Here's the latest
• Ukrainian DQ’d: Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from Olympic competition over his helmet featuring images of athletes killed during the war in Ukraine. IOC President Kirsty Coventry met with the Ukrainian early Thursday in an attempt to break the impasse, but he stood his ground, resulting in the disqualification.
• Chloe Kim looks for three-peat: US snowboarding star Chloe Kim is going for her third snowboard halfpipe gold medal in a row today in a busy Day 6 of the Games for the Americans.
• Italian glory in speed skating: Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida won the women’s 5000m final in sensational fashion in front of a raucous home crowd to win her second gold of the Games.
CNN Sports has all of the greatest feats of achievement – and funny anecdotes – from the Games, so sign up for our “Milano Memo” newsletter.
Horses and skiers compete together in skijoring — the Winter Games’ first demonstration sport
A wild blend between horses and skis is an integral part of a sport which we won’t be seeing at the 2026 Winter Games.
Exhibited at St. Moritz, Switzerland in 1928, skijoring holds the honor of being the first ever demonstration sport at a Winter Olympics, yet the discipline’s origins extend well beyond its Games debut.
Practiced differently across continents, the history of skijoring is a complex one and comes in many different forms. But in recent years, it’s been the American version of the sport which has grown in popularity.
Megan Smith, a professional western-style skijorer, told CNN Sports all about the wild nature of the discipline: “An average person couldn’t do it. This is crazy.
How do you order a coffee in Italy?
Given our teams in the field must be cold – and you too if you’re in northern Italy for these Games – they must be looking for a hot beverage to warm up. And what better than one of Italy’s famed coffees. But how do you order one the right way?
You begin with the easy part, finding a shop that sells coffee. Once you enter, there’s no formal queue. Instead, you will have to try your hardest to catch the barista’s eye.
After that incredibly awkward task is complete, open with a greeting like “buongiorno,” which is “hello” in Italian.
Now, the important part. “Un caffè” is an espresso, “macchiato” is an espresso with a spoonful of hot and foamy milk. DO NOT ask for a latte, otherwise you will end up with a glass full of milk. Instead, for what you are used to as a latte, ask for a “latte macchiato” and your order shall be served.
With the countdown to the Winter Olympics Games underway, Italy is gearing up to host athletes and tourists alike. One Italian ritual is essential for visitors to understand: the unwritten rules of Italian coffee. CNN's Antonia Mortensen shows you how to order the perfect cappuccino.
Fortunately, to save you the stress, cappuccino is pronounced the same in English as it is in Italian.
If you didn’t pay at the start, you can exchange the money on your way out. With that, the ritual is complete, you are now fully set to engage in one of Italy’s proudest traditions.
Italy's Francesca Lollobrigida celebrates gold medal with video call
Francesca Lollobrigida won’t forget that for a while.
She looks the perfect blend of absolutely exhausted and totally ecstatic as she waves to the crowd on her victory lap, wrapped in the Italian flag.
She then brings out her phone and looks to call someone, waving down the lens at, presumably, a loved one somewhere in the world.
That women’s 5000m final took a while to get going but what a conclusion.
Dutch athlete Merel Conijn has to settle for silver after finishing 0.10 seconds back, with Norway’s Ragne Wiklund taking bronze.
Francesca Lollobrigida brings the house down with her second gold of the Games
Incredible!
What a performance from Francesca Lollobrigida, absolutely sensational.
The Italian knew the time she had to beat and went out hard, tracking over a second quicker than Merel Conijn at times.
But you could see she started to struggle in the last few laps and her pace began to slow.
Seeing this, the home crowd got on their feet and made an amazing noise to urge her on.
It worked and she walks away with the gold medal and a massive smile on her face.
Just 0.07 seconds makes a big difference in speed skating
Sports can be so cruel sometimes.
Norway’s Ragne Wiklund just put her heart and soul into that race, but finished 0.07 seconds behind current leader Merel Conijn.
Wiklund sinks her head into her hands as Conijn celebrates. With just two athletes left to go, she knows she’s at least got a medal.
Now to decide what color.
Dutch delight as Merel Conijn takes the 5000m speed skating lead
We needed something to spark the women’s 5000m final into life and our prayers have been answered.
Dutch fans stand to applaud Merel Conijn as she takes the lead after a brilliant race with Belgium’s Sandrine Tas.
The two women have been by far the fastest of the final so far and occupy the gold and silver medal places as things stand.
They both put an arm around each other as they try to gain their breath back on the ice.
The story behind this viral celebration at the Winter Olympics
Austrian snowboarder Benjamin Karl knew exactly what he would do if he won a gold medal at this year’s Winter Olympics; what he hadn’t planned for was the reaction from the rest of the world.
After retaining his Olympic parallel giant slalom crown in Livigno on Sunday, the 40-year-old celebrated by ripping off his top, baring his chest to the frenzied crowd, before flexing his muscles and dropping facedown onto the snow.
The impassioned celebration was quickly clipped and shared across social media, with thousands enjoying what initially looked like a release of unbridled, unrehearsed joy.
And while Karl was absolutely over-the-moon with his gold medal moment, the reaction was very much planned as a tribute to his hero, Hermann Maier.
“He was my one and only idol, and I waited my whole career for the right moment to do it, in tribute to him,” Karl told CNN Sports.
Read more about Karl’s wonderful celebration and career here.
How Maxim Naumov and Ilia Malinin are spearheading men’s figure skating
From emotional to the magnificent, Tuesday’s men’s figure skating short program was simply breathtaking.
It all started when Maxim Naumov produced a raw and soul-baring performance in tribute to his parents who both died in a midair plane crash last year.
There was barely a dry eye in the stands as the American held a childhood photo of his mom and dad while waiting for his score.
“I felt like I was guided by them today, feeling their presence with every glide that I made on the ice,” he told reporters.
“I couldn’t help but feel their support, almost like a chess piece on a chess board, just from one element to another.”
Then Ilia Malinin helped close off the night with a simply stunning routine, which saw him race to the top of the leaderboard. It was a moment that cemented him as one of the stars of this year’s Games.
“It’s really just such a piece of art,” the “Quad God” told reporters about his love for figure skating.
“Not a lot of people can do that, and I’m so grateful to be surrounded by so many amazing athletes, so many different artists on the ice.”
The pair will be back on the ice at the Milano Ice Skating Arena on Friday to compete for the medals, with the free skating section of the event set to start shortly after 1 p.m. ET.
You may see some athletes represent AIN. Here's what that means
Speaking of AIN, what does that acronym mean?
An Individual Neutral Athlete is the name used to refer to athletes with either a Russian or Belarusian passport who will be competing at this year’s Winter Games. These athletes are referred to by the aforementioned abbreviation, which comes from the French translation Athlètes Individuels Neutres.
These athletes will be permitted to compete if they meet eligibility requirements, which are the same as those established for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
No reference to either country will be made at the Games through the athletes’ participation.
“No flag, anthem, colors or any other identifications whatsoever of Russia or Belarus will be displayed at the (Olympics) in any official venue or any official function,” the IOC said in a 2024 statement.
The AIN anthem – without any lyrics – and the AIN flag will be used in medal ceremonies.
Though AINs are eligible to compete and win Olympic medals, they will not be displayed in the medal table of nations.
AINs will also be excluded from the parade of delegations at the Opening Ceremony on the basis that they are individual athletes rather than a team, though the IOC has said “an opportunity will be provided for them to experience the event.”
Thirteen Russians and seven Belarusians have qualified for and been cleared to compete in Milan Cortina in the following sports:
- Alpine skiing
- Cross-country skiing
- Figure skating
- Freestyle skiing
- Luge
- Short track
- Ski mountaineering
- Speed skating
More subdued atmosphere at women's 5000m speed skate
It’s only the sixth day of official action but so much has happened already in these Games.
That might be the reason for the quieter crowds at the women’s 5000m today, that and the fact that it’s a far more steady event compared to the sprints.
The hectic Olympic schedule has all gotten too much for one journalist near me; he’s fallen asleep with his laptop still open.
Wouldn’t want to be him when the party music played between races kicks in shortly.
AIN athlete Marina Zoueva currently tops the leaderboard with a time of 6:57.70. We’re almost halfway through the final already.
US Delegation to attend 2026 Olympic Winter Games closing ceremony
The White House on Wednesday announced the designation of a presidential delegation to travel to Milan, Italy, for the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games on February 22, 2026.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon will lead the delegation, according to the release.
The delegation will include Tilman J. Fertitta, the United States ambassador to the Italian Republic and the Republic of San Marino, and his spouse, Lauren Fertitta, who attended the opening ceremony with Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance earlier this month.
Also attending are Kelly Loeffler, administrator of the US Small Business Administration, Meredith O’Rourke, senior adviser to the president, Bob Book, chairman of Book Capital Enterprises, and Neil Book, chairman, president and chief revenue officer of Jet Support Services, Inc.
The group will also feature Trish Duggan, founder of the Imagine Museum, Diane Hendricks, founder and consulting chairman of ABC Supply Co., Inc. and Ryan Suter, a medalist with the US men’s hockey team at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics.
Why do all Olympic curling stones come from one small island off Scotland’s coast?
Team USA won silver in mixed doubles curling on Tuesday after reaching the event’s final for the first time during the Winter Olympics. In the semifinal against Italy on Monday, American curler Cory Thiesse made the winning shot that knocked the Italian team’s curling stone out of its place.
The strictly regulated curling stones weigh between 38 and 44 pounds (17 and 20 kilograms) and can last decades. One company, Kays of Scotland, handcrafts most professional and all Olympic stones using granite from a single small uninhabited island off the coast of Scotland.
Granite from Ailsa Craig is exceptionally fine-grained; its minerals are arranged in such a way that tightly knits them together. This density makes the granite particularly resilient to collisions and allows it to be polished to a finish smooth enough to glide on ice. The unique mineral composition also gives the stones an intrinsic ability to curl along their trajectory.
“It’s not just about the ability to withstand chips and cracks. It also has to do with how it moves on the ice and how the stones bounce when they hit each other,” said Dr. Bob Gooday, a geological analyst at National Museums Scotland. “Professional curlers have used other kinds of stones, which slide perfectly well, but when they hit each other, they don’t bounce quite the same.”
Read more about why all curling stones come from Ailsa Craig here.
NHL returns to Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina after controversial buildup
The superstars of the NHL will return to Winter Olympic action later on Wednesday, bringing with them thousands of fans from across the world, but it’s been far from a smooth buildup to the Games.
It’s been 12 years since the NHL last featured at the Olympics – the league opted out of the 2022 Games because of the pandemic and decided against allowing players to compete at the 2018 edition, saying the competition would disrupt the hockey season.
Now, though, they are not only competing, but they’re coming in droves – each of the 32 NHL teams will have at least one representative at the Games.
The excitement in Milan is palpable then, with the men’s tournament starting with Slovakia taking on Finland on Wednesday, before Team USA gets its campaign underway against Latvia on Thursday.
Find out more about NHL players’ return to the Games here.
Ukrainian skater Oleh Handei told to tape over message on helmet — Reuters
Ukrainian short track speed skater Oleh Handei said in an interview with Reuters Thursday that he was told to tape over an inspirational message on his helmet at the Olympics because it was seen as linked to the war with Russia.
“They saw my sentence and they said to me, ‘Sorry, but it’s war propaganda,’” he told Reuters, adding he would comply with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ruling in order to compete.
The 26-year-old, who is set to compete in Saturday’s men’s 1500m short track speed skating quarterfinals in Milan, had a message on his helmet reading: “Where there is heroism, there can be no final defeat.”
The words are a quote from Ukrainian writer Lina Kostenko which Handei said motivated him, but it reportedly breaks IOC rules which prevent athletes from making political statements.
Handei told Reuters he didn’t want to go public with what happened, but after Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from competition over his helmet that honored his dead compatriots, he decided to speak out.
“He (Heraskevych) just reminds us, reminds the world that we actually exist as a country,” he told Reuters.
“We exist as a people, as humans, so we need some support, we need some understanding.”
Stage is set for women's 5000m speed skate
I’ve really enjoyed the drama and high-speed action at the Milano Speed Skating Arena during these Games so far and I’m back again today for the women’s 5000m final.
The crowds haven’t turned up in their hordes for this event, perhaps fatigued after last night’s incredible action in the men’s 1000m final.
There is still a huge Dutch presence, though, and the stadium announcer is trying to get them bouncing. We’ve had back-to-back Lady Gaga tunes so far and I’m currently typing through a very over-the-top light show.
A total of 12 women are competing for gold and action gets underway shortly.
History is made at curling
Rich Ruohonen made history here today, despite the US men’s curling team going down to Switzerland, as the 54-year-old personal injury attorney from Minnesota is officially the oldest ever American Winter Olympian.
Ruohonen came in as an alternate for the eighth and final end, subbing in for CNN favorite Aidan Oldenburg. He joked afterward to his team: “I’m never throwing a stone again.”
Ruohonen started competing for the St. Paul Curling Club in the fifth grade and now, as the very senior member of Team USA, is usually the one picking up the tab or making omelettes.
He’s a two-time US champion but before 2026, was 0-for-6 on making Olympic teams. Now, he’s finally done it.
Nordic combined is facing decline. Its savior could be finally allowing women to compete
A little more than a week before the 2026 Winter Olympics were set to begin, Annika and Niklas Malacinski dialed into a Zoom call from their World Cup event in Austria. The sibling tandem from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, are among the best in the US in Nordic combined, which combines perhaps the most disparate sports possible: cross-country skiing and ski jumping.
While its peculiar sport partnering is a worthwhile trivia stumper, Nordic combined is one of the 16 original Winter Olympics events, dating back to the Games’ origins in 1924 in Chamonix, France.
It’s also the only winter sport to never allow women to compete at the Games.
Which means Niklas, ranked 29th in the world, will be part of Team USA in Milan-Cortina; Annika, ranked 10th, will not.
Read more about the existential Games crisis that the sport is having here.
One of the greatest skiers ever, Mikaela Shiffrin has pressure heading into rest of Games
Sitting to the side of the finish line area at Olympia delle Tofane, Jacqueline Wiles watched Mikaela Shiffrin step into the starting gate for the final slalom run of the women’s combined and thought to herself what everyone else at the mountain was thinking.
“We were asking for a miracle,’’ Wiles said.
Two days earlier, Wiles left the mountain in tears, finishing in the single worst place in an Olympic event – fourth. Now she and her partner, Paula Moltzan, sat third, but with the single greatest slalom skier about to attack the mountain, Wiles was staring at yet another bridesmaid finish.
What happened next is what makes the Olympics so unexpectedly compelling. Shiffrin, winner of 71 slalom World Cup victories and a gold medal in the event, started slowly and skied tentatively to finish 15th out of 18 skiers, her worst place since March 17, 2012. Her time – 1:36.59 – was so far behind that, even when tagged with Breezy Johnson’s first-place downhill run, the Americans slid to fourth.
Wiles and Moltzan held on to their bronze medal, celebrating their victory. At the same time, Shiffrin, shoulders slumped, accepted a comforting hug from Johnson. “It’s OK,’’ Johnson told her.
Read more about the pressure on Shiffrin’s shoulders heading into her solo competitions here.
German serenade at curling
The German fans are enjoying themselves aplenty here at the Cortina Curling Centre. Along with chanting back and forth to stands across the arena – “Deutsch-land!” – they have done a hum-along version of “Hey, Jude.”
This is especially amusing since Great Britain is also competing in this round-robin session against Sweden, and sort of own the unofficial copyright on the Beatles.
There’s also an entire row of German fans wearing red, yellow and black clown wigs. It feels a little more like a soccer match than curling right now – guys, just wait for the World Cup in a few months’ time, please – way different than the dead silence of the mixed-doubles gold match earlier this week.
This teenager is making history for the Philippines at the 2026 Games
The Winter Olympics are a stage for some of sports’ most inspiring stories, and the 2026 Milan Cortina Games are no exception.
When Filipina alpine skier Tallulah Proulx takes to the slopes, she will not only be the first woman to represent the Philippines at a Winter Olympics, but also the youngest ever Winter Olympian from the nation at just 17 years old.
“I can’t even believe that I’m going. I don’t think it’s fully hit me yet and I don’t think it will until I’m actually there,” she recently told CNN.
Despite growing up in California, Proulx learned skiing when her family regularly took her to Sierra-at-Tahoe, a ski resort in the north of the state. By the age of seven, she was competing in events, and her Olympic dream was born.
“I’m just beyond excited and I hope that people continue supporting me even after the Olympics,” she says. “And I hope to represent the Philippines in a positive light and spread my love of the sport and love of sports in general to the Philippines.”
