Here's the latest
• Busy Olympic day: Team USA kicks off the weekend with gold in the mixed team aerials. The US and Canada are playing now for the bronze in women’s curling, Jordan Stolz heads for another gold and more on Day 15 of the Games.
• Norway’s Klaebo makes history: Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo became the first Winter Olympian ever to win six medals at a single Games when he won the 50km mass start cross-country race. Even better, all the medals were gold, taking his career tally to a record 11.
• Bobsled pilot “responsive” after crash: The men’s four-man bobsled competition was delayed after a heavy crash for an Austrian team at the Cortina Sliding Centre. Jakob Mandlbauer was stretchered off the track after the crash, but he is now in hospital and “responsive.”
CNN Sports has all of the greatest feats of achievement – and funny anecdotes – from the Games. Sign up for our “Milano Memo” newsletter.
The full-throttle, breathtaking sport that’s missing from the Winter Olympics
While the Olympic schedule is full of spectacular sports this year, there is one missing from the agenda – speed skiing.
In fact, speed skiing has only ever been a demonstration event at the Games, wowing audiences at the 1992 Olympics. There are hopes, though, it could feature for real at the next Winter Olympics in 2030.
CNN Sports spoke to the world record holder Simon Billy, who was clocked traveling at 255.500 km/h (158.760 mph) in 2023.
Simon Billy is the fastest man in the world on two skis. In 2023, he set the world record, hurtling down a slope at 158.7 mph. He speaks to CNN about his ambitions and hopes to bring the sport to the 2030 Winter Olympics.
“When I am in my helmet, on my skis, at that moment, everything is just so slow around me. I hear nothing. I don’t see anything either,” he says.
“You have to watch your feet and trust yourself. You have to know the track, and you have to be able to ski down and take the good line.”
Read more about the sport of speed skiing here.
Two US athletes make it to women's mass start speed skating final
The field for the women’s mass start speed skating final is now set, and there will be two US skaters going for gold.
Team USA’s Greta Myers and Mia Kilburg Manganello both advanced out of the semifinals but will face tough competition for medals.
Italy’s two-time gold medalist Francesca Lollobrigida will be among the favorites for gold, alongside the likes of Dutch star Marijke Groenewoud and Japan’s Ayano Sato.
The women’s final will take place later today, after the men’s mass start final.
Canada in complete control with two ends to play
Is that the bronze medal gone for Team USA?
Canada scores another three with the hammer and that might just be game over.
The Canadians controlled that end from start to finish, constantly piling up stones in the house.
Team USA’s take-outs weren’t good enough and they now face a real uphill climb to get back in this.
It’s Canada leading 8-5 with two ends to play.
In 25 years, dozens of places may be too warm to host the Winter Olympics
Jessie Diggins is an endurance athlete. The Olympic cross-country skier describes the intensity of suffering her sport can inflict as a “pain cave.” It doesn’t frighten her; she’s used to digging deep, she can control the pain. What does terrify her, however, is how rapidly her sport is changing because of something completely out of her control: climate change.
She sees the effects everywhere. “I’ve raced World Cups where it was pouring rain and there was barely a strip of snow to ski on, entire seasons were reshaped overnight,” Diggins said. It’s become impossible to hold a winter sporting event without fake snow, she wrote in a blog.
The Milan Cortina Winter Games in the Italian Alps, which will mark Diggins’ final Games, are no different. Snowmaking machines were busy pumping out snow for weeks.
As humans continue to burn planet-heating fossil fuels, winter is changing: Snowfall is declining, snowpack is shrinking and temperatures are rising in many places. Where once mountains were blanketed in thick white powder, many lie bare well into winter.
For those who rely on snow for their livelihoods, every ski season is a nail-biter. For the Winter Olympics, it’s a high-cost, high-stress disaster. Climate change is “reshaping winter sport as we know it,” said a spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee.
As athletes compete in Italy, the future of the Winter Olympics hangs in the balance. People are not just questioning how to keep the Games alive, but whether they should be kept alive at all.
Learn more about how climate change is threatening the future of the Winter Games.
USA levels after moment of magic
What a response from Team USA.
Going into the seventh end trailing 5-3, the game was starting to move into now-or-never territory.
And just when they needed her, Tabitha Peterson stepped up.
The US skip delivered a beautifully weighted stone right into the heart of the button to level things up.
5-5, game on.
Canada scores three in big sixth end
And the crowd at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium goes wild.
Canada has come out of the interval firing and scores three to take an important lead after six ends.
It was all laid out for Canada’s skip Rachel Homan with the last shot of the end and she made Team USA pay.
Homan nudged out the sole USA stone at the back of the house to secure the three for Canada.
Canada now leads 5-3.
Jordan Stolz through to men's mass start speed skating final
After both semifinals of the men’s mass start speed skating, we’ve got a lineup of 16 skaters set for the final at 10:40 a.m. ET.
Jordan Stolz is through after finishing in fourth in his semifinal – which was won by Canada’s Antoine Gelinas-Beaulieu.
Several other prominent skaters made it through as well, including the Netherlands’ Jorrit Bergsma, China’s Wu Yu and 10000m gold medalist Metodej Jilek of the Czech Republic.
Need some caffeine in Cortina? Here's how to order a coffee in Italy
Need that afternoon jolt of caffeine? Are you in Cortina d’Ampezzo for the curling? Well, here’s how to order a coffee there and stay at your peak attention for the action today.
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 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.
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.
USA leads Canada in bronze medal game after five ends
We’ve reached the halfway stage of the women’s bronze medal game between Team USA and Canada, and it’s a nailbiter.
It’s 3-2 to the Americans after five ends.
The US women’s team has never medaled in this event and will be looking to make its lead count.
But Canada has the hammer in the next end and will be after a quick comeback.
"The sled is all over the place": Romain Heinrich on being in a bobsled crash
After a couple of heavy crashes in the men’s four-man bobsled competition, French pilot Romain Heinrich detailed what it’s like to be involved in a collision.
Heinrich’s French team was one of the teams that crashed, along with one of Austria’s squads that left pilot Jakob Mandlbauer in hospital.
“When you’re upside down, often the trajectory of the sled is all over the place. It hits the wood, it hits the other side. When it’s like that, you try and protect yourself inside the shell as much as possible,” Heinrich detailed.
“In fact, it’s better for the head to hit the ice and for the shoulders to be inside, because, if not, you risk injuring the shoulders.”
Due to the nature of the sport, after a crash, the bobsled continues to roll down the track with the members of the team still inside.
Heinrich also explained that accidents like these are inevitable in winter sports.
“If you look at figure skating, the last three all finished on their backsides. In our winter sport, when it goes badly, you fall. If a skier messes up, he falls. If a bobsledder messes up, he falls. A skater messes up, he falls.”
French 1-2 in the women's biathlon 12.5km mass start final
It’s a sensational French 1-2 in the women’s 12.5km mass start final as Oceane Michelon and Julia Simon take gold and silver, respectively, in Saturday’s race.
Simon was in control and ahead in the race before a missed shot in third shooting section put her into eighth place. She fought back all the way to ultimately take silver to go along with her three golds in other disciplines.
Michelon took advantage of the lapse in Simon’s shooting prowess to leap to the front and never let go to earn her second gold of these Games.
Czech Republic’s Tereza Voborníková took the bronze to earn her country’s fifth medal of the Olympics.
Jordan Stolz goes for fourth medal and third gold of these Games
Greetings from the men’s mass start speed skating, where Jordan Stolz will try to be his own version of the “Quad God.” Stolz is going for his fourth medal of these Games, but just the third gold after being shocked and taking silver in the 1500m.
The mass start might be a bit out of Stolz’s comfort zone, so it will be interesting to see how he does. He’s up in the first semifinal.
This is a unique spot, essentially a skating rink tucked into some sort of convention center hall. Lots of advertising for Milan’s fashion houses …. and skating.
Team USA has taken a 2-1 lead in the women's curling bronze medal game
It’s still very tight in the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium after the third end.
The US still only has a 2-1 lead after three – a reminder we have a minimum of 10 ends this game.
The fun world of sled dog racing keeps barking, despite not being in the Winter Olympics
One sport which won’t feature at Milan Cortina is the fun and furry practice of sled dog racing.
After debuting as a demonstration sport at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, the sport never returned, but 94 years later it’s still alive and barking as dogs pull their harnessed drivers, or mushers, around courses across the globe.
Blair Braverman is a long-distance sled dog racer based in Alaska and hopes that, one day, the extended version of the sport will make an Olympic return.
“I would love to see distance mushing in the Olympics. A race takes weeks. And so it’s hard to imagine a single Olympic event that takes weeks at a time,” Braverman told CNN Sports.
“They could send off the teams during the opening ceremonies and then at the end, see who emerges.”
Austrian bobsledder responsive after crash in four-man bob
Bobsledder Jakob Mandlbauer is “responsive” following a heavy crash by one of the Austrian four-man bobsled teams earlier today.
After being attended to by medics, Mandlbauer was eventually taken out of the sled and stretchered off while he was wrapped in a thermal foil blanket.
“Our Chief Medical Bernhard Unterkofler was on Site and with the athlete. He was brought to (Codivilla) Hospital by ambulance for a check,” the Austrian Olympic team told CNN.
“He was responsive and able to move everything.”
The French team also suffered a big crash during the second heat of the final but all four members of the team appeared to be fine.
The women's curling bronze medal game featuring the United States is underway
The women’s curling bronze medal clash between the United States and Canada is currently underway and it’s the Americans who have taken an early lead.
Team USA’s women have never medaled in this event and will be looking to get one over on their northern rivals to make history.
It’s the really early going in the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium as the US leads 1-0 after one end.
Here's how Mikaela Shiffrin mentally prepared for the Olympics
Sticky notes on mirrors, self-talk, inspiration from teammates: star skier Mikaela Shiffrin described to me how she built herself up mentally ahead of the Olympics. We’ll toast that.
Check out more about her gold medal-winning journey here:
"It’s hard to find the right words": Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo on record-breaking Games
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo has had quite the time at the Milan Cortina Games.
The Norwegian has made Olympic history by becoming the first person to win six medals at a single Winter Games – and they have all been gold.
“It’s hard to find the words. It’s unbelievable. After the world champs last year, we knew that it was possible, but to be able to do it, it’s hard to find the right words,” Klaebo said after his record-extending 11th career Olympic gold medal.
“So many emotions when I’m crossing the finish line.”
Klaebo won his latest gold in today’s men’s cross-country 50km mass start and said that his success at the Games has come from making the “right choices.”
“It’s a lot of sacrifices, but on the other hand, when you’re starting to feel that it’s sacrifices, I think it’s time to find something else to do,” the 29-year-old said.
Klaebo also swept the five other men’s cross-country skiing events during his time in Italy.
“There are choices to make and we’ve made all the right choices this year. Mentally, I’ve been in a better place than I was last year and I have a lot of fun racing out there now.
“Even though I’ve been nervous at some of the competitions, it still feels really good to race, and I’m always looking forward to going out there, fighting for the medals. I have a very supportive family and fiancé, and together we’re making the right choices. The result of that is six gold medals.”
France wins mixed relay skimo gold
Emily Harrop and Thibault Anselmet of France won the first ever skimo mixed relay gold in Olympic history with a time of 26:57.4.
The French pair took an early lead and never relinquished it, easing to victory over Switzerland’s team of Marianne Fatton and Jon Kistler – who finished 11.86 seconds back.
Spain came in third to win bronze, its third medal of these Games – all in skimo – and the most in its Winter Olympics history, behind an imperious two legs from men’s sprint gold medalist Oriol Cardona Coll.
The United States’ Anna Gibson and Cameron Smith finished in fourth, 42.99 seconds back of the French.
Apple, biscuit and twig: Explaining hockey’s unique jargon you’ll hear at Milan Cortina
From brushing ice in curling, to flying down an ice track headfirst in skeleton, the Winter Olympics are home to some unique and exciting sports that feature uncommon vernacular.
New sports have been added to the program and with that come new terms or nicknames for tactics, maneuvers or objects that beginner fans might not be familiar with.
Even in hockey – a sport that is extremely popular around the world – there are terms used by commentators or pundits that you might not be accustomed to hearing if not a regular to the sport.
So below, we look at some of the sport-specific lingo and explain what the terms mean so you’ll be ready to impress your friends and follow the action in Milan Cortina.
An apple: an assist.
Bar down: when the puck strikes the crossbar from a shot and ends up in the goal.
Between the pipes: where the goalie presides.
Deke: a skill where a player feints to draw an opposing player out of position or to skate by an opponent while maintaining possession and control of the puck.
Flamingo: when a player lifts one leg, standing like a flamingo, to get out of the way of a shot.
Lid: a player’s helmet.
Tape-to-tape: a very accurate pass going from the tape of the passer’s stick to the tape of the receiver’s stick.
See a full list of hockey jargon terms you need to know here.
