Here's the latest
• ‘Quad God’ aims for gold: Ilia Malinin looks to become the world’s best figure skater with gold today in the men’s singles competition. Maxim Naumov is also in action, looking to honor his parents who died in the crash of American Airlines Flight 5342. The free skate begins at 1 p.m. ET.
• Ukrainian’s appeal dismissed: The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych’s appeal of his disqualification from the Games for defying IOC guidelines that banned his helmet featuring images of athletes killed during the war in Ukraine.
• Ice dance controversy: Questions are swirling around the ice dancing competition after a French judge’s marks swayed the result, knocking Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates to silver, and controversy surrounding the winners.
CNN Sports has all of the greatest feats of achievement – and funny anecdotes – from the Games, sign up for our “Milano Memo” newsletter.
Excitement building in Milan ahead of Ilia Malinin's performance
There’s only been one topic of conversation today in Milan, and that’s Ilia Malinin.
The “Quad God” is expected to make a bid for his second gold medal of the Games when he performs his free skate routine in the men’s singles event, and fans have flocked to the Milano Ice Skating Arena to watch the 21-year-old.
With around 35 minutes left until the competition starts, the stands are busier than they normally would be at this time, with no one wanting to miss any of the action.
As I took my seat, the soundtrack to Malinin’s performance started playing. The time would usually be his last opportunity to practice his routine on the ice but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. No fear, though, journalists around me confirmed he’s tended to practice elsewhere in the buildup to the Games.
He’s up last in this event, and fans hope to see him make history by landing the first quad axel ever seen at the Olympic Games. A lot to look forward to today.
Lindsey Vonn hopes to go home soon
The three-time Olympic medalist Lindsey Vonn said she is “very much immobile” after a complex tibial fracture and multiple surgeries following her crash in the downhill final Sunday.
The Team USA star skier posted a video to X from her hospital bed, thanking people who sent her notes, flowers and stuffed animals in support.
The Team USA favorite was airlifted from the mountain after Sunday’s crash and taken to a hospital in Treviso, where surgeons operated on the same leg where Vonn had “completely ruptured” her ACL in a crash January 30.
“It’s been quite a hard few days in the hospital here,” Vonn wrote in an X post today. “I’m finally feeling more like myself, but I have a long, long way to go.”
Vonn said she has another surgery tomorrow, and will probably need another when she gets back to the US.
Ukrainian athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych's appeal was dismissed
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed Ukrainian skeleton slider Vladyslav Heraskevych’s appeal to be reinstated into the Olympic Games after he was disqualified from competition for breaking International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules over athlete expression.
Why was he disqualified: The IOC guidelines banned Heraskevych’s helmet featuring images of athletes killed during the war in Ukraine. He wore it anyway.
Here’s what he told CNN’s Amanda Davies before the dismissal decision:
Did you know 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.
Czech Republic's Metodej Jilek claims stunning gold medal in men's speed skating 10,000m
Nineteen-year-old Metodej Jilek has just claimed a stunning gold medal in the men’s 10,000m speed skating after Norway’s Sander Eitrem’s effort was not enough to get into the medals.
The 24-year-old looked on track to knock Jilek off his perch, but he dropped pace in the final few laps and thus dropped down to eight in the standings.
Following the Czech with a silver was Poland’s Vladimir Semirunniy in a time of 12:39.08.
Taking the bronze was 40-year-old Dutch skater Jorrit Bergsma, who had a number of fans in the crowd donning mullets in honor of the ginger-haired competitor.
Bold Winter Games move: going sleeveless
Want to impress your friends? Be a Winter Olympian. Want to take it a step further? You could be Great Britain’s Andrew Musgrave.
The Brit not only finished in sixth in Friday’s men’s cross country 10km race – but he turned heads by doing it sleeveless.
He may have finished off the podium, but a fun Olympic moment for sure!
Czech Republic's Metodej Jilek snatches lead in men's 10,000m speed skating
Well, Vladimir Semirunniy looked on track for an Olympic gold medal in the men’s 10,000m speed skating final but Czech Republic’s 19-year-old sensation Metodej Jilek has just snatched that dream.
In a magnificent skate, Jilek puts in a time of 12:33.43 to put himself in the driver’s seat in this event.
Our eyes turn to the final two skaters to race: Norway’s Sander Eitrem and France’s Timothy Loubineaud.
An incredibly mulleted Dutchman is on track for an Olympic medal
We have to talk about Jorrit Bergsma’s hair.
The Dutch speed skater might look like a lithe skating machine as he glides around the ice during the 10,000m competition. But when he takes off the hood of his uniform, he’s got a mullet.
A glorious, spectacular, absolutely stunning mullet. The kind of mullet that looks far more at home at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert than under the bright lights of the Olympic Games.
The best part: He’s inspired a movement.
In the crowd, the NBC cameras see a group of Dutch fans wearing wigs – bearing the red, white and blue stripes of the flag of the Netherlands in headband form – that echo Bergsma’s flowing locks. The announcers themselves are trying on some of those wigs.
And after Bergsma completes his 12:40.48 skate, good enough to put himself in second place with two more pairs to go, the camera cuts to his family and his son has an equally incredible mini-mullet.
The 40-year-old has three Olympic medals to his name in his long career – a gold in the 10,000m in 2014, silver in the same race in 2018 and a bronze in the 5,000 meters in 2014. He’s on track to add another to the collection today.
We come bearing medal news and some Olympics drama
The biathlon events at this Winter Olympics are full of drama. The Norwegian athlete, who confessed to cheating on his ex-girlfriend, won another medal at the Games. And after a French athlete won a gold medal, news of her recent fraud conviction surfaced.
Here’s what you need to know this morning:
Skiing: Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo won an astonishing third gold medal of the 2026 Winter Olympics after winning the 10km cross-country skiing interval start in a time of 20:36.2. He’s now tied for most ever career Winter Olympic golds (8) with three more events left for him these Games.
Snowboarding: Australia’s Josie Baff claimed gold in women’s snowboard cross by a very narrow margin.
Men’s biathlon: Norway’s Sturla Holm Laegreid won a bronze medal in the men’s biathlon 10km sprint, his second bronze of these Games. By the way, after he confessed in a live post-race TV interview that he was unfaithful to his ex-girlfriend, she indicated to a Norwegian outlet that she is not willing to take him back. “It’s hard to forgive (him),” she told the outlet, according to the Associated Press.
Women’s biathlon: Julia Simon, who clinched gold in the women’s biathlon 15km individual race on Wednesday, is now facing some controversy. Turns out, the 29-year-old French biathlete was convicted of committing credit card fraud against a national teammate in October and was handed a three-month suspended prison sentence and $17,820 (€15,000) fine, according to the Associated Press. The kicker? The teammate involved finished 80th in the same race Simon won gold in.
How to order caffè (coffee) in Italy
If you’re like us at CNN, you’re likely on your second or third (or fifth, if you’re editor Patrick) coffee of the day.
But if you’re in Italy and have no idea how to order this delicious caffeinated beverage, we’ve got you covered.
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 “bongiorno,” which is “hello” in Italian.
With the Winter Olympic Games underway, Italy is hosting 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.
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.
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.
Poland's Vladimir Semirunniy in the lead halfway through men's speed skating 10,000m
It’s Polish skater Vladimir Semirunniy with the lead halfway through the men’s 10,000m speed skating final with a time of 12:39.08.
Three pairs of skater have taken to the ice and so far it’s Semirunniy and the Netherlands’ Stijn van de Bunt with the two standout times at the top of the leaderboard.
A lot could change with six skaters still to take to the ice, though.
There's been plenty of CNN's favorite sport today, but what exactly is curling?
One of the staples of the Winter Games – which seems to capture the hearts and minds of many, especially those at CNN – is the sport of curling.
Believed to have originated in the 16th century, teams slide granite stones that weigh up to roughly 20 kilos (44 pounds) across a 150-foot long, 15-foot-7-inch-wide sheet of ice towards a target known as a house.
Each curler has their own brush and a specific type of shoe specialized for the sport.
In each pair of shoes, one sole grips the ice, while the other is more slippery – called a slider – allowing players to slide with the stone when they’re playing it.
The brush is used by players to sweep in front of the stone to warm its path, allowing it to travel further if desired.
A team scores one point for each of its stones in or touching the house that are closer to the center than any of the opposition team’s stones. A curling game is competed over ten ends and the team with the most points wins.
Read more about “The Roaring Game” here.
Coach Snoop is having a blast at the Olympics
After delighting onlookers with a series of stylish cameos at the Paris Games in 2024, Snoop Dogg is back at the Olympics with a new, slightly more official, job: coach. The gig comes with a fresh wardrobe of looks cooler than the snow-capped Italian alps.
So far, he’s been spotted draped in a full-length, white fluffy coat and fire engine-red hat and gloves, watching the women’s downhill race, and casually chatting with onlookers at the curling mixed doubles, adorned in a zip-jacket emblazoned with Team USA players’ faces.
Wandering the icy streets of Cortina in a furry hat, houndstooth coat and enough swagger to make the snowflake medal hanging from his neck jangle in agreement, Coach Snoop (as one of his beanies reads) appears in his element.
It’s the first time Team USA has had an honorary coach, a volunteer role that involves Snoop lending “his signature humor and heart to help motivate Team USA athletes,” according to the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee.
Read more about Snoop Dogg’s presence at the Winter Olympics here.
CNN catches up with "Miracle on Ice" hockey star Jack O'Callahan
Around Atlanta, the year 1980 will be forever associated with CNN launching, but in terms of breaking news back then, you’d be hard pressed to find a sports story with more magnitude than the iconic “Miracle on Ice.”
For the uninitiated, in the midst of the Cold War, the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid saw the unheralded USA men’s ice hockey team, filled with amateurs, rather than the NHL superstars of today, go into the Games as underdogs.
The US reached the semifinals and proceeded to beat the mighty Soviet Union in one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history, en route to winning gold against Finland, under the tutelage of coach Herb Brooks.
Now, 46 years on, Netflix has released a compelling documentary, “Miracle: The Boys of ’80,” which features newly unearthed footage and catches up with the team, including hearing from Jack O’Callahan, a key defenseman on the team.
CNN Sports recently spoke with the player known as “OC” to hear his recollections more than four decades on, beginning with what it was like to return to the venue where history was made.
Some say the glory of Ilia Malinin's historical backflip was owed to a Black skater
Ilia Malinin, the US figure skater nicknamed the “Quad God,” became the first person to legally land a backflip on one skate in the Olympics — although one trailblazing woman pulled it off when the move was still forbidden.
The 21-year-old from Virginia delivered a crucial free skate on Sunday night for the winning American team, filled with his trademark quadruple jumps, and punctuated the gold medal-clinching performance with his dramatic backflip.
It’s a move known today as “the Bonaly flip” — named for France’s Surya Bonaly. Nevertheless, it is Malinin getting showered with praise, prompting many on social media to lament the way his achievement has eclipsed that of Bonaly, who is Black, and wondering if that is due to the color of her skin.
Ari Lu, 49, was among those on TikTok saying the figure skating world owed Bonaly an apology. Where Malinin is praised for his athleticism, Bonaly was judged, she told The Associated Press in a text message on Monday.
“Something a Black person used to be derided for is now celebrated when done by a white person,” said Lu, who is Black herself. She added that critiques of Bonaly at the time appeared related to her appearance rather than her skills.
Read more about Bonaly and her trailblazing backflip here.
Want to train like a Winter Olympics athlete? Here’s what to eat, when and how often
As some of the world’s top athletes gather in northern Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics, many may enjoy the country’s pasta and pizza while sticking closely to their optimal nutrition routines and plans.
For many Olympians, knowing when and what to eat can be just as crucial as the hours spent training on the ice, snow or track.
Inside the Milan Olympic Village’s main dining hall, where athletes and team officials gather throughout the day, there are various menus tailored to athletes’ nutritional needs and cultural preferences. The scale of the operation includes preparing about 3,000 eggs and approximately 450 kilograms (almost 1,000 pounds) of pasta each day, according to the Olympics website.
The main dining hall serves about 3,400 meals per day, across six food stations — and those meals go hand in hand with training.
Nutrition supports the “actual physical training” and fuels peak performance, said Kristen Gravani, a performance and food allergy dietitian at Stanford University who has worked with numerous Olympic athletes.
Of course, due to how active they are, most Olympic athletes probably consume and burn more energy than the average person. For instance, during his Olympic training, US competitive swimmer Michael Phelps claimed to consume 10,000 calories in a day, and Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake said 16 ripe bananas every day were his secret for running.
But calorie intake and extreme eating habits aside, there are some key practices in Olympic athletes’ training and nutrition that the average person can emulate.
Read more about how you can train like an Olympian here.
Olympic champion Brian Boitano praises Ilia Malinin for raising the bar “so high”
At the 1988 Calgary Games, Brian Boitano won figure skating gold for Team USA and became a household name.
But even he admits he would struggle to do what Ilia Malinin can do in an ice-rink.
“He is amazing. This guy has set the technical bar so high in our sport, higher than anyone in the history of our sport,” Boitano told CNN Sports ahead of Malinin’s much-anticipated performance in the men’s free skate today.
“He’s able to do all these amazing things, but he’s also able to play with them; he can do a little less or a little bit more. I feel like he’s going to want to show that he’s pushing the sport, and by doing that, I think we’re going to see six or seven quads tonight.”
Boitano says it’s very likely that the “Quad God” will win his second gold medal of the Games today, and he only expects the 21-year-old to keep improving in the coming years.
“When I won the Olympics in 1988, I did all the jumps he does as a triple, all different six jumps as a triple,” Boitano added.
“He’s added a whole rotation, he does everything that I did as a quadruple, and he makes it look like a triple, so I hope the public understands how difficult this is because he makes it look seamless and easy.
“It’s just amazing how he’s gone so far and done so much for the technical side of the sport.”
Julia Simon wins gold but credit card fraud conviction causes controversy
Gold medal winners are usually the most popular people at the Winter Olympics but Julia Simon, who clinched gold in the women’s biathlon 15km individual race on Wednesday, is currently surrounded by controversy.
It all stems from when the 29-year-old French biathlete was convicted of committing credit card fraud against a national teammate in October and was handed a three-month suspended prison sentence and $17,820 (€15,000) fine, according to the Associated Press.
Simon – who has won 10 world championship golds as well as forming part of France’s gold-winning mixed relay biathlon team in Italy – was found to have used the bank card of France teammate Justine Braisaz-Bouchet to spend more than $2,380 (€2,000); she was also found guilty of using the team physiotherapist’s card details to make purchases in 2021 and 2022, according to AP.
She denied the crime for three years after it came to light in 2023, claiming she had been the victim of identity theft. But during a hearing in October, according to AP, she admitted her guilt after photos of the credit cards were found on her phone.
“I can’t explain it. I don’t remember doing it. I can’t make sense of it,” she said during the hearing, according to local French newspaper Le Dauphine Libere, per AP.
Read more about the controversy surrounding Simon here.
Mystique Ro's Olympic journey involves being a "human penguin"
“Imagine a human penguin,” US skeleton slider and 2025 women’s world silver medalist Mystique Ro told CNN Sports back in October. “That’s the best I can give you.”
“And for the feel of it, imagine taking a trash can to the top of the mountain and kicking it down – that’s skeleton.”
The ringing endorsement of the sliding sport from one of its best current athletes is sure to bring some eyes to a competition which is also introducing a new discipline at the Olympic Games: the mixed team event.
It is here where Ro shines brightest. The American – who originally wanted to compete in track and field before being encouraged to participate in bobsled and finally skeleton – ended up winning the 2025 world championship in the mixed team with Austin Florian and is excited for its debut at the Olympics, particularly for the fans.
“A lot of hype, (fans should) expect to see a lot of tension,” she said. “It’s kind of new (and) we’re still kind of working out the kinks and quirks of it, but it’s a reaction-based start, so there’s going to be light strips – kind of like NASCAR or some kind of driving sport – and once it goes from red, red, red and then go.”
The prospect of an Olympic gold is something on Ro’s mind, but the journey from college track to Milan and Cortina is “a unique American dream” that she always remembers.
“Going from sleeping on a couch to now like, on the top of a podium,” she told CNN. “It was definitely a process and, in the moment, you feel like you’re fighting for your life. But you know, with the hard work and support around me, we got to this position.”
Norwegian biathlete who confessed to cheating on his ex on live TV earns another bronze
Norway’s Sturla Holm Laegreid has just claimed a second bronze medal of these Games after he earned a third-place finish in the men’s biathlon 10km sprint.
The 28-year-old also got bronze in the 20km sprint – and confessed in a live post-race television interview that he was unfaithful to his ex-girlfriend. But just how did he stay focused?
France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet took home the victory to claim gold in a time of 22:53.1, while Norway’s Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen walks away with the silver.
