Crimson Gerard.
Picture: François-Xavier Marit/AFP through Getty Pictures
The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics don’t technically start till the Opening Ceremony on Friday, however the actual Olympic-heads (and sports activities bettors) know the reality: The motion is already effectively underway. Competitors kicked off on February 4 with the round-robin stage of mixed-doubles curling, a slimmed-down variant of the true sophisticate’s sport. At the moment brings preliminary matches for girls’s ice hockey, qualification runs for males’s big-air snowboarding, and, after all, extra curling, which is the one sport industrious sufficient to have occasions each day via the Olympics.
As week one commences, no scarcity of story strains to comply with this Olympics which might be already taking form. Earlier than the Opening Ceremony, we’re questioning, in skating, if Workforce USA’s Madison Chock and Evan Bates will bag the gold, or in the event that they’ll lose to the newly constituted French pair of Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry, who’re oh-so-very controversial. (Sure, we watched Netflix’s Glitter & Gold.) Will Spanish determine skater Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté’s profitable lobbying of Common to let him skate like a Minion crack the door open to the IP-ification of figure-skating routines? In ice hockey, which is able to function NHL gamers for the primary time in a decade, who will prevail within the 4 Nations rematch between Canada and the U.S., a rivalry you’ll be able to solely think about can be extra-heard given the, uh, geopolitical context. Over in alpine snowboarding, will we be watching Lindsey Vonn make a really, very grave mistake … or do ACLs simply, like, not matter? Elsewhere, will Canada put Tate McRae on trial for treason?
We at Vulture can be monitoring the entire thing, so strap in, benefit from the trip, and keep frosty.
Breaking information: Workforce Poland have a 🥟 plushie pic.twitter.com/qUgQtj752p
— rip pony 2021-2023 (@itsmepooony) February 6, 2026
Switzerland and Czechia’s girls’s-hockey groups tied of their February 6 recreation and went right into a shoot-out. After an exciting eight volleys of pictures, Switzerland took the sport and headed on. The world gasping as these two small European nations confronted off in an exciting recreation of ladies’s hockey is the type of factor that makes the Olympics worthwhile.
Beloved American skier Lindsey Vonn tore her ACL after popping out of a six-year retirement to compete on this 12 months’s Video games. However she is selecting to compete. At the moment, she accomplished her first coaching run, per “The Athletic,” with no bodily points. “There was reserves immediately,” her coach Aksel Lund Svindal stated. “She appeared symmetrical, and I imply, you’ve seen earlier this season: When she skis effectively, she will win. And from what I noticed immediately, I believe she will. I imply, it’s going to be onerous, however I believe that she might probably carry that on Sunday.”
Throughout her brief program efficiency as a part of the workforce figure-skating occasion, Workforce USA member Alysa Liu missed the touchdown in her double axel. Cue gasp. Liu is without doubt one of the most publicized members of Workforce USA, after profitable gold as a youngster, retiring from determine skating totally, then coming again to the game with out her father concerned in her profession anymore. Now again on the Olympic ice, lacking her early leap appeared like a foul signal. Then she nailed her back-to-back triple Lutz and triple loop, ending up in second place behind Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto. Workforce USA stays in first place.
Her identify is Tina, and she or he’s going to be the star of this 12 months’s Olympics. As Milan Cortina’s mascot this 12 months, alongside her brother Milo, who can be representing the Paralympics, the 2 short-haired weasels are the “first overtly Gen-Z mascots,” and for apparent causes, they’re cute as hell. Take a look at them frolic via the snow.
IT’S MOVING, OH MY GOD IT’S GOING IT’S GOING IT’S — most likely essentially the most annoying option to watch a curling stone fly throughout the ice. Switzerland’s Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann lets out a scream as she watches herself rating 4 factors. Hopefully someday, her candy little child could have an equally satisfying scream.
Proud cat dad Ilia Malinin is carrying a little bit little bit of house with him for his first Olympics. He acquired yellow laces as a present from NHL report breaker Alex Ovechkin and has worn them throughout his apply classes; Ovechkin wore yellow laces all through his profession with the Washington Capitals. Malinin will compete within the males’s particular person competitors on February 10, and we’ll see if the yellow laces will hit the ice.
Determine skating star Ilya Malinin meets the media right here in Milan.
The 21-year-old simply accomplished his first apply.
And divulges to us he’s carrying Alex Ovechkin laces, that had been gifted to him by Ovechkin. Malinin will put on them thought out the Olympics. pic.twitter.com/S2zRvft1iZ
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) February 2, 2026
Crimson Gerard, who sadly didn’t qualify for Saturday’s males’s huge air, wasn’t a fan of the self-discipline anyway. When requested if he preferred competing in huge air, the place the rivals are judged for one trick accomplished off a 16.4-foot leap, Gerard gave an easy, “No.” He added, “I’m not a fan of massive air in any respect … Actually, I don’t perceive why we’re pressured to do that. I don’t like to do that. It’s not what I get pleasure from doing. There’s no circulate to it. It’s a little bit irritating.” Olympic snowboarders mechanically qualify for each huge air and slopestyle disciplines, even when they’ve a desire for one or the opposite. Not less than he’s gotten this one over with and may give attention to the slopestyle competitors on February 16.
The primary really devastating occasion of the Video games occurred earlier than they even started. Canadian star snowboarder Mark McMorris crashed on February 4, was delivered to the hospital, and in contrast to the injured Vonn, needed to withdraw from one in all his occasions. His life-threatening harm trigger him to overlook the large air qualifier and thus he will be unable to compete in that occasion on the precise video games. Nonetheless, all hope shouldn’t be misplaced for McMorris — he’ll hopefully nonetheless be capable to compete in slopestyle, which is scheduled for February 16. “I’m staying constructive and shifting my focus there,” he stated in a press release. “Large due to the unimaginable medical employees who took nice care of me, and to everybody who reached out with a lot love and assist.” McMorris has gained bronze in slopestyle thrice beforehand, so, if he’s profitable in that occasion, it might be a four-peat.
He’s acquired a torch, foolish! Snoop Dogg is changing into a mainstay in American Olympic protection; he was a number on the Paris Summer season Olympics two years in the past, and now, he’s carrying the flame in Italy for the Winter Video games. He walked out to Dr. Dre’s “The Subsequent Episode” because the official torchbearer for Workforce USA. “I’m displaying peace and love and it’s an honor to have this torch in my hand proper now,” Snoop said. “I wish to unfold an entire lot of affection to the athletes, to the individuals of Italy, to the entire world proper now. As a result of that’s what the Olympics is all about. Unfold peace and love from the D-O-dub.”
Sure, @SnoopDogg torchbearer in #Gallarate 🔥🔥#MilanoCortina2026 #Olympics #TorchRelay2026 pic.twitter.com/QQ8f1lwtxO
— Milano Cortina 2026 (@milanocortina26) February 4, 2026
One thing to maintain your eyes on when the boys’s ski-jumping occasions start on Monday: The German newspaper Bild apparently reported immediately that there’s concern over whether or not some athletes are injecting their, uh, penises with hyaluronic acid to be able to, um, fly farther. What a magical factor, the human physique. Clearly, they’re calling this little controversy “penis-gate.” The Guardian had a reasonably good write-up on this in English.
And right here’s the factor: The mechanics are most likely a little bit totally different from what you is perhaps imagining. It has much less to do with the dimensions of the genital itself and extra with the fits ski jumpers are allowed to put on. The fits need to be skintight, and jumpers are assessed forward of time utilizing knowledge collected by a 3-D scanner measured from the bottom level of their genitals. What’s being gamed right here is the aerodynamics. The tighter the swimsuit, the much less in a position ski jumpers are to catch air. So the pondering goes that some athletes is perhaps quickly inflating their penises with these injections to provide a roomier swimsuit on the time of evaluation. Come competitors day, these penises would’ve shriveled again down, creating slack within the swimsuit that lets them glide farther … you already know, the way in which a flying chipmunk would.
Anyway, there’s been no affirmation as as to whether ski jumpers are literally doing this (but). However the World Anti-Doping Company desires you to comprehend it’s trying into it and can be keeping track of these schlongs.
The nation’s superb hand-painted uniforms, designed by Italian and Haitian clothier Stella Jean, had been impressed by the artwork of Haitian American painter and sculptor Edouard Duval-Carrié, significantly his 2006 portray Toussaint Louverture. The ski fits, worn by alpine skier Richardson Viano and cross-country skier Stevenson Savart, initially included a picture of Louverture, the overall who liberated Haiti from French colonial rule in 1804, however the Worldwide Olympics Committee judged it a violation of its rule prohibiting political symbolism. Jean had Italian artisans paint out the picture of the revolutionary. “Guidelines are guidelines and have to be revered, and that’s what now we have accomplished,’’ Jean instructed the AP. “However for us, it will be important that this horse, his horse, the overall’s horse, stays. For us, it stays the image of Haiti’s presence on the Olympics.’’
Italian-Haitian designer Stella Jean created these spectacular Opening Ceremony outfits. 🔥
Richardson Viano (slalom) and Stevenson Savart (cross-country snowboarding) will characterize Haiti at Milan Cortina. pic.twitter.com/G2gIoEmKMO
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) February 5, 2026
Circling again to the Tate McRae information, by which she put the defect in defecting, it’s value noting that there’s something finally very Albertan about this conduct, as it’s basically Canada’s Texas, and there’s a entire motion of Trump-aligned Albertan separatism, colloquially often known as Wexit. I’m selecting to take McRae’s promotion of the USA hockey workforce as a Wexit canine whistle, which makes her no totally different than that woman we already knew she was. It has not even been every week since Canada, which is technically a monarchy, misplaced its queen, Catherine O’Hara. Canada didn’t want this proper now. Tate: Prime Minister Mark Carney won’t ever maintain you the way in which he holds Hudson Williams.
The “Sports activities Automobile” singer reduce a promo for NBC big-upping Workforce USA, regardless of being a Canadian. The Canucks in her feedback are displeased. “Lady you’re canadian pls what is that this,” one said. “No sum of money might make me endorse the nation that threatens mine,” stated one other, saying the quiet half out loud. Will we be seeing McRae say she’s sorrey quickly?
The Opening Ceremony hasn’t even began, and curling is already underway. Curling, for anybody not following, is ridiculously simple to grasp. Plus the gamers are mic’d, so that you get additional behind-the-scenes goss. Ever want you could possibly hear what the baseball gamers are kiki-ing about on the mound? With curling, you’ll be able to.
On January 30, American skier Lindsey Vonn — competing as soon as once more after retiring six years in the past — was injured in a downhill crash in Crass-Montana. She introduced on Instagram on February 3 that regardless of rupturing her ACL in her left knee, Vonn nonetheless plans to compete within the Downhill competitors in Milan. “Regardless of my accidents my knee is secure, I should not have swelling and my muscle mass are firing and reacting as they need to. I’ll clearly be persevering with to guage with my medical workforce every day to verify we’re making sensible selections however I’ve each intention of competing on Sunday,” she wrote. Vonn did compete with a torn ACL on the Sochi Olympics again in 2014, so it’s definitely not an inconceivable activity, nevertheless it definitely doesn’t appear nice.
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