the placings were just done by time down the course. Now they’re knockouts based on who finishes first out of each duo.
Breezy Johnson wins gold in the women's downhill
The final competitor is in, Shepilenko in bib number 36. Grenier of Canada was disqualified, and is the fourth who doesn’t record a final time alone with the three racers we’ve mentioned who crashed earlier. So there are 32 times on the board, and the best of those at 1:36:10 is Breezy Johnson! She clocked that time so early in the day, then had to wait and wait for other competitors to keep falling short.
It will be a day of very mixed feelings, having watched her teammate and friend Lindsey Vonn evacuated from the course, so much of her attention will be directed there. But she’s also an Olympic gold medallist for the first time, having come into these games as the reigning World Championship winner.
She had the most complete run of the day: a couple of stutters, but such a fast finish through the back half of the course, on a tough course that most competitors weren’t confident to attack. She did, and she gets her reward.
Emma Aicher will wonder about the slight balance issues that cost her a few hundredths of a second into silver medal position, but she’s on the podium for Germany. Sofia Goggia takes bronze for Italy, more remarkable for doing it two spots after that long, long delay for Vonn’s injury.
Jacqueline Wiles of the USA would be well pleased with her fourth placing, after starting the event middle of the field and greatly improving on her two previous Olympic finishes.
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Johannes Klaebo wins cross-country gold!
What a monster of a finish. That final four are travelling in a pack, as they had been doing for kilometres. And within a few hundred metres of the line, on the final climb, Klaebo goes into overdrive. He hurls his poles at the hill, finds more strength in his legs, and burns away from the rest, opening up a gap of dozens of metres in the blink of an eye, winning so comprehensively that he can slow up and coast the last few strides to the line, looking around and soaking up the feeling, the moment. The rest can only scramble after him.
Desloges gets in for the silver, Nyenget the bronze, while Lapalus blows up his engine at the last and finishes fifth behind Korostelev.
That’s gold in the first of Klaebo’s six events in these Games. Keep a very close eye on him, he might be on for a special fortnight.
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Cross-country: Klaebo is in the lead, with countryman Nyenget hanging in with him. Hugo Lapalus, the Frenchman, is still second. He has a very modest career compared to the other two. Another Frenchman, Mathis Desloges, is thereabouts.
Snowboard: The women’s parallel giant slalom quarter finals are running as well. Ester Ledecka has breezed through by over a second.
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Cross-country: Back to the 10x10 while the downhill course gets cleared, this is a pretty familiar sight: Klaebo hanging just behind the leaders, very confident of his prowess in a sprint finish. He was ruthless in the previous Games. Sits behind a couple of Frenchmen on a flatter section, then surges back to the front on a climb.
Alpine skiing: Ooof, another big crash now in the women’s downhill. Cande Moreno, the Andorran flagbearer at these games, having also competed in 2022. She’s barely got started on the course, there’s a big downhill jump in the early stages and she crashes there at perhaps the steepest part. This one will require the medics, it looks like a knee injury.
At this stage, the rest of the field are the slower-qualifying skiers, so it looks very likely with 10 racers to go that the podium is already set. USA, Germany, Italy so far.
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An email from Scott Wedel: “One of Vonn’s attributes as a ski racer is a willingness to take big risks. At that speed on a choppy surface, a racer doesn’t have precise control so a racer has to decide how much room to give to the flags. Vonn was always one to cut it closer than others. Often it gave her the edge to win races. Sometimes it results in crashes.”
Cross-country: Scratch that, the Norwegians have been broken up. Russian independent Korostelev has gone to the front at around 7km of the first 10. Lapalus for France is in the mix too.
Cross-country: Meanwhile, the men’s 10km + 10km skiathlon is well underway, and you’ll be amazed to learn that three Norwegians are leading it: Stenshagen, Nyenget, and five-time gold medallist Klaebo. Another Norwegian is fifth. What is it about guys named Amundsen and travelling quickly across snow?
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Beau Dure emails in. “How pivotal was the decision to allow the Crans-Montana World Cup downhill to proceed nine days ago? They finally called it off after three of the first six skiers didn’t finish, but Vonn was one of those three, and that’s where she picked up the injury. Is this a lesson for World Cup organisers to be a lot more careful?”
Alpine skiing: A second crash in this final, but thankfully Nina Ortlieb is physically fine, just absolutely furious. The Austrian skier leans into a corner and hits a bump, overbalancing into the slope, and is able to at least land her fall safely and slide away the momentum. She skis down the rest of the course under her own recognisance. Jacqueline Wiles before that clipped a couple of flags, coming into fourth for the USA.
So it’s Johnson, Aicher, Goggia on the podium so far, at the halfway mark with 18 skiers done.
Alpine skiing: You can never know, but you wonder how much that wait affected the next skiers. Puchner is way outside the lead time, a second a half. Goggia starts powerfully, and skis herself into the bronze medal spot for now, but is 0.69 seconds down. There are four marker points: she was ahead, then behind, then ahead, then behind. Lost her line and went outside the course guidelines at one stage, which would have cost a bit.
Alpine skiing: Spare a thought for Mirjam Puchner, second at the World Champs last year, and Sofia Goggia, silver at the last Olympics and gold before that. The Austrian and the Italian have been waiting all this time, watching all these scenes, delayed in waiting for their turn. Now they have to try putting this out of their minds, so they can take their one shot at the race they so desperately want to win.
Alpine skiing: What a horrible turn to the story. There was so much excitement and goodwill about Vonn: a gold medallist in this discipline in Vancouver 2010, and then quitting the sport for years due to the injuries, only to come back following a full knee replacement. Qualifying to compete at this tournament at 41 years of age, then injuring her ACL only last month, and somehow stabilising well enough to continue with her plan to compete here. We’ve no idea whether the knee injury had anything to do with the error that saw her overshoot that turn and hit that flag, but she had passed her fitness tests and was apparently ready to go. Now she’s strapped into an evacuation suit, she’s gone very quiet too which is probably the effects of sedation, and she’s being flown away. We’ll report more as we know it.
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Lindsey Vonn is being evacuated by helicopter
It’s been over 10 minutes with her lying on the course, in the hands of medics. Now a helicopter medic is being lowered in on a winch. These are awful scenes.
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Alpine skiing: The cause of the crash is becoming clear: she lost control of her line coming into a turn, and got far too close to the marker flag. She caught her right arm in the flag, that arm going between the uprights rather than clipping the outside of it. The flags do pull apart when hit like that, but it was enough to twist her off balance. So she turned sideways in the air, and already going at prodigious speed, landed with both skis lateral to the slope while her body was falling backwards. So there was no good way to slide from there, her skis jammed and she went end over end rather than continuing down the slope.
Alpine skiing: This is horrible. It’s not like the cameras are out there sticking microphones into the situation, but you can clearly hear Vonn’s voice across the slopes crying out in pain. They have a stretcher out for her and a team of medics attending, half a dozen of them out there. Neither of her skis came off when she crashed, that’s the likely cause of the damage.
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Lindsey Vonn has crashed during the Women's Downhill
That was a heavy landing. Not far out of the gates, she took off with ferocity, pushed herself into the course, but after getting a small amount of air from an early jump she has landed horribly, skis going sideways, and is yet to get back up. It looks very bad considering that knee injury. Staff are getting out onto the slope to tend to her. The crowd is silent.
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Alpine skiing: A number of these racers have been ahead of Breezy’s time through the early stages, but she must have had a phenomenal second half of the course, they keep losing touch as they go. Lindsey Vonn about to race.
Curling: Korea have beaten Estonia 9-3 in the mixed doubles round robin, and Czechia beat Norway 6-3. They’re the bottom four teams in the standings though.
Alpine skiiing: Emma Aicher of Germany misses out on the lead by four one hundredths of a second! Breezy Johnson gasps in relief, Aicher roars in frustration as she sees the clock. A couple of tiny wobbles coming out of two of the jumps might have been the difference.
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Alpine skiing: Laura Pirovano, with home crowd cheers in her ears, comes in second for the time being, a couple of early twitches in her balance costing some time at the top of the course. Not sure if she looks annoyed or happy at the end, she lies down on the snow spent. There’s been a warning over the official radio about the difficulty of the course where patches of shade are being cast by trees across the snow.
Alpine skiiing: Breezy Johnson goes top, for USA. Had a twist in the air off one of the early jumps, had to battle to land it, but then comes through with a sizzling run on the rest of the course, improving on her training run time by a second and a half.
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Alpine skiing: It’s a gorgeous day out there, blue sky. We’ve had five skiers so far, Ariane Raedler of Austria is leading on 1:37:20, the Italian Brignone and three Swiss skiers following her. Janine Schmitt and Jasmine Flury both almost stacked, but recovered it, terrifying at that speed. Malorie Blanc went first and had a clean run, 1:38:77.
Alpine skiing: Women’s downhill final. We are away! This event is spectacular. A long, winding track that the skiers take one at a time, racing on the clock rather than on the course. It twists and turns at great steepness, meaning these women are getting up above 120 kilometres an hour. They have to stay within a flagged course, as well. The shots from the cameras following them are giving me goosebumps, with the speed the athletes are travelling. There are multiple sections where they get serious air, not off jumps but just off the slope, and they have to land those jumps at that pace as well.
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Snowboard: The men’s PGS qualifiers have just finished too, here’s who made it.
Roland Fischnaller – Italy
Aaron March – Italy
Benjamin Karl – Austria
Arnaud Guadet – Canada
Tervel Zamfirov – Bulgaria
Sangho Lee – Korea
Dario Caviezel – Switzerland
Sangkyum Kim – Korea
Zan Kosir – Slovenia
Mirko Felicetti – Italy
Andreas Prommegger – Austria
Elias Huber – Germany
Radoslav Yankov – Bulgaria
Maurizio Bormolini – Italy
Tim Mastnak – Slovenia
Rok Marguc – Slovenia
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Snowboard: Pretty remarkable sub-story in the women’s giant slalom, where qualifying has set the final 16 boarders who will go into quarter finals, head to head. Ester Ledecka, the reigning gold medallist in this event from the last two Olympics (as well as a cheeky skiing gold thrown in there as well) has unsurprisingly finished fastest. That means she’ll be drawn against the 16th qualifier, Claudia Riegler, who has qualified at 52 years of age.
This is her fifth Olympics, but her first was 2002. Later she competed in 2010, 2014, and 2018, and now eight years later is back for another crack. Go on.
The final 16
Ester Ledecka – Czechia
Zuzana Maderova – Czechia
Tsubaki Miki – Japan
Lucia Dalmasso – Italy
Aleksandra Krol-Walas – Poland
Elisa Caffont – Italy
Ramona Theresia Hofmeister – Germany
Michelle Dekker – Netherlands
Sabine Payer – Austria
Malena Zamfirova – Bulgaria
Julie Zogg – Switzerland
Aurelie Moisan – Canada
Jasmin Corati – Italy
Kaylie Buck – Canada
Cheyenee Loch – Germany
Claudia Riegler – Austria
Here’s Bryan on the opening ceremony and the crowd disapproval of one of America’s widely loathed regime. “Information asymmetry” is quite the phrase.
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If you didn’t catch Day 1 in pictures, do yourself a favour. There are some tremendous snappers out on the slopes. (Not the fish.)
If you want to get more summaries than I can give you, get hold of The Briefing, which is our daily Olympic mailer.
What to look out for today
Times are all in local time in Milan and Cortina. For Sydney it is +10 hours, for London it is -1 hour, for New York it is -6 hours and San Francisco it is -9 hours.
Snowboard: The women’s and men’s giant slalom elimination runs are on now. Then from at about 1pm the women’s quarter finals, 2:12pm the women’s semis, at 2:19pm the men’s semis, and at 2:26pm the women’s final, with 2:36pm the men’s final. Later, at 7:30 pm, we’ll have the women’s Big Air qualifiers. Get on up.
Curling – 10:05am, 2:35pm, 7:05pm: The first mixed doubles matches are the ones underway now, Czechia v Norway and Estonia v Korea, then later on it will be Canada v Sweden and Great Britain v Switzerland. The Brits are already through, mind you, unbeaten from seven games played so far. They just have today’s match and one against Italy to go, which will happen in the latest round tonight, as well as Sweden v USA, Switzerland v Norway, and Canada v Korea.
Alpine skiiing – 11:30am: A 36-entrant field for the women’s final, but much of the attention will be on American veteran Lindsey Vonn, racing on a damaged ACL – a knee ligament, which you would think you need to ski. Apparently not.
Cross-country – 12:30pm: This is the men’s 10x10 skiathlon event, the one where they switch ski styles halfway through.
Biathlon – 2:05pm: Two women, two men, six kilometres each, plus both styles of shooting, which means standing and lying down for a rest. That’s the relay.
Speed skating – 4pm: The men’s 5000 metres final, when they go round and round and round and round and round and round…
Ice hockey – 4:40pm and 9:10pm: Group games for the women between France and Sweden in the early match, and Czechia against Finland in the latter.
Luge – 6:34pm: This will be the fourth and final luge run for the men, which will decide the winner. They had two runs yesterday, Germany’s Max Langenhan is the current leader.
Figure skating – 7:30pm, 8:45pm, 9:55pm: This will be a flurry of creativity. It’s the final stretch of the team event, where national teams combine scores across a team doing all four skating events. We’ve already had the ice dance, so today it will be the pairs first, then the women solo, then the men.
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Preamble
Hello, friends and rivals, Italy enthusiasts and snow bunnies. We’re about to embark on the second day of the Winter Olympics 2026, and it’s an exercise in contrast, with the first few medals already lodged in the tally from some ski, skate, and snowboard events, and about eight million curling matches yet to play before reaching the business end there.
What’s up for grabs today? These are the medal events.
Alpine skiing: the Women’s Downhill event, after the men’s yesterday.
Cross-country skiiing: Men’s 10km+10km skiathlon
Biathlon: Mixed replay 4x6km
Snowboard: Women’s Parallel Giant Slalom
Snowboard: Men’s Parallel Giant Slalom
Speed Skating: Men’s 5000m
Luge: Men’s Singles
Figure Skating: Team Event - Men’s Single Skating
It’s going to be a busy one, building up from a relatively quiet start to a big finish. Right now we’ve got the women’s giant slalom boarding qualification runs going, and a couple of curling matches in the mixed doubles round robin.
