Hello from idyllic Cortina, the place the primary day of Olympic motion started two days forward of the opening ceremony with a fan favourite: curling. Kira Dixon from our companions over at NBC Sports was there.
We’re coming to you from our vigorous newsroom in Milan, the place folks gathered to look at the curling matches with — you guessed it — pizza.
More on the most recent from Lindsey Vonn and a rundown of what our correspondents are most trying ahead to.
Live from Milan Cortina
We slid into motion with mixed doubles in curling at Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium. It was Britain vs. Norway, Canada vs. Czechia, Sweden vs. South Korea and Switzerland vs. Estonia.
Some of the primary cheers weren’t only for the workforce “skips” — curling for captains — however for the lights. About 10 minutes into the competitors, the stadium skilled a partial energy outage. After a short pause, the lights got here again on to applause.
Sweden took the primary win of the 2026 Winter Olympics, 10-3 towards South Korea within the sixth finish — additionally referred to as a spherical — ending the match early. Canada began with a snug lead towards Czechia and received 10-5.
Britain and Norway had been essentially the most intently matched, however Britain in the end pulled by with an 8-6 win.
Estonia pulled off an unbelievable comeback to tie 7-7 with Switzerland, forcing a further finish. Team Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller and Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann sealed the take care of a 9-7 rating within the ninth finish.
Vonn to offer it a go
The ladies’s downhill coaching classes Friday and Saturday — often routine affairs — is likely to be a number of the most intently watched follow runs ever. American Lindsey Vonn is more likely to be testing her torn ACL a few week after she crashed at a race in Switzerland.
“As long as there’s a chance,” Vonn stated, “I will try.”
Dr. John Torres, a medical contributor for NBC News, was a bit shocked. “From a medical perspective, that’s a very tough uphill battle she’s got in front of her,” he stated. “That ACL is extremely important to keeping that knee stable, and keeping that knee stable is extremely important to her sport.”
Over her profession, Vonn has torn a number of knee ligaments and sustained a number of fractures. She retired in 2019, at the least partially due to accidents. In 2024, she underwent a partial proper knee alternative and introduced her comeback later that yr. On Friday, simply earlier than the 2026 Games, she tore the ACL in her left knee.
“It’s not the first time that someone would have tried to race at a high, high level without an ACL,” Chris Knight, Vonn’s head coach, instructed NBC News.
Knight stated the most important issue is how Vonn feels bodily, and up to now, the indicators have been encouraging. “It’s very stable. There’s no pain, no swelling, as she’s mentioned,” he stated.
A brace would assist stabilize her knee. But for the reason that harm occurred so lately, it’s nonetheless within the “acute phase, where her knee hasn’t recovered,” Torres stated, that means she’d most probably be snowboarding with some quantity of ache.
It wouldn’t shock Torres, although, if Vonn gritted her enamel and competed anyway. “These super-fine-tuned athletes; they know their body better than most of us,” he stated. “She knows, and her staff knows, what she can and can’t do.”
“She’s prepared her whole life for these events,” he added. “It’s hard to give it up.”
The gold medal run for the ladies’s downhill is Sunday.
More athletes to know
More than 230 athletes are set to characterize Team USA in Italy. Here’s what makes a few of them so particular.
Conquering time
Nick Baumgartner, a 44-year-old snowboard cross racer from Michigan, is heading to his fifth Olympics in Milan Cortina, defying a youth-dominated sport by relentless work, smarter coaching and hard-earned endurance. After a long time of grinding, facet jobs and near-misses, he lastly received Olympic gold in 2022.
From chemo to the Olympics
Rory Guilday, a defender on the U.S. ladies’s hockey workforce, earned an Olympic roster spot a yr after being minimize. Her journey contains having overcome childhood chemotherapy for an optic nerve tumor that price her a lot of the imaginative and prescient in her proper eye, a problem that reshaped her perspective and resilience. Now, in Milan, Guilday is about to make her Olympic debut together with her household within the stands, grateful for each probability to play.
Photo of the day
What we’re enthusiastic about
There’s a lot to see, and eat, through the subsequent 2½ weeks right here in Italy. Here’s what a number of the NBC News reporters and correspondents are most trying ahead to.
Sam Brock: The ladies’s moguls workforce has 4 athletes who might all find yourself on the rostrum for each moguls and twin moguls — making it a powerhouse of complementary abilities that ought to actually flip this right into a memorable video games for the U.S. in freestyle snowboarding.
Also, American Alex Hall — who moved to Switzerland as a baby and frolicked snowboarding within the mountains in Livigno, Italy — is an extremely compelling draw primarily based each on his type and the truth that he has an opportunity to change into the primary athlete to win two gold medals in Slopestyle snowboarding for the reason that occasion debuted greater than a decade in the past. And he has an Italian passport from his mother, who’s initially from Bologna!
Greg Rosenstein: Besides the seemingly limitless quantities of pasta, pizza and cappuccinos over the subsequent few weeks, I’m most excited to see how Lindsey Vonn fares. Winning one other gold medal was onerous sufficient with out the harm. Now the 41-year-old is making an attempt to do it mere days after a ugly fall. If she will pull it off, will probably be the story of the Milan Cortina Games.
Rohan Nadkarni: I’m keen to search out out if the sandwiches in Italy can evaluate to an Italian sub from Publix, and I can also’t wait to look at some quick observe speedskating, which has been described to me as “NASCAR on ice.” One athlete specifically I’ll have my eye on in that occasion is Kristen Santos-Griswold, who was robbed of a medal in Beijing and is giving it one other go on the ice in Milan.
Claudio Lavagna: Well, I grew up in Milan, however haven’t lived right here in 25 years. So one factor I’m trying ahead to is my favourite native dish: ossobuco alla Milanese (that’s bone marrow with saffron rice). The greatest!
When to look at
Here’s what to look ahead to tomorrow. In addition to curling, we have ladies’s hockey (together with the primary recreation for the U.S.) and males’s snowboarding. All occasions can be found to stream on Peacock.
Here’s the complete schedule (all occasions Eastern):
Thursday, Feb. 5
- 4:05 a.m.: Mixed doubles curling round-robin (Great Britain-Estonia, Sweden-Czechia, Norway-USA, South Korea-Italy)
- 6:10 a.m.: Women’s hockey pool play (Sweden-Germany)
- 8:35 a.m.: Mixed doubles curling round-robin (USA-Switzerland, Norway-Canada)
- 8:40 a.m.: Women’s hockey pool play (Italy-France)
- 10:40 a.m.: Women’s hockey pool play (USA-Czechia)
- 1:05 p.m.: Mixed doubles curling round-robin (Canada-Italy, Switzerland-South Korea, Estonia-Sweden, Czechia-Great Britain)
- 1:30 p.m.: Snowboarding: Men’s large air qualifying
- 3:10 p.m.: Women’s hockey pool play (Finland-Canada)
That’s it for now! We’ll be again tomorrow.