Winter Olympics 2026: speed skating gold for Italy, Cas upholds ban on GB skeleton helmets and more – live | Winter Olympics 2026
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Key events
Ice hockey: Canada have mustered 16 shots in the first period but scored no goals against Switzerland. The Swiss had to see out a Canadian power play in the final minute and managed to see it out despite the puck landing on the top of the net after a goalmouth scramble.
Curling: There were three late matches in the mixed doubles. South Korea got their first win, beating the US 6-5. Italy beat Norway 6-5 and Estonia inflicted a major blow on Canada’s hopes if making the final by securing a 8-6 victory. The British pair of Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat close out their round robin matches tomorrow against Italy and Switzerland, Team GB are already guaranteed a semi-final spot with seven wins from seven.
Figure skating: Was there some mind games going on in the men’s singles round if the team event? USA’s Ilia Malinin was definitely holding back a bit from his best routine ahead of the individual event. Yuma Kagiyama laid it all out for Japan and beat his American rival’s score by ten points. Malinin did enough to ensure the US go into the final round in gold medal position but now knows Kagiyama will carry a threat in the individual competition.
Setback for Team GB’s Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt
Sean Ingle
The news is a big blow to Team GB’s Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt, who have dominated skeleton all season, winning all seven of the World Cup races between them.
Those victories were won with a different helmet, but Weston and Wyatt were hoping to go even quicker by using a differently shaped design.
More on that skeleton news from Sean Ingle in Milan:
CAS upholds ban of British skeleton helmets
British skeleton athletes will not be able to use their specially-designed helmets at the Milano Cortina Olympics after the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected an appeal by the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association (BBSA) on Saturday.
The BBSA had taken its case to Cas earlier this week after the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) had banned the helmets, saying they violated competition rules.
In the CAS hearing, the BBSA argued the helmet was compliant because it was manufactured without any attached elements and hence had no aerodynamic modifications.
However, the IBSF said the helmet had spoilers and protruding edges that actually boosted aerodynamics.
‘After hearing the expert opinions and considering the evidence, the (Cas) panel noted that the helmet departs from the standard shape and reflects a novel design specifically developed to enhance aerodynamic performance where the rear considerably protrudes,’ Cas said in a statement.
‘The panel determined that the BBSA did not sufficiently establish that the helmet complies with the current IBSF rules. As a consequence, the application was dismissed.’
Reporting courtesy of Reuters
🥇 Kimura wins gold in the snowboarding big air!
Kimata gets the melon grab and hits six spins but his hand went down so he can’t improve his score. He stays in silver position meaning that Kimura is the Olympic champion and defending gold medallist Su Yiming takes bronze.
Snowboarding big air: Su Yiming’s landing is not exactly flawless and he needs a decent score to get on the podium. It’s an 80.25 that bumps down Martin of USA and sees the Chinese athlete get bronze. Kimata goes next needing to land something big to take gold…
Snowboarding big air: We have a new leader! Kira Kimura posts a 90.50 with a huge jump and a textbook landing, he’s eight points ahead of team-mate Ryoma Kimata.
🥇 Anna Odine Strøm wins gold in the women’s normal hill ski jump
With a 101m jump in the final round Norway’s Anna Odine Strøm wins the gold as she posts 130.4 for a total of 267.3. Slovenia’s Nika Prevc is second with a score of 266.2 and Japan’s Nozomi Maruyama get bronze with 261.8.
Ski jumping: Norway’s Heidi Dyhre Traaserud is currently leading ski jumping with five athletes left to jump. We’ll have the medal winner from that event very soon.
Snowboarding big air: Oliver Martin of USA propels himself right up into medal contention with a 83.50 to move up to silver as it stands. Next up is Matteoli and he goes clean too. How will the judges score the Italian? After a long wait the cheers go up as he put himself into bronze with an 82.25. Now a long wait to see if the Italians can get their fourth medal of the Games.
Snowboarding big air: The final run will be done in reverse points order, so Ogiwara is up first having just dumped out his second run.
Snowboarding big air: So going into the third run Ryoma Kimata of Japan leads with scores of 86.25 and 85.25 for a solid total of 171.50, China’s Su Yiming sit second with a total of 162.00 and Dane Menzies of New Zealand is third with 160.75.
Snowboarding big air: Italy’s Ian Matteoli gets the biggest cheer so far as he lands his second run to score 80.25. Japan’s Hiroto Ogiwara is out of contention as he falls again and misses the chance to post a compettiive score going into the third run.
Snowboarding big air: Su Yiming’s nearly lands a switch backside 1800 and scores 73.75. Kira Kimura, the leader after the first run, doesn’t stick his second jump and slides down to fourth ahead of the third and final run.
Ski jumping: After round one in the women’s normal hill final, Anna Odine Strøm of Norway posted the top score of 136.9 as the only athlete to hit 100m. Slovenia’s Nika Prevc progressed in second with a score of 135.9 and Nozomi Maruyama of Japan posted the third highest score with 135.7. The final round will conclude in about half an hour.
Snowboarding big air: Defending Olympic champion Su Yiming goes to the top of the standings with a backside 1980, slight wobble on the landing but he’s still awarded 88.25. That lead doesn’t last long, mind, as Kira Kimura get an 89.0 for a virtually flawless jump. Neither Ian Matteoli or Hiroto Ogiwara can better that, or even land clean jumps so Kimura is the leader after the first run.
Snowboarding big air: We’re about halfway through the first runs and Ryoma Kimata of Japan is leading with a score of 86.25 but he is closely trailed by New Zealand’s Lyon Farrel, who landed the 1800, to score 83.50.
Snowboarding big air: Valentino Guseli of Australia is the first to go in tonight’s final, he’s not expected to trouble the medal places and makes his challenge slightly harder as he fails to stick the landing. The final result is based on your best two tricks, so he’ll be hoping for more from runs two and three.
Ice hockey: Hilary Knight equalled the US Olympic women’s hockey career goal record as the Americans beat Finland 5-0 in Milan. Also on the scoresheet for Team USA were Megan Keller, who got two assists, as well as Alex Carpenter, Taylor Heise and Abbey Murphy. US Vice President JD Vance sat with Jake Paul to watch the match at Fiera Milano, what a time to be alive.
Shiffrin says she’s learned from Beijing mistakes
Lindsey Vonn’s quest for a miraculous medal with a ruptured ACL maybe the big story in US Alpine skiing in Cortina, but there is another American superstar looking for something of a comeback. Mikaela Shiffrin said she has learned from the mistakes which cost her Olympic medals four years ago ahead of her first race at the Milan-Cortina Games.
Shiffrin comes into the Winter Olympics off the back of an incredible season in which she has already won the World Cup slalom title for a record-breaking ninth time and is on course to claim the overall crystal globe.
But she arrives in Cortina d’Ampezzo with tough memories of her disastrous last Olympics in Beijing where the most successful skier of all time failed to claim a single medal.
“Skiing is hard because when you’ve done something technically, like you’ve made a technical error maybe you know what you need to do to fix it and you know the steps you need to take in order to get there,” Shiffrin told reporters.
“But it’s still so precise and there’s so many variables. It’s definitely hard to do that and like do it right all the time.
“In Beijing, all these kind of pieces that came together and all the different factors that played a role, we’ve assessed them all and I continue to assess them, including my own role to play.”
Reporting courtesy of AFP.
Luge: The quickest man after round one is the still the quickest man after round two, Germany’s Max Langenhan will lead the luge overnight, with Jonas Müller of Austria second and Italian home hopeful Fischnaller third.
Ski jumping: We’re underway in the first round of the jumping. Currently going through the early jumpers. I’ll update you when we have a better picture of the contenders towards the end of the round
Luge: We’re into the second runs of the luge and the Italians are taking advantage of the home track. Dominik Fischnaller and Leon Felderer are currently sitting first and second, respectively. The final two runs will take place tomorrow to decide the medals.
Coming up: We have two more medal events this evening, the women’s ski jumping (normal hill) is due to begin in about 15 minutes and the men’s snowboard big air is slated for 6.30pm (GMT).
Ice Hockey: At the end of the second period in the women’s pool game between Finland and USA the Americans are 4-0 up.
Day one so far
Hello, shall we have a little recap of what’s happened today?
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Francesca Lollobrigida won Italy’s first gold of the Games in the 3,000m speed skating
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Team GB’s mixed doubles curling team are still unbeaten after seeing off Canada and USA. Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat are through to the semi-finals before the final two matches of the round robin stage
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British medal hope Kirsty Muir is through to Monday’s slopestyle final
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Frida Karlsson took gold as Sweden secured a one-two in the first cross country skiing event, the women’s 10km+10km skiathlon
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Franjo von Allmen of Switzerland won the first gold medal at Milano Cortina 2026, running away with the men’s downhill title
Handover: Thank you for your company, Tom Bassam is here to take you through the next few hours. Enjoy the rest your weekend, wherever it may take you.
Women’s downhill: Italy’s most successful women’s skier Federica Brignone will compete in the Alpine skiing downhill race on Sunday at the Milano Cortina Olympics, the Italian winter sports federation said on Saturday. The 35-year-old had been assessing her condition after an accident last April left her with multiple leg fractures and a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Brignone will ski on the Olympia delle Tofane piste with bib number three.
Women’s 3,000m speed skating top 10
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Francesca Lollobrigida (Italy) 3min 54.28sec
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Ragne Wiklund (Norway) 3min 56.54sec
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Valerie Maltais (Canada) 3min 56.93sec
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Joe Beune (Netherlands) 3min 58.12sec
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Isabelle Weidemann (Canada) 3min 59.24sec
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Nadezhda Morozova (Kazakhstan) 4min 01.20sec
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Sandrine Tas (Belgium) 4min 01.26sec
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Marijke Grownewoud (Netherlands) 4min 01.35sec
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Merel Conijn (Netherlands) 4min 01.65sec
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Elizaveta Golubeva (Kazakhstan) 4min 03.30sec
Team GB athletes in action tomorrow
This just in from the Team GB press dept: Team GB will be back in action in a range of sports on Sunday in Milano Cortina. Andrew Musgrave will become a five-time Olympian in cross-country skiing, while Mia Brookes is also in action and the curling mixed doubles continues.
Cross-country skiing
Three British skiers will take on the men’s 10km + 10km skiathlon. Musgrave, who has a best Olympic finish of seventh in the 30km skiathlon at PyeongChang 2018, is joined by James Clugnet, appearing at his second Games, and debutant Joe Davies, who grew up in British Columbia watched the Vancouver 2010 Olympics as a fan.
Snowboarding
Women’s big air qualification takes centre stage on Sunday evening, with action getting underway at 7.30pm.
Mia Brookes is a two-time overall World Cup winner in this discipline, while she became a junior big air world champion in 2022. This is her first event of the Games, with slopestyle – in which she won her second X Games gold in January – following later.
Brookes is joined by Maisie Hill, who recovered from a life-threatening training crash into a wall of ice in 2023 and will now make her Olympic debut.
The 24-year-old was left with a lacerated liver, a broken spine, ribs and pelvis, a fractured lung and a bleed on the brain after the incident, but will complete a remarkable comeback in Livigno.
Curling
Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds play two more matches in the ranking round as they bid to remain undefeated. The British pair have already secured a place in the semi-finals but will hope to continue their momentum as they face Switzerland at 1.35pm before taking on Italy at 6.05pm.
🥇 Francesca Lollobrigida wins gold for Italy
Women’s 3,000m speed skating: Joy Beune is almost four seconds down, much to the delight of the largely Italian crowd and birthday girl Francesco Lollobrigida, her husband and young son, who celebrate wildly.
Lollobrigida can’t contain her tears and covers her eyes with fingers adorned by long green nails. Lollobrigida takes gold, Norway’s Ragne Wiklund wins silver and Valerie Maltais from Canada gets the bronze.
Women’s 3,000m speed skating: The final pairing are out and comprises Joy Beune (Netherlands) and Isabelle Wiedemann (Canada). Can either of them poop Francesca Lollobrigida’s birthday party? Beune was the pre-race favourite, so don’t rule it out.
Women’s 3,000m speed skating: The fancied duo that are Norway’s Ragne Wiklund and the Netherlands’ Marijke Groenewoud are curretly out on the track, with Lollobrigida’s time of 3min 54.28sec the time to beat. Groenewoud is not skating well and looks uncomfortable out there, while Wiklund disappears into the distance. She’s not quite fast enough and the Norwegian finishes 2.26sec off the pace to go into the silver medal position.
Birthday girl Lollobrigida sets an Olympic record
Women’s 3,000m speed skating: Happy birthday to Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida, a silver medallist in Beijing, who turns 35 today and is currently celebrating by speeding anti-clockwise and at top speed around an ice rink … as you do. Hopefully she’ll treat herself to a slice of cake and quite possibly a gold medal later. The partisan crowd rise as one to their feet to cheer her on as she breaks the Olympic record an go top of the leaderboard!
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Francesco Lollobrigida (Italy) 3min 54.28sec
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Nadezhda Morozova (Kazakhstan) 4min 01.20sec
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Sandrine Tas (Belgium) 4min 01.26sec
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Merel Conijn (Netherlands) – 4min 01.65sec
Gallery: Feast your eyes on the pick of the images thus far from Day One of the Winter Olympics …
Team GB through to curling mixed doubles semis
Curling mixed doubles: Britain’s Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat beat Canada before ending the United States’ unbeaten run to clinch their place in the mixed doubles curling semi-finals at the Milano Cortina Olympics today.
Mouat and Dodds, who were world champions in 2021 and finished in fourth place at the Beijing Olympics in 2022, sit atop the round-robin standings after winning their first seven games in the competition. They can no longer be caught by fifth-placed Sweden, who can only win a maximum of six games.
The British pair sealed a hard-fought win over Canada’s Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman in the morning session, before returning to the ice and beating Americans Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse 6-4.
Sweden’s Isabella and Rasmus Wranaa clinched a massive 9-4 win over reigning Olympic and world champions Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner of Italy to boost their hopes of a top-four finish. Italy, who went unbeaten in the only two previous competitions that Constantini and Mosaner played together, have now suffered two defeats in their campaign.
They will be hoping to bounce back but face a difficult test in the evening session, taking on two-times Olympic medallists Magnus Nedregotten and Kristin Skaslien of Norway in a rematch of the final in Beijing four years ago. Italy are joint fourth in the standings, with Norway joint sixth after winning two out of their first five games, including a 6-5 victory over Estonia on Saturday.
At the bottom of the table, the Czech pairing of Julie Zelingrova and Vit Chabicovsky beat South Koreans Jeong Yeong-seok and Kim Seon-yeong 9-4 to pick up their first win of the tournament. Teams will play nine times in the round-robin stage at the Cortina Olympic Curling Centre, with the semi-finals taking place on Monday and the medal matches scheduled for Tuesday. Reuters
Jen Dodds: “You know you are never safe”
Curling mixed doubles: “That was a very tough game,” said Jen Dodds in an interview with the BBC, after she and Bruce Mouat had beaten the USA to book Team GB’s place in the semi-final with two matches to spare. “We, again, very similar to this morning, got off to a good start. Then they steal the following end. You enjoy being up in mixed doubles, but you know you’re never safe. They really fought, but we had a clinical last end and came out with a win.
“For me, just focus on tomorrow. Switzerland tomorrow, they are fighting to try and qualify, and they will come out all guns blazing. Today was a big day for us, and we came out with a top performance in both games.”
Dodds’ partner Bruce Mouat had this to say: “It means a lot – that is what we are here for. We are coming here to try to get a medal, and we have been after it for four years at least. I feel a hot mess at the minute, but energy levels are very good. I am playing in a sport I love at the Olympics, so I don’t need any more adrenaline. Energy levels are very high at the minute.”
Women’s 3,000m speed skating: At the halfway point, Belgium’s Sandrine Tas has beaten Merel Conijn’s time to go top of the leaderboard ahead of a short break.
The current top five
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Sandrine Tas (Belgium) 4min 01.26sec
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Merel Conijn (Netherlands) 4min 01.65sec
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Elizaveta Golubeva (Kazakhstan) 4min 03.30sec
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Kaitlyn McGregor (Switzerland) 4min 04.13sec
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Kseniia Korzhova (Neutral) 4min 05.83sec
